I was interviewing an old chap today for my research into the RNZAF General Reconaissance squadrons, and he told me something I found quite a surprise.
He’d been a flight mechanic on No. 2 (GR) Squadron at RNZAF Station Nelson (which is at the top left of the South Island of NZ). He said he recalls a time when there was three or four days of frenetic activity on the squadron and their Hudsons were very active, putting quote a strain on everyone. He says at the end of this period, the squadron CO, Jack Busch, got the squadron together and announced why they’d been working so hard. Apparently he announced the squadron had been tracking and had destroyed a submarine in New Zealand waters!
Now, this was a shock to me because I have never heard anything about any submarine being destroyed in New Zealand waters. Jap subs certainly did operate in our waters right close in, and even went through the heavily defended Cook Strait unnoticed. But I have never heard or read of any being found, attacjed and claimed as sunk in NZ waters.
If it did happen it may have been hushed up like many things to stop public panic. But there must be a record somewhere if the sub was attacked, even if it was proven not to have sunk.
So, could this be true? Or was the CO simply telling pork pies to raise morale perhaps?? Any theories welcome.
By: Dave Homewood - 4th September 2005 at 01:39
That is just the thing, there is no mention in any official book or even a personal biography that I have read about a submarine being attacked in NZ waters. I have heard that the Air Force was searching for the sub who flew its aircraft over Wellington, but never heard/read of it being found and engaged.
This chap, Keith Sommerville, seemed completely genuine in what he told me of what he remembers and it seems it was his most vivid memory of his days with the squadron. What I’m wondering is, did the squadron track the sub, attack it and believe it was destroyed, and yet it got away? That’s a possibility.
No matter what the books say, official sources are never the only sources. There are countless stories that abound about Japanese submarine activity, most have never been acknowledged or denied officially as far as I’m aware. Japanese submarines have been said many times to have been assisted by certain radical anti-British factions of Maori who signalled to them and gave them food supplies. I have heard of this happening at Hokianga, at North Cape, at Coromandel Peninsula (where Japs and collaberating Maori were allegedly shot dead by the Home Guard!) and at Ratahi near Wanganui way (where an army company was sent to investigate the lights being flashed from Ratahi Pa out to sea).
Who knows whether any of it is true. Some books have recorded these rumours but no real evidence has surfaced. One has to remember many of the official history books were written soon after the war when many secret files would have still been closed.
Do the Japanese Navy’s offical records of their submarines activities survive complete anywhere?
The other thng is, 2 GR may have actually attacked and sunk a whale. Stranger things have happened.
By: Newforest - 3rd September 2005 at 17:55
Sounds like ‘porkies’ to me! On the 24th May, 1942, a seaplane from the I-21 reconnoitered Auckland. In November 1944, U-862 (German) entered New Zealand waters at North Cape and exited past South Cape. The Japanese submarines were an impressive asset for the time featuring the largest boats of the time. Of the 56 largest submarines in the world, 52 of them were Japanese. Some subs carried three aircraft for reconnaisance 😀
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September 3, 2005 at 1:04 pm