The War In N.Z.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 11 (Supplement)

The War In N.Z.

Fear* Of Invasion. (By F.C.D.)

SO far "The Page" has made no mention of the war in New Zealand," if one excludes training notes, but it was in this land of ours that I first gripped a rifle with the tenseness one was to know later in far-away lands. As everywhere else, Invercargill seethed in the late months of 1914, and the existence of a high-powered wireless station at Awarua, a few miles down the Bluff line, gave an added interest, especially when it was confidently rumoured that a Fritz had sheltered in one of the many sounds and inlets of the rugged southern and western coasts. A guard of about 60 was recruited, mostly of lads too young (or too small) for the bigger game. If a bit youthful and unseasoned, at least we were teen. The guard was quartered in three growpe some distance from the 400 ft mast and the operating rooms, while those on sentry-go had beats about the huge concrete anchors to which were attached the steel guys supporting the lattice mast. This wireless station was built on the flax and scrub-covered plain, and what excitement there was when the wind rustling the flax leaves caused a keyed-up sentry to imagine an attack, and act accordingly. Out would tumble all hands, magazines loaded, and "up the spout," and scuttle to the appointed places looking, peering, perhaps hoping, for the enemy who never came. Another time it would be a light guy wire, which would snap with the crack of a rifle, and out rushed all hands again. But it was a safe war, which ended with the taking of Samoa, as, the Germans having destroyed their Telefunken plant at Apia, the Awarua set was dismantled and sent thither to replace it, and the high-powered station at Awanui (North Auckland) served the Dominion's needs.

Ana tnat reminds me.me mgni after the capture of Samoa the countersign was "Australian Squadron," and a newcomer to the guard (who was a later president of the Invereargill R.SA.) was one of the sentries during the night. Lieutenant O'Sullivan, of the P. and T. Corps, Dunedin, was doing the rounds, and on coming to the new sentry the usual patter took place:— Sentry: Who goes there? Officer: Friend. Sentry: Advance, friend, and give the Australian Squadron. I think "Curly" had that dished up to him many times later in France, but, as they say nowadays, "he could take it."