Michael Emrys Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Great map; hadn't seen it before. Where did you find it? I am a little surprised that the base was at the south end of the island, but they built them where the geography and environment dictated. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted May 28, 2014 Author Share Posted May 28, 2014 Apparently Segond Channel made for an excellent harbour/anchorage, and I guess everything else flowed from that. The map is from here http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?109785-Vanuatu-visit (interesting pic of a Corsair there, too) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Apparently Segond Channel made for an excellent harbour/anchorage, and I guess everything else flowed from that. That makes sense. Also, I notice that the north end of the island is mountainous and rugged. Not a good place to build an airstrip if anything better is on offer. The map is from here http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?109785-Vanuatu-visit (interesting pic of a Corsair there, too) Interesting thread. I scanned through it quickly, but may go back later and read it more carefully. I think expeditions like this are useful, incomplete and tentative as they are. I only saw a couple of photographs that I recognized from before, so I learned a lot from looking. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted May 30, 2014 Author Share Posted May 30, 2014 30 May 1994 The NZ Government agrees to send a 250-strong reinforced infantry company to Bosnia. The infantry company is accompanied by 25 M113A1 armoured personnel carriers, 10 Unimog trucks, 21 Land Rovers, other support vehicles, 42 containers of equipment, and a partridge in a pear tree. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted May 30, 2014 Share Posted May 30, 2014 How long did the partridge last before it was cleaned and roasted? Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted May 30, 2014 Author Share Posted May 30, 2014 Roast? *pfft* Hāngi is where it's at. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 04 June 1902 Lieutenant R. McKeich of the Ninth Contingent becomes the final New Zealand casualty of the South African War. He is shot dead in Orange Free State during an encounter with a party of Boers who later claim to be unaware of the surrender four days previously. In all, 59 New Zealanders are killed in action, 11 die of wounds, and 133 from disease. A further 166 New Zealanders are wounded. A total of 6495 New Zealanders served in South Africa. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 I noticed a couple of discrepancies with regard to the marker. One is that it spells the soldier's name as McKeigh and the other is that it gives his date as falling in 1901. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalins Organ Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Here's McKeich's page in the Auckland War Memorial archive. There is no record for a Robert McKeigh - more than likely the headstone was incorrectly completed some time after his death from imperfect records. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 5, 2014 Author Share Posted June 5, 2014 05 June 1866 New Zealand - Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki, the East Coast military leader and prophet, is deported with Pai Marire prisoners to the Chatham Islands. He is accused of spying for the enemy while fighting with government troops. 05 June 1940 New Zealand - New Zealand Forces raise and train an Infantry Brigade Group of 3053 all ranks for Fiji. This scheme is envisaged as a combined garrison and advanced training ground for reinforcements for the three brigade groups already sent to 2nd NZ Division in the Middle East. The brigade didn't sail for Fiji until October. My Grandfather was part of this force. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 11, 2014 Author Share Posted June 11, 2014 11 June 1940 New Zealand declares war on Italy following that country's entry into the Second World War on the side of the Axis. No doubt Mussolini was considerably perturbed by this entirely expected development. http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=EP19400611.1.8&e=-------10--1----0-- 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 12, 2014 Author Share Posted June 12, 2014 12 June 1845 New Zealand - A force of pro-European Maori, under Tamati Waka Nene defeats Hone Heke at Pukenui. Waka Nene, about 1870 12 June 1917 Belgium (Western Front) – the New Zealand Division returns to the front line, moving towards La Basse Ville. The Division was relieved at the end of June and returned to the front in mid July. This kind of in/out tempo was quite normal, and even the two-three weeks spent at the front was split between time in the front line trenches, second line treches, and reserve on a regular cycle. Men spent relatively little time was actually 'at the front'. German defensive system, Flanders, mid-1917 12 June 1942 New Zealand - US troops arrive in Auckland. Between 1942 and 1944 about 100,000 American servicemen are stationed in New Zealand, in support of the Allies' counter-offensive against Japan. This American ‘invasion’ leads to a considerable clash of cultures, leading to fun times such as the Battle of Manners St, an event studiously ignored by the media at the time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted June 12, 2014 Share Posted June 12, 2014 This American ‘invasion’ leads to a considerable clash of cultures... And quite possibly a host of unplanned pregnancies. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 13, 2014 Author Share Posted June 13, 2014 And quite possibly a host of unplanned pregnancies. There was no 'quite possibly' about it. 'Host' is on the money though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 13, 2014 Author Share Posted June 13, 2014 13 June 1918 France – the New Zealand Machine Gun Battalion is formed. 13 June 1938 New Zealand - The leaders of the Four Colonels Revolt are got rid of by posting them from the Active List to the Reserve List. 13 June 2005 Mozambique – the last New Zealand military personnel are withdrawn from Mozambique. New Zealand was a member of the demining programme in Mozambique, with 26 members of the Defence Force serving there since 1993. Land cleared of mines in Mozambique, sq m 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 There was no 'quite possibly' about it. I was being polite. We are, after all, speaking of a part of the British Commonwealth...although the rules appear to be quite a bit looser below the equator. And at the time, things may have been pretty loose back in the Mother Country as well. Legend has it that a GI who showed up with a canned ham and a sack of sugar could get most anything he asked for. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadsky Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 I was being polite. We are, after all, speaking of a part of the British Commonwealth...although the rules appear to be quite a bit looser below the equator. And at the time, things may have been pretty loose back in the Mother Country as well. Legend has it that a GI who showed up with a canned ham and a sack of sugar could get most anything he asked for. Michael Should I be insulted? Or simply amused? I shall flip a coin to decide... Ah, what the hell. I had a laugh. The only thing I ever really learned about American GIs was that they didn't get on well with the Diggers. Mostly over women I think. Hardly surprising... Not bad for a first post, eh? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 The only thing I ever really learned about American GIs was that they didn't get on well with the Diggers. That's odd. The Australian women seem to have gotten on with them very well. Must be a gender issue... Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 17, 2014 Author Share Posted June 17, 2014 17 June 1843 New Zealand - The first major clash of the New Zealand War 1843-1847, at Wairau, takes place between colonists and Maori of the Ngati Toa. In all, 22 Europeans and about six Maori are killed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 18, 2014 Author Share Posted June 18, 2014 18 June 1940 New Zealand - The National Service Emergency Regulations are issued. Men are eligible for call-up in the armed forces for service in New Zealand or overseas. During five years of conscription 306,000 men are called up. The timing of this is interesting - it didn't come in to force until after the defeat in of of France. Prior to that 2NZEF had been all-volunteer. 18 June 1957 New Zealand - Recruiting for the NZ Infantry Battalion for service in Malaya begins. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 18 June 1940The timing of this is interesting - it didn't come in to force until after the defeat in of of France. The speedy collapse of France shocked a lot of people. That just wasn't supposed to happen and it threw a lot of calculations out the window. The world situation went from serious to very grim indeed almost overnight. Even Joe Stalin had his timetable upset. He was counting on a long war of attrition in the West while he modernized the Red Army and got ready to deliver the stab in the back to Germany and then overrun the exhausted Western armies. Now he was faced with a victorious German army with little to distract it from delivering a massive—possibly fatal—dose of unpleasantness in his direction. This is not the kind of realization that leads to restful slumber. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 19, 2014 Author Share Posted June 19, 2014 19 June 1940 New Zealand - The trans-Pacific liner RMS Niagara is sunk by a German mine off the Northland coast. All 349 people on board are rescued, but unfortunately the ship’s cat, ‘Aussie,’ didn't make it. The ship’s cargo included gold ingots worth £2.5 million (equivalent to $227 million in 2013) and half of New Zealand’s stock of small-arms ammunition, which was being sent to Britain to help replace ammunition lost during the battle for France. The gold was a consignment from the Bank of England in the UK to the USA, which had not yet entered the war, in payment for munitions supplies. Over the next six months the German raiders Orion and Komet sank a further 11 ships in the Pacific. A salvage team began operations on 15 December 1940 to recover the gold. It took the salvage ship about two months to find the wreck, which it did by dragging its anchor along the seabed ... through the minefield. Twice during the search unexploded mines were fouled which nearly sank the recovery effort. On 2 February 1941 the wreck of the Niagara was found and the salvage team started the arduous and hazardous task of retrieving the gold for HM Treasury. They had only rudimentary equipment, a viewing/diving chamber, radio, and a grab lowered from the surface. A hole was blasted in Niagara's hull and 555 gold bars successfully recovered*. 35 bars remained on the seabed, and five of them are still down there. At the time it was - at 121m - one of the deepest salvage operations ever undertaken. Some of the recovered gold bullion 19 June 1942 Egypt – The advance party of the New Zealand Division reaches Mersa Matruh, after covering 1,450 kilometres in four days and 15 hours. The Division had been urgently recalled from Syria - where it was training and preparing defences against a possible German thrust south through Turkey and the Caucasus - to defend Egypt following 8th Army's impotent defence of Gazala and Tobruk. * by way of comparison, the HMS Edinburgh was carrying 465 bars from Russia to the UK when she was sunk in 1942. Coincidentally, five of the Edinburgh bars also remain unrecovered. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 20 June 1943 New Zealand - Ten United States Navy personnel drown off the Paekakariki coast near Wellington during a beach landing exercise. The landing craft they are training on, from the USS American Legion, is hit by a huge wave when being towed back out to sea, capsizing and resulting in the deaths of one officer and nine enlisted men. Frank Zalot Jr. laying a wreath in front of the Memorial to his fellow sailors of the USS American Legion, at the unveiling in 2011. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 23 June 1845 New Zealand - Lieutenant Colonel Henry Despard leads a force of 600 soldiers, sailors, and marines against Ohaeawai Pa. After a week of bombardment Despard orders a futile and unsuccessful attack against the Pa on 1 July. About 75 Auckland volunteers take part in this engagement – the first immigrant New Zealanders to see active service in the history of New Zealand. 23 June 1860 New Zealand - A fighting Pa built by the Atiawa and Ngati Maniapoto is located at Puketakauere less than two kilometres from the British field camp at Waitara and in full sight of it. On 23 June 1860, Major Thomas Nelson sends a reconnaissance party towards the pa, as bait. Shots are fired and this provides the provocation necessary for an offensive operation against the Pa. 23 June 1923 New Zealand - The New Zealand Permanent Air Force is established as part of the military forces. It has a strength of four officers and two other ranks. Its Territorial Force branch, the New Zealand Air Force, comprises 72 officers. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted June 25, 2014 Author Share Posted June 25, 2014 25 June 1917 New Zealand - German surface raider SMS WOLF lays mines in NZ waters (off Three Kings Islands and Farewell Spit), which eventually sink two merchant vessels. 25 June 1942 England - 488 (NZ) Squadron RAF is formed as a night fighter squadron, based in Yorkshire. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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