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Headquarters: a brief outline of the activities of headquarters of the third division and the 8th and 14th Brigades during their service in the Pacific

III — Action Stations

III
Action Stations

Then, when everything was in order, the hammering and the burning began as rubbish and old files were disposed of and each department folded its tables and stools and packed its security and stationery boxes more securely than ever for a trip which would involve all equipment in much rough handling and a lot of abuse on the way to Guadalcanal via Vila in the New Hebrides. There was nothing amusing in that trip, which was all hard work for the clerical staff. First the jolting journey through the dust and cold of night to Nouméa from Moindah; the clamber up the ropes of the American troopship Fuller from landing barges; the exercises at Mélé Beach, outside Vila Harbour, and that night when the rain came down in a cool torrent from dusk until dawn so that everybody dried out on the beach before returning to ship the following day. Mélé Beach was a sight that morning with many hundreds of the soldiery bathing in the sea or lying in the sun while their clothes and mosquito nets fluttered in a drying breeze on every available shrub and tree behind the beach. After that moist and exacting lesson in amphibious exercises headquarters settled down for a couple of days in the stifling transports and reached Guadalcanal just before midday on 3 September. Guadalcanal was hot. The islands of Florida and Malaita, lying some distance away on a blue-black sea, seemed to wrinkle in the heat. That was only a taste of the page 28future. The sand seemed to burn even through boots, and the water in waterbottles became distressingly tepid in a few hours. As the men lumped cases ashore and on and off trucks the sweat poured from them in rivulets. No one was sorry when night came and the super-heated breeze coming up from the sea rustled the kunai grass on the ridges like someone scratching an immense matchbox.

Divisional headquarters was spaced out over two of the grass-covered ridges which ran up from the flat strip of coconut palms skirting the beaches, with the remains of some natural forest in an intervening gully. Captain S. I. A. Clifford, the camp commandant, and Sergeant-Major R. Stephens, Staff-Sergeant P. Keeler and Corporal J. Pearson were among the busiest men during the moves, for on the camp commandant and his staff fell most of the fiddling details and requests for articles missing or broken. There were continual calls for Corporal John Murphy, who was a sort of combined carpenter, engineer and sanitary man and an old hand at all three. No wonder these men sometimes became a little irritated by the heat! At this stage, of course, almost everyone was more or less keyed up by the expectation of enemy air action, plus rumour which contributed the usual collection of imaginative nonsense.

General Barrowclough flew off to pay a short visit to General Griswold, officer commanding the American 14th Corps, at Munda, New Georgia, and Colonel Brook went further afield to Vella Lavella with the officer commanding the 14th Brigade to discuss details of taking over from the Americans and to make arrangements for shipping and supplies. Flying at that time meant travelling with a formidable escort of fighters. Meanwhile headquarters staff was working at top speed setting up the A, Q and G orderly rooms and gouging fox-holes in dead coral, preparing for sudden moves and impending action. There was little time for anything except work and sleep, this last frequently disturbed by air-raid alarms. The United States Under-Secretary for War, Mr. Patterson, visited General Barrowclough on 5 September, An immense American dump among the palms caught fire and burned explosively for days so that everyone who made a hurried trip to the beaches to remove the day's accumulation of dust and sweat tried to get along to see the fireworks which, in the gloom of the plantation, were really spectacular. But before page 29anyone had time to settle down headquarters was on the move again. The GOC and Colonel Bennett (accompanied by officers from other arms) reached Vella Lavella via Munda, by air and motor torpedo boat, on the night of 17 September. Corporal Les Howarth, the general's faithful batman, was one of that party and shared a rare midnight 'nip' to celebrate the occasion. Head-quarters personnel boarded LSTs at Kukum Beach on the night of 16 September and landed at Barakoma Beach on the morning of 18 September. A Rear Div HQ remained on Guadalcanal with Colonel Murphy in command but only until headquarters was firmly established on Vella Lavella, after which he returned to New Zealand.

The new site on Vella stank of decay and mud and fungus and was hidden far in the jungle under trees of such grandeur and thickness that a bonfire would have been invisible from the air. Jeeps and trucks churned the place into an evil-smelling bog and heavy downpours of rain kept everything in that glutinous state. Water was a problem, despite the rain. At the foot of a boggy track was a trickle of a stream which spread out in a soapy pool and then disappeared into the coral rock. Here hundreds of men tried to bath themselves and wash their clothes, after which they slopped back to their tents and orderly rooms through mud in which writhing tree roots tripped them into whimsical and profane speech. Drying anything was another problem until many of the trees were removed to form a reasonable road.

Officers and NCOs of headquarters worked with their opposite numbers from the headquarters of the 35th US combat team which was being relieved. This wise precaution accustomed the New Zealanders to many of the terms and expressions used by the Americans, some of which were distinctly quaint and odd. As General Barrowclough had taken over command of the whole island defences on 18 September, this meant that all administrative direction came from the New Zealand headquarters. At all hours of the day and night signals went out to heads of commands who were known as 'comgen' of this or that formation, or to Comsopac or Comairsopac or Cigsopac, who were all VIPs. Exposed lights were not permitted at night, despite the impenetrable canopy overhead, and two meals a day with a cup of tea and a biscuit of sorts at midday simplified the work of the page 30cooks. Nights were made fantastic By the noise of birds, animals and insects, for there is nothing quite so eerie as the first night in the jungle when nerves are a little on edge. Just when 'the boys' were settling down in this gloomy site and learning to ignore the night noises, divisional headquarters piled its office equipment and gear on to any available trucks and bumped its way in teeming rain up the muddy coastal track to Gill's Plantation, leaving behind, among other things, a fine collection of land crabs, one of which had taken a particular fancy to the general's boot polish and nightly dragged tins to the dank hole in which it lived. The relief in the plantation area was obvious. There, on rising ground among the long lanes of stately coconut palms which had previously provided Mr. Gill and a lot of ebony islanders with the means of livelihood, headquarters spread out its tents and orderly rooms with the sky overhead and sparkling glimpses of changing sea through the palm trunks. By day clouds of blue, green and scarlet parakeets chattered in swift flight and by night flying foxes squawked shrilly as they raided the young nuts. A, Q and G unpacked their boxes and set up shop. A, B and C messes became close little communities once more, where the cooks exercised their available knowledge and skill on all foods tinned and dehydrated, and where Private 'Bill' Coleman, who used to write home to Ireland about his 'good Government job' produced scones and tea like a magician. Young palms which grew in prolific confusion were cleared and tracks bulldozed through the area until it all resembled a large and tidy motor camp, without the vehicles or the children.

During these weeks succeeding echelons had arrived from Guadalcanal with odds and ends of personnel and equipment so that by the time the move was complete headquarters was almost its old self again as far as staff was concerned. And most of the staff, by this time, had seen headquarters established in some odd places. There was Warrant-Officer C. A. Russell, who was head of the G orderly room, which lie had joined in Fiji; there were Sergeant Andy Gosney and Corporal N. B. Stanaway, also of G staff, Sergeant D. Yockney and Sergeant R. Abel were the two stalwarts of the intelligence branch who marked up the maps each day as the sitreps came in. Two American-born Japanese interpreters were now attached, and an American officer who page 31spoke Japanese. On the A and Q side Warrant-Officer M. H. Henderson, who was later awarded the MBE, was in charge and with him were Corporal R. McDonald and Private Town-Treweek; A office clerks were George Palmer and Abe Mason. Sergeant E. Watson had been posted to the military secretary's branch when that was set up in New Caledonia. At first, at Barakoma, there had been raiding Japanese aircraft almost every night, which meant a rush for cover in dank fox-holes or round the boles of giant trees while fragments of anti-aircraft shells zoomed down. There was quite a lot of quiet fun when, after laboriously constructing a fox-hole, Captains Adams and Wake-field found that a snake had got there first and taken possession. At Gill's plantation the raids decreased to nothing as the weeks went by but the work of feeding went on. Q was busy supplying everyone on the island. By the end of October 30,000 gallons of aviation petrol were required each day for planes using the Barakoma airfield which, on the day of the New Zealand landing, was a matted area of fallen trees and heaped up earth. On 31 October the first YP boat arrived off the island and included among its supplies were 22,035 lbs of fresh beef, 320 lbs of celery and 2,210 lbs of butter for distribution to the twenty thousand odd troops, American and New Zealand, then on the island. Q's duties increased with the growing population of Vella Lavella, but the smooth roads which had replaced former jeep tracks gave new life to transport.

Life assumed routine when the Japanese were eradicated, and ebbed easily into Christmas and the New Year. There were pictures in the evening as the searchlights played about the heavens, and church services with a native choir at the picture theatre on Sundays; there were visits to Mr. Gill's plantation home, which had become a rest house presided over by Mr. S. R. Knapp, of the YMCA. At Padre Thompson's tent, one of the institutions of HQ, there was always tea after the pictures and frequently an evening service. This tent ultimately became Te Kainga Kiwi and the social centre for Div troops, proof of its popularity being the 700 mugs of tea provided on an average each day. The Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, came, and the Governor of Fiji, and an allied chapel, built by the natives, was dedicated at Maravari. During Christmas week sports and entertainment added variety to the days but there was little excitement page 32until preparations began for the Nissan Island show. The general moved his headquarters back to the old site on Guadalcanal early in January 1944, taking most of the staff with him. By that time almost everyone was travelling by air and had become quite blase about it. Huge Douglas machines departed from Barakoma with a regularity only occasionally upset by tropical storms. Some staff changes included Major D. C. Williams, who replaced Major Marshall as DAAG; Major Ian MacArthur, who replaced Major Allan as GSO2; and Captain G. G. Olsen, who became the new camp commandant. A gardening note worth recording, for the New Zealanders invariably cultivated small but resentful patches of ground wherever they set up their camps, was the arrival of Colonel Berkeley from Necal bearing one small tomato, the proud harvest of Lieutenant Collin's horticultural efforts among the niaoulis. It may be added that Lieutenant Collin produced another tomato on Nissan Island, months later.

An impending action means day and night work for the headquarters clerks and they were not sorry to embark for Nissan when everything was ready. If there was any excitement during the journey north most of it was suppressed. The general, accompanied by Colonel Brook and Lieutenant Moore, travelled in the flagship, the US Halford. Other personnel were scattered on the various ships of the convoy. By evening of 15 February 1943 headquarters was set up in the Pokonian plantation and operating. It had been an eventful day, full of movement since the first sight of Nissan in the soft grey dawn, and the hurried disembarkation knee-deep through the water, but happily without any disaster except several personal hates when the tide rose and seeping water flooded the hastily dug funk-holes among the coconut palms. But honest sweat had escaped in prodigious quantities down streaming torsos as gear was hauled from the beaches, tents erected, boxes opened up and offices set in order so that the general and his staff could function readily. Warrant-Officer Russell and his G clerks used the sides of funk-holes for seats that first hot day; the I clerks set up their maps in the open nearby, fixing them to a palm trunk, since few tents went forward on the day of the landing. Q clerks, on whom fell so much of the detail of movement and supply, worked far into the night with their feet in the bog caused by the seeping tide-water. Happily the beach was only a few yards away in either direc-page break
Some of the 'boys' from Divisional Headquarters photographed on the occasion of a farewell to the camp commandant, Captain S. I, Clifford. Below: Gill's House on Vella Lavella which became a YMCA. Padre G. Thompson can be seen walking towards the cameraMagnificent native war canoes off the mouth of the Joroveto River, Vella Lavella. Long bidden in the jungle they were brought out to take part in a Christinas carnival that was held in 1943

Some of the 'boys' from Divisional Headquarters photographed on the occasion of a farewell to the camp commandant, Captain S. I, Clifford. Below: Gill's House on Vella Lavella which became a YMCA. Padre G. Thompson can be seen walking towards the camera
Magnificent native war canoes off the mouth of the Joroveto River, Vella Lavella. Long bidden in the jungle they were brought out to take part in a Christinas carnival that was held in 1943

page break
Members of the Divisional Headquarters Defence and Employment Platoon photographed on Nissan Island in 1944 before an order was issued for removal of beardsTwo disembarkation pictures are shown below. The untidy picture of bundles and bodies shows troops going ashore at Guadalcanal; the other shows an LST nosing its way ashore at Barakoma, Vella Lavella

Members of the Divisional Headquarters Defence and Employment Platoon photographed on Nissan Island in 1944 before an order was issued for removal of beards
Two disembarkation pictures are shown below. The untidy picture of bundles and bodies shows troops going ashore at Guadalcanal; the other shows an LST nosing its way ashore at Barakoma, Vella Lavella

page 33tion.
After a few days at Pokonian, headquarters picked itself up and moved across the lagoon to the site of a former mission station and there it stayed for the remainder of its sojourn on Nissan. By that time all desire to throw grenades or shoot at sounds in the dark had been overcome. Once more the various orderly rooms were set up, this time on open ground backed by kapoc trees and the jungle, and the staffs made themselves comfortable as only the New Zealanders are able to do in the field. There was the warm lagoon only a few yards away, and small craft running to a regular timetable to various landing beaches inside the oval of Nissan. On the outer coast was the ocean; between was a narrow strip of particularly dense jungle to which everyone had now become accustomed. The remains of the mission buildings became A mess and most comfortable, high off the ground. B and C messes were in tents on a mound overlooking the lagoon with sufficient trees to give some shade. There was justifiable competition for timber from some of the wrecked buildings and the salvaged pieces rapidly became office tables, cupboards, and cookhouse and tent furniture. Once more life settled down to administrative routine, the monotony of which was valiantly interrupted by motion picture shows, swimming, hunting for an occasional stray Jap still in hiding, and visits to the airstrip which was now a scene of noisy activity as planes left on destructive missions to Truk, Rabaul and Kavieng. There was fishing too; one day Sergeant Cedric Keesing, the general's driver, produced over 300 fish when he tossed a grenade into the lagoon. It was like feeding the multitude.

The end of headquarters began on Nissan with the New Zealand call for manpower. Since arriving there a few more changes had taken place. Captain Foster had been replaced by Captain J. N. Thomson as GSO3 (I) and Lieutenant Moore had been succeeded by Second-Lieutenant P. Barrowclough as aide-de-camp. General Barrowclough handed over command of the island to incoming American troops on 29 May and departed for New Caledonia by air. His farewell dinner to American commanders when he presented a decoration to Lieutenant-Commander C. H. Whyte, the US Seabee engineer who had worked so closely and so happily with the Third Division, was a fitting conclusion to a difficult task well done. Headquarters staff sailed from Nissan on the Rotanian on 15 June. Many of the NCOs page 34and men had been together since the Fiji days and once more the camaraderie of the army was proved. No matter how much they had groused and grumbled, when the time came to part it was not without a certain degree of sadness for those for whom the years together had forged enduring friendships.

Only skeleton staffs reoccupied the old site among the niaoulis at Moindah and then only while waiting to return to New Zealand after the usual medical boardings. This same state of affairs existed at Or ford's Camp where the division ceased to function on 20 October 1944. By that time the skeleton staffs had disposed of all departmental records and equipment. What was left of the staff moved over to Mangere Crossing Camp to occupy themselves with the final chores. Those of headquarters staff who did not return to civilian life went to various camps in New Zealand and from there to the, Second Division in Italy where they took part in the final engagements in that theatre of war.