WW2 American Army/Marine Camp.

[mikey51]

Hi there ! I'm new here. It looks to be a great site. I wondered if anyone knows anything about, or can direct me to any sources of information concerning the American WW2 camp at Lake Rerewhakaaitu, near Rotorua. Any avenues of enquiry at all would be appreciated. The subject is only covered very briefly in the two books I have read, about the American camps here. I see "The Red Baron" made mention of it in a thread titled "Lost Airfields" on June 29th this year. Many thanks for any ideas. Mike.

[shorty]

Mikey51, In the early 70s I was a "Te Rapa Techy" and was friendly with a guy called Reg(?)Gibson(?) (he lived at 200 Mahoe St, ( I think) and he was into military vehicles, at the time he had a blitzwagon, a jeep and was working on a Stuart tank which had beien used as a hedge trimmer machine and he got a turret from the Waiouru range for it.

He was interested in the story of vehicles supposedly dumped in Lake Rerewhakaatu and me and him mounted an expedition to check it out, Lake R---- is a shallow lake with an area like a volcanic crater in one corner. We did scuba dives in the crater area, as that was the only area that matched the story we were told, but all we found was an old mortar round.
From memory some of the roads in the area have sort of "American" names such as Constitution Road, can't recall the others but it was 45+ years ago!

[mikey51]

Thanks Shorty, you're on the case ! I went there a couple of years ago but the place was shut. Got pics of Yankee Rd and Republican Rd signposts. Will try and figure out how to post pics. I'm looking for written history and any pics of the original camp. Am friends with the sons of a few Vets who were there. Can't figure out why the location is not identified in all the books that clearly identify all the other American Camps at that time. Grandfather was a radio mechanic in 43 on the Cats of 6 Squadron in Halavo Bay, Florida Islands, that's why I am here, Rerewhakaaitu is a side issue but important to me. Cheers, Mike. Wellington.

[shorty]

If you look at this site:
www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/us-forces-in-new-zealand/the-camps
it doesn't mention the camp at all. It only shows the locations of the ones around Auckland and Wellington.
Were there any in the South Island?
And it was Replubican Road I was trying to recall, not Constutuion Rd.

[43willys]

A very very interesting guy Reg Gibson, spent many hours working on his Stuart Tank, it had a 7 cylinder radial engine in it, and we used to drive it up and down Mahoe street at night. I have been with him to other military dumps looking for vehicles and militaria, also did a Sherman Tank with him, it had a 9 cylinder radial. Very hungry on gas.

[Dave Homewood]

Apparently there were a lot of Yanks based in Hamilton during the war too, and some even had a camp in Cambridge at one point. Like everthing in WWII I think there's a lot more unrecorded history out there that is not in the books.

[dinglejuice]

I found this site because I googled US Army at Lake Rerewhakaitu as I was interested in the very same "American vehicles dumped in Lake Rerewhikaitu"story. As a youth we spent a lot of time fishing and tramping the outlet near Lake Tarawera before the area became heavily forested. My friends dad owned the butcher shop in Kawerau (late '50's) and on occasion a family squatting in the would bring in american carbine rifles and other military gear, all wrapped up in oilcloth, and trade them for meat. Apparently they had access to the dump where the yanks buried everything before a quick departure after the orders to shut the camp down. I can't recall stories of aircraft but certainly stories of vehicles "tipped over the cliff into the lake" I've always thought it would be a good place to fossick with a metal detector. Butcher Dad said it was the flat area about a kilometer NE of the lake outlet. Could be a fun exercise in my retirement!

[shorty]

Thats the same basic story we had heard so with that many variations of it floating around the must have been some event to start it.
No aircraft were ever mentioned as there was no airstrip there.

[eieio]

Having lived east of Rere for 30 years the stories of dumped gear are familiar.Farmers have disturbed munitions over the years. Holes on top of Mt Tarawere are more consistant with high explosive than volcanic action. Queen Elizabeth hospital in Rotorua was built for american use I believe and is still in use.

[SEAN]

Yeah, not much on the interweb thingy about this camp. I did find some references on a DOC site that said some gun emplacements were still there, but could not see anything on google earth...

Did find this however...

Rerewhakaaitu
Lake and farming district on the edge of the Rotorua lakes volcanic area. The road names of Republican, Democrat and Yankee recall the US troops who trained in the area during the Second World War. They left traces for years after – in two months of 1957–58, more than 40 live shells were detonated by the army. Many farms in the area were allocated to returned servicemen from the Second World War, and the community hall dates from 1958.

This would seem to indicate that there might not have been a camp as such, but it was more of a training area....

www.teara.govt.nz/en/volcanic-plateau-places/7

I will keep looking.

[shorty]

Oct 13, 2010 7:57:59 GMT 12 eieio said:

Having lived east of Rere for 30 years the stories of dumped gear are familiar.Farmers have disturbed munitions over the years. Holes on top of Mt Tarawere are more consistant with high explosive than volcanic action. Queen Elizabeth hospital in Rotorua was built for american use I believe and is still in use.

Regarding the mention of the Hospital: I went to Avondale College in Auckland and it was originally built as a US Navy Hospital to tend to the expected casualties from the invasion of Japan, needless to say it was never used for that.

[Dave Homewood]

Auckland Hospital in the Domain was also built as a US hospital in WWII too, wasn't it?

[Bruce]

Dave, you are thinking of the Cornwall park hospital by one tree hill, which was a US hospital during the war, and even served for a while postwar - One of my Aunties was born there! There is a memorial on the site today.

[Dave Homewood]

Ah, right. Thanks Bruce. Corwall Park was also a New Zealand Army transit camp in WWII, i have interviewed a few Army and RNZAF personnel who passed through there.

[steve]

RE: American Services Hospitals. Both Dave and Bruce are correct. At Aucland Hospital there was an American Hospital section called Princess Mary after the war and served as the Childrens Hospital until the late 80s. Its design was similar to Cornwall Park Hospital which was disbanded in 1975. I used to transport patients to both until they were dismantled. They were two of many hospitals for american and new zealand forces around auckland

[steve]

RE: United States camps South Island. To my knowledge and research there was never any US official camps in the SI during WW2. Plenty of US marines visiting from Wellington. With the exception of Cambria Park Camp Auckland (5000 marines) Auckland was nearly all US Army establisments and Wellington District US Marines i understand to prevent conflict between their services

[Dave Homewood]

Marine Air Group 14 was based at Seagrove for a while too, just south of Auckland.

[rod]

wheres Seagrove Dave?

[Dave Homewood]

A bit north-west of Karaka, on the southern coast of the Manukau harbour. It was an RNZAF fighter station used by No. 15 Squadron to protect Auckland from, then the yanks took over, and when they left it became the RNZAF's Dauntless station, with No's 25 and 26 Squadrons equipping with SBD's. Later it became an ITW station, and postwar the airfield was turned into a motor racing track.

[Dave Homewood]

Oh yes, and it was also the site of the firing range for RNZAF fighters flying from Ardmore. They used to live fire their guns into the sea just off of Seagrove.