He survived four campaigns of World War II, to be felled by a hung-up tree in Rotokawa Forest.
Taupō man Neale Wallace's father, Leslie Wallace, was initially sent to Greece and then evacuated with the Allies to Crete. He escaped across the White Mountains in Crete when it was invadedby the Germans in 1941, and was then taken by troop ship to Africa where he fought in the Battle of El Alamein. He then sailed to Italy where he took part in the Battle of Monte Cassino.
But he said not one single word about any of it to anyone.
Neale first asked his father about his war experiences about 1968 after finding Leslie's war records in the family's Gillies Ave home in Taupō.
"I was 16 and had a school project to do. I showed him his war records and he became incredibly angry."
The discussion was shut down, and tragically Leslie died at work that year. Although his father never talked about the war, Neale says he is convinced it had a huge psychological effect and in recent years he has become interested in finding out about what the Allied soldiers went through during the evacuation of Crete in 1941.
Neale flew to Greece to attend the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Crete and managed to talk with other World War II veterans and Greek people. He also visited the fishing village of Sfakia, where residents risked their lives to ferry escaping Allied soldiers.
Neale said Allied soldiers suffered huge deprivations during the Battle of Crete. The island was viewed as a strategic position and the Germans organised a mass invasion by glider and parachute. Over 12 nights, the escaping soldiers had to make the treacherous climb over the White Mountains in the dark, and wait in caves until they were ferried by Greek civilians to Allied ships that would arrive in the night.
"The horrors of being shot at. The food deprivation. It must have had an effect."
Neale said the Greeks he met still remember the bravery of the New Zealand soldiers.
"When I said I was from Nouvelle Zélande, the hospitality offered to me was almost embarrassingly overwhelming."
Neale says his father was a "plain and ordinary sapper from Kaitaia", who probably signed up to the war because he viewed it as an adventure.
"When he joined up, I don't think he realised he was going to get shot at."
Taupō man Neale Wallace has researched his father's World War II experiences. Photo / Supplied
After the war, Leslie worked as a bus driver for New Zealand Road Services. He married Edna Mayall (of Auckland), and the family moved to Clements Mill Rd east of Taupō, where Les worked at the timber mill maintaining machinery and as a tree feller. When Neale was 4 or so, the family moved to 31 Gillies Ave, Taupō, and accepted a State Advances Loan to build a brand-new home on their quarter-acre section.
"Before that we rented. My parents wouldn't have owned their own home if it wasn't for the very-low-interest government loan. They also got a type of child support benefit, and this was a major contributor to the repayment of the State Advances Loan."
Neale says his parents had an enormous vegetable garden that needed to be reinstated every time heavy rain came down from Hatepe Ave.
Leslie Wallace was 51 when he died in Rotorua Hospital after a tree fell on him while working at the Rotokawa Forest in 1968.
Each year Neale attends Battle of Crete commemorations in Wellington, and said he would have gone to Crete in May this year for the 80th anniversary.
