WWII veteran plans first Anzac Day service
World War II veteran Max Skerrett has never been to an Anzac Day service, but the 94-year-old plans to go to his first tomorrow.
When Skerrett returned to Invercargill after the war he got on with his life, working and having a family, but never joined an RSA or attended an Anzac service in the 72 years to follow.
A radar mechanic at Malaita in the Solomon Islands during the war, he was part of a small team in the air force and didn’t feel he would fit in at an Anzac service.
‘‘I think I felt there was no-one from the air force I would have known,’’ he said this week.
Skerrett, who is suffering from ill health, hadn’t planned to go this year either.
But Awarua RSA president Ian Beker approached him several weeks ago and asked him to attend its 10am Invercargill Anzac Day service on Don St. ‘‘I suppose I will go,’’ Skerrett said. His wife of nearly 70 years, Daisy Skerrett, would take him to the service if the weather and his health played their part.
Beker said it would be fantastic to have Skerrett at their clubrooms; he would be a special guest.
He believed it would be good for the young people at the service to see a World War II veteran.
Skerrett was among many war veterans who, for various reasons, didn’t attend Anzac services after they returned home.
These included some Vietnam War vets who were treated poorly on their return so avoided all dawn services and RSAs, Beker said.
Though Skerrett has never attended an Anzac service, he has seen the impact they have on the younger generation.
‘‘I am surprised at the extent that the young people are interested in it,’’ he said.
‘‘I thought it would have been only the participants, and the desire to meet old friends.’’
His time at war was nonconfrontational, spending more than a year on Malaita with about 25 other allied forces and no-one else except the native Solomon Islanders.
The Solomon Island natives wore loin cloth or nothing and were ‘‘really primitive on that particular island’’, but there was no trouble between the air force personnel and locals, he said.
Skerrett and his mates were there to monitor the movement of aircraft in the area. It was nearly all friendly aircraft as the Japanese had been driven further north.
His job was as a radar mechanic, with his mates the operators.
Machineguns were posted at the top of a hill, Skerrett said. ‘‘All we ever did was practice, we never shot any Japanese down, we certainly could have if there were any aircraft.’’
On returning from the war, Skerrett was summoned to Wellington where he serviced a typex coding machine in a room beside the prime minster’s office.
‘‘When we came back to New Zealand three of us were trained on a typex machine and they had three in Wellington,’’ Skerrett said.
‘‘The British were sending coded messages to New Zealand and vice versa. I was giving the machine its weekly service, making sure it worked OK.’’
The typex machine was an adaptation of the German enigma machine, which was used by Britain’s code breakers as a way of deciphering German communications during World War II.
Skerrett said he often thought about his time during the war and he had no bad memories.
Another of Southland’s few remaining World War II veterans is 95-year-old Jim Sherborne, whose memories were not so good.
Sherborne, who lives in Invercargill, joined in 1941 as an ambulance medic and transferred to the airforce in 1943, where he served in the Pacific fuelling aircraft and supporting medical staff.
He saw some horrible sights during the war, some of his mates did not survive and he suffered mental health issues on his return.
‘‘There were so many hard things, you don’t want to repeat them again,’’ he said.
‘‘No way do I want [today’s young men] going to war.’’
Sherborne’s wife of 66 years, Winn, said his war experiences had affected him in later life.
‘‘I tell you what, he has been a wonderful husband and father.’’
He plans to be at the Invercargill RSA on Anzac Day morning with his son, and he will enjoy a rum and coffee.
His wife says: ‘‘Each year I think it might be his last, but no, he turns up trumps.’’