Eric John Steele
Eric served in the Royal New Zealand Navy during World War II from December 11, 1942 until December 11, 1945, as Able Seaman Radarman and on HMNZS Gambia during 1944/1945. His service number was R.N.Z.N 6300.
In February 2020, his son Jared (Jay) very kindly sent me some photocopied pages from his memoir which are presented below.
A page from Eric Steele's memoir
The extract starts with Eric and his brother, Roy, trying to serve on the same ship...
…same year and was drafted overseas in August. We were not destined to meet again for over three years although we both made repeated requests to be drafted to the same ship but met with negative replies.
Although my spirits were high at the prospect of at least being able to "do my bit," I can remember how my wonderful parents must have felt at losing two sons in the same year and me heart felt heavy as we said our goodbyes – I would not let my mother come to the railway stations to me off. I must here record just how much I loved my mother and father and truly thank them for the way they raised my brothers and I, and for the wonderful example they set for us all our lives. I knew it was because of my upbringing that I did not get into any trouble right throughout my whole time away from home.
Eric Steele
I do not know whether my posterity will be interested in my service career as I really didn't have any aspirations to become an admiral of the fleet so finally settled for promotion to Able seaman. However I will record a few of the events during my three years in the service.
My first training comprised of a three weeks seaman's course on HMNZS Tamaki and a RDF (Radar Direction Finding) course on HMNZS Philomel of the same duration. It was during this period that I met and made close friends with Colin Sivan [?] (Sivannie [?] to all the boys) and we had many enjoyable experiences together. Immediately following six weeks training, nine of us were transferred on temporary service to HMNZS Cook in Wellington. From here we were directed to New Plymouth where we were met by transport which took us to a "secret" place eleven miles out of the city. This turned out to be a radar unit No. 11 in a small farming community called Oakura and the whole area was camouflaged to look like a wayside tearooms. We spent nine happy months here training airforce personnel how to operate their own radar sets and were eventually returned to naval service after being replaced by WAAF and WREN operators whom we had trained.
HMNZS Tamaki in 1951. Photo: ABZ-0095 RNZN Museum
Upon our return to Philomel many of us were drafted to the Pacific war zone and on 22nd September 1943 we boarded the American troops ship USS Talamanca at Auckland and left for New Caledonia on the afternoon tide.
USS Talamanca after being renamed to SS Sulaco around 1958
Some of the lads were seasick almost as soon as we hit the open water, so kept to their bunks for most of the voyage. We sailed in convoy with cruiser and destroyer escort, and after several uneventful days sailing arrived at Noumea [?] were we disembarked. Transport awaited our arrival and trucks whisked us away to the American naval camp which was to be our home for most of our stay on the island. Several of us were transferred to radar watch duty where quarters were established on a large hill overlooking the harbour which at one time been an old French fort and was just honey-combed with tunnels which linked up the magazines and lower levels with the gun emplacements on top. From here I was transferred to the New Zealand naval radar workshop. The climate in this area was extremely hot with temperatures in the 130F region and just to breathe was an effort.
Our work here consisted of building and outfitting a mobile radar caravan which we learned was to go with us as part of the main landing force of Americans on the island of Bougainville but right at the last minute the drafting was cancelled. When we learned of the pasting the Japs gave the Yanks on the beaches, we were greatly relieved because it is doubtful whether we would have survived the initial landing as many marines were killed. Shortly after, we were transferred to Guadalcanal, via the New Hebrides by DC3 aircraft and arrived safely after an hour or so of flying. We were naturally happy land as our old plane was a sitting duck for enemy fighter aircraft which were still in the vicinity. Our stay on Guadalcanal was fairly brief, (a few days) and as soon as our LST (landing craft) arrived, we went on board and set sail for New Georgia, which is the largest island in the Solomon group.
Our ship berthed at a wharf in the harbour called Munda, where the Americans had constructed an airstrip for their fighter and bomber aircraft. We only stayed here for about an hour and all this time, planes were landing and taking off for air strikes on Vella Lavella and Bougainville where the Japs and G.I.'s were shooting it out. I must here record that my good friend Colin Swan was with me in this contingent and also other boys who went through…
…singing hymns to us. Most of them were from a Seventh Day Adventists mission elsewhere on the island. I am not too sure how long we spent in this area, possibly 2 months, but we were picked up by landing craft and returned to Munda where we boarded a small patrol ship which took us back to Guadalcanal. From here we took passage on an empty supply ship named the USS Delphine which brought us directly back to Auckland – quite an uneventful trip.
After a brief shore leave we returned to Tamaki for a short course in seamanship of all things, and were drafted to Sydney, Australia to do an advanced radar course at the Watsons Bay training school. Our transport vessel was an old merchant ship named "Kurow" which was travelling empty to Adelaide. From here we boarded a train and travelled three days and nights until we arrived in Sydney.
1944
It was during my course here that I met my first wife whose name was Delia Johnson and we made our acquaintance at a New Zealand service club in the course of three weeks our friendship ripened and I was then drafted for another course at Flinders Naval Depot in Melbourne. Upon my return to Sydney Delia and I made a quick decision to get married. This we did, with a three-day honeymoon and then I was posted to HMNZS Gambia, a cruiser of about 10,000 tons. This was my home until the end of the war and the period of time when we were in constant combat with Japanese forces.
Our ship became the guide ship for the British Pacific Fleet which consisted of four large fleet aircraft carriers, two heavy battleships, numerous cruisers and destroyers. Our main function was air strikes against the Japanese mainland. We received daily attention from Kamikaze (suicide) and bomber planes and many of our ships were hit. Our fleet was close to the Japanese coast when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This took a terrible toll of innocent life but was the only weapon that could have brought the war to an end and saved many more lives. The Japanese Government surrendered in August 1945 and the treaty between the Japs and Allies was signed on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945 and this brought the last area of World War II to a close.
The memoir makes a special mention of the an attack that occurred on Easter Sunday, 1945...
The attack on Easter Sunday, 1945
We were attacked by Japanese suicide bombers. One crashed into the Indefatigable who was next to us and the others were shot down by our fighters. A stick of bombs straddled one of our “cans” and killed three ratings. We are now towing her back to Leyte.
Our ships and crew were involved in repatriation work of prisoners of war and occupation duties prior to the arrival of regular occupation forces. A brief shore leave in Tokyo revealed the devasting effect of the heavy Allied bombing raids as there was not a whole building standing intact anywhere in this large city. The fleet then received sailing orders and for the first time in six years we cruised back to Sydney, Australia without fear of any attack from sea or air and with all ships lights on at night – a strange situation often months and years without at action stations and black outs a nightly routine. The last incident worthy of mention occurred on our crossing of the Tasman from Sydney to Auckland.
About halfway across our boilers gave out and we came to a complete stop and it was many hours before temporary repairs were effected in the boiler room and we again got under way. We steamed into Auckland Harbour at the embarrassing speed of about 8 knots and tied up at HMNZ Philomel where, for the last time, HMNZS Gambia's engines were ordered to "Stop" and our "home" for the last 12 months ceased her role as a man-of-war. I was discharged from Her Majesty's Navy on 9th December 1945 and returned home to Palmerston North to be reunited with my family and my brother Roy who had also received his discharge from the Navy.
Our reunion was a very happy one and it was wonderful to be with my beloved parents and younger brothers again. The good Lord had certainly preserved my brother's and my life whilst we were away overseas for which we were truly grateful. Well, since I had married a year previously it was now time to see about getting Delia over from Sydney and in January 1946 she arrived in New Zealand and because of the grave shortage of housing, we were forced to live with my parents. It was in this year our daughter Anne was born and shortly after we received advice that a state house had been allocated to us in Raugiona Avenue.
Jay also very kindly supplied the following:
In December 2021, Jay contacted me again. He'd found a couple of newspaper articles...
The text says:
Ex-members of the No. 11 Radar Unit, RNZAF, during their 21st anniversary reunion over the weekend. They are: Back row, from left, Mssrs Don Allan (Wellington), Arthur Seeling (New Plymouth), Dennis Wilcox (Levin), Larry Fake (New Plymouth), Alec McIntosh (Palmerston North), Miss Bette Johnston (Hastings), Mr Ted Maiden (Hastings), a former OC, Mrs June Guthrie (Christchurch), Mssrs Tom Mills (New Plymouth), Pierce Soloman (Auckland) and Les Astbury (Mangatoki). Front row: Mr Frank Alexander (Wellington), Mrs Doreen Moffett (New Plymouth), Mrs Betty Simon (Hastings), Mrs Isobel Hamill (Omata, partly obscured), Mssrs Reg Ball (New Plymouth), Eric Steele (Palmerston North), Mrs Noeline Fake (New Plymouth) and Mr Colin Swan (Gisborne).
The text in this cutting reads:
They staffed a radar station in the Ranges
Some of the personnel who staffed a top-secret wartime radar station at the foot of the Kaitake Ranges during the Japanese invasion threat, met in New Plymouth over the weekend for a unique 21st anniversary reunion.
The station's operational period was between February, 1942, and December, 1943. It was one of seven stations in various parts of New Zealand, and was one of three which had a mixed staff of WAAFS, WRENS, RNZAF and RNZN personnel.
The station was situated on a steep hill at the top of the Ahu Ahu Rd, and was screened by trees from the main coast road. However, closer observation would have shown forbidding barbed wire fences, patrolling guards and a mysterious, revolving aerial.
About 130 men and women were employed for varying periods at the station, which was known as No 11 Radar Unit RNZAF. The WAAFS and WRENS were stationed there only between June and December, 1943, and acted as radar operators in a round-the-clock vigil.
All sightings, or "blips," were reported by landline to the Wellington operations room, where information was kept of all shipping and aircraft movements.
An Omata farmer's wife, Mrs Isobel Hamill, who was an operator at the station and now organises each reunion, today recalled a number of "flaps" caused by low cloud. However, there were no sightings of enemy submarines.
All that is left of the unit now is the transmitter and gatry blocks.
The reunion, the second to be held by the unit, is the only one of its type in New Zealand. But it was arranged only after long hours of exhaustive work.
Because the station was top secret, the complete records were destroyed after the war. It was left to Mrs Hamill to track everyone down. Many of the former personnel had died, while others had left the country or could not be traced.
On Saturday a dinner was held at a New Plymouth hotel and later the 20 guests spent a social evening at the Queens Rd home of Mr Reg Ball.
On Sunday, all but two climbed the hill to see the last remaining signs of the station, and later they asembled at Mr W. Hamill's home, Sutton Rd, for a barbecue.
Those who attended the reunion had come from as far north as Auckland and as far south as Christchurch. They left yesterday with a promise to meet again four years later for the 25th aniversary.