South Coast Productions’ DVD offerings for this holiday season include Wish Me Luck: New Zealand Families at War, a chronological account of men who fought and women who worked and waited. Lots of archive film and many interviews, narration by the familiar voice (Radio NZ) of Wayne Mowat.
The heading above is a jest by Sgt Eric ‘The Ferret’ Batchelor, DCM and bar, who attributes Kiwis’ soldiering prowess to their dogged ability to keep going with skill, courage and good humour – always a help in a tight spot.
For example, Southlander Pat Hamlin, prisoner of the Italians, noticing a chicken scratching near the compound wire, grabbed and killed it and sought to hide it under his greatcoat – but they spotted him. Off to the guard house!
“What were you doing with that chicken?”
“Well sir, the chicken attacked me, so I killed it in self defence.”
Even better, the captors sent him and a mate to fetch ‘vino’ in a big flagon. On the return trip they both decided they felt like a pee. Yes, you guessed it…. “The Italians will sing better tonight,” they quipped.
Hamlin had earlier (during the fighting) been treated to some German humour, albeit grim. His truck was buzzed by a German fighter plane. “Don’t worry, he’ll be out of ammo by now,” he assured the others. Sure enough, on a second flyover the German fired nothing – he simply dropped a toilet roll.
But this is, of course, an account of pursuing determined enemies with fire and steel, destruction and death.
Pat Harris, merchant seaman gunner recounts the terrors of sinking by bomb and torpedo. Especially demanding were the convoys to Murmansk, Russia. He was dragged from the sea, frozen and injured, by a German destroyer crew, who treated them well.
Less chivalrous were the Russian allies Harris’s convoy was supplying. In a hushed-up episode, the Russians refused to allow British doctors to treat British naval wounded at Murmansk.
They relented only in the face of threats by British destroyer captains to turn their guns on the Russians’ shore establishment. They were, says Harris, a less-than-ideal ally.
DVD (55 mins) by South Coast Productions, PO Box 58, Riverton. Tel. 03 234 8109. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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