Quest to uncover dad’s ‘top secret’ service
Harvey Ruru remembers playing with his father’s war medals as a child.
‘‘I do remember he had six medals,’’ he said. ‘‘My brother and I used to play little soldiers.’’
But Ruru, a Nelson Archdeacon Emeritus, does not know why his late father, Wae Wae Whakaruru, received the awards – and his quest to find out has come up against a wall of secrecy.
His father’s medals – a Distinguished Conduct Medal with Clasp, mentioned in dispatches twice, Efficiency Medal, 1939-45 Star, Africa Star with 8th Army Clasp, War Medal 1939-45, and a Defence Medal – relate to his actions with the British Intelligence Service – and the records have been marked ‘‘never to be disclosed’’.
‘‘Major Whakaruru’s exploits in that service would, it appears, to remain top secret,’’ says a letter dated August 13, 1945 and signed by the Adjutant-General British Forces, War Records Office.
It seems that this is still the case almost 77 years later. A request by Stuff this month to the press office of the National Archives in the United Kingdom for details of Whakaruru’s records came up empty-handed.
‘‘I have had a dig around for anything that might be useful here, and not really turning up anything either,’’ said the military records specialist at the National Archives.
‘‘I even checked the database of service records we are due to receive from MOD (Britain’s Ministry of Defence), and his doesn’t appear to be part of it, which implies that any records of service might still be held by the security services and so have not been released.’’
A request via the press office of the Home Office in the UK was also fruitless, although the press officer suggested two other British organisations to approach.
Wae Wae Whakaruru served in the Middle East, Greece, Crete and North Africa, and what little is known suggests some daring escapes and rescues.
As his last surviving child, Ruru, whose iwi affliations are Te tiawa, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Kati Mamoe and Moriori, would like to gather as much detail about his father’s service as he can, and pass on that knowledge to his whānau.
‘‘I don’t know the full story,’’ he said. ‘‘Dad never talked about it.’’
Wae Wae Whakaruru – also known as Wae Wae Ruru and Wally Ruru – came from Tarata in Taranaki. He was just a teenager when he joined the Territorial Army before the war.
‘‘I know when Dad went into the army, they said they couldn’t say that Whaka part (of his surname), because it sounded too much like a swear word, so he had the Whaka knocked off our name – that’s why I’m called Harvey Ruru.’’
Whakaruru’s request in January 1940 to join the 28th (Māori) Battalion was granted, and in May he sailed for the UK as part of the second echelon of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
The letter from the British War Records Office says Whakaruru was recruited to the Sandhurst Military Academy, passing with honours and an A1 rating. He was commissioned as second lieutenant.
Soon afterwards, he was recruited for a military intelligence course at Wandsworth. He passed with an A1 plus rating, and was attached to the field intelligence service with the rank of captain, according to the letter.
Whakaruru was then posted to ‘‘Middle East active service with emphasis on special duties’’. There is no outline of what those special duties entailed.
Next, he was posted to Greece, and was reported missing in enemyheld territory for three days from March 15, 1941. He found his way back to his unit ‘‘with valuable information but wounded’’.
After declining admittance to a field hospital, Whakaruru was assigned for special duties to Crete. From there, he requested a refresher course, and attended a military school in Tel Aviv, ‘‘passing out in all aspects of his special subjects with the rank of major’’, according to the letter.
Whakaruru was posted as frontline temporary company commander on November 11, 1941, but was wounded on November 27, during the Libyan¯A campaign. He was taken prisoner while recuperating, escaped, and was recaptured.
‘‘Succeeding with second attempt by organising escape with 40 others, including his commanding officer,’’ the letter says. Again, there are no details.
Whakaruru then served at El Alamein, and was later wounded again, at Takrouna. He then volunteered to return to Greece and Crete to search for missing members of the British forces ‘‘culminating in the release of 60 men’’.
‘‘Military conduct: Excellent. Rating: Class A,’’ the letter says.
His name – Wae Wae Ruru – is included on the waharoa (entranceway) at Nelson’s Anzac Park. It was the work associated with developing the waharoa, unveiled in 2011, that piqued Ruru’s interest in his father’s service record.
‘‘I said Dad was a sergeant because I have a photo of him with a sergeant uniform on, so he’s up on that wall as a sergeant,’’ Ruru said of the waharoa.
Ruru credits former policeman and soldier Harawira Craig Pearless with helping him piece together what he does know of his father’s record.
‘‘He kept popping up in different countries – I couldn’t make sense of it,’’ Ruru said. ‘‘Harawira made good sense of it all.’’