HE JOINED THE NAVY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 168, 11 September 1942, Page 5

HE JOINED THE NAVY

Former 2YA Radio Operator Has Seen A Lot

world" used to be the Fleet’s recruiting slogan. Now it is "Help the Navy to save the world." So a New Zealander who, before the war was a radio operator at 2YA, decided to do both. He joined the Navy, he saw the world, and now he is back in the Southern Hemisphere helping to save the world. Though he does not put it, that way himself. What he told The Listener when we interviewed him was that he had been places and seen things but run into no kind of bother himself. Yet it is remarkable that he escaped trouble. The day he reached England the port at which he landed was subjected td a savage raid. When he moved to another port the raiders came again twice, as strong. Life at that second shore base was largely a matter of entering and leaving shelters, very often in a hurry, and then helping the pioneers to clear away the wreckage. It was a disturbing experience for a New Zealander just arrived in a war theatre, but his most vivid impression of it all is still the calmness and cheerfulness and courage of all sections of the population. A Rest Then one night he went for a "rest " to London and struck a blitz by 500 bombers, Here, as in the other great city, the bombs fell everywhere — five among civilians for every one on a military target-and it was a heart-breaking sight to see the tubes packed with women and children lying everywhere, but managing somehow to help one another. Nothing that he saw or suffered anywhere moved him as much as those tube shelters packed with people and ventilated by the continuous running of the trains to create air currents. Chasing E-Boats Within a month of his arrival in England he had the luck to be selected for duty on a fast-moving patrol guarding the South Coast and the Channel. Here if OIN the Navy and see the

the enemy were the E-boats, and it was a great thrill to find himself at intervals moving through the water at 45 knots, But he still escaped trouble-unless it was trouble (he certainly found it disturbing) to find himself one day talking to the King, who arrived on a visit of inspection and made a special point of seeking out and talking to New Zealanders among the ratings. The rest of his service abroad cannot be reported. All that can be said is that he saw half the ships of the world before he got back, and half of the world’s great bases. On the way, too, he was joined by an English rating, who was added to the personnel in the West Indies to replace a sick New Zealander, and is now seeing New Zealand for the first time. "Nearly Killed by Kindness" But it can hardly help the enemy to allow both men to confess that they were nearly killed by kindness in California. Mary Pickford heard about them, and then Mrs. Sam Goldwyn, and then more movie actors and actresses than it would be wise to talk about. But what Hollywood did to them in kindness was repeated by every American, rich or

poor, who happened to make contact with them. They had free travel, and free eating and drinking, every day they _ were ashore; and although they had a suspicion now and again that some of their hosts did not know where New Zealand was, they had all heard of the Anzac soldiers. Looking Back When they look back on everything that has happened during the last two years both men agree that what remains most vividly are the cheerful people in London’s tubes, the hospitality of America, and the incredible things done in the Pacific since the raid on Pearl Harbour. There is not the slightest doubt anywhere in America, they say, that Japan’s number -is up, and there is no difficulty in agreeing after a duty tour of the Pacific coast and several Pacific islands. As for the British Navy, when we asked the English rating how ordinary ratings felt about their losses, he asked us how the enemy feel about the Navy’s replacements. The Fleet is holding its own, he said, "and a little more.’ The feeling of all ranks is that it "can still take on anything sailing the seas."