1939: Homecoming heroes

The welcome parade for HMS Achilles crew in Auckland, February 1940. (NZ Herald Archives)

In December, the New Zealand light cruiser HMS Achilles, took part in one of the most famous battles of World War II.

The Achilles was part of a cruiser squadron searching for the German pocket battleship Graf Spee which had been disrupting Allied shipping in the south Atlantic.

They sighted their quarry lurking near the busy shipping lane off Uruguay at 5.20am on December 13 and within an hour were engaged in the battle of their lives.

The outgunned British squadron managed to cripple the Graf Spee which was forced into Montevideo for repairs.

After four days it was scuttled by its captain who was deceived into thinking a powerful British fleet had assembled to finish it off when it put back to sea.

The Achilles and its crew returned to Auckland a few months later where, said the Herald, the welcome they received expressed the pride of the whole Dominion.

"The travel-stained cruiser, still showing in places the honourable scars of battle, gliding swiftly up the harbour in the cool of the morning while ships in port sounded their strident welcomes; the scene at the wharf when husbands and wives, fathers and children, parents and sons were reunited after anxious months; the thrilling march through the city with Auckland for once forgetting its self-consciousness and cheering itself hoarse; the warmth of the reception outside the Town Hall - all these combined to produce an effect that left hearts uplifted and eyes shining brightly."

The 1939 Herald said Auckland and the nation as whole would do well to honour the men who earned that tribute and so we make them our New Zealanders of the Year for 1939.

Further reading:
'The Battle of River Plate', New Zealand History Online