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The Tanks: An Unofficial History of the Activities of the Third New Zealand Division Tank Squadron in the Pacific

[introduction]

page 143

When it was decided in 1940 to send a New Zealand force to Fiji, the ordnance units comprised, originally, a base depot to handle ordnance supplies, two workshop sections, and a light aid detachment. As these four units were the prototypes of some 23 units and detachments which formed the corps later in other parts of the Pacific, it is proposed to follow the life and work of the four units in Fiji more closely than will be possible later when there were numerous units performing similar duties. The story of the corps in Fiji will provide an opportunity of gaining a close insight into the unit life and functions of each type of ordnance unit.

The searing ricochets of Japanese rifle fire had not yet echoed in the narrow back streets of Hong Kong. In Japan, slant-eyed aeronautical engineers peered eagerly through thick-lensed spectacles at blue-prints of planes that were later to carry a hurricane of destruction to Singapore and Hawaii.

It was 1 November 1940-380 days before Pearl Harbour. At Suva, twelve men of the 20th Light Aid Detachment, commanded by Second-Lieutenant E. J. Signal, disembarked from the Monowai, and became the first unit of the New Zealand Ordnance Corps to be posted for duty in the Pacific. After assisting with the unloading of the ship, the unit marched out to Nasese camp, settled in with the mosquitoes, and launched a Spartan programme of physical training. Ten days later, at Auckland, a fortunate few arrived at the wharf to cheer and page 144wave their farewell to part of the main ordnance draft bound for Fiji. Troops on the Monowai laughed and joked with those on shore; it helped to ward off the desolation of parting. Here and there a mother or young wife laughed through her tears at some ridiculous piece of wit shouted from the ship's deck. Some on board will also remember leaving money with several girls on the wharf who were to bring back some bottles of 'sparkle' but, as one of them stated,' the females, along with the "spondulix," did not show up as! per arrangement.'

Suddenly the shouting and laughter were hushed. In the stillness the only movement came from a few wreath-like wisps of steam that escaped silently from the ship's siren into the clear morning sunlight. Nothing else stirred. It was remembrance hour: 11 am on 11 November 1940. On deck the troops watched the crowd below honouring those who, in every age, leave home shores to guard their country's freedom. At the sound of the all clear the ship's propellers immediately churned, and a troopship was bound for Fiji. On board was an ordnance party of 28, consisting of Captain G. C. Simmiss, Second-Lieutenant New, three warrant officers (Peter Patton, John Lonergan and Jack Cooper), and 23 other ranks. Twenty-four of the party comprised headquarters and A section of the motor transport field workshops, and the remaining four were bound for the base ordnance depot.

A shortage of up-to-date tropical clothing caused some amusement in the difficult early months of the war, and it was some time before well-cut Indian pattern shorts replaced the original 'rare old' shorts of mid-calf length, tight-fitting, and branded 1917, with pockets attached by rusty rivets. As the troops dressed to go ashore at Suva they glanced at their ancient vintage tropical clothes (monkey suits, they called them), and joked with each other about 'the cut of their jib.' When abroad, a man likes to represent his country proudly.

'Do we have to march through the town in these things, sir?'

'Yes, and hurry.'

'Wouldn't it rock you,' mumbled the shocked inquirer.

Soon, however, with pride and heads held high they were marching through Suva to Nasese camp.

The third ordnance draft arrived in Fiji on 22 November. page break
A corner of the main Divisional Ordnance Workshops at Moindah, New Caledonia

A corner of the main Divisional Ordnance Workshops at Moindah, New Caledonia

An enormous turnover of repair work was handled by Divisional Ordnance Workshops men who operated these mobile workshop lorries, shown at their headquarters at Moindah

An enormous turnover of repair work was handled by Divisional Ordnance Workshops men who operated these mobile workshop lorries, shown at their headquarters at Moindah

page break
A view of the main workshop of Divisional Ordnance Workshops, Moindah. Large hangars were roofed with niaouli bark

A view of the main workshop of Divisional Ordnance Workshops, Moindah. Large hangars were roofed with niaouli bark

Corporal W. Soppett and Private N. Brewer repairing tents at Base Ordnance Depot, Bourail

Corporal W. Soppett and Private N. Brewer repairing tents at Base Ordnance Depot, Bourail

page 145They were the B workshops section, comprising Second-Lieutenant A. E. Tilley and Warrant-Officer W. M. Rowell with 11 other ranks, and a base ordnance team of eight men, including Lieutenant P. N. Erridge and Staff-Sergeant G. C. Leighton, who were joined soon after their arrival by a further six men for the depot from New Zealand. From a total of 68 ordnance men who arrived at Suva in the first four drafts, the number grew later to nearly 250 in Fiji; in the next four years over 1,400 men served in the corps throughout the South Pacific.

These early drafts were somewhat mystified about their being sent to the Fiji Group, because these islands (like those in which the division fought later in the Solomons) usually appear as so many unimportant-looking pin-points on the average small scale map showing the 64,000,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean; but this is simply an illusion of scale. A base is established, or taken from the enemy, in one part of the Pacific, and because of the fluid nature of defences, the whole strategic situation of places 2,000 miles away is vitally affected, and New Zealand is considerably less than 2,000 miles from Fiji. Despite the tendency to think of war in terms of continents, to upset the enemy's plans for 2,000 miles in the direction of Japan is tactically equivalent to a major success in a continental campaign, even though the land area ocupied appears small, and the men realised later that this was both the purpose of the force in Fiji and the achievement of the division's actions in the Solomons. Long before Japan's entry into the war her intentions had apparently been suspected.