The National Army Museum, Waiouru

[Dave Homewood]

On the 21st of July 2009 I visited the National Army Museum at Waiouru (formerly known as the Queen Elizabeth II Army Museum, but like Wigram the royal overtones have been removed from their name) on the way back home from Wellington.

Here are the first of numerous photos:

This is a neat display but I'm not sure what the RAF aircraft is meant to be. Is it perhaps a Hastings variant?


Can anyone identify this canon, or the preiod? Was it British Army or NZ Army? I never thought to read the label and only wondered later. Looks great though.


A nice 1/35th model of 1860's trench warfare


Another nice 1/35 scale model




Boer War display


Helmets from the good old days of the British Empire


This display used to fascinate me as a kid, especially after an old chap in town here - Jack Robinson - told me stories of how he'd done this, climbing down from the ship into landing craft to invade Mono and Stirling Islands, etc. Also seeing the scene in the excellent 1944 film The Way Ahead where the men had to scramble form their burning, stricken ship down the rope lattice onto another ship in the convoy, in the dark, in a hurry. Scary stuff.

[Dave Homewood]

More coming soon...

[camtech]

Dave, the serial VX508 was a Vickers Valetta twin engined transport aircraft. These were used in the Malaysian Emergency for supply and paratroop dropping.
This aircraft, a C1, was delivered to the RAF 14 March 1950, and written off 3 October 1958, Struck off Charge as Cat 5C 4 March 1959. I believe the aircraft served with 52 Squadron. It appears that a number of Valetta's suffered a similar fate and were disposed of in Malaysia.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Les. That clears that one up. Much appreciated.

[flyjoe180]

Nice photos Dave. Your mystery gun is an Armstrong 9 pounder.

www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/armstrong-gun

[Dave Homewood]

Cheers Joe.

Here's a couple more, with many more to come yet:
Escape equipment used by WWII POW's


Another view of the WWII Pacific ship display


Typical souviners picked up by WWI kiwi soldiers in the Egyptian bazaars


Some New Zealanders in World War One displays below




Another big gun. I think this is a 17 pounder? Not sure.


This is interesting, a sniper's dummy

[Dave Homewood]

More WWI displays



This gas mask is one of the most haunting images I can imagine. The sight of an army wearing these terrifying masks emerging out of the smoke and gas must have been a nightmarish experience to witness. Just seeing one in the glass case was rather chilling to me.




RFC uniform


Trench scene

[Dave Homewood]

Here's something a little bit more cheery from World War One, the original Kiwi Concert Party, which was a unit of fighting soldiers who also put on concerts for other men at the front - not just for kiwi units but the Brits and all sorts of allies. They were very much loved and appreciated. The story of the Kiwi Concert Party in WWI is told in an autobiography by their famous tenor Ernest McKinlay called "The Ways and By-Ways of a Singing Kiwi With The New Zealand Divisional Entertainers in France". That book is now available to read online for free here at NZETC. There's some interesting stuff in there.
www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-McKWays.html



Something I found fascinating in Ernest's book was this:
"By the way, in referring to our boys as the "Diggers," it was not until after the Somme stunt, later in 1916, that the New Zealanders got the name of "The Diggers," which was conferred on them after the Maori Pioneer Battalion had beaten all records in digging the lengthy Turk trench in very fast time. I did not hear the term applied to the Australians until much later in 1917, they being known to everyone in France as the "Aussies."


Here is a lovely piece of trench art, a dagger made from war waste


A German bomb


And a nice bronze memorial to WWI

[ErrolC]

Oct 22, 2009 14:35:45 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

More WWI displays
Another big gun. I think this is a 17 pounder? Not sure.

The 17pdr that you are probably thinking of is a mid-late WWII anti-tank gun - a hefty piece of artillery.

A museum with many excellent New Zealand Wars dioramas is at Tawhiti, just outside Hawera.

[flyjoe180]

Dave, your '17 inch' gun is most probably a 4.5 inch howitzer.
www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/le-quesnoy-howitzer

[ErrolC]

Oct 22, 2009 16:47:32 GMT 12 flyjoe180 said:

Dave, your '17 inch' gun is most probably a 4.5 inch howitzer.
www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/le-quesnoy-howitzer

flyjoe, nice ID, but the inch reference is your's, not Dave's. I'd be impressed by a 17 inch gun on land, nearly all of the ones of that size or bigger made in the last century are underwater

[Dave Homewood]

Cheers. I have no idea about most guns. I know the Royal Navy had 17" quick firing guns that in WWI were put onto carriages and used by Royal Artillery. I thought that this might be one of them. But as I say, no idea really.

[flyjoe180]

Inches, pounds...

[Dave Homewood]

Ah, of course. Never could get my head round those antiquated old measurements from the Imperial age.

[Dave Homewood]

On the subject of the museum...


War medals theft a tangled tale
Published: 6:10PM Thursday October 22, 2009

Source: ONE News

It is a case that had the nation up in arms - the theft of precious war medals.

A man involved in the Waiouru Army Museum war medals theft has been sentenced to 11 years in prison. His name has been suppressed until at least next week.

The man almost pulled off, arguably, one of New Zealand's most significant criminal heists.

ONE News has pored over court documents and uncovered inside gang connections to the theft.

It can be revealed the medal thief was on bail when he stole the war medals. He had a strict midnight until 7am bail curfew.

However, several months before the medals' smash and grab, he asked the court to loosen the conditions because it was curbing his social life and his trial was sometime off.

Upon hearing this, Justice Priestley cut him some slack with no curfew on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays.

Advertisement
The veteran thief later made use of his freedom, taking the trip to Waiouru.

Garth McVicar of the Sensible Sentencing Trust says he is appalled at the revelation.

"I'm not sure when it became part of a judge's job description to to consider an offender's social life," McVicar says.

More recently, the thief had been bailed on burglary charges for a series of sophisticated break-ins at ten pin bowling alleys.

Gary Crook, a former police officer turned private investigator, chased him on and off for 20 years.

"They got around a CCTV system by cutting video feeds, they got around an alarm system by masking the intruder detectors," says Crook.

Two months after the Waiouru break-in the thief was back in court for sentencing on a forgery charge.

The thief then wanted a discounted jail sentence in exchange for returning a Goldie painting and a precious Bible stolen from the Auckland University Library.

Judge Gittos gave the thief "some credit" for his actions but jailed him for two years and three months.

In Mt Eden Prison the thief met broker Daniel Crichton, who also needed a bargaining chip.

Crichton, without actually naming the person, indicated that he knew the person who had the medals.

"Yeah I knew who had them... I didn't need to know where they were, I just knew who had them... We kind of ended up in the same place," he said.

Then entered lawyer Chris Comesky, the middle man for Crichton. Comeskey was instrumental in brokering the return of the medals to police.

"They weren't going to give me bail on the promise of anything. So, yeah, one (medal) was returned and then they gave me bail," says Crichton.

By February all the medals were back and Crichton was on bail on drug charges. At the same time things were coming apart for the thief as he could not keep it all to himself.

By October Detective Senior Sergeant Chris Bensemann had his man.

The thief has now been sentenced to six years for the theft of 96 medals, including nine Victoria Crosses. He was jailed for a further five years for unrelated burglaries, making a total of 11 years imprisonment.

He was ordered to serve a non-parole period of seven years.

Another man charged over the war medals theft is due in court next week.

tvnz.co.nz/national-news/war-medals-theft-tangled-tale-3089734

[Dave Homewood]

WORLD WAR TWO

A stores Sergeant who served in the Great War waits to issue you, the new recruit in WWII, with your uniform in the Clothing Store. Neat.


This model depicts one of the New Zealand troopships. I'm not certain but I think it is the Dominion Monarch. It looks great, but of course whilst serving as a troopship with our navy it wouldn't have been all lit up like this.


Equipment of the 2nd Division, 2NZEF in North Africa




The enemy above, a German paratrooper as encountered by the New Zealanders on Crete

[obiwan27]

Dave, awesome photos, thanks for sharing them I hope to head north to visit a friend in Wellington next year so hope I can figure out how to work in a trip to the Army Museum as well, if the budget will stretch. Looks well worth it.

[Dave Homewood]

I took his photo because my Great Uncle Ted went to the Army ski school, as did many others in the NZ army. Veyr few people realise we had trained alpine troops in the New Zealand army.


Here's a 25 Pounder Field Gun, towed by a Quad tractor and limber. Another thing that not too many people realise is the Royal New Zealand Artillery troops were the first ever be equped with and to go into combat with the now famous 25 Pounder. We continued to use the gun through WWII, Korea and the Vietnam era.


Some WWI trench art

[phil]

Here's a 25 Pounder Field Gun, towed by a Quad tractor and limber. Another thing that not too many people realise is the Royal New Zealand Artillery troops were the first ever be equped with and to go into combat with the now famous 25 Pounder. We continued to use the gun through WWII, Korea and the Vietnam era.

Even less known is that we still use it.

As a saluting gun at Point Jerningham.

[shorty]

The tailplane on the Valetta mockup looks a bit skinny in the chord department and a bit thick in the airfoil.