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Post by Peter Lewis on Dec 3, 2006 21:37:51 GMT 12
My mother still talks about the absolute sense of relief felt by all civilians when the first American forces marched up Queen Street. Up to that time there was a real dread of invasion, as the politicians of the day had stripped NZ bare of men and supplies to send to the european theatre (eg the Vickers Wellingtons). Whether this was the right decision is still arguable, but (from the civilian point of view) invasion by the Japanese was seen as imminent at that time.
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Post by steve on Dec 3, 2006 22:52:47 GMT 12
The Japanese had no plans for the invasion of New Zealand from all the searches carried out of their records after the war. They did have "australalsian" currency printed mainly for the purose of australia. We do know that a japanese float plane flew over wellington and auckland looking for targets ...however found no targets worth attacking ...hence the attack on Garden Island Sydney by the midget subs. The old Auckland Star printed an interview of the navy pilot who flew over auckland in the war and despite the blackout conditions stated the city was "well lighted". Local radar stations apparently tracked the aircraft but no permission was ever obtained to open fire. All that aside the threat of invasion must have been extreme before Midway especially and those US soldiers marching up quuen street must have been a great reasurance. Recommend reading " The Yanks are coming" by Harry Bioletti ex NZ 3 Division ...excellent read.....United States Forces in NZ 1942..45 (Denys Bevan) and The friendly Invasion of New Zealand (June and Jack Hinton MBE) which i gave some assistence with in 1992.
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