Memories at end of hard-fought road

Bert Bowling (right) and his former platoon sergeant, Jim Barclay, reminisce over The Desert Road. Picture / Mark Mitchell

The last time Bert Bowling met a Prime Minister, he was being evacuated from Greece. Yesterday he met one again - Helen Clark who launched a book on war experiences.

Mr Bowling, 96, was in Wellington for the launch of The Desert Road, a collection of stories from New Zealand servicemen and women involved in the North Africa Campaign of World War II.

Sixteen ex-servicemen and women told their stories of battlefields such as Sidi Rezegh, Belhamed and El Alamein. They served as engineers, in the Maori Battalion, as sappers, often in appalling conditions. Mr Bowling served in North Africa for two years.

His trip to the capital was "a marvellous experience", which he would not have missed "for anything".

He was pleased that the book had been written and would teach a new generation about the sacrifices of "the ordinary, everyday men" who gave up everything to go to war.

Mr Bowling also told of the trepidation he felt at becoming a machine gunner.

In World War I, machine gunners did not have a long life expectancy: they were stuck in pillboxes, making them stationary targets. Fortunately for Mr Bowling, they were a bit more mobile by World War II.

His most powerful memory was of the battle of El-Alamein, and the "enormous barrage that was put up".

"The Germans thought it was bigger than Stalingrad."

Even after 60 years it was obvious Mr Bowling found it difficult talking about his experiences. On a phone from Wellington, his voice cracked, and he had to give the phone to his daughter.

"He gets quite emotional about it now," she says

Many New Zealanders were taken prisoner in North Africa, many were wounded, and almost 3000 never came home.

Prime Minister Helen Clark told the audience the book made readers "sense the chaos and fear of being under fire, and we hear of loyalty to mates. We learn of great feats of courage during that most courageous of events."

She said the oral history project began in 2000 when she was at Gallipoli and thought about the "thousands of young men who served and gave their lives there".

"Some of our World War I veterans had had their stories recorded, but it was simply too late to record more."

In their own words

"I cried. I thought it was the end of the world. All the dancing had gone ... Here I was, still in my teens."

- Maiki Parkinson on discovering he had lost part of a leg.

"Probably one of the most breathtaking that the New Zealanders ever were in."

- Jim Barclay describing the 1942 break out at Minqar Qa'im, when the New Zealanders forced their way through the ring of German troops.

* The Desert Road edited by Culture and Heritage Ministry historian Megan Hutching, is on sale on Friday.