Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 24, 2023 13:14:03 GMT 12
30 BELOW ZERO
CANADIAN INITIATION
NEW ZEALAND AIRMEN
PEOPLE'S WARM WELCOME
BY TOM MOORE (Copyright) SOMEWHERE IN CANADA. March 21
Of all the men of the Royal New Zealand Air Force who have come to Canada to continue training, the latest contingent to arrive received the coldest welcome — but from the weather only. The thermometer stood at 30 degrees below zero as the airmen rolled into a Manitoba station after a 48-hour railroad journey from the Pacific Coast port at which they disembarked.
It was bitterly cold even for the hundreds of Canadians who welcomed them, but for New Zealanders who had left home four weeks before, with the thermometer high, it was enough to make them wonder if there could ever be any colder weather anywhere in the world. However, the welcome from the Canadians was every bit as warm as that given to all the other airmen who arrived in Canada previously. And the spirits of this newest group of Empire air fighters were just as high as those of their predecessors—even if it was hard to grin when a sub-zero wind lashed at a face that was barely recovering from sunburn.
Boisterous Scene
As on previous occasions, the station platform presented a boisterous scene - with New Zealanders as star performers. A Maori war chant echoed through the building and a large group of New Zealanders staged a war dance as a "thank you" to members of the Canadian Women's Air Force Auxiliary who were on hand with hot coffee, magazines and "smokes."
The leader of the haka was a Maori, T. A. Allen, of Hawke's Bay. He said: "I taught it to the boys coming over. It is the war dance the Maoris put on before they go into the attack."
A Royal Canadian Air Force band played a welcome from the station gallery and when the music swung into "Roll Out the Barrel," the visitors offered a new version of the words. The general idea was that Hitler could bring on his Heinkels, Meserschmitts, Junkers, Dorniers and other blitzkrieg equipment, but that he would get a big surprise when lie met the Anzacs, because "we're tough all through."
Welcome at Club
From the station, the boys were taken quickly to the newly-opened Airmen's Club before going on to the training school —a new one which went into operation for the first time with the arrival of this latest party. At the club, the Women's Auxiliary was ready with more coffee, sandwiches and cakes. Offers of cold drinks were turned down flat. Heat was what the boys wanted and even cold beer had no attraction for the first hour of the "thawing out" process.
"I never saw snow before, and I will not believe it can ever get any colder," said one New Zealander as he held a cup of steaming coffee in gloved bands and sipped it approvingly. Two of his mates near by refused to be pried loose from a steam radiator to have their pictures taken by press photographers.
As they thawed out, the airmen joined in a merry party at the club before leaving for the school and the more serious business of training to be fighting fliers. For two hours they danced with Canadian girls, chatted, smoked, ate, drank hot coffee and "just thawed," as one lad put it. Aircraftman R. D. Pearce, of Invercargill, accompanied a group on his accordian as they sang the Maori Battalion's "March to Victory." Canadian airmen, posted to the same school, dropped in to say "Hello" and exchange gossip.
Promise of Football
A. V. Cliffe, of Auckland, promised action on the football field as soon as the weather permits. "We will show you boys here how to play Rugby football," he told an interested Canadian group. "We have a good team and we are looking for opposition."
Members of the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire distributed woollen scarves and socks to the men before they boarded buses for the training station, just outside the city.
The "Wartime Pilots and Observers' Association provided cigarettes. Then, as a loud "Cooee —" sounded through the chill air, the buses rolled away and the Anzacs started on a new phase of the great adventure that will take them into European battle skies against the hordes of Hitler.
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 5 APRIL 1941
CANADIAN INITIATION
NEW ZEALAND AIRMEN
PEOPLE'S WARM WELCOME
BY TOM MOORE (Copyright) SOMEWHERE IN CANADA. March 21
Of all the men of the Royal New Zealand Air Force who have come to Canada to continue training, the latest contingent to arrive received the coldest welcome — but from the weather only. The thermometer stood at 30 degrees below zero as the airmen rolled into a Manitoba station after a 48-hour railroad journey from the Pacific Coast port at which they disembarked.
It was bitterly cold even for the hundreds of Canadians who welcomed them, but for New Zealanders who had left home four weeks before, with the thermometer high, it was enough to make them wonder if there could ever be any colder weather anywhere in the world. However, the welcome from the Canadians was every bit as warm as that given to all the other airmen who arrived in Canada previously. And the spirits of this newest group of Empire air fighters were just as high as those of their predecessors—even if it was hard to grin when a sub-zero wind lashed at a face that was barely recovering from sunburn.
Boisterous Scene
As on previous occasions, the station platform presented a boisterous scene - with New Zealanders as star performers. A Maori war chant echoed through the building and a large group of New Zealanders staged a war dance as a "thank you" to members of the Canadian Women's Air Force Auxiliary who were on hand with hot coffee, magazines and "smokes."
The leader of the haka was a Maori, T. A. Allen, of Hawke's Bay. He said: "I taught it to the boys coming over. It is the war dance the Maoris put on before they go into the attack."
A Royal Canadian Air Force band played a welcome from the station gallery and when the music swung into "Roll Out the Barrel," the visitors offered a new version of the words. The general idea was that Hitler could bring on his Heinkels, Meserschmitts, Junkers, Dorniers and other blitzkrieg equipment, but that he would get a big surprise when lie met the Anzacs, because "we're tough all through."
Welcome at Club
From the station, the boys were taken quickly to the newly-opened Airmen's Club before going on to the training school —a new one which went into operation for the first time with the arrival of this latest party. At the club, the Women's Auxiliary was ready with more coffee, sandwiches and cakes. Offers of cold drinks were turned down flat. Heat was what the boys wanted and even cold beer had no attraction for the first hour of the "thawing out" process.
"I never saw snow before, and I will not believe it can ever get any colder," said one New Zealander as he held a cup of steaming coffee in gloved bands and sipped it approvingly. Two of his mates near by refused to be pried loose from a steam radiator to have their pictures taken by press photographers.
As they thawed out, the airmen joined in a merry party at the club before leaving for the school and the more serious business of training to be fighting fliers. For two hours they danced with Canadian girls, chatted, smoked, ate, drank hot coffee and "just thawed," as one lad put it. Aircraftman R. D. Pearce, of Invercargill, accompanied a group on his accordian as they sang the Maori Battalion's "March to Victory." Canadian airmen, posted to the same school, dropped in to say "Hello" and exchange gossip.
Promise of Football
A. V. Cliffe, of Auckland, promised action on the football field as soon as the weather permits. "We will show you boys here how to play Rugby football," he told an interested Canadian group. "We have a good team and we are looking for opposition."
Members of the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire distributed woollen scarves and socks to the men before they boarded buses for the training station, just outside the city.
The "Wartime Pilots and Observers' Association provided cigarettes. Then, as a loud "Cooee —" sounded through the chill air, the buses rolled away and the Anzacs started on a new phase of the great adventure that will take them into European battle skies against the hordes of Hitler.
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 5 APRIL 1941
