The Te Awamutu War Effort 1939-45

Luke East looks at the contribution to World War II from the men and women of Te Awamutu

The Te Awamutu Home Guard, like so many throughout our land, was formed in 1940 in the hope of fending off any potential German invaders (but after December 1941 it looked more likely that it would be the Japanese who would invade).

Lt. Col J. G. Wynyard was commander of the battalion until October 17, 1941, when he was replaced by Major G. A. Mills; the Battalion Adjutant until October 23, 1941 was Capt. H. A. Swarbrick (later president of the Te Awamutu Historical Society) who stepped down as Adjutant to become second-in-command of the battalion.

His replacement as adjutant was Capt. H. S. Weightman.

These men, and the many platoon commanders under them, oversaw the training of the local Home Guard forces; Albert Park became their training ground and, according to a memo from the time, from July 7, 1941 it was there that the Home Guard were trained in “map reading, field engineering, demolitions, tank hunting, entrenchments, wiring, bridge building, section leading etc” every Monday evening and Saturday afternoon.

Some specialist training would take place at Narrow Neck military camp in Auckland.

It was also at Albert Park that on December 6, 1941 the Home Guard held their anniversary parade and practised bomb throwing, signalling, infantry drill and rifle drill, and ran relays before decamping to the Town Hall in the evening for a dance arranged by the Women’s War Service Auxiliary Corps.

The Home Guard members were given recipes for molotov cocktails, extra fuel rations to get to and from manoeuvres and training (which included getting to grips with both Lewis and Tommy Guns) and interestingly they were instructed to dull the buttons on their uniforms using sulphur.

Up until May 1942 (when the Battle of the Coral Sea resulted in the pushing back of Japanese forces) the prospect of invasion was a very real one and so the Te Awamutu Battalion found themselves with an increasingly significant role in the defence of Ka¯whia.

On December 16, 1941, shortly before he relinquished command of the battalion, Major Mills dispatched a memo to those under his command, in it he stated that “the time for playing at soldiers and regarding parades as social gatherings . . . has passed and we must now release that we are responsible for our own defence. If we do not do our job all will be lost . . . one and all, we will see it through.”

Stirring words to men who must surely have felt invasion was imminent.

Across the country Home Guard forces were eventually disbanded in December 1943, thankfully without the threat of invasion becoming a reality but we must surely be thankful for the many local men who fought to protect us at home while so many others fought for us overseas.