The calm before the jungle storm

The postcard image played up the myth of Pacific paradise for 3rd Division soldiers stationed in New Caledonia. Photo / Supplied

For New Zealand troops preparing to fight the Japanese in World War II, New Caledonia loomed more as a tropical idyll than a training ground. They had little concept of what they were in for, apart from vague expectations of French cooking - and French women.

But visions of "the Paris of the Pacific" dissolved almost as soon as the troop ships entered Noumea harbour.

The bay was crammed with American ships, from destroyers to landing craft, the unofficial history of the NZ Army 3rd Division records.

"Most of us had expected a tropical vista to open before our eyes as we neared land but there was not a vestige of tropical vegetation to be seen. The shops were empty, the streets were dirty."

In early 1943, 13,000 New Zealanders were stationed in New Caledonia at operational bases, hospitals and training camps. The main New Zealand base was at Bourail, halfway up the west coast. For most it was a stepping stone: ahead lay the brutality of jungle warfare in Japanese-occupied islands, including the Solomons. Mostly, they trained, growing bored with military routine and Army rations as they waited for battle.

War in Paradise, a new exhibition opening at the Auckland War Memorial Museum today, casts light on this largely ignored aspect of our World War II experience.

The exhibition was developed for the 2007 New Caledonia-New Zealand promotion and displayed at the Museum of Wellington City and Sea; curator Brett Mason is bringing a slightly smaller version to Auckland.

The story unfolds through official photographs and diary extracts from 3rd Division soldiers and more recent photographs of Bourail and the New Zealand War Cemetery by Paul Thompson, who visited in 2006.

One excerpt points to the gulf between expectation and reality: "Dreams of dusky maidens were never fulfilled on the battalion's island hike but some of the beaches that 'nymphs' are supposed to frequent were found ideal for swimming".

Mason said there were some opportunities for interaction with locals. Kanaks were recruited to help build camps and the New Zealanders bought fruit and vegetables from French and indigenous farmers. The locals would go to the military hospitals for treatment and soldiers would hitchhike to native villages or French farmhouses for a glass of wine, home-cooked chicken or a coffee. Bourail's restaurant was a popular watering hole.

Occasionally, they would go bush to hunt. "They would sometimes jump over the fence and 'accidentally' shoot a cow and cook it up quickly before the farmer found out.

"I've looked at how these soldiers and women and nurses and doctors were looking at the time they spent there - their relationships with the locals, how they found the landscape and maybe what similarities and differences to New Zealand they saw," said Mason.

A soundscape recreates the soldier's daily experience: a crowing rooster, Kanak chants, a French lullaby and Army marching band. A gravel footpath echoes the war cemetery just south of Bourail where 235 New Zealanders are buried.

"It's an idea I've tried to develop with other exhibitions - how we as New Zealanders look to the Pacific over different periods of time and how perceptions have changed. It wasn't all sweet, that's for sure. They were quite dismissive of the French and found them maybe lazy.

"Some of them didn't get to see any war and a sense of disappointment and boredom comes through. There was this sense of, what they did today was the same as they did yesterday and the day before. I think frustration was a big part for them."

Surviving 3rd Division veterans are somewhat bemused by the focus on New Caledonia, an uneventful phase compared with warfare in the Pacific and subsequent action in Europe.

Bill Caughey, 89, remembers it as a good place to train because there were "very few distractions".

The troops polished up their schoolboy French to engage in stilted conversation with locals, Caughey said.

"It was an experience, being associated with another culture, but we were mainly there to train and get fit."

Doug Ross, 87, said New Caledonia in 1943 was the main American base in the South Pacific and most contact was with the Americans. The Kiwis set up a race meeting to relieve the boredom, with thousands drawn to bet on the Kiwi soldiers riding farmers' horses.

Mason was struck by the lingering significance of New Zealand's wartime presence when he visited Bourail in 2006.

"About a quarter of the local museum is dedicated to the 3rd Division and the soldiers. They've got artefacts like guns tents, photographs, old film stock, uniforms and hospital stuff - all sorts of things left behind or recovered from the tropical forest, including a New Zealand jeep."

One image, which he says sums up the culture clash, shows the Joan of Arc Day festival with New Zealand soldiers on parade, colonial French in costume and Kanak performers.

"There's this real juxtaposition - a slice of Europe in the midst of this tropical island."

The relationship remains strong with Anzac Day ceremonies alternating between New Caledonia and New Zealand."It's a really strong connection that few people know about."

Island Times

Diary extracts from the 3rd Division's unofficial history

"Pretty French girls were conspicuous by their absence and instead a motley crew of New Caledonian natives and Javanese patrolled the streets."

"They ventured north past Bourail, past native bures, terraced hillsides, mosquito-infested swamps, French and native labourers working barefooted on the roads."

"Customs had to be understood as one chap discovered when he asked a mademoiselle to accompany him on an evening stroll and found that he was expected to escort her entire family dressed in their Sunday best."

"The amenity which was most appreciated was the mobile hot shower brought once a week. The girls initially had to shower in bathing costumes until a matting fence was erected."

Exhibition

What: War In Paradise.
Where and when: Auckland War Memorial Museum, Pictorial Gallery, March 21-August 2.