Anzac Day 2024: Northlanders share their families’ connections to war

Mate Alexander Milich of the Far North was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

War often feels worlds away, but battles fought on overseas soil has touched the humble lives of Northlanders. From a Far North farming family who lost their two sons in World War II, to a war hero from a humble Far North town. In commemoration of Anzac Day, we share those families’ stories.

Chasing ghosts: Family’s mission to find two Far North brothers killed in war

On a farm nestled between Pākaraka and Puketona in the Far North, lived Richard and Gertrude Cains and their five children — eldest child Hilda or “Beattie” as she was known, Alma, James, Sidney, and baby girl Ida who sadly died aged 2.

Richard, or Dick as he was commonly called, worked the farm, hand milking about 40 cows while the girls helped in the home. Of the two brothers, James was thought to be a fencer living in Taheke while Sidney worked as a farmhand and drove the family’s truck.

Sidney, the younger of the pair, was engaged to a lovely woman from Pākaraka. Life was fairly standard for the two men in their early 20s.

But then the call to war came.

The family’s truck was taken by the Government for war purposes, leaving “Gertie” having to ride her sons’ beloved horse Tim or walk to the nearest store for supplies.

And James and Sidney said their final goodbye to their parents as they headed to the battlegrounds of World War II.

During those years of war from 1939, a policeman would gallop his horse from Ōhaeawai down to Pākaraka then up toward Puketona delivering devastating news to families about their loved ones lost at war.

Twice — less than a year apart — Gertie looked up to see the policeman riding down her driveway.

The first was in the winter of 1942. A 27-year-old James had died on July 16 in Egypt during the Western Desert campaign, fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts.

The second in the summer of 1943. Sidney, 24, fell on Valentine’s Day in Stillingfleet in the United Kingdom.

James Cains died aged 27 in 1942 while deployed in Egypt.

Sidney Cains died aged 24 in 1943 while in the United Kingdom.

The brothers lay in separate cemeteries far from home. James in Egypt’s El Alamein War Cemetery, which contains the graves of men who died at all stages of the Western Desert campaigns; and Sidney in Stonefall Cemetery in the UK.

The brothers’ great-niece, Trish Edwards, said her family had always known about James and Sidney — they remembered them often. Her father, Sidney James Tubbs, was named after his uncles before they left for war.

But their stories, which take them beyond a name, had been hard to find.

“Losing them to war, the impact just goes on for generations,” Edwards said.

Her dad and wife Gill had planned to find his uncles’ graves abroad, but were hampered by Covid.

However, Edwards’ friend Carol Smith, of Ōkaihau but teaching in Egypt, took a seven-hour taxi journey in 2022 to James’ grave to place a pot of home-grown gerberas and a $2 New Zealand coin on the family’s behalf.

Carol Smith places her home-grown gerberas at James Cains' memorial in El Alamein War Cemetery, Egypt.

“It felt like we had reached out and touched him,” Edwards said. “Dad wondering if that was the first visitor he had ever had from home.”

But Sidney was not to be left out. Last year another of Edwards’ friends, Kim Komene, of Kerikeri, took a trip to Stonefall Cemetery to find him while visiting the UK.

They were about to give up when a gardener popped her head through a hedge and asked if she could help with anything. She guided Komene and a family member to an old part of the cemetery where fallen soldiers had been buried until it had run out of room.

There, Komene found Sidney. Instead of a $2 coin, she placed a kiwi fridge magnet brought all the way from Kerikeri.

“It was an emotional experience locating Sidney and being able to share that with my dad,” Edwards said.

Kim Komene found Sidney Cains' headstone while on a trip to the United Kingdom.

In a heart-warming twist, Sidney has gone from being quietly remembered by family to centre stage. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is using the family’s discovery of Sidney’s grave for its first entry into the Harrogate Flower Show, which attracts about 40,000 visitors each year.

He also featured in a speech by Kiwi author and journalist Kate Spencer delivered at the third Anzac Day commemorations, which she started, at Stonefall Cemetery.

The ‘hero’ and first-class pilot from humble Waiharara

Far North man Mate Alexander Milich lay on his back in a field, watching an Air Force plane make practice flights overhead.

“I will drive one of those one day,” the happy-go-lucky Waiharara resident known as Alex told his companion.

Milich’s ambitions came to fruition in March 1941 in the midst of World War II.

For three weeks, he had to pester his father, Kleme, to sign the papers letting him join the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Eventually, Kleme agreed.

Milich served nine months in the Home Guard, the entrusted defence force should the country be invaded, before being enlisted for aircrew training in 1942.

Mate Alexander Milich being awarded his wings on July 9, 1943, in Uplands, Canada.

Two years later, a fully trained Milich was posted to the Royal Air Force’s No 198 Squadron in the UK. As a pilot of a Typhoon rocket fighter, he took part in 101 operational flights, which included 73 low-level attacks on enemy objectives and 28 armed reconnaissance flights.

He was regarded as one of the best pilots in the squadron operating rocket-projectile Typhoons, great-nephew Jason Milich said.

“In his squadron, he was known as Tim and regarded as a first-class pilot. He was one of the strongest men physically ... and one of the most popular.”

While pulling out of a nosedive after having set a German transporter on fire in the French commune of Vimoutiers, Milich spotted a petrol pump camouflaged as a haystack.

“He returned and blew up the pump with his cannon shells,” Jason said.

News clippings saved by the family reported Milich had fought in the Battle of Normandy in June 1944, in which the ferocity of the German onslaught killed several pilots and forced others to bail because their planes were too damaged to land.

But his fate came six months later.

On the morning of December 8, Milich took off from Gilze en Rijen in the Netherlands to carry out an attack on a German headquarters.

Immediately after rockets and cannons were successfully fired at the headquarters, Milich radioed to say he was having engine trouble.

He never returned to base because his aircraft had crashed minutes after the assault.

Milich’s body was recovered from the Typhoon and buried by the Dutch in the parish cemetery at Woudenberg — grave 333, Jason said.

“A white cross bearing his name was erected on a well-kept grave covered with flowers.”

In 1945, Milich was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts in destroying many enemy tanks, motor transports, railway trucks, and gun positions.

Thousands of Northlanders will turn out for Anzac Day commemorations around the region today. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A citation read: “He has led his section on many occasions with considerable success, often against heavy defences.”

Milich was praised for taking a “creditable part” in the battle of Falaise Gap, and for closely supporting the army at Le Havre, Bologna and Calais, in the freeing of the Port of Antwerp.

“On several occasions, Flying Officer Milich’s aircraft sustained damage from anti-aircraft fire but, despite this, he has always pressed home his attacks with vigour and determination.”

Jason said his great-uncle’s war records were released years afterwards, detailing the full extent of his bravery.

“Alex was a hero, a first-class pilot, and an extremely brave man who gave the ultimate — his life to help win the war for the Allies.”

• The Advocate would like to thank the families who shared their stories and photos.