Largest ever convoy of Kiwi soldiers

[kiwithrottlejockey]

There was an interesting article (from the Wairarapa Archive) published in Monday's Wairarapa Times-Age.

You can read it online HERE.

[suthg]

Fascinating - 10 merchant etc pressed to service "troop" ships, with at least 3 naval escorts, carried 8500 men and 4000 horses to Egypt.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

from The Dominion Post....

Centenary of soldiers leaving for WWI

By ANDREA O'NEIL | 5:00AM - Thursday, 16 October 2014


NEXT STOP GALLIPOLI: Barbara Sworder’s father Tom Lomas
survived World War I, and is being featured on Wadestown
bus stops as part of war centenary commemorations.
— KENT BLECHYNDEN/ Fairfax NZ .

SOME were nervous, some eager to see the wide world; all were bound for a war that defined their century.

A hundred years ago today, 8,000 New Zealand soldiers boarded 10 troopships in Wellington Harbour, making up the bulk of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force that fought in World War I.

Larger-than-life images of eight Wellington soldiers, a nurse and a conscientious objector have sprung up around the city this week as Wellington City Council marks 100 years since troops departed for the front.

One of the soldiers, Wadestown man Thomas Lomas, left a year after the initial push, enlisting aged 32 and shipping straight out to Gallipoli in June 1915.

He miraculously survived a torpedo attack on his ship, the trenches of Gallipoli and France, and service in Egypt, all without an injury or illness.

Angels were watching over Lomas, his daughter Barbara Sworder, 86, said.

“He went through all the blasting, the mud and the trenches. They thought they were going on a big adventure — they had no idea.”

Lomas' war experience began with the German torpedoing of the Southland near Lemnos, Greece, which killed 40 soldiers.

“There were men and horses in the water. Half the men couldn't swim — my father couldn't.”

Lomas doggy-paddled toward an upturned lifeboat, clinging with 36 others to the hull until a wave turned it right side up. “He never knew fear after that.”

Working as a sapper and driver, Lomas was sent to Egypt, then to France. His diaries record gas and shell attacks, and describe the men as being up to their necks in mud.

Speaking later to a newspaper, Lomas said: “It is all a matter of luck; one does not know when his turn may come ... You hear nothing but the crack of the rifle and the sound of the big guns all day and night.”

After his return to Wellington in 1919 — with a German army helmet and pistol as souvenirs — Lomas married teacher Florence Stansell and had daughters Elizabeth and Barbara.

The family lived in Wadestown and Crofton Downs, and were pillars of the community, heavily involved in the RSA and the Anglican church, and throwing large parties for friends.

Lomas was not traumatised by battle, and told war stories to his daughters every Anzac Day, Sworder said.

After the war, he continued his life-long job as a printer for Blundell Brothers, which printed the Evening Post. He returned to Gallipoli on an official delegation in 1965, and died aged 89 in 1973.

Seeing his image on Wadestown bus stops was an honour to all his descendants, Sworder said.

Related story:

• A shirty job but someone had to do it

www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/10622123/Centenary-of-soldiers-leaving-for-WWI

[ErrolC]

TE KAHA sails from Wgtn heading for Albany. 100 years since our troops sailed for WW1. Lest we forget #kiwinavy t.co/YMkkEzEir5
Sent from my D5503 using proboards

[nuuumannn]

Eventually the British sent a powerful armoured cruiser, Minotaur, which had been searching for the German ships without success. After looking for the German cruiser Emden during her disruptive campaign in the Indian Ocean, Minotaur was diverted south to New Zealand.

The other heavy unit of the escort was the Japanese battle cruiser Ibuki which had also searched for the elusive Emden. These two heavy cruisers were more than a match for the German Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, at least on paper.

Quoted from the article. I remember a number of years ago I came across a photo album at the Canterbury Museum with a cracking image of the Minotaur and Ibuki in New Zealand waters and I remember how unusual it looked that Ibuki was flying the Japanese naval standard and that twenty years later things were to be so vastly different...

[ErrolC]

And we get more visits from Japanese warships than from British ones!

Sent from my D5503 using proboards

[nuuumannn]

That's only because the Japanese have more warships than the British!