The Leander (pictured) and the Achilles were the Navy's biggest warships.
Des Price remembers, as clearly as if it were yesterday, his WWII experiences on one of New Zealand's most famous warships, the Leander.
Des came from a military family. His father Bert and uncle, Harold Price, both survived the battlefields of France.
"My father fought at the Somme and was wounded three times, most severely at Passchendaele when a bullet passed half an inch above his heart," said Des. "Harold was at Gallipoli and won the Military Medal in WWI."
Born in 1920 in Levin, the second child in the family, Des jokes that he was "the twinkle in my father's eye when he came back in 1919." When he was five his mother died and in 1928 the family moved to Palmerston North.
"I had always wanted to be a sailor," said Des. "I don't know why given that Palmerston North is inland, I must have seen a sailor somewhere.
"I first tried to join up when I was 15 as a Seaman Boy. It was the Depression and I went up to Auckland and there were 300 boys there and they only wanted 15. I had two teeth missing - not having a mother I probably wasn't very good with a toothbrush - so they told me to come back later."
He joined the Territorial Army and began a motor engineering apprenticeship but, in 1938 another opportunity arose to join the Navy.
"My employer was mad at me for joining the Navy. He had been a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps in England in WWI and said he'd get me into the RAF in England. I was lucky. Most who went over to join the English air force in 1938-39 didn't come back."
Des trained on HMS Philomel, New Zealand's first warship, by then, a stationary training ship at Devonport.
Then, on 4 March 1939, he was drafted to the Leander. Leander and the Achilles were the Navy's biggest warships - they were also to become its most famous and Des was to serve on Leander for her entire illustrious wartime service.
"There were only 15 in my class, half went to Achilles and the rest to Leander. Bob Batt, who was on the Philomel at the same time as me, went to the Achilles. He lives in Whakatane but we met up at Te Atatu RSA on Trafalgar Day. " In August 1939, Leander was tasked with transporting No 1 Platoon, the first expeditionary force to leave New Zealand before WWII, to the Pacific Fanning Island.
"It had a cable station that Germans had attacked in WWI, so permanent New Zealand troops were sent there. We were on the way back when war was declared."
Leander's initial service was in the Pacific, including a visit to the Auckland Islands. Then it escorted New Zealand troop ships bound for England for much of their journey, before carrying on to the Mediterranean and then to the Red Sea.
"We were in the Red Sea for most of 1940 escorting ships with food for Allied troops in the Middle East," recalled Des. "The Italians tried to bomb us just about every convoy. One night I was on watch and was leaning on the guard rail taking some fresh air and suddenly there were shells screaming through the air from two Italian destroyers. They didn't get us, but they hit one of our destroyers later."
Christmas 1940 in Bombay - now Mumbai - for maintenance work proved a welcome break. "I was working on the ship so was put up in a hotel with lovely food," said Des. "Everyone else got sent to a camp."
Meals at sea were not so good. "Sometimes were just on biscuits and once we ran out of rum," said Des. "Not many ships do that."
After Bombay, Leander operated in the Indian Ocean escorting troop ships. It was there they encountered the Italian raider Ramb I.
"Our Captain closed really close on to the ship," said Des. "Our Yeoman said 'I think that might be the Italian raider' and next thing they fired at us. Fortunately they missed - but we did not miss them."
They sank the ship, rescued 113 of the Italian crew and then, the following month, captured the Vichy French merchant Charles L.D, taking German prisoners.
The Leander was then deployed to the Persian Gulf, took part in the search for a German raider, and was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet for the Syria -Lebanon campaign.
"The Syrian campaign was pretty hot," recalls Des. "I remember we were tied up alongside the British destroyer the Hero. There was an old three badge seaman from the Hero who had served on the Exeter which, along with the Achilles, had fought against the Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate. He said to us: "You'll see more in three minutes here than you've seen in three days before.
"We get attacked by Stukas just about every day. It was a terrible sound as they came screaming through. After one Stuka attack the Leander was so engulfed in near misses the other ships all thought we had got it, but we came through that time.
In 1943, Leander returned home to the Pacific.
"We helped escort the first ever American troops into Australia, with the Achilles and two American cruisers," said Des. "When we picked that convoy up it was the roughest weather I ever saw in my 20 years in the Navy. We also took some troops into Guadalcanal. The Americans were losing a lot of ships and we knew our time was coming."
It came on 13 July 1943. The Leander was part of a task group which encountered the Japanese cruiser Jintsu and five destroyers in the Solomon Islands. In the ensuing battle Jintsu was sunk and three Allied cruisers, including the Leander, were torpedoed and severely damaged. 26 of Des's crewmates were killed and the survivors fought valiantly to save their ship.
"We'd been torpedoed right amidship," said Des. "It was pitch black and she was listing... We'd lost one boiler room completely and the other was damaged. It was my job to go down into a kind of cupboard on the side of the boiler room and make the electrical breakers so we could get a steam up - luckily, I managed to do it. We saved that ship thanks to discipline and good training in damage control from our Commander."
The Leander limped back into Port Vila at "about three knots" escorted by two American destroyers.
"I remember the terrible stench of oil on that journey," said Des. "We put a patch on the side and poured concrete into the boiler room to stop water coming in. They even welded a bit of railway line onto her, and that's how we her got back to Auckland."
The story of Leander's war was immortalised in the book Well Done Leander by Des's former shipmate and friend, the late Jack Harker.
"A lot of people don't know what it was like," said Des. "A friend who read the book once said to me 'I had no idea how hot things were for you.' It was certainly pretty hot."
Leander's war was over. Most of the crew were transferred to the Philomel but there was a surprise waiting for Des.
"I was the only one left on the Leander and was wondering what was happening when I was told 'The (UK) Royal Navy has been looking for you, you are meant to be in their submarine service.'
"I'd volunteered back in 1941, along with three mates. It turned out we'd all been accepted but I'd been in the sick bay with Malaria. By the time I got out we were in the Indian Ocean."
Des spent the rest of the war on royal Navy submarines, including sailing into Hong Kong on HMS Totem immediately after the capitulation of the occupying Japanese.
He remained in the Navy for 20 year, qualifying as a marine engineer. In 1958, despite the chance of a commission and the best efforts of high ranking former Leander comrades to persuade him to stay, he left to spend more time with his wife Winifred and their two children.
He then taught "a bit of everything, mainly metalwork" for many years, including 26 at Northcote College.
He lovingly cared for his Winifred while she was in frail health, until her death seven years ago. Today he lives independently, plays bowls regularly and enjoys the camaraderie of the RSA.
"I used to go to the Takapuna club until it closed but I'm also a member of the Devonport and North Shore RSAs," he said. "I attend the twice monthly social events at Devonport. It's a wonderful club and I enjoy the social side."
Among Des's most prized possessions are albums his daughter has compiled of his father and uncle's WWI history and one of the famous WWI commemorative poppies from the Tower of London, a gift from an English cousin for his 95th birthday.
He's proud his son Grant will be going to Gallipoli for the ANZAC centenary. He's also proud that he and fellow RSA member and submariner's widow Joyce Harris collected more donations than anyone else in Takapuna Mall last year.
Des is looking forward to being there again on 17 April, wearing his poppy with pride, to help raise funds for the RSA's support work with former and current servicemen and women.
