Righto. Revisiting the Great Signal Box Discussion from earlier ... You may recall that I posted up a photo from the Auckland Weekly News, 17 June 1942 (all these from the same page), featuring a smoke-enshrouded signal box on a curved train station platform that looked darn close to my dear old Avondale station, but nothing could be proved. I popped into the central library today, sat down at a printer reader with microfilm from the Weekly News and the Herald, and found the following: There seems to have been two main exercises around early June 1942 – one out in the northern countryside, another in an unnamed urban/suburban area. The Herald of 16 June referred to “one of the parties which recently had to complete a week out in the field by attacking its own camp …” which sounded like this description from the Weekly News (17 June, p. 6): ... A typical commando unit which left a camp in the Auckland area recently provided its participants with thrills, excitement and hard work in abundance, In all, this commando marched approximately 80 miles in six days – an excellent feat when considering that the unit consisted mainly of soldiers of the last war. Early one morning this unit was paraded and informed that it was to leave that morning for several days. The work would be hard. The distance to be covered by foot would almost set records for marching. Local Home Guardsmen had been informed of the unit’s schedule and therefore the men must be on the alert every step of the way. The commandos agreed. Nothing would disgrace them so much as to be captured by irregulars. Actually, however, no Home Guardsmen attacked this unit at all. … When it rains in the hill country it is an experience that city dwellers seldom have. Rough roads are turned into quagmires. The bush, so cool and luring in the summer, is turned into a nightmare of wet, dank foliage. … The commandos were gathered around the fire, “To-night, men,” the officer commanding the unit rubbed his chin, “we are to undertake a tough job. As to-morrow is the last day out in the country we have been ordered to attack our base camp … At last it was decided. An unscheduled goods train would be the very thing. The men got ready at at the appointed hour went to the station. The guard swore when he saw the soldiers. The men filed into a carriage, drew the blinds, and extinguished the lights. They made plans. At the station near the camp they descended from the train on the blind side. Each section of four men was allotted an objective. Thats an edited version of a way longer article, but the relevant bits are there. And then we have “a recently-arranged exercise took into account several types of possible fifth columnist activity. (NZ Herald, 16 June) Including … A pitched battle was fought for a railway signal box. Before the enemy had been routed “bodies” lay on the tracks and on the platform and were drooped realistically over the stairs up to the box. Some soldiers climbed on to railway engines and rested their rifles on top of the boiler. Others lay prone by the wheels and fired underneath. So, okay. Heres some of the photos from the Weekly News which may be to do with that exercise. Any ideas? Is it Auckland? If so, the Avondale location for the signal box is extremely likely. If the Walsh Memorial Library was open, Id be looking to see if they have rail station logs for that period ...
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 06:35:00 +0000
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