Maori troops line up on the quayside at Alexandria in Egypt following their evacuation from Crete, 3 June, 1941. Between 28 May and 1 June 1941, 18,000 Australian, New Zealand and British troops were rescued by the Royal Navy following a week of bitter fighting against German Fallschirmjäger.
The 28th (Māori) Battalion, more commonly known as the Māori Battalion, was an infantry battalion of the New Zealand Army that served during the Second World War. It was formed following pressure on the Labour government by some Māori Members of Parliament (MPs) and Māori organisations throughout the country which wanted a full Māori unit to be raised for service overseas. The Māori Battalion followed in the footsteps of the Māori Pioneer Battalion that served during the First World War with success, and was wanted by Māori to raise their profile, and to serve alongside their Pākehā compatriots as subjects of the British Empire. It also gave a generation of people with a well-noted military ancestry a chance to test their modern warrior skills. Raised in 1940 as part of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF), the 28th (Māori) Battalion was attached to the 2nd New Zealand Division as an extra battalion that was moved between the division's three infantry brigades. The battalion fought during the Greek, North African and Italian campaigns during which it earned a formidable reputation as a fighting force which has subsequently been acknowledged by both Allied and German commanders. It was also the most decorated New Zealand battalion during the war. Following the end of hostilities, the battalion contributed a contingent of personnel to serve in Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, before being disbanded in January 1946.
Gunners of HMAS Shropshire prepare some shells for her secondary armament with a with a 'personal message' for the Imperial Japanese Army.
HMS Shropshire was a Royal Navy (RN) heavy cruiser of the London sub-class of County-class cruisers. She is the only warship to have been named after Shropshire, England. Completed in 1929, Shropshire served with the RN until 1942, when she was transferred to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) following the loss of sister ship HMAS Canberra.
The cruiser was involved in the Battle of Luzon during January 1945, during which she was attacked by two kamikaze aircraft: one narrowly missed, while the second was shot down by HMAS Gascoyne close enough for debris to hit Shropshire. Shropshire fired in anger for the last time during the Corregidor landings, then briefly returned to Australia.
Shropshire returned to the Philippines in time for the Japanese surrender of the islands, then proceeded to Japan, and was present at Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945 for the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender.
The cruiser's wartime service with the RAN was recognised with five battle honours: "New Guinea 1943–44", "Leyte Gulf 1944", Lingayen Gulf 1945", "Borneo 1945", and "Pacific 1945".
Only five personnel died during the ship's RAN service, but although all five occurred during World War II, none were the result of enemy action; one drowned, and the other four were the result of accidents.
Commissioned as HMAS Shropshire, the ship remained in RAN service until 1949, and was sold for scrap in 1954.
A Japanese prisoner captured near Nauro on the Kokoda Track, New Guinea, being cared for by Australian stretcher bearers. He had been overworked and was near starving when taken prisoner. Papua New Guinea, October 1942.
This image was a recent commission by the family of Arthur William Jones NX15616, the blond soldier depicted in the photograph.
Jones' service record has not yet been digitised by the National Archives of Australia so only some brief details are known of his war service, pieced together from a variety of sources.
He enlisted in May 1940, at the age of 28, and first saw service in the Middle East. It is from this time that we get the first glimpse of Jones, who together with two fellow Australian soldiers, writes home to the Perth-based newspaper, the 'Western Mail' seeking a pen friend.
Or more particularly:
'We would be very pleased to correspond with any of your young lady readers, and it would also be very encouraging to us, as mail day is always an event. We have seen quite a good bit of the world, first to England thence to South Africa, to Palestine and Syria, so if you could find someone for us, we could tell them some very interesting things just the same as we would be getting valuable information from home, which is all too scarce.'
Jones is the author of the letter, and writes of his own experiences:
'Last of all, yours truly, Private Jones (Bill), just 19 months overseas, and have already lost touch with the homeland except for an occasional letter.'
Jones returned to Australia in March 1942 and after a period of several months was deployed in September to New Guinea, just as the tide was turning in the bitter fighting along the Kokoda Track. This photograph was taken during the course of the following month.
On the 30 September, patrols from the Australian 2/25th battalions entered Nauro and found it left unoccupied, other than those - like this young Japanese - who had been left behind.
Writing of the conditions being experienced as the Japanese retreated back over the Owen Stanley Ranges, one Japanese medical officer wrote in his diary a few months later, on 27 November 1942:
'There is nothing to eat. Everybody is in a weak and staggering state … Without food, having become terribly thin and emaciated, the appearance of our fellow soldiers does not bear reflection. How could the people at home understand this state of affairs, it must be seen to be believed.'
After the tense fighting, Jones returned to Australia for a period of some matters in 1943, before once again seeing action in New Guinea, followed subsequently by a period of several months in Borneo during 1945. He was posted to the 25th Australian Infantry Brigade HQ at the time of his discharge, on 9 October 1945.
The photograph having now been framed and presented to the family by Jones' grandson, I am pleased to be able to share with their permission some of his story and this arresting image.
Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial
292 and the U-boats were able to inflict massive damage with little risk. During this period, Axis submarines sank 609 ships totaling 3.1 million tons. This led to the loss of thousands of lives, mainly those of merchant mariners, against a loss of only 22 U-boats. Although fewer than the losses during the 1917 campaign of the First World War, those of this period equaled roughly one quarter of all ships sunk by U-boats during the entire Second World War.
