US Army troops marched down Queen St in 1942 in the biggest parade Auckland had ever seen. Photo / NZ Herald Archive
US Army troops marched down Queen St in 1942 in the biggest parade Auckland had ever seen. Photo / NZ Herald Archive
To celebrate Auckland’s 175th anniversary, its demisemiseptcentennial, the Weekend Herald continues its series celebrating the growth of the city with a look at people who shaped Auckland. Today, Suzanne McFadden discovers just how much the city changed to host guests during WWII.
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On a cloud-heavy June day in 1942, an unbroken stream of onlookers snaked from Grafton Bridge, along Karangahape Rd and to the bottom of Queen St, for a parade bigger than Auckland had seen before.
Schools and shops were closed for the occasion, yet the special guests in the grand military procession - those who the thousands of applauding adults and cheering schoolchildren had really come to see - went unheralded in newspapers or on the radio.
In fact it would be another five months before media in New Zealand were allowed to announce: "The Yanks Are Here!"
Less than a week before the United Nations Day parade, the American invasion of Auckland had begun; five transport ships, sandwiched between a cruiser and a destroyer, arrived in the Hauraki Gulf on June 12, unannounced. But they were not uninvited.
New Zealand felt under threat as the Japanese assault on the South Pacific crept closer. Prime Minister Peter Fraser's call for help to the Allies was answered by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who agreed to send troops to New Zealand to bolster its defence at home.
The Americans also saw New Zealand as a perfect base to train and plan operations for the Pacific theatre of war and a place to give their fighting men some rest and recreation.
At any one time between June 1942 and mid-1944, according to Jock Phillips' book Brief Encounter, there were about 50,000 American servicemen in camps across New Zealand - mostly in Auckland and Wellington.
For security reasons, the Pacific Command insisted the press make no mention of the visiting forces in New Zealand - the censorship remaining till November that year. But it was an impossible secret to keep from the Auckland public as thousands of clean-cut, uniformed marines marched from the wharves to the railway stations, then to camps strewn across the region.
Word soon spread that the newly-arrived Americans would head the march in the United Nations Day parade, and the city's streets filled. As the Herald reported: "There were eyes that became moist as this pageant of virile manhood, young manhood, passed." It described others in the procession - the "hard-bitten" Territorials, the "older a good deal" Home Guard, and the women of the uniformed auxiliaries, praised for their marching abilities.
It was a shot of patriotism and optimism that Aucklanders needed, the Herald opined the following day. "Auckland realised yesterday that it was part of a nation in arms; not a complacent nation, for much remains to be done - and to be suffered - but a nation whose hand is set to the task and whose purpose will not falter."
Auckland had already taken its own measures to repel an attack on its borders. Barbed wire entanglements were rolled out on North Shore beaches, gun batteries were built to guard the harbour, and people hung blackout curtains over their windows.
There was shelter for 58,000 in the central city in the event of an air-raid - 3.5km of tunnels were built under Albert Park; others were dug into the cliff-face of Birkenhead; lava caves in Mt Eden were opened up; city businesses made their basements available as shelters. Around 5km of slit trenches were dug in parks and any open spaces around the city.
The Women's Land Service grew 38,000 tonnes of vegetables. Photo / NZ Herald Archive
In August 1940, the Home Guard, the Women's War Service Auxiliary and the Emergency Precautions Scheme Organisation (later known as Civil Defence) were set up to run the country's civilian response to the war.
More than 123,000 men served in the Home Guard. At first voluntary, it became compulsory for men aged 35 to 51 from 1942. Initially they didn't have uniforms - only armbands distinguished them as part-time infantry - and they used their own guns or made wooden replicas for the first year.
Fire stations throughout Auckland were manned by women as volunteers from the Women's War Service Auxiliary stepped forward. Women were also trained in emergency skills - from morse code signalling and first aid to repairing trucks and cooking for camps.
"Land girls" from the Women's Land Service went to work on farms and orchards on the city's outskirts. Some worked in specially-created state gardens, from Mangere to Patumahoe and Waiuku, growing 38,000 tonnes of vegetables to feed American troops throughout the South Pacific.
Auckland certainly felt the presence of the Yanks as camps made up of row-upon-row of tents and huts were spread across the region, from Warkworth to Pukekohe. There were enough beds for 29,500 men.
Some men came for R and R after fighting in the Pacific, some for training and others came in need of medical attention. Nineteen hospitals were set up around the country to take almost 10,000 patients; US nurses came to help.
In Auckland, hospitals were created in Cornwall Park, Hobson Park and Avondale. After the war, one became an intermediate and a technical high school and was later named Avondale College.
On the grounds around the Auckland Museum sprang a new village. Lines of huts in Camp Hale, on the front lawn below the Cenotaph, were home to 750 US Army personnel, while part of the Domain was commandeered for a convalescent depot for servicemen. A rest camp was created in Western Springs, which after the war became an emergency housing transit camp.
Camp Hale at the Auckland Domain was home to 750 US Army personnel. Photo / Auckland War Memorial Museum
The troops with liberty passes needed entertaining. Two Red Cross Clubs were set up in the central city to make them feel at home, serving hamburgers, doughnuts, sodas, apple pie and coffee, and providing table tennis and dances.
"King of the Clarinet" - American jazz star Artie Shaw - came to play at a Red Cross dance at the Auckland Town Hall in September 1943, entertaining not only the soldiers, but the US president's wife Eleanor Roosevelt, who had dropped by during her New Zealand tour.
The Auckland YMCA put on dances too, but many of the men preferred to go to cabarets and nightclubs. They would often book out the Wintergarden in the Civic Theatre, where the star attraction was dancer Freda Stark. By day, she worked as a clerk for the Colonial Ammunitions Company; at night she was painted gold from head-to-toe and nicknamed "Fever of the Fleet".
The marines brought the jitterbug, got into skirmishes with local men, and stole the hearts of many young Auckland women. Not all were broken-hearted, though. When the last troops filed out in mid-1944, almost 1500 New Zealand women had married US servicemen.
A World War I heritage trail tracing the war effort in the Auckland region has been created by the Auckland Council. Here are some of the 56 sites on the trail:
Walsh Brothers' New Zealand Flying School, Mission Bay About 300 pilots were trained in New Zealand for the war; brothers Leo and Vivian Walsh trained 110 of them. Opened in October 1915, The New Zealand Flying School used the stone Melanesian Mission Building in Mission Bay as its headquarters.
Epsom Camp, Alexandra Racecourse, Epsom The Auckland section of the main body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force trained here before going to war, including the Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment. In August 1914, there were around 2000 soldiers in the Epsom mobilisation camp. They departed from Queens Wharf in September 1914, but were forced to return when German battleships were spotted.
St Mark's Church, Remuera St Mark's Church was frequently used for fundraising events during the war. The church hall was let out free of charge for patriotic and charitable purposes, and sewing bees were held in the church to raise funds for war charities.
Avondale Memorial Reserve, Avondale By war's end, at least 200 Avondale men had taken part in the war. Avondale School regularly came top of the list of schools donating to the Dominion Gift Scheme of the Auckland Women's Patriotic League. Proceeds from a patriotic ball helped establish a Soldier's Club, the early beginnings of the local Returned Servicemen's Association. The Avondale Reserve on Great North Rd was gifted as a war memorial in 1948.
