Ron Wallbank, 99, served on the HMNZS Achilles during World War II. Photo / Stuart Whitaker
The memories are not as sharp as they once were but, as Ron Wallbank recalls his time serving at sea during World War II, there are snippets of clarity.
Now 99, Ron spent much of his life after the war farming in rural Te Puke before moving to Mount Maunganui when he retired. Six months ago he went to live in the care unit at Pāpāmoa Beach Village.
Ron was 17 when the war began and was already in the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy.
He trained on the HMS Philomel, the New Zealand Navy's training ship at Devonport, and from there he served for virtually the whole of the war on HMNZS Achilles - one of New Zealand's most famous wartime ships, and the first to see action, at the Battle of River Plate in December 1939.
But Ron's most vivid memories are from the Pacific campaign.
HMNZS Achilles, a Leander class light cruiser, joined US Navy forces in the Solomon Islands campaign at the end of December 1942.
On January 5 1943, while patrolling off the south coast of Guadalcanal, four Japanese aircraft attacked the force and a bomb hit the top of X turret, blowing the top off, killing 13 men and injuring eight others.
"We copped a bomb and the younger ones, as we had seaman boys on board - it was sad to see them, not necessarily dead... but it would have been hard for their parents."
Ron worked in the ship's engine room as a stoker and was a leading hand.
"In the tropics we used to have a fan, but the air the fan was using was hot and you'd be sweating all the time.
"When we were down in the engines there was terrific heat because of the motors. But they were pretty good to us."
After the ship was damaged, it sailed to Britain, via the Panama Canal, for repairs.
Interviewed in 2016, Ron said that on the trip back to England the ship went through German bombing and "boy did they try to get the ship".
While the ship was being repaired he remained in England.
"We weren't supposed to go ashore, but we did. We did lots of things we weren't supposed to," he says. "They didn't know what we did after dark."
The Achilles also underwent modernisation with the damaged turret replaced with anti-aircraft weapons, the replacement of single guns with twin guns and the installation of modern radar.
After the refit, in September 1944, the Achilles joined the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean. With other units of the now-renamed British Pacific Fleet, Achilles arrived in Auckland in February 1945.
The ship then sailed for Sydney in April 1945 and on to Manus Island to join Task Force 57, which included the cruiser HMNZS Gambia.
In mid June Achilles took part in the bombing of Truk Island.
The task force then sailed for Japan, a major task being to provide defence against kamikaze attacks.
After sailing south to Auckland again, Achilles returned to Japan in late 1945.
Ron had a brief stint on the Gambia, escorting troops, but was quick to get back to the Achilles, a popular ship with sailors.
"Everyone was battling to get on it because it was famous - but I suppose we were only about 20 years old."
Many years later, Ron would retrace the ship's route through the Pacific with some of his contemporaries.
Ron remembers when the war ended he wrote home because "he wanted to make them happy" and from then on the pace was more sedate.
"In peacetime we used to steam very slowly - (we) were no longer a target for torpedoes from submarines."
He spent some time as part of the post-war J Force in Japan and recalls seeing the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Although too old to fight, Ron's father Edgar was drafted into the army as a baker and stationed in Cairo, so father and son served in World War II.
In 2014 Ron was part of a nationwide project that captured the portraits of New Zealand's surviving World War II veterans.
At the time he said it was great to be part of the project and to acknowledge and remember the past.
"I'm proud of my efforts," he said, "I think the memories should be kept alive."
The number of veterans was dwindling so it was good to be capturing those images, he said.
Shortly after returning to New Zealand, Ron married Mary Murphy, whose family had a dairy farm on No 3 Rd.
They were married at St Patrick's Church on Cameron Rd on April 3 1946.
Ron found work on dairy farms, first in Edgecumbe and then on Browns Rd in Te Puke.
In the early 1980s he won a ballot farm - a scrub-covered piece of land in Hereford Park Rd, an extension of Ōtamarākau Valley Rd.
Years of hard work saw the establishment of a dairy farm with Ron and Mary having four children: Colleen, Brian, Patricia and Terry.
Ron and Mary were part of Te Puke RSA and would attend Anzac Day services in Te Puke every year until they retired to Mount Maunganui.
Mary died in 2002.
Ron often would walk to the Mount Maunganui cenotaph, attended dawn parades there and also took part in the driveway Anzac Day commemorations during the 2020 lockdown.
He kept in touch with his navy mates and went to plenty of reunions.
''They used to come down to the farm and visit and he used to go and stay with them - but he's outlived everybody,'' says Colleen.
Ron has been fit his whole life and while in the navy was a boxer and would take part in inter-ship bouts. Wanting to maintain his fitness, he didn't smoke, and traded his cigarette allowance.
He was still doing lengthy bush walks well into his 80s and last year walked around Mauao in support of Parkinson's New Zealand.
This year Ron will be unable to attend any of the RSA or civic Anzac Day parades or services, but there will be a commemoration at Pāpāmoa Beach Village.
Ron was born in Feilding in 1922 and will turn 100 in July this year.
Katikati health practice says poor funding has caused 'dangerous' wait times.