Anzac Day 2023: WWII, Malay, Vietnam and Afghanistan vets on what Anzac Day means to them

Anzac Day is important because it celebrates the time Australia and New Zealand united and fought together in World War I.

The Gallipoli campaign left a powerful legacy, known as the Anzac legend, and was an important part of history that shaped New Zealand.

But it’s also a time to commemorate those who served in other conflicts since WWI and those who continue to serve.

To find out why Anzac Day should be celebrated by the community, Luke Kirkness asked veterans in our region about their service and what the day means to them.

Calvin “Mitch” Mitchell - New Zealand Army

Calvin “Mitch” Mitchell never grew up looking up to the likes of Superman or Batman. Instead, it was the legends of the Māori Battalion.

The 28th (Māori) Battalion were part of the 2nd New Zealand Division, the fighting arm of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force during World War II (1939-45).

Growing up, Mitchell’s great-uncles often talked about the Battalion and the likes of Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu, the first Māori awarded the Victoria Cross.

“It was stories like them running out of ammo and throwing rocks - those sorts of stories planted a seed in me to serve,” Mitchell said.

“When you’re young you want to be a hero, but it doesn’t actually turn out like that.”

Calvin “Mitch” Mitchell served in the New Zealand Army in East Timor and Afghanistan. Photo / Andrew Warner

Mitchell grew up in Putāruru and attended Rotorua Boys’ High School for two years before joining the New Zealand Army as an infantryman.

He spent a decade serving for two operational tours with the 1st Batallion Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment; East Timor in 2006 as a lead scout and Afghanistan in 2008 as a vehicle commander.

After leaving the army, Mitchell also worked in the private security sector in the Middle East protecting ships and personnel from pirates.

Now working as a personal trainer, Mitchell said he enjoyed being deployed overseas but the transition back to being a civilian was not easy.

“I’m not trying to sound like a warmonger, but I actually enjoyed it; I wanted to go.

“It’s just like being a rugby player. You’re constantly training, and once you go overseas you put it all into practice.

“But the transition from being a combat soldier to civilian life has been pretty hard, especially when you lose your peers overseas and especially on days like Anzac Day or at memorials.”

And that’s what ANZAC Day was all about for him, remembering the guys he served with that didn’t come home.

“We all know ANZAC Day is for remembering the lads that fought and died in WWI, but for me personally, it’s to remember the guys I served with and the guys that didn’t come home.

“Just to remember them and remember their families and stuff like that, because they’re still fighting as well.”

In his view, soldiers were “generally respected”, but he hoped people would stop talking about the political side of war.

He said often people on social media posted arguments about why soldiers shouldn’t be involved in different conflicts, but “that’s the reality of a soldier”.

“We don’t go over there because of our political views or whatever; we’re only going over there because our country sent us and we love our country.

“We did some pretty good stuff over in Afghan. We built skills, hospitals, got water, and built wells and stuff like that so they could have a better life.”

Calvin "Mitch" Mitchell in Afghanistan in 2009.

Bill Groves - Royal New Zealand Air Force

The Ōhinemutu ANZAC Day dawn service will be only the second World War II instrument repairer Bill Groves has missed since the end of the war.

Eighty years ago, Groves, who prior to the war was a woodworker, was 17 years old when he enlisted in the Royal New Zealand Air Force after being a member of the New Zealand Air Training Corps (ATC).

“It was the thing to do at that age,” he told the Rotorua Daily Post.

“The war had been going on for a few years by then, and when I look back, I suppose it was an exciting thing to do.

“We all wanted to go, we had been in the ATC and that’s why we joined it, of course.”

Bill Groves has only missed one ANZAC Day dawn service since the end of the war. Photo / Andrew Warner

When he first joined, he did a ground training course in Blenheim, moved on to Rongotai in Wellington for technical training, and then to Hamilton for training to be an instrument repairer before training in Ohakea.

After a few months, Groves was shipped off to Guadalcanal, then Bougainville and finally to Los Negros and Manus Island.

“It was exciting at that age, it was just what everybody did.

“I don’t think I had any special thoughts about it — the war was on, and my father had been in World War I and also World War II, in the army, so I suppose that helped.”

Groves never had any ambition to serve in the army, with all his mates deciding the ATC was for them.

He served as an instrument repairer and, when asked what a person in the role did, he laughed: “Repairs instruments.”

“They had a system that every 30 hours an aeroplane flew, there was a series of things that had to be done. Instrument repair was just part of that.

“Every day we had to check as well, and our job was to check all of the instruments.”

Between the end of WWII - September 2, 1945 - and last year, Groves attended a dawn Anzac service every year.

He won’t go this year either, finding that he can’t stand for a long time, but at 97 years old it’s impossible to fault him.

“I think it’s wonderful because all the kids still go. After the war they didn’t, it wasn’t thought of as much back then.”

Bill Groves in 1943.

Pamela Miley-Terry - Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps; Peter Gallacher - New Zealand Army

Returned servicepeople Peter Gallacher and Pamela Miley-Terry were manning the Rotorua Bunnings poppy collection on Friday, and both said Anzac Day was one of remembrance.

Gallacher served in the Malayan Emergency and said everyone there was a volunteer committed to the cause.

He said it was important to pay respects “to remember the friends I have, the friends that have passed on and the loyalty we have among ourselves to look after one another”.

Miley-Terry, who was one of nine New Zealand military nurses posted to Vietnam and also served in Malay (Malaysia), agreed.

“I don’t believe we would be where we are today if it wasn’t for the sacrifices of our men and women”.

Miley-Terry said the impact of the conflicts was “hard to describe”.

“We were busy all the time,” she said. “You carried on with your work, didn’t think too much and made sure you did what you had to do.”

The Malayan Emergency (1948-60) started after an attempt by the Malayan Communist Party to overthrow the British colonial administration of Malaya — now known as Malaysia.

Throughout the conflict, New Zealand soldiers, sailors and airmen contributed to the Commonwealth effort to defeat the communist insurgency.

Fifteen New Zealand servicemen lost their lives in the region, three as a result of enemy action.

Meanwhile, more than 3000 New Zealand military and civilian personnel served in Vietnam between 1963 and 1975.

Thirty-seven men died while on active service and 187 were wounded. Two civilians serving with the surgical and Red Cross teams also lost their lives.

Miley-Terry said described the military as her “other family” and felt obliged to serve in Vietnam.

“If our soldiers are committed to Vietnam, then we as New Zealand nurses should be there to look after them.”

Poppy-sellers Peter Gallacher and Pamela Miley-Terry. Photo / Andrew Warner

Jason Ramsay - Royal New Zealand Air Force

Rotorua RSA president Jason Ramsay spent more than a decade in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and on Friday afternoon was right in the thick of Poppy Day.

Despite a little less foot traffic than usual and gloomy weather, several sites throughout the city were low on poppy supply.

“We’ve had to refill the sites more than we normally would.”

He encouraged as many people as he could to head along to a service on Anzac Day and pay their respects.

For Ramsay, it was an important day to celebrate those he served beside and those that went before him.

“After 14 years in the military, it’s about looking out for your mates around you, as well as the ones that have gone before you.

“And then growing up now, I’m a dad passing that on to the next generation - about the sacrifice people make when they join the military and go away.”

Rotorua RSA President Jason Ramsay. Photo / Andrew Warner

D’Arcy Bailey - New Zealand Army

Defending and serving the nation is a family affair for Mount Maunganui’s D’Arcy Bailey.

His father served during WWII but wasn’t able to leave the country due to health regulations, spending his four years of service in New Zealand.

Bailey said that gave him the background, and then came compulsory military training (CMT), which carried him through to the territorial forces.

“I enjoyed the territorial force so much that it led me into the regular force.”

Born in New Plymouth and raised in the King Country, Bailey worked as a stock agent before an 18-year stint in the New Zealand Army.

He served in Borneo and Malaysia and was a warrant officer when he left in 1975.

In 1964, New Zealand started helping Malaysia to fight Indonesia’s attempt to take control of the North Borneo territories in what was known as Confrontation.

D'Arcy Bailey served as a peacekeeper in Borneo. Photo / Alex Cairns

Bailey’s eldest and youngest sons joined the regular force cadet school and learnt their trades.

Bailey said his middle son didn’t join, but the pair joked he was “a tank commander” while he worked in Australia’s Northern Territory drilling wells.

Despite leaving the army, Bailey didn’t stop serving the community.

He has served as the Whangarei RSA president, Northland District president and a past member of the National RSA executive committee and was awarded life membership at the Whangarei RSA in 1997.

In 2014, Bailey was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for community service, but he didn’t want to be celebrated as a one-man band.

He said what those who served allowed the rest of the country to was to “live in peace and tranquillity” and his work was to help them.

Anzac Day was important to ensure we remember those that didn’t return and those who have since passed away, he said.

“We’re not glorifying war, but remembering what those guys went through.

“I’ve been to Gallipoli and Passchendaele. I’ve actually walked those battlefields and seen what our guys were going through.

“It was amazing to stand on the beach of Gallipoli and see what our men went through to try to climb that bloody hill.”