Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown's father Lieutenant-Colonel Kelly Brown DSO, served in World War II.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown's father Lieutenant-Colonel Kelly Brown DSO, served in World War II.
The memories of war will be raw and personal for Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown at this year’s Anzac Day dawn service at Auckland Domain.
Brown’s father, Lieutenant-Colonel Kelly Brown DSO, served in World War II in Greece, Crete, Italy and North Africa where he commanded a New Zealand Infantry company during the Battle of Alam el Halfa as part of the Western Desert campaign.
“I have always been profoundly moved by my father’s harrowing description of war,” the mayor told the Herald on Sunday. “Of the 137 men my father fought alongside in C Company only 44 survived the Battle of Alam el Halfa.”
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown. Photo / Dean Purcell
Brown told the Herald on Sunday his mother’s first husband was killed in Greece and is buried in Piraeus. She married his father after the war.
“Quite a few of my forebears have died in various wars, from the Boer War on.”
On the night of September 3, 1942, Brown’s father led a raid of about 75 men due south against German field marshall Erwin Rommel’s battalion of Germans and Italians, according to an account he gave in a book by British military historian Robin Neillands.
Kelly Brown recalled after partially clearing a gap in the minefield and moving through “someone had lost his nerve and shot himself in the foot”.
Stretcher-bearers were called for but the B Company sergeant-major roared, “No. Leave him” and the stretcher-bearers joined the attack.
Brown snr said the battle was the “heaviest small arms concentration” he encountered throughout the war, but resulted in a lot of damage to the enemy, albeit at a heavy cost.
As mayor of Auckland, Brown will participate in the wreath-laying ceremony for the first time at the Court of Honour in the Domain alongside Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni, Australian Consul General Brad Williams and Chief of the New Zealand Defence Force Rear Admiral Jim Gilmour.
Brown's father is third from the left. This photo was taken after he was awarded the Greek Miitary Cross.
“I am privileged to be attending this year’s Dawn Service on behalf of Auckland Council. Anzac Day has special significance to me,” Brown said.
The central Auckland Anzac Dawn service is being hosted at the Auckland Domain.
The Veterans Parade gathers in the Auckland Museum underground car park between 4am and 5.30am.
The parade commences at 5.50am when the veterans march onto the Cenotaph.
The Dawn Service follows at 6am at the Court of Honour.Macleans College Chorale will welcome the dawn with a programme of reflection and remembrance from 6.40am.
Entry to the Auckland Museum is free to everyone on Anzac Day. The museum will open directly after the Dawn Service and will close at 5pm.
The extended list of Anzac Day events throughout Auckland is on the Our Auckland website.
