Wairarapa war hero dies at 90

ONE of Wairarapa's foremost war heroes whose exploits against the Germans in World War II are the stuff of legend has died.
Ian (Tommy) Thomas, 90, died at Kandahar Court, Masterton, last Saturday.
A typically modest Kiwi soldier, Mr Thomas was reluctant to talk about his own war career, particularly being awarded the Military Cross, but was quick to take up the cudgel on behalf of his former comrades-in-arms, a trait evidenced by his fight to get the New Zealand Government to backdate decoration payments to veteran officers.
Mr Thomas signed up for war in 1940 and after training with 25 Battalion at Trentham Military Camp had his first taste of battle in Greece as a Lance Corporal.
The Allied troops were hopelessly under-resourced, using World War I Lee Enfield rifles and having three Vickers machineguns supplied to each company.
They were supposed to stem the tide of the German invasion of Greece without tanks, armoured cars or air support.
The uneven contest against the well-trained and prepared Germans who battered the New Zealand troops with Stuka dive bombers ended with them being evacuated to Crete before being dispatched to Egypt.
In the desert they were reformed, re-armed and, after a rest period, pitched against the Germans in a major battle to try and breach the Alamein Line.
Interviewed many years later, Mr Thomas gave this account of the battle when the New Zealand troops were taking heavy fire from German and Italian gunners:
"It was a pretty devastating night with all sorts of stuff flying about.
"There was tracer bouncing around the desert like cricket balls."
When one of their men was badly hit Mr Thomas was ordered to stay with him to see what he could do for the wounded soldier.
"I waited with him until he died, while the others went on ahead then I tried to catch up, but had no compass and didn't know where I was in the darkness.
"There were shells and stuff dancing around the desert, and I saw a fellow trying to dig a slit trench.
"I wondered who he was as he was so busy digging.
"I got on my hands and knees and looked up at him and I could see by the shape of his helmet against the moonlight he was a German."
Mr Thomas crept up and shouted: "Who goes there?"
The German flung his hands in the air.
Having decided if the German gave trouble he would stick him with his bayonet, or shoot him, Mr Thomas marched his prisoner in front of him and luckily within half an hour reached the safety of his own troops.
To his dismay he then discovered he had been so scared he hadn't fixed his bayonet, and the safety catch on his rifle was on "so I couldn't have shot the German anyway".
Later that same night Mr Thomas, now a sergeant, was shot in the thigh as he went to round up another German.
The wound, while painful, was not life-threatening and he stayed on duty.
Other incredible experiences followed in the desert campaign including surviving a direct hit in a scout car that killed the driver and gunner and knocked Mr Thomas out.
When he came to the Germans were rounding up prisoners and, as he was unarmed and had no helmet, he merely walked away from them.
He was on hand to take part in the next bid to break the Alamein Line, one of the most decisive Allied desert victories and the battle credited with breaking the back of the German attempts to hold North Africa.
After being commissioned a second-lieutenant Mr Thomas saw out the rest of the war in Italy, fighting at Cassino and being twice wounded by shrapnel at La Romolo.
He was put out of action when a mortar bomb exploded on the archway of a brick gate he was moving through and spent months recovering in hospital.
Mr Thomas was demobbed in January 1945 and came home to take up a rehab farm in Pongaroa.
He remained farming in Wairarapa until retiring and moved to a home in Udy Street, Greytown.
He endeared himself to Greytown people with his cheerful manner and old-fashioned values.
He would often be at his gate to receive mail from the postie, always with a good-morning greeting and often with a piece of fruit from his own backyard orchard.
Later when he moved to Masterton he became well known in the central business district, using a Liberty scooter to get about and for his sense of humour and cheerful disposition.
A photograph of Mr Thomas in full action kit, awaiting a signal to advance, featured on the front cover and on pages at the beginning of each chapter of the war history Myth and Reality.
An official war photographer took it just before the battle of El Alamein.
Far from being pleased to feature in the book, Mr Thomas seethed about it as he said the book denigrated the fallen comrades he honoured each Anzac Day.
Mr Thomas's wife Elizabeth pre-deceased him.
He is survived by five children and by grandchildren and great-grandchildren.