Tauranga veteran Bryan Cox reflects on Anzac Day

Bryan Cox with a 017 NZ5261 which he flew on January 15, 1945. Photo / Supplied

Anzac Day is one of great significance and meaning for Tauranga's Bryan Cox - a veteran whose family lost many members in both World Wars.

Cox, 95, was a Pacific World War II fighter pilot.

He said he would be commemorating Anzac Day todayby doing the Stand at Dawn at 6am.

His son Greg has been working on a small wooden cross to commemorate Cox's brother Grant Cox, who was also trained as a pilot in 1941.

His son will also commemorate the occasion at 6am, Cox said.

Bryan Cox had attended every Anzac Day service since WWII and normally went down to the Dawn Parade, he said.

"There are lots of people to remember and commemorate on Anzac Day.

"Naturally it's very important not to forget those whose lives were lost, during both the wars."

Tauranga's Bryan Cox was a Pacific World War II fighter pilot. Photo / File

Cox said according to Royal New Zealand Air Force statistics, during WWII 13,235 New Zealanders trained as aircrew - pilots, navigators, flight engineers, wireless operators, air gunners, and bomb aimers.

Half of the pilots trained in New Zealand and half in Canada, after doing their initial flying training in Tiger Moths in New Zealand.

On completing their training, those who had trained in Canada went on to Europe and those who trained in New Zealand then served in the Pacific, as Cox did.

"Of the total of 13,235 who trained, 4300 were killed - 32.5 per cent," he said.

"However, many deaths were attributed to either bad weather or accidents. Flying is much safer these days."

When asked what Anzac Day meant to him, he said his family, and many other families were affected.

"Within my own family, both my parents lost a brother killed in WWI - generally known then as The Great War.

"My father lost a brother at Gallipoli on Anzac Day, where 2700 New Zealanders died, and my mother lost a brother at Passchendaele in Belgium where 843 New Zealand soldiers were killed in one day, but 12,500 in total along the Western Front in Europe."

Photo of Bryan Cox taken in Japan in his final rank of Warrant Officer Bryan Cox. Photo / Supplied

He said in WWII, his brother and three cousins served overseas, three in the Air Force and one in the Royal Navy, but none of them survived.

"Kevin was a member of the No 485 New Zealand Spitfire Squadron in England and was killed in a flying accident, his brother Bernard serving in the Royal Navy was killed defusing a German mine in the Mediterranean, and Tony was in No 488 NZ Squadron at Singapore and was shot down and killed in January 1942.

"I was the only one to serve in the Pacific, in No 16 Fighter Squadron, and was one of a flight of 15 RNZAF Corsairs, of which only eight of us landed on my 20th birthday on January 15, 1945, and I was only saved by a flash of lightning. That day is now known as Black Monday."

Cox served three tours of operations in the Pacific in No 16 Fighter Squadron, after which he sailed for Japan on HMS Glory to serve in No 14 Occupational Squadron.

He spent a year in Japan at Iwakuni near Hiroshima, which he visited many times.

Photo taken in Te Rapa on Bryan Cox's 21st birthday, January 15, 1946, where he was the only man present as the others were still serving. Photo / Supplied