Flying Officer Phil Lamason (wearing flying cap) with his Wellington bomber crew at RAF No. 218 Squadron in late 1941. Photo / Phil Lamason Heritage Trust.
Flying Officer Phil Lamason (wearing flying cap) with his Wellington bomber crew at RAF No. 218 Squadron in late 1941. Photo / Phil Lamason Heritage Trust.
.
When Mike Harold was contacted by historian and author Paul Woodadge to present on his YouTube channel about the story of Phil Lamason, he jumped at the chance.
The channel has presentations on military history and its recent focus has been on New Zealand's contribution to wars.
Mike Harold at a presentation in 2018 was happy to be given the opportunity to speak about Phil Lamason's story to a military history channel. Photo / NZME
Lamason, whowas born in Napier, began farming in Dannevirke after his return from serving as a pilot in World War II.
Harold knew the former Dannevirke farmer, and was part of the Phil Lamason Heritage Trust, which was behind the publication of his biography I Would Not Step Back in 2018.
Dannevirke's Phil Lamason in his Lancaster bomber before a mission over Germany during World War II. Photo / Supplied
Lamason was shot down over France in 1944 and became a prisoner of war.
He and others were imprisoned at German concentration camp Buchenwald for 60 days.
They were later moved to a Stalag but Lamason came within minutes of being shot by a firing squad.
Harold said his presentation was a chance to tell the story to a wider audience.
"It was the opportunity to talk in some depth which is a little bit different from some of the other opportunities offered."
He said Woodadge had been particularly interested in drawing out the elements of Lamason's leadership qualities, especially in Buchenwald.
It was also a good opportunity to explore some of the things that might make it relevant to a modern audience.
Harold said the Lamason family had been very generous in offering the story to the Dannevirke community.
"We shouldn't lose sight of that."
Lamason hadn't really begun talking about his experience until late in life and when he was asked why, he explained that he'd seen parallels with what was happening in the world at the time and what had happened during World War II.
This was during the 1990s, when war was breaking out in Bosnia, Harold said.
"What he called a civilised and educated population, you were getting these despotic people coming through and they were persuading people to go down brutal paths. He said it can happen, this is what happened in World War II, the German people who were very educated and very cultured people, by the European interpretation of the word, allowed themselves to be manipulated by despotic people. And that was why he spoke."
The trust hadn't explored all the opportunities to continue to tell Lamason's story, but they had still come to a deeper understanding of it.
"It has enormous wow factor for people who hear it for the first time - the detail of it," Harold said.
He said others had commented that the leadership qualities Lamason had shown in Buchenwald should be compulsory learning in all boardrooms, as well as the military.
That was something that was of interest to Woodadge and his audience, who were all well-informed about military history.
"They're military buffs and they dig deep."
There were other stories of war veterans out there, which the series on the channel was picking up on, Harold said.
"There's all sorts of levels of relationships to events that are being recounted. It's a huge forum."
He continues to find other ways of telling Lamason's stories, but knows there are plenty of other stories out there.
He said he wanted to work a little bit more collectively in the Tararua to make the best use of opportunities.
"There are a lot of other stories out there in Tararua which are potentially global stories. And we probably aren't getting the leverage off them that we need to."
