ANZAC Day is almost on us. Each year around this time the North Shore Labour Electorate Committee puts on an event to commemorate the sacrifice made by Jack Lyon. Lyon was the MP for the old seat of Waitemata 1935-41. He gave up his seat in Parliament and volunteered to fight fascism in Europe. He was killed in action during the evacuation of Crete. See this post on last year’s event for more on Jack Lyon.
This year Glyn Harper will deliver the Jack Lyon Memorial Lecture. Professor Harper is one of our leading military historians and author of the acclaimed Dark Journey, an account of the three key New Zealand battles of the Western Front in World War Two. He will talk about the tension in New Zealand’s past and present between on one hand the horror of war and the determination to avoid it at all costs, and on the other, our idealistic urge to take up arms when the call comes.
That tension is reflected in the life of Jack Lyon who was a democratic socialist and internationalist, but who was also a soldier in two world wars and altered his age in 1914 and again in 1939 to ensure that he would see overseas service. The lecture will look at other New Zealand MPs who shared Jack Lyon’s fate in 1941. It will attempt to make sense of why men like Jack Lyon felt compelled to fight and explore whether this tension can be reconciled. For more on the event, click here.
Brave people indeed.
I’m always fascinated by how many ex soldiers consider themselves pacifists upon their return. I canno timagine what war is/was like, what I do know is how lucky I count myself to have never known.
On guy fawkes night, I often find my thoughts drifting to combat/war zones around the world, multiplying the noise and the quantity and thinking Holy &$%#
I wonder if the incumbent MP and defense minister will show up?
I can confirm the huge success of last year’s event. Bob Tizard’s address prompted me to visit our local library and read more about the German invasion of Crete. It transpires that British intelligence had cracked the German communication code and they (and Churchill of course) knew exactly where and when the invasion was to take place. Because they didn’t want the Germans to know they knew the code, the information was with-held from the Allied troops culminating in huge loss of life. Such is war!
Yes, Anne is back! Hi
My granddad got involved in the operation in the Solomon Isles against the Japs over there. His small Tongan contingent was attached to the US Marines which they fought alongside them in the Solomon Isles. The US had a few army bases scattered throughout the main Island in Tongatapu and there was one in my village. Granddad past away about 2 decades ago, but when I was young, he talked about his experience over at the Solomon Isles which was horrific in his words but also moving to hear him. He praised the courage of the US marines.
The only time he had a smile was when he said the Tongans had to climb up coconut trees to pick coconuts for everyone to drink, because the Americans had never climbed up coconut trees before or ever seen one before. He himself had to climb up to 8 coconut trees a day (20 meters tall or even higher) because there were too many of them to get a coconut for each person.
It’s a small world Falafulu Fisi. My late father, a former British and NZ army officer, trained many of the Pacific Island soldiers and he was based for much of the war in Nukualofa. He lead the Tongan contingent to the Solomon Islands. We have a painting of our father’s depicting the historic landing at Bougainville. Your grandfather must have known him. I also remember my father talking about his experiences there and it was certainly terrifying stuff.
Anne, I am sure that my granddad knew your late father. Tonga never forgets the outside help it received during WW2 for its defence and as the word of the Tongan former Prime Minister Lavaka Ata (late King Tupou 4th’s son) back in 2004, that Tonga remembers that the United States came to defend the islands nation and the region from the invading Japanese during the World War II, which he was basically reflecting his later father’s view (King Tupou 4th) when the late King authorized to send a small Tongan contingent to Iraq to help out with the coalition force’s effort in the post war rebuilding of Iraq.
The small contingent of Tongan Marines are trained in Kuwait first by the US Marines before they’re being deployed to Al Faw Palace in Baghdad to do security work.
This is not the first time that the Tongan Marines work alongside the US Marines as this cooperation was brought up again during the Tongan Marines Assumption of Mission Ceremony in Baghdad. I don’t think that small Tongan contingent in Iraq could do much over there, but at least if they can help out in whatever task they’re being assigned to do (even if they’re just there to pickup the rubbish at the camp) it is something that the US does appreciate. It is the good gesture that Tonga wants to show the US which is something that the US had already thanked the Tongans for.
@ Falafulu Fisi
The help and protection that Tonga received during WW2 came from New Zealand. NZ supplied the personnel and the expertise especially in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. Certainly the US became a dominant force in the South West Pacific but not until after Pearl Harbour. We are eternally grateful for the dominant role they played in defeating the Japanese, but never forget that NZ was the primary source of Tonga’s protection.
Sounds like a great talk. However after reading Harper’s book, you all need to know that it is about World War One NOT Two