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Pacific Pioneers: the story of the engineers of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Pacific

Chapter Seventeen — Mess

page 104

Chapter Seventeen
Mess

'Come and get it' someone yelled, so we went and got it. And what did we get? Well, there were vienna sausages and dehydrated potatoes and cubed carrots and bully beef. And there were a lot of other things hardly balanced in their protein and carbohydrate elements, we fear, but at least capable of sustaining life. In Fiji there was dalo—alias taro. It grows all over Fiji and can be well cooked—if baked—but the secret seemed to elude the army. Dalo can also be turned into sweets. At least when chief 'Joe' took us up the Rewa delta he turned on disguised dalo—the disguise consisting of grated coconut over cooked dalo. And we tasted breadfruit there, too. But neither dalo, cassava (tapioca) nor breadfruit could ever take the place of a plain polato on an engineer's diet. We found that out from bitter experience in the potato famine. Kumala, yes, not bad, but dalo, no, not much.

For the Suva-sider at least Fiji provided the delightful privilege of being able to turn up his nose at army rations and go elsewhere. Money only being needed he could turn in at the Samambula Cafe or in town to the Chungking Cafe or the Peking Cafe and order steak and eggs followed by fruit salad of pawpaw and an odd banana or, alternatively, he could go all out on a crab omelette. In Lautoka one dropped in on Mrs. Thomson for a cool drink, as well as to eat off something other than tinware. An Indian meal, Hindi, Tamil or Goojarati, with chapattie plates, and several dishes of curry and spices was a rarer treat since opportunities of enjoying these were not great. Fruit, however, was enjoyed in plenty. Water melons of even too great a wateri-page break
Above: Major W. G. McKay. OBE, who was CRE in Fiji and afterwards commanded the 20th Field Company in the Solomons. When the war ceased he was in Burma Below: Lieutenant-Colonel A. Murray, OBE, who took over command ol engineers when the Third Division was reorganised lor action in Solomons Above: Lieutenant-Colonel J. Brooke-White who succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel Murray as CRE at the end of the Solomons campaign. When the division disbanded he rejoined the Second Division in Italy

Above: Major W. G. McKay. OBE, who was CRE in Fiji and afterwards commanded the 20th Field Company in the Solomons. When the war ceased he was in Burma
Below: Lieutenant-Colonel A. Murray, OBE, who took over command ol engineers when the Third Division was reorganised lor action in Solomons
Above: Lieutenant-Colonel J. Brooke-White who succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel Murray as CRE at the end of the Solomons campaign. When the division disbanded he rejoined the Second Division in Italy

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This scale model of Nissan was prepared by the Divisional Engineers in readiness for the landing and for the training of assault troops. LSTs are indicated al the heaches where heavy equipment was to go ashore

This scale model of Nissan was prepared by the Divisional Engineers in readiness for the landing and for the training of assault troops. LSTs are indicated al the heaches where heavy equipment was to go ashore

Beach scene in the Treasuries showing some of the small craft which the men constructed during leisure hours and sailed on Blanche Harhour

Beach scene in the Treasuries showing some of the small craft which the men constructed during leisure hours and sailed on Blanche Harhour

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Another scale model of Nissan showing roads and airstrips as at May 1944, four months after the landing. A comparison with photograph on opposite page indicates changes which took placeDipping through the tropics by the palm green shores' of Blanche Harbour. The native canoes, with beautifully decorated bow and stern pieces, took pari in the New Zealand aquatic sports held at Jorovcto

Another scale model of Nissan showing roads and airstrips as at May 1944, four months after the landing. A comparison with photograph on opposite page indicates changes which took place
Dipping through the tropics by the palm green shores' of Blanche Harbour. The native canoes, with beautifully decorated bow and stern pieces, took pari in the New Zealand aquatic sports held at Jorovcto

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Sapper Jack Duncan who was awarded the Military medal for bravery in action on Mono Island during the day of the occupation by the 8th Brigade

Sapper Jack Duncan who was awarded the Military medal for bravery in action on Mono Island during the day of the occupation by the 8th Brigade

Scene during an axemen's carnival held at Tangalan plantation, Nissan Island, where the chips flew in spite of the heat

Scene during an axemen's carnival held at Tangalan plantation, Nissan Island, where the chips flew in spite of the heat

page 105ness
were scarcely appreciated after several months. Pawpaws daintily cut into segments on the mess table were a daily occurrence and when the fruit cycle was complete we started off again on the mandarines and pineapples. A guava could be had for the picking and an obliging native might knock down a tasty mango from the top of a tree if you had a taste for turpentine. Rude plenty was the order of the day out in the villages and the quantity of fowl and vegetable required to be eaten at a meal was most embarrassing. And then there was the regular hut vendor with his daily dozen varieties, and for the sweet-tooth cakes at Suva Everyman's or fruit salad and a sandwich at the NZ Club.

We not only ate the best but often, under the best of conditions, thought disparagingly of Mob. camp messes. The pale0, nile-green painted mess room, done up for Christmas dinner, adorned with pin-up ladies and painted ones, as well as being scrupulously clean, was not bad for army engineers. Out in the country even we did reasonably well for food, while on manoeuvres under a large mango we tested out home-made oil drum ovens. These offspring of the blacksmith's teeming brain cooked first rate meals. Bully was, of course, the great standby, garnished occasionally with gherkins. Fresh meat, however, supplied from engineer-run refrigerators, was still obtainable. In those days, too, orderly officers used to come and listen to our complaints, even if they didn't do anything about them. Mess queues marched over under the watchful eyes of orderly corporals and bugles blew to summon us to sup. In short we used to do things in style. We had, just prior to leaving Fiji, a real foretaste of the good things to come in the shape of US rations. Morning pancakes and maple syrup, spam and viennas began to put in their appearance. They really were a novelty once. Then the long queues of the President Coolidge gave us a thirst, though not for 'cawfee '; and the transports en route to New Caledonia carried on the good work of preparing our stomachs for the worst.

We found that in New Caledonia there were redeeming features about meals—home products like oeufs\ The actual supplementing of egg powder with the real article was surprisingly frequent among engineer units. Fruit was not always so plentiful but mangoes in wondrous baskets and an occasional bunch of green bananas could be found hanging in the tents, while in season some glorious oranges and mandarines were to be bad page 106for the picking from well-laden trees. We nibbled dubiously at pommes candles and at coeur de boeuf in the gardens of French friends; but recognised a near old friend in the barbadine or grenadilla and making equally short work of the rarer watermelons and ananas or pineapples. Fresh meat was hard to get officially, but an occasional dish of venison, the connivance of local farmers and accidents to Colonel Dix's cattle before they reached the Ouaco factory—though these last were inclined to be expensive all round—eked out the chili con came, the M and V and the sauerkraut.

Then we met with the field rations C and K on the infinite desirability of which the Vella campaign speaks volumes. Suffice it here to say that a prisoner condemned to close detention was also threatened with the awful prospect of a week, not on dry bread and water, but on C ration. A really good ration would, we are assured, this being Thwigg's Own., contain the following elements: meat (bully preferred), palatable (mark the word) nutritious biscuits, compressed fruits, glucose sweets, salt tablets, chewing gum, cigarettes, compressed fuel, wet-proof matches, coffee, tea or other beverage, dried whole milk powder, vitamin capsules, and other fortifying foods with vitamins. Fresh lamb, green peas and new potatoes, followed by apple pie and cream will, however, still demand a readier allegiance from the average sapper.

As we advanced north fresh meat and vegetables began to appear in greater quantity again. The refrigerator system began to operate for us as well as for the air force and CB units. On Vella and Mono, however, our chief recollections seem to centre around the Vienna sausage:

At morn she appears in the frying pan. For dinner she floats in a stew,
Then later she'll waltz in tomato for tea And expect us to relish that too!

Viennas came disguised as rolls, but as a ready alternative spam (spiced 'am) was always ready. Fresh bread came from the bakery unit and considering that the men of the last war enjoyed dog biscuit only, for the greater part of their time, we have, it appears, cause for gratitude to the ASC once again. Scones were the specialty of cooks and some others. Some were baked, some were just 'done.' We could usually supplement the page 107meals to a certain extent at the canteen. Gum and lifesavers were acceptable additions to the bi-weekly or tri-weekly National Patriotic Fund Board's issue of soap and smokes. Apparently also the issue of rationed cigarettes towards the end of the period was sufficiently generous to allow for some hoarding. Many hordes, however, disappeared happily in smoke or unhappily into someone else's kitbag ere they left Nepoui wharf en route home.

Though no engineer would trust an ASC driver any further than an ASC driver would trust an engineer we must admit that they kept us existing. On one occasion only did they try to poison us and that with Australian rations too. It was early on in 1943; Nepoui Valley the scene There came an urgent midnight Don R with summons to the OC 'Hold that beetroot! 'Tinlined stomachs, however, were already well established among us and we could take it. No engineers died.

At the beginning of each 10-day period we recall that we ate well. Breakfast might include porridge (yes, even in the tropics), sausages, tomatoes, bread AND butter AND jam. The trouble was that towards the end of the 'break,' commons became noticeably shorter. Then of course we were glad to have Nat. Pat. issues of cheese niblets, if there were any left over after setting our patent rat traps. Dried milk and dehydrated cabbage were watered up to grace the festive board. A Nissan porker or two, satisfactorily clean billed by our freezing workers for suspected TB, was a welcome addition to fresh meat supplies. These particular pigs, incidentally, were often, to their sorrow, mistaken for the elusive Jap. They fattened themselves to truly amazing condition on succulent fruits. On Nissan, too, we enjoyed supplies of fish dynamited by official permission. The days of Saweni's surreptitious shootings and Tinipp's explosive trawlings were done with, and the army pamphlet 'Food is where you find it' was at last true for us too.

Finally we give thanks for that special fare which was forthcoming by the courtesy of our allied epicures on such high days as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Turkeys of a formidable, size, prepared for enjoyment down to the last drop of cranberry sauce, were a piece no sapper could resist. Grace, difficult perhaps to utter before bully, is surely fitting even after the memory of such meat.