TO THE TREASURIES

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 13, 3 July 1944, Page 21

TO THE TREASURIES

A Report for KORERO

While the men of the 3rd N.Z. Division were in New Caledonia, the Brigade that was later to make the strongly-opposed landing on the Treasury Island group in the Solomons, spent much of their leisure-time in sport. This, together with the hard training on manoeuvres, produced the fine, perfectlyfit, well-trained body of men that carried through its task later without the slightest sign of a wrong move. A.E.W.S. was in its infancy, but the foundations were laid there, as the men learnt the aims of the newly-formed organization. Many began tudy courses which were completed after a few interrupted months ; others carried on their year’s study for University work, hardly expecting, as they did, to sit their

exams in foxholes while A.A. guns fought off enemy planes. Others, again, applied for and awaited courses which came from the printing-press only too slowly. Then came Guadalcanal. The day after arriving there the film unit was located amongst the brigade equipment, and the next evening it began an uninterrupted nightly service, distributed in rotation round three sites to take the film to every member of the brigade. A large batch of study courses arrived here, and the men were so keen that nearly all decided to take their course with them in their packs to the Treasuries, rather than wait for them to be forwarded later. At last this fighting-fit brigade group which watched another brigade of the

Division so successfully drive the remaining enemy from Vella Lavella after the initial American landing, and who had patiently waited their turn, were ready. On October 27, 1943, they made the first opposed landing by a New Zealand force since Gallipoli, and recaptured a British island which very soon flew the Union Jack again. The 8.E.0. here, Lieut. J. L. Hewland, travelling north with the first body of attacking troops, was used to assist with unloading of stores and equipment, to lead water parties, to help in night-long observation posts, and generally to serve where odd jobs required. As he moved round the perimeter in the first few days, he found, as the 8.E.0. in Vella Lavella had, that the one big demand was for news—-of the progress of their comrades in the local battle, in North Africa, and in Russia. So A.E.W.S. collected what it could from operational radios, typed it in the half-light of the jungle, and got it out somehow. A rest period from jungle patrol meant a great demand for something to read, and the 8.E.0. was able to distribute what little he could get, by carrying a case of magazines through the mud and coconuts to the troops on the perimeter and in gun positions. University exam candidates in the first week of November could not

be brought to H.Q. to sit their papers, so the papers went to them in their foxholes. While the prisoners were still being brought in, twenty days after the initial landing, the film unit .came into operation. In a space in the jungle cleared of undergrowth, under towering mahogany and teak trees, the men that could be spared from the guns gathered together to watch Hollywood stars who would perhaps have felt some pride in appearing, even if only on the .screen, in the most forward

theatre in the South Pacific area. - . Two new projectors arrived soon. after, and a regular schedule began less than a month after the landing. Men could not yet leave the perimeter or guns, so the movies .had to go to them ; and the three projectors were showing at sixteen different sites each week on six different islands in the group. • : Gradually things settled down and then came the deluge. . A.E.W.S. Study course applications arrived in the 8.E.0.'s tent in large bundles ; . stocks were still at base, but frantic radio signals got them forward, and before very long over 15 per cent, of the men in this brigade group were using candles, or the ever-faithful Coleman lamp, to increase their knowledge of or preparation for their civilian occupation. Two officers of the brigade between them lectured to about one hundred and twenty men on the theory of Diesel engines, and their classes were given .practical work by arrangement with the United States Navy. Like their comrades in Vella Lavella, they turned their hands,, to fashioning articles from the local woods and from scrap materials of the battlefields. To share ideas, the Unit Education Officers arranged a brigade exhibition of this craftwork. Too many examples were offering for the available tent space, so the

units held their own exhibitions first, selecting the best, from the point of view of both skill and novelty, to pass on to their colleagues of other units new suggestions and methods. Over two hundred exhibits were finally selected for the brigade exhibition, including a small display from some United States troops. The success of the exhibition, in achieving its simple aim of encouraging others to go and do likewise, was beyond all expectation. So the men of the 3rd N.Z. Division in the Treasuries, in what spare time they could find after helping to build the airstrip or unloading ships, or continuing jungle patrols and training, and improving their camps, used hand and brain to advantage. The Young Farmers’ Club literally sprang into being with nearly seven hundred members, each camp having its own group, with weekly meetings addressed by officers and men of their own unit or borrowed from a panel of lecturers who had been enticed by the 8.E.0. to give their services. Boxing Day was celebrated by a real gala day, with sports on land and in the water, from “ horse ” racing to boat racing—and all held in a spot that, barely two months

earlier, had been a Native village occupied by the Japs. Other big days followed, and before long the local jungle had produced yachts that made Blanche Harbour resemble Auckland Harbour on Christmas Eve, as the Brigade Yacht Club held week-end contests. The 8.E.0. became the sports secretary, this time for the island, as inter-unit competitions were organized, including Allied units representing two to three times as many United States troops as there were New-Zealanders. By this time the Brigade Education Officer had become the Island Special Service Officer (the United States Army term for his counterpart in their forces), and he was serving all servicemen stationed here, from army, navy, and airforce, with films, sports, and concerts. Island schedules for visiting U.S.O. camp shows had to be fitted in with picture nights, usually playing to about a thousand troops at a time for an hour before the film. The 3 Div. “ Kiwi ” Concert party, and the 3 Div. band visited the islands, and, as on the day of the landing and ever since, in battle, sport, and entertainment, New Zealand and United States troops were side by side, sharing equally hardships and play.