Posted on 06/03/2007 8:55:14 PM PDT by DieHard the Hunter
He spent the last 15 months of World War Two on tiny Norfolk Island, a key airbase and refuelling stop between Australia and New Zealand.
The 82-year-old returned last month for the first time in 61 years.
And while the island has changed dramatically, he says Kiwi servicemen have not been forgotten.
"There was a family that I was pretty closely involved with, and I met their grandson," he says.
"It was good to be able to talk to him about his grandparents, and how when we got there his father was just being sent off to New Guinea."
The Pt Chevalier resident was in the Royal New Zealand Air Force marine section.
They were responsible for sea rescues and supplying the aircraft refuelling station.
"We were glorified wharfies, but we enjoyed it," he says.
Small jetties and rough water meant supplies were unloaded on to barges at sea and towed to shore through the surf.
Aircraft fuel was unloaded in 44 gallon drums returned by ship to be refilled when empty.
"If the weather was crook, you couldn?t do anything.
"The ships would steam off to sea," Mr Griffiths says.
"If we worked, we worked from light until dark."
The Kiwis were stationed in the capital, Kingston, where they made use of buildings from the old penal colony.
Mr Griffiths says it took a while to be accepted by residents of the Australian territory.
"They were a bit upset that their own boys had to go off to New Guinea and those sorts of places with the Australian army," he says.
"Once they got to accept us they were very good really. We lived like islanders."
Servicemen from the United States who visited on supply ships were confused by the Kiwis' relaxed appearance.
"They would say: 'Who are you guys?'"
"They'd nearly have a fit when we said we were the air force, running around with just a pair of shorts on."
Mr Griffiths was encouraged to return by old friend and Westmere resident Colin Armiger.
The pair grew up together in Ponsonby and Herne Bay.
They spent a week on the island with fellow veteran Doug Wood, from Mt Albert.
Mr Armiger says the trip was a chance to learn more about his friend's wartime experience.
"It was very different to anywhere else we were," he says.
"You could never get Albie to talk about Norfolk Island, so not very many of us knew about it."
The New Zealand servicemen are remembered in old photographs displayed at the airport and the island's Returned and Services League.
Mr Griffiths says he's pleased his old friend encouraged him to make the trip.
Unfortunately the Royal New Zealand Air Force is a shell of what it was even ten years ago.
> Unfortunately the Royal New Zealand Air Force is a shell of what it was even ten years ago.
Hobsonville and Whenuapai AFBs are in Waitakere City, where I live. The former was turned into a yacht manufacturing industrial park and lo-income housing. The latter faces a similar fate. Our city council is trying to work a deal with the airforce to turn Whenuapai into a mixed Civilian/Military airport.
The fighter wing is no more — all those warbirds are still mothballed, no buyer in sight.
I believe this was an act of spite by a government that sees little need for a military capability beyond peacekeeping. Our Prime Minister is on record as having observed that “New Zealand exists in a remarkably benign strategic environment.” I believe she is very wrong, and I hope we do not find this out the hard way.
Perhaps a change in government (which is looking increasingly possible) will bring about a reversal of fortune for our Air Force. I sure hope so.
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