2. S. J. Jones on the Samoa Force. "There was no knowledge on our part as to where we were to be going, it was dead secret. We had been lying out in the stream on the two transports, the Moeraki and the Monowai. We came in on the 14th of August, that was Friday. We were farewelled by Liverpool at the Basin Reserve. We went on the transports, back at Clyde Quay Wharf and we sailed next morning, the 15th.
Interviewer [probably Hayden Sherley]: Anbody to see you off?
Jones: On the actual sailing I can't remember anybody seeing us off at all. The people of Wellington did collect when they heard the news. There was a fair crowd in the streets when we marched back from the Basin Reserve to the transports at Clyde Quay Wharf. so then we sailed on the 15th of August. Ah, let me see.. to my memory, with no escort whatever. And we came up the east coast to East Cape and then we were joined by three New Zealand gunboats; The Psyche, the Philomel and the Pyramus. And we carried on, and one chap had a compass and he said we were going to Samoa, I don't know where the hell he got that from, but by his compass we were going more north.
But we went to Noumea, that was the rendez-vous for the whole force. So then we had two transports, Australia, Melbourne, three New Zealand gunboats and the French battle-ship the Montcalm. Eight ships in the whole show, that was naval and the two transports. Well, then away we went on Sunday morning.
So we get to Samoa, and we're outside the reef. And we're all up at a bout five in the morning, get a bit of breakfast. Fully, all our equipment on rifles and everything else, and we just sit on the decks in the sun for about three or four hours. But what had happened was one of the New Zealand gunboats, I think it was the Psyche, she had gone into the harbour with a tablecloth as a white flag. Had landed, had seen the German governor and there was no resistance. He said there'd be no resistance. So as soon as that message was received, we just went ashore. I remember going through a bit of jungle or a bit of bush, a kind of screen to see if there was any resistance, but there was none.
So for about two days we lived in a big sort of market show, and slept on concrete floors. then we got a camp down on the race course.
Well the show went on, we became more-or-less disciplined troops. There were about three fair dinkum soldiers in the whole battalion and they knocked us into shape.
One morning everybody was told to get on the parade and we marched up to the waterfront, about a mile away. And there bless me, were two ships. Now you've got to remember Mr Sherley, that some of us might have heard of the Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, but we didn't know what they were, and the argument was as to what these two ships were, you see? And here we were sitting on the shore, there'd been a few trenches dug on the actual foreshore, but most of us were behind huts or something, a little way from the shore, but we could see these two ships out there, and the arguments began. What the hell were these ships? Were they Japanese or were they British or were they German?
Anyway, they looked at us and didn't fire a shot. That afternoon, one of the Germans went out in a small boat and had communication with them and we'll never know why they didn't shell us. They were destroyed later in the Falkland Islands, and they went away and we never saw them anymore of course and then we settled down to garrison duty.
Uncomfortable for a while, about fifteen blokes to a tent, you know?
But as time went on we got into another camp, Malifa Camp, where there were schoolrooms and gradually we got into more or less permanent quarters, out of the tents. I think the thing that saved us was the swimming pool. There was a jolly good swimming pool in the creek constructed by the Germans and we spent practically all our spare time down in that swimming pool." Duration: 04:53
Transcript by Sound Archives/Ngā Taonga Kōrero