UNFLASH ABOUT SERVICE
A retired farmer from Levin recalls his overseas duty in World War II in the Pacific theatre. He spoke to
They were farmers, teachers, engineers and labourers.
On Bougainville Island they were soldiers and despite their inexperience in uniform they fought with the heart of a tenacious militia.
Tom Lancaster, a retired farmer from Levin, is one of 170,000 allied troops posted to the Papua New Guinea island shortly after it was invaded by the Empire of Japan in 1942.
An aspiring rear tail gunner, Lancaster, 95, didn’t join the war until the last few months and never saw frontline conflict due to problemswith his eyesight.
Forced out of the fighter jets and into a watch post, his job was to stand guard over an air base with 1100 Kiwi air force personnel and protect it from unwanted intrusion.
He would patrol the perimeter of the base. During one shift, he spotted an enemy aircraft heading straight for the Kiwi camp. His heart began racing.
Ruthless Japanese pilots had started Kamikaze missions, making deliberate suicidal crashes into Allied targets, usually ships.
Smoking, bopping and without any control, Lancaster says the Japanese fighter plane hit the runway and came to a skidding halt. Had it failed its mission? Had the pilot abandoned his plane in an enemy airfield?
A few seconds passed. The door to the cockpit kicked up, but it wasn’t an enemy pilot who emerged from the roof. It was a Kiwi.
The pilot’s aircraft had been shot down in enemy territory and, somehow, he stole a Japanese plane and flew it back to safety.
The Bougainville campaign was a deadly conflict for Japan. In bitter jungle warfare 8200 Japanese soldiers were killed in combat, while a further 16,600 died of starvation and tropical diseases. The Allies lost 1243 troops.
The campaign was crucial to Japan’s advance into the South Pacific.
Several naval aircraft bases were constructed to allow the Japanese to conduct operations in the Solomon Islands and attack Allied lines of communication between the United States, Australia and the Pacific arena.
The Alliedmissionwas simple: Drive the Japanese off the island.
American troops stormed the beachhead at Torokina in November 1943.
The second phase involved Australian troops on the offensive, mopping up pockets of starving and isolated but still-determined Japanese. The battle lasted until August 1945, when the last Japanese soldiers on the island surrendered.
Toward the end of the battle, thousandswere cut off from outside assistance. They concentrated on survival, and a large portion of the army and navy personnel were put to work growing food.
Allied fighter pilots would drop napalm on garden plotswhenever possible.
Filled with aspirations of becoming a hero, Lancaster was excited at the prospect of a great adventure.
His father had served at the Battle of Messines in World War I, fuelling his desire to defend the homeland.
By the time he turned 18, the war was in its closing stages. It didn’t stop him from enlisting and after several months of training he was shipped from
Wellington into the great unknown.
‘‘When the war started, I was still at Feilding High School [and] I never heard much,’’ Lancaster says.
‘‘Youwere going somewhere you hadn’t before. They gave us a choice what islandwewanted to go to. I put my hand up and said Bougainville. I don’t know why.’’
Initially, it was like a holiday. They spent time swimming, walked around without shirts and basked in the sunshine.
The heat was such that salt pills were dished out daily to prevent cramping and replace electrolytes. But the holiday ended at nightfall.
Armed with a rifle and brazen confidence, a freshfaced Lancaster was handed the responsibility of guarding the air base at night.
He patrolled the perimeter of the base and although it wasn’t frontline service as he had expected, it was just as important.
A large contingent of New Zealand’s air force would be in grave danger if enemies ever pierced his defence.
‘‘It was pitch black, black as hell. You could hardly see whatwas in front of you,’’ Lancaster says.
‘‘We stood there outside a hut and challenged anyone that came along.’’
He was on the island about four months before Adolf Hitler shot himself and then Japanese surrendered, bringing the war to a close.
Lancaster has never talked about the war, publicly or to his children. He has rarely worn his medals.
His brother-in-lawwas killed in 1944 when his plane crashed into amountain. Several school-mates from Feilding were also killed.
Many soldiers saw things that civilians couldn’t fathom and it changed them forever. For some, it became easier to repress the experience altogether.
Lancaster remains tight-lipped and unflashy about his service because he understands he got off lightly.
Discharged in 1946, he returned to his family’s Horowhenua farm having served two years and 37 days in themilitary.
His son, Grant Lancaster, said the family never questioned their father’s war service.
Mostmen were teenagers when they left and unaware of the brutal realities of war. ‘‘Which probably explains why he never really wore his service medals or talked about it much. Because of his age he wasn’t involved until very late in the piece.’’ Lancaster is a life member of the Levin RSA.
‘‘When thewar started, I was still at Feilding High School [and] I never heard much. You were going somewhere you hadn’t before. They gave us a choice what islandwewanted to go to. I put my hand up and said Bougainville. I don’t knowwhy.’’ Tom Lancaster