I
Engineering At The Base

This is the story of carpenters and plumbers, road makers and hatchmen, drainlayers and tally clerks, truck drivers and winch-men, concrete workers and blacksmiths. It is the story of their contribution to the defence of their homes and their country in the South Pacific. The story opens in the summer of 1943 and ends with the spring of 1944. It is not the whole story. That, one never gets from history. But it is a selection of events, incidents and personalities which tie together the motif of the story. Such a selection must omit much that is of interest, much that is true, and much that is relevant. Perhaps it is this necessity for selection that makes all history something of a liar and all liars something of the historian. What to the participant was vital may, in the story, be skimmed over, and what was elaborated with some detail may be thought trivial. In this story some readers may think the shortage of equipment and tools should have been more strongly underlined, others that the food and living conditions should provide the background music to the story, while others again may want the story told round the doings of 'The Elephant Boy' 'Panhandle,' 'The Bog Ape,' the 'Black Tracker 'and 'Angle Iron.' The shortage of tools and equipment was important, so was the food, so were the climate, 'The Elephant Boy,' 'Angle Iron' and the 'Bog Ape.' But they were never more than parts of the whole picture.

In preceding chapters of this book the story of field company engineers in the South Pacific has been unfolded, and it will be observed that much of their time was taken up with base construction work, as distinct from combat training. In January of 1943, Lieutenant-Colonel Murray, CRE, advised the GOC, Third New Zealand Division, Nzefip, that field company engineers had so much base construction work on hand that no combat training could be undertaken, and he recommended that a construction unit should be sent to New Caledonia from New Zealand. It is not necessary here to follow the negotiations which followed, nor is it necessary to discuss the preparedness of New Caledonia to accommodate several thousand allied troops, but it is worth noting that since the entry of Japan into the war, the South Pacific had become a busy workshop for New Zealand engineers. As already indicated in this volume, engineer activity in Tonga, Norfolk, Fiji and Samoa was no minor contribution to the defence scheme in the South Pacific. It was against this background of construction that Works Services Engineers took form under the supervision of Lieutenant-Colonel C. J. W. Parsons, Assistant Director, Fortifications and Works, Army Headquarters, Wellington. Apart from such precedents, Works Services Engineers had respectable parentage in the British War Office Manual of Engineer Services, War, 1940, and a first cousin in similar units in Australia.

By April, 1943, the war establishment of the new unit had been given form by the organisation of the following components:

Hq Works Service, NZE.

Works Construction Company, NZE.

Works Service Wharf Operating Company, NZE.

Army units already formed in New Zealand, the air force, and civilian sources were combed for skilled tradesmen and artisans. From the air force were recruited men who had construction experience in British Malaya and Fiji. Wharf operating personnel were chosen by virtue of experience in capacities as winchmen, hatchmen and tally clerks.

Lieutenant-Colonel H. A. Jones was appointed CRE Works, with Major S. E. West as staff officer; Lieutenant D. Brooker as engineer stores officer; Lieutenant S. R. Mann, works officer; Lieutenant J. K. Scott, electrical and mechanical officer. With an page 130administrative staff, draughtsmen, cooks and general duty personnel the function of Hq Works was the organisation and direction of engineer tasks within the scope of works services engineers as an Nzefip base unit. Works service construction company was to have been under the command of Major W. L. Mynott, who had the misfortune to meet with an accident which prevented his taking over command. Captain W. P. Boyd, second-in-command of the company, acted as OC throughout the formative and training period at Waiouru. Captain F. J. Clark was adjutant of the company. The construction company was divided into three sections on the basis of specialised training.

Hq section was made up of administrative personnel, surveyors, chainmen, draughtsmen, cooks and general duty personnel. The building section was composed mainly of carpenters. For administrative purposes it was a self-contained group, and under the command of Lieutenants S. T. Tremain and W. F. Wise. The services section included such groups as mechanics, welders, plumbers, electricians, bulldozer operatives, road and drainage men. This section was under command of Lieutenants R. Gilmour and R. R. Torrie, and like the building section was self-contained.

Works Service Wharf Operating Company was the first of its kind to leave New Zealand: it had a total complement of 79 men and two officers. While in New Zealand it was under the command of Captain E. Blacker and Lieutenant L. B, Wright. Personnel, as has already been indicated, consisted of experienced wharf workers, to which was added administrative personnel which made the company a self-contained one.

The choice of Captain Boyd as officer in charge of formation and training in Waiouru was a happy one. He quickly realised that in building up the sections of the unit the chief emphasis was to be placed upon the men as tradesmen and artificers rather than as soldiers. Military training was carried out in terms of combat training, and members of the unit went away as fully trained for combat service as did the divisional troops. All the cultural amenities available through the Aews were utilised. A committee to organise dances and card games for the unit managed to hold two successful evenings before embarking. By the time the troops assembled for departure they were a well organised unit with officers, NCOs and men on a friendly footing.

Saturday, 25 April, 1943, was D-day for Major West, page 131Lieutenants Brooker, Wise and Torrie, five NCOs and a party of 12 sappers who left Waiouru to embark for New Caledonia as works services' advanced party. The main object of this party was to begin organisation of the site chosen for works services camp, and a reconnaissance made on immediate base area construction needs by Major West.

Thev were not truck loads of noisy soldiers so much as they were truck loads of very curious soldiers who for the first time in their lives found themselves on foreign soil. The cosmopolitanism of the East which Noumea presents to the new arrival is as unexpected as it is colourful; the Javanese women with their doll-like figures; the Tonkinese, their teeth and lips stained by betel-nut chewing and their stocky figures accentuated by their national costume of slacks, all stood in sharp contrast to what the New Zealanders had left behind only a few days earlier. As the convoy of trucks moved north on the hundred odd mile trip to Le Gere's farm, some 12 miles past Bourail on the Route Coloniale, native bures, terraced hillsides, mosquito infested swamps. French and native labourers working barefooted on the roads all combined to give a bizarre effect that robbed the rain, which fell most of the journey, of its discomfort.

As trucks jolted through Paita to Bouloupari and on tp Moindou and the Pass, the advantage of New Zealand's manifestations of local government became almost pointed. Curiosity, however, did not flag, but as small tented camps among the mud and niaoulis passed in monotonous succession there grew the restive suspicion that the camp towards which the convoy was making was just another bunch of tents among the trees.

Their suspicion was soon justified. A few candles blinking between tent flaps; a watery light from a lantern that attracted more insects than it guided tired, wet sappers to safety. 'Helluva place this,' someone was heard to mutter, 'not a bloody light in the place.'

Yes, it was dark, it was wet, it was mud up to the boot-tops, and there was a biting welcome from mosquitoes. 'Who was the silly b—who said we were coming to a place where we would have a garden farm, wooden huts and a beautiful stream?' Unpleasant as the arrival was, the morning revealed how much more desolate it might have been. Members of the advanced party had erected tents, had made some sort of a road into the site, had page 132done some draining and had a hot meal ready for the tired, irritated party. Even a temporary canteen had been set up which before lights out had been scooped clean of anti-insect lotion.

The following morning found everyone discovering that the red dust from the roads had been washed into uniforms, that kit bags resembled a pulpy mess, and that the art of sleeping under a mosquito net had to be learned—the hard way. 'Old timers,' those who had been in New Caledonia for six months, were ready to tell the symptoms of 'going troppo' which were distinguished mainly by the belief that not only did one talk to the niaouli trees, but that the trees answered back. Instead of trying out so unusual a claim, everyone was busy hacking down saplings with pocket knives, debarking trees with anything and scooping out drains around tents—military reasons rather than modesty conceals just what was used for the purpose.

The first day was not over before it was discovered that works services engineers had arrived in New Caledonia almost entirely without tools and equipment. Brat not quite; by some freakish twist of affairs four hammers and a saw found their way among the cooking gear. Someone had blundered, or surreptitiously borrowed and forgotten to return. The position was not eased when it was learnt from the advanced party that they., too, had arrived with little more than knives and forks, but a fair supply of spoons. A naive transport sergeant, Charlie Rye, really expected to find the number of dump trucks and GMCs he had been told would be waiting for him. A camouflage expert, Sergeant Lyn Lipanovic, never fully recovered from the shock of finding there was nothing to camouflage but the culverts he had helped to make. Sergeant Rye ever after suffered from blood pressure caused by the attack of indignation aroused at his having to push and shove wheelbarrows around.

When shortages of equipment and tools were found to be a characteristic common to most units in Nzefip at that time, and not the particular prerogative of works services engineers, what was said by the sappers is still regarded as 'information that may be valuable to the enemy.' But it can be revealed that one of the effects of the discovery was a feeling of irritation and frustration. Men, who for the first time in their lives were separated from their homes, from their families, friends and a familiar pattern page 133of life, were in no mood for charitable judgment: they had come to do a job and expected to get down to it.

The complex background of a country such as New Zealand which has no heavy industries to produce the tools and equipment required was overlooked; the fact that shipping space was rationed on a priority basis, and that the organisation for the war in the Pacific was thrust upon the country unexpectedly— all these subtle points were brushed aside as though they were attempts to explain away. The adjustment to the new life had not yet been made. A solid group camaraderie had not yet developed. The mood was more of that expressed in the song composed by Willie Bragg, who had been transferred in from the 23rd Field Company.

The Sappers Lament
(Tune: 'Frankie and Johnnie.')

(By Willie Bragg.)

Don't want to tell you no stories,
Don't want to tell you no lies,
Do you think it right
Amid this heat and flies,
I'm their man and they're doing me zvrong.

Don't want no chops for breakfast,
Don't want no bacon,
All we get is Vienna sausage and stew,
I'm their man and they're doing me zvrong,

I've seen this Caledonia,
I've seen their French girls too.
Let me tell you brother
It ain't no place for you, they'll do you zvrong.

Take me back to En Zed,
Back where we belong
Let us hope now fella
That will not be long,
You'll be their man you'll do no wrong

On the evening of 29 May, 1943, just a week after the arrival of works services, its wharf operating company arrived. A camp had been prepared for these men on the spur of a ridge some 20 yards from the company headquarters, and very soon personnel of wharf were settling in. Though the wharf company was not with the main body of works services for more than a few weeks, its members identified themselves with works services as their parent body but they stoutly resisted the idea that they were just 'part of works.' No, they were the 'wharfies,' and before the last ship for home had been loaded they looked upon themselves as the 'bad boys' of the works services engineers.

Before the first month had passed works sports representatives had worn a track—there were other tracks too—to the headquarters of the New Zealand National Patriotic Fund Board's office in Bourail. Rugby and soccer balls, boots, jerseys, shorts— and socks 'if we can get 'em,' were obtained and football clubs had been formed. Practice matches were held, in bare feet it is true, and two games were played. Works' team had defeated BRD B team 13-0; the soccer team had gone down before BRD's soccer team. Those games were a tribute to the dictum 'the game's the thing.' Men played in underpants alone; or in underpants plus sandals; or in underpants plus sandals plus shirt—for a time. The ground was hard as it never is in New Zealand; or as slushy as it is in Rugby Park on a Ranfurly Shield day. Boots, shorts, and jerseys did eventually arrive in quantity and at the end of the first round works engineers had knocked up a good score for a team that started late.

Next in pugnacity came the works debating team which started with inter-unit debates and finished up with an unbeaten record against 4th New Zealand General Hospital and the transit camp. Subjects ranged from subsidising marriage, the economics of advertising, the welfare of Pacific natives, social security and the virtues of socialism. Ted Knowling, Percy Kenna and Fred Kronast would always be depended upon to uphold the spirit of private enterprise, while Tommy Stokes, Cliff Foster, Peter Wing-field, Jim Patterson-Kane and Brian Tapper were ready to defend anything. Somewhat more intellectual was the current topics discussion group which met weekly under the guidance of Major Blacker; the weekly Aews bulletins provided the topics which page 135were thrashed out in a manner that suggested that Major Blacker was something of a 'quiz kid.'

Boxing classes were also held, and could still claim pupils after 12 months. Two tournaments were organised, but neither was finally held. Most consistent among the 'fightin' men' were Dave Holwell, Keith Morton. Len McGregor, 'Lofty' McCosh, Len Alderson and the enthusiastic manager, George Moreton. One of the interesting sidelights on the spirit that existed among works services personnel was the absence of those disagreements that lead to fights. There was only one fight—a good natured affair—on record.

The first effort in camp was euphemistically known as 'the carpenter shop' where D. P. O'Connor commenced by making a species of kitchen chair from niaouli saplings. The 'shop' was without walls, floor, or roof. Periodic thunderstorms swept sawdust, shavings and any borrowed tools D. P. had left lying about down to the plumbers' 'stand.' The luxury of a bench, tarpaulin roof on niaouli frame, and box for tools were not added until 'Bunny' Spencer and Jack Darroch joined the 'staff.' Production was then speeded up on bookshelves for Aews, fittings and accessories for public relations Nzefip, tool chests for base unitsmortuary caskets, crosses and pegs.

Plumbers Charlie Storey and Doug Comrie worked from their 'stand' where their first job was the conversion of 15 45-gallon oil drums into hot water coppers for tea, cocoa and for washing up in mess and cookhouse; old biscuit tins were soldered together to make chimneys for the improvised coppers.

Perhaps the busiest men in camp at this time were bootmaker Les Day, quartermaster Johnnie Sutherland, 'Jill' Bruce, his assistant, and Charlie Goffin the rations storeman. Lunches had to be made up for working parties out on jobs, 'glamour suits' issued and plentiful stocks of bully beef, vienna sausage, spam and fat spread stored up for the hungry sappers.

While the camp was thus taking shape a group of carpenters under Sergeant Fred Watts and Corporal George King moved down to the 4th General Hospital in Boguen Valley where badly needed repairs were carried out. Another party under Corporal 'Aussie' Page was at Base Reception Depot from where they built bures for pay, stationery and records departments.

The bure is to the islands of the South Pacific what the whare page 136was to the early pioneers of New Zealand: the simplest form of building evolved from local conditions. The method of constructing bures remains very much the same from island to island. The material of the framework might in New Caledonia be niaouli saplings, in Fiji bamboo, in the Solomons the 'Pacific maple,' but the pattern remained the same. When works completed the frame of their 180 feet bure mess building, natives were employed to give instruction on the thatching. This is started from the lower corner of the roof, and is laid on the horizontal purlins. The first layer of grass, which resembles raupo and which is cut some time previously by the natives, is put on with the roots downwards along the entire length of the roof. The next layer is laid directly over the first with the grass roots up. At intervals the thatch is securely lashed to the purlins. By the time the mess was completed Harry Page, Jack Olsen, Charlie Hayward, Frank Britton and Harry Stringer had little to learn from the natives. Once completed, the bure became the headquarters for all bugs, insects and things that creep and crawl for miles around.

Services section tasted the shortage of tools and equipment when a party under Gordon Berry began the road into base training depot in the Tne Valley. The tools available at the start were 28 shovels and picks, two GMC trucks on day loan, a swamp plough and a Farmall tractor. What this meant is most easily grasped when it is realised that it took 40 men one month to complete the first mile. Shingle for the road had to be hand shovelled into trucks, and what metal was required also had to be hand quarried. Some of the lads began to feel like Cinderella before the prince gave her the glass shoes. Work on the remainder of the road was speeded up when equipment was loaned by United States forces for a short time.

What the services lads felt on the road, a party of builders tasted with engineer stores headquarters. This warehouse measured 108 by 48 feet and was the first prefabricated effort of the unit. From the clearing of the site to the tightening of the last hurricane stay 23 men had done the job in less than a week, and the only tools they had were four hammers and one saw. Those who could not lay hand on one of the hammers grabbed a monkey wrench or anything else that would hit the nail. The construction party no sooner moved off the job than Lieutenant Brooker, stores officer, made a dash for possession. For almost a month he and his staff page 137had meandered around with neither stores nor store; now they had the store. They could imagine they had the stores; what they did not imagine were the headaches and backaches ahead of them. The next series of warehouses to be erected by Lieutenant Wise and party were a number for base kit stores at Base Training Depot; a number at Base Ordnance Depot and at Divisional Ordnance Workshops. Before works completed their construction

One of the most ambitious engineering undertakings in New Caledonia was the erection of a hospital at Dumbea

programme in New Caledonia 16 such warehouses had been constructed, and 480 tropical huts of prefabricated material had been erected in addition to the hospitals and other jobs.

On 12 June the unit newspaper, Dozer dust, published its first issue, and continued with a weekly issue of three pages until a few weeks before the unit returned to New Zealand. The paper followed very much the same lines as most army newspapers. Dozerdust was probably the only army paper in the Pacific theatre of war that published a weekly summary of camp rumours on the assumption that the readiest way to scotch a rumour was to publicise it.

It also featured a series of articles entitled 'Personality Parade' for which Sergeant Lipanovic, NCO in charge of camouflage and in civil life a commercial artist, did a weekly cartoon of a member of the unit. The accompanying column was written by Sergeant Alex Bowman under the nom de plume of 'Major Sucker. OBE.' The series, which was very well done, drew favourable comments from New Zealand and American sources. The drawings, it is worth noting, were done with the aid of a six-inch nail in the absence of a stylus pen. Another series which excited a good deal of amusement was the 'Write Your Own Obituary Notice.' The following extract is taken from that written by Sergeant Bill Charleton.

' Born in Stratford. Taranaki, in the year 1916. he attended the local poker school where he rapidly reached the proficiency stage; he then took to scrounging at street corners in New Plymouth until he was moved on. Entering the House in 1950, on his discharge from Works Services Engineers, as a candidate for the Waacing Party in the Taranaki electorate, he fought an untiring battle against fat spread which soon replaced the heavy, sickly Taranaki butter once popular in Invercargill. In his latter years, as Taranaki declined into the insignificant province it now is, William Charleton grew bitter towards the Waikato farmers who emigrated to New Caledonia and deprived Taranaki of its Malayan cheese market. Despite this weakness, he possessed a lovable nature, as was displayed by his fondness for women and babies. He was charitable to a fault with public money which he came to regard as his own.'

Towards the end of July, 1943, the first change in Works Services personnel occurred when Lieutenant-Colonel Jones, CRE Works, returned to New Zealand. Lieutenant-Colonel Jones had been associated with Works Services since the inception of the unit; in the first two months when equipment and tools were as short as tempers he had an extremely difficult task as CO of the unit. Major West, staff officer, replaced Lieutenant Colonel Jones as DCRE. Captain Blacker, OC of wharf operating company, was transferred as OC to works construction company with the rank of major, and Captain Clark, adjutant of works construction company, was transferred to wharf operating as OC. With the exception of Lieutenant Brooker, and his staff, and Sergeant G. Aim (later staff-sergeant) and Sapper F. Harrison, all Hq works page 139personnel were transferred to works construction company. As can be imagined such changes gave rise to more than the usual crop of rumours. Wharf personnel were all convinced they were 'going to the forward area' almost immediately; the construction personnel found something seductive in the name of Burma. The rumoured changes did not take place, but Burma remains the green pastures which rumour designated as the gist of 'what do you know ?'

On Sunday, 15 August, 1943, Sapper J. Winterbourne while bathing in relatively shallow water, along with other members of this unit, was suddenly swept out to sea. His comrades went to his assistance, but only Warrant-Officer Gordon Berry was able to stay with him owing to the heavy surf. Berry endeavoured for almost half an hour to support his badly exhausted friend while the rest of the party made rescue preparations from the shore. At last, exhausted by his efforts, Berry became parted from Winterbourne, and almost lost his own life, having to be hauled from the sea in a state of semi-collapse. Sapper Winterbourne was a popular and hard-working member of his unit and was Held in high esteem both by his officers and his mates.