Kiwi veteran of the desert dies
A Kiwi war veteran, thought to be the country’s last surviving member of a World War II special forces unit, has died.
Norman Gedye, who served as a mechanic in the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG), died peacefully at Tauranga Hospital, at 98, on December 21.
He was farewelled in Katikati. His casket was driven away in a 1942 Chevrolet truck that one of his sons, Myles Gedye, had recreated with a WWII theme.
Norman was one of 350 volunteers chosen for the LRDG. The unit’s main role was reconnaissance and gathering intelligence on enemy forces in the Libyan Desert, which Italy occupied.
The LRDG was mostly made up of New Zealanders, although volunteers from Britain and Rhodesia later joined.
While a Rhodesian veteran living in New Zealand still survives, LRDG historian Brendan O’carroll said he understood Norman Gedye to be the last of the Kiwi veterans.
Kiwi men like him were chosen for their brave, tough, hard-working natures, O’carroll said. And fixing trucks in the desert – scorching by day and freezing by night – was gruelling work.
Snakes, scorpions and sandstorms – which the New Zealand men would never have encountered before – became a daily threat.
One night Gedye was about to hop into bed when he saw a snake between his sheets, which he promptly shot with a Tommy gun, his son said.
But the men ‘‘had a job and they did it’’, he said.
Conditions meant the men went unshaven and unwashed for long stretches. They were allowed to forego strict uniform rules, wearing whatever they could to stay cool.
‘‘He said there were a lot of sights he would never forget,’’ Myles Gedye said. ‘‘Like driving up a road and it was full of dead horses and shot-up tanks. A lot of destruction.’’
After the warm, Norman Gedye went home to marry his childhood sweetheart, and they had six children. He was an ‘‘old school’’, good and loving father, who never seemed traumatised by the war, his son said. His children grew up listening to funny, rum-filled tales of war in the desert.
Myles Gedye remembered his father wearing a black belt with a distinctive eagle-shaped buckle. It later transpired that he had taken it from a German prisoner, who was left to hold up his pants with his hands. Sadly, he lost it years later.
Kiwi men like Norman Gedye – tough and rough – were perfect for the unit, O’carroll said.
‘‘In those days, Kiwis had never been to the desert or even seen the desert. So for them to go into that environment – one of the harshest environments in the world – was an amazing thing.’’
He must have been a top-notch mechanic to be chosen for the unit, O’carroll said, so it was fitting that his casket left on a truck, similar to those he had worked so hard to fix during his service.