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IV
Return Journey

We sailed on the USS Pinkney, a hospital transport type of vessel, in which had been evacuated many New Zealand patients during the preceding months. The seas were fairly heavy as far as Espiritu Santo, where the vessel called, and most of the troops were sea-sick during this stage of the journey. True to his usual voyaging form, Private Ken Leak suffered agonies of sea-sickness. Each trip he made was an unenviable ordeal, but he was very game—and this time it was the first half of the journey home. At four o'clock on 11 June, 1944, the Pinkney berthed at the Nickel Dock, New Caledonia, but disembarkation did not take place until the following morning. It was then that the news spread that all storage kit bags had been left on the beach at Guadalcanal, and consternation reigned. Next was the unwelcome trip in convoy from the docks to Kalavere. We arrived at the 2nd NZ Convalescent Depot at midday, and it was here that we spent our final weeks in the Pacific.

Dusty and tired after our travel, we greatly appreciated the warm welcome given us at the convalescent depot, which seemed a very civilised area after Guadalcanal. The days that followed were occupied by a percentage of unit personnel working for the depot, while the remainder handled unit equipment which was arriving from the forward area. Some of our members were included in a team which, in 10 days, medically boarded 2,500 troops. On 12 July, 1944, No. 1 Field Surgical Unit, after completing creditable service both at Vella Lavella and Nissan, joined its parent unit at New Caledonia. At the same time came the last of our equipment from Guadalcanal, and Quartermaster Tegg worked hard re-crating it for a further move—destination un-known, but an easy guess for all that. Throughout this period we enjoyed to the full the amenities at Kalavere and formed many friendships among the convalescent depot staff.

August was a month of many changes. The commanding officer, Major Riley, returned to New Zealand. Lieutenant Tegg and four other ranks were transferred to the divisional rear party, and Captain Halstead, with five other ranks, became a CCS rear detachment. Captain P. W. S. Riley then took control of the page 131remaining skeleton of the unit, which by now comprised only two officers and 25 other ranks. The move for which everyone had been waiting was now imminent, and, on 11 August, 1944, the 2nd NZ CCS became part of a force medical group for the voyage to New Zealand. Two of our members who had given valuable service to our unit since its inception, Lieutenant W. F. Green and Sergeant J. A. Griffiths, were appointed to the administrative staff of this group. On the morning of 14 August, 1944, at 0200 hours, we departed in convoy for Noumea, for the docks, for leave in New Zealand. At 1200 hours the same day all ranks were ordered below decks, and the ship pulled out immediately. This voyage was not a comfortable one, as accommodation was very cramped; it was a hungry one, for only two meals a day left many corners empty; but it was a voyage of happy expectations, and each soldier smiled as he looked across the ship's bows to what was beyond.

'All troops will stand by for disembarkation at 0900 hours.' To starboard lay the coastal suburbs of Auckland, where white houses, with roofs of green and red, emerged from a mass of colour to become individual dwellings. At last the wharf, the rattle of the anchor chain, and the inevitable (wharfie 'below. That eager jaunt down the gangway, mixing with strangers on the wharf—strangers, but New Zealanders. We were home again.

Thus the 2nd NZ Casualty Clearing Station came home—to what? Like the rest of the Third Division it was finished, and its members scattered far and wide. But these men in essential jobs, in camps in New Zealand, in the forces overseas, and in their homes—wherever they are now and wherever they may be in later life—will keep in their memories a place for the old unit. For it was a unit that had no really big moments; had no moments which memory would rather forget; but a unit which, from its inception, worked hard, did good work, and faithfully contributed to the common cause.