Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 10, 2010 18:42:51 GMT 12
Over last weekend I stayed with my 88 year old uncle Ted Homewood in Whangarei, and he told me hours worth of his war stories. I got about two hours of his memories on film but he told me a lot of other things off camera. He had joined the RNZAF when the war began, going into camp at the end of 1939 I think. In 1940 he switched to the Army and in 1942 he went to North Africa with the 8th Reinforcements, taking part in battles at takrouna, Tobruk, Tripoli and various other parts. He went right through Italy too.
Anyway, a really neat story he told was when they moved about the desert in their trucks, heading to the next battlefront, etc, the kiwi soldiers always carried rugby balls and they would kick the ball ahead as far as they could get it, then someone would yell "All aboard" and they'd jump on the truck and drive forward to the ball and then someone would kick it again. That is how they moved forward he reckons. I reckon it's a really neat dinkum kiwi story, if you saw it in a film you wouldn't believe it.
He also told me that his guys (he was in No. 21 Battalion) enjoyed playing rugby right up close to the frontline at monte Cassino. The Americans there used to watch these mad kiwis playing this horrendously brutal game on the unprepared stoney ground and call in 'Merder ball'. The Yanks thought they were mad. He said one day during a game one of the players trod on a small mine, and after the explosion a Yank voice was heard to say. "Those mad bastards are throwing bombs around now!"
It's so crazy and yet so typically kiwi to use rugby as a way to break the tension, have some fun and also keep fit.
Ted was a top player in his time, playing for several Army teams. He showed me a photo of him in a game where the NZ Division was plying an Italian team in a huge stadium in Rome. He also played at Eden Park in an Army team before he went overseas I believe. And after the war he was one of the guys who set up the Counties team in South Auckland. he was selected to play for Counties but had to turn it down as he'd gotten a farm in Cambridge and was unable to get anyone to milk his cows if he went to the games.
Anyway, a really neat story he told was when they moved about the desert in their trucks, heading to the next battlefront, etc, the kiwi soldiers always carried rugby balls and they would kick the ball ahead as far as they could get it, then someone would yell "All aboard" and they'd jump on the truck and drive forward to the ball and then someone would kick it again. That is how they moved forward he reckons. I reckon it's a really neat dinkum kiwi story, if you saw it in a film you wouldn't believe it.
He also told me that his guys (he was in No. 21 Battalion) enjoyed playing rugby right up close to the frontline at monte Cassino. The Americans there used to watch these mad kiwis playing this horrendously brutal game on the unprepared stoney ground and call in 'Merder ball'. The Yanks thought they were mad. He said one day during a game one of the players trod on a small mine, and after the explosion a Yank voice was heard to say. "Those mad bastards are throwing bombs around now!"
It's so crazy and yet so typically kiwi to use rugby as a way to break the tension, have some fun and also keep fit.
Ted was a top player in his time, playing for several Army teams. He showed me a photo of him in a game where the NZ Division was plying an Italian team in a huge stadium in Rome. He also played at Eden Park in an Army team before he went overseas I believe. And after the war he was one of the guys who set up the Counties team in South Auckland. he was selected to play for Counties but had to turn it down as he'd gotten a farm in Cambridge and was unable to get anyone to milk his cows if he went to the games.
