College honours SS Ō taki, D-Day heroes
Annual ceremony pays tribute to wartime sacrifices
As part of Ō taki College’s annual commemoration of the sinking of the SS Ō taki, the college has also recognised the impending 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in World War 2.
Each year since March 2017, the college has held a wreath laying ceremony to honour the role of the SS Ō taki [owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company] in World War 1, while including a separate focus.
The commemoration had some distinguished guests, including Dr Richard Davies, the vice-regal consort (husband of Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro), Kāpiti Mayor Janet Holborow, Ngā Hapu o Ō taki representative Barbara Rudd, German embassy first secretary Klaus Sattel and Arctic Convoy Club New Zealand president Derek Whitwam.
D-Day, on June 6, 1944, has been described as the largest seaborne invasion in history when Allied troops landed on the beaches of German-occupied Normandy.
In some of the ships in that invasion force were teenage sailors who, 80 years later, were able to attend the wreath-laying service at the commemoration.
Whitwam was one of those teenage sailors, having been involved in deception operations in HMS Berwick.
Also in attendance was Stan Welsh, who was at D-Day in HMS Apollo, and Syd Wells, who was in
HMS Magpie.
Other Arctic Convoy Club members were represented by their families, including George Billing, who died recently aged 99.
“Their presence here today allows us to reflect that, while the long years
since D-Day have diminished the numbers of these Second World War veterans, those years have served to add to the lustre of their achievements in that war,” college principal Andy Fraser said in acknowledging the club’s members.