Civilian into Soldier

Part 1    Joining Up

373649 Arthur H Paddison, 2nd Field Regiment, NZA

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I cannot remember what my feelings were, when the fateful announcements came over the radio. German Armed forces had marched into Poland and consequent on her failure to accede to Britain's demand she withdraw her forces, a state of war then existed between them. France also declared war on Germany at the same time. Here in New Zealand our Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage, an ex Australian, declared "Where England goes we go" and so little old N.Z. declared war on Germany. Adolph Hitler thought it was a bit of a joke and made some disparaging remarks about country boys.

Well he might have with a million men under arms. I don't know about the relative strengths of the Navy and the Airforce but the strength of the Army between the wars was less than 800 men plus the Territorials, a few thousands of part timers.

The Army set about raising sufficient men to form a division for service overseas. A scheme called the the Empire Air Training Scheme to provide a flow of pilots was set in motion with the building of airfields and other establishments around the country to provide preliminary training, with further training in Canada, before posting to flying units.

I saw this as a chance to realise my dream to become a flyer, however, when I broached the subject with Mum, it caused an explosion fit to raise the roof. She knew enough about wars, having lived through the last one, worrying as to whether my father would be called up to join his brothers in the terrible slaughter that was WW1.

Prospective recruits under 21 had to have parental approval prior to acceptance and that was the end of that. Not long after, Stan Bright called in with the news that the Army had some big guns over on a stand at the Centennial Exhibition and "come on over and have a look". Sure enough there were two of them, an eighteen pounder field gun and a 4.5 inch howitzer all painted in Army green and polished up fit for inspection. Along with a lot of other stuff was a recruiting Sergeant.

The end result of that little jaunt being an increase in the Territorial Forces of New Zealand by two. We were enlisted in the New Zealand Artillery (Territorials) as we were both too young to serve overseas at that time.

Continued...

AH Paddison, 2007

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