Veterans of the North African Campaign Share Their Memories
'You've no idea the stuff we carried on our trucks and vans. We even had a piano in one of our three-tonners. We'd flogged that from some Italian crowd.'
Stories such as these from Ian Johnston, Captain in 6 Field Regiment of the New Zealand Army during the North African campaign in World War Two, are included in the new book edited by Megan Hutching called The Desert Road: New Zealanders Remember the North African Campaign.
The book is fourth in the Ministry's series of oral histories recounting New Zealanders' experiences during the Second World War and was launched by the Prime Minister Helen Clark in early April. Almost half of the sixteen war veterans interviewed were present for the ceremony and subsequent hand-over of the recordings of their personal experiences of war in the places of history such as El Alamein, Tripoli , Tobruk and Cairo.
'Standard accounts of war often give the impression that battle plans are followed, troops move up in order and either succeed or are defeated,' said Megan Hutching.
'But when you listen to personal accounts you are reminded that what is often portrayed collectively is in reality about individuals and the effect of events on them.'
'On the front line people must rely on their mates, their own sense of self-preservation and their ability to adapt to circumstances beyond their control.'
The sixteen people whose interviews make up the book come from the 16,000-strong 2 New Zealand Division commanded by Bernard Freyberg, from the 2NZEF ‘non-divisional' unit, the Long Range Desert Group, the Royal Navy and include two women who worked in hospitals and forces' clubs in Cairo.
The oral history recordings have been lodged with the Alexander Turnbull Library's Oral History Centre.
See related feature on NZHistory.net.nz
We Call It Home
Human stories of community and family life lie at the heart of a new book titled We Call It Home written by Ben Schrader, which explores the experiences of New Zealand state house tenants, architects and policy makers over the past century.
The book was commissioned by Housing New Zealand Corporation to mark the centenary of state housing in New Zealand , which began not with the labour government of Mickey Savage, but with Richard Seddon's workers dwellings in 1905.
It presents state house stories from the remote West Coast, 1950s Taumarunui and 1960s Glen Innes, through to African immigrants in present-day Mt Roskill.
We Call It Home is published by Reed Books and is due to be launched in mid June 2005.
Visit www.NZHistory.net.nz to view an online feature on the history of state housing.