Disbanding The Unit

It was our fervent hope, as we slammed the lids on the crates and painted the shipping numbers on the cases in Necal in August 1944 that never again would we sight the unit equipment; that the gear which had accompanied us to Fiji and a dosen other islands, and on a dozen ships, would be but a memory. It was an empty hope! Late in September Colonel Moffat detailed a small group from the unit to take over the equipment and to prepare to clear the unit's ledger by handing it over to an ordnance depot in New Zealand.

For this job he detailed the quartermaster, Captain Johnnie Rose, who assembled around him, as furloughs expired, Sergeant Cam Gillespie, Lance-Corporals Hugh Murray and Vic Lovell, Alan Barnhill and Joe Johansen. The equipment and vehicles of the entire division, as ships brought them to Auckland, had been dumped in a former American camp, Camp Ewart, later known as Mangere Crossing Camp, near Otahuhu. It was an impressive sight to see the 3,000 vehicles row on row on row, and to wander through warehouse after ware-house each stacked roof high with the equipment of the 90 odd accounting units of the force.

Camp Ewart became the base of the Third (New Zealand) Division and in time an Army Ordnance Depot moved up from Trentham to prepare to receive the equipment of the units. It was a slow task. All the equipment so carefully and tenderly packed in Necal had to be uncrated and checked and sorted and cleaned and polished. But in time the kitchen gear shone with a brilliance never known before; web equipment had been scrubbed, and the 'Tacks, Brass, 3/4 inch, Shoemakers for the use of', had been counted and the ordnance was satisfied.

But then came the paper war and weeks went by while a busy hum rose from the office as checks were made in the ledger to find out where truck No. 123 was which we had had in Fiji and didn't have now, and where were the emergency rations which once we had but now could not find.

In time the ledger was nicely ruled off. Then the auditor checked it, and for weeks he listed his queries on pages. Then on trial we were to satisfy him that the No. 48 wireless set shown as 'Lost as the result of enemy action in Vella' had actually been lost and page break

Lieutenant-Colonel C. F. Seaward, DSO, MC, the first commander of the battalion during its first action in Vella Lavella

Lieutenant-Colonel W. Murphy. CBE, MC. who formed the battalion in New Zealand and was the first commander in Fiji

Lieutenant-Colonel J. F. Moffat, ED, who was in command of the battalion on Nissan Island and until when is was disbanded in 1944

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Hundreds of tons of coral from this pit on Nissan went to the making of roads in the divisional area. Some indication of the depth of the mud can be gauged from the ruts in the foreground.

Below: The remains of a mission station on Nissan Island which afterwards became the headquarters of the Third Division

page 115was not in our kitbags as a trophy of war. After much questioning he pronounced himself satisfied and set his seal of approval on the stores ledger and the regimental funds accounts.

And thus with the stroke of the pen the 35th (New Zealand) Battalion went out of existence, for on 24 January 1945 the following obituary notice appeared through the 3 NZ Division Base routine orders:

'A certificate of clearance by audit of the stores, equipment and vehicle ledgers, and the Regimental and Canteen Funds Accounts has been granted to the 35 NZ Battalion.'