大象传媒

The Wanderers Souvenir
24 Feby 1941
Somewhere at Sea (Hammock Class)
Jan /Feb 1941
From the Battle of Britain to ?

To all at home we send this card
With best of love and all Regard.
Second Echelon
Much love Wifey dear Ted

EDWARD CALDWELL, REG NO.9249 23rd BATTALION
b. Blackball, 1904 d. Christchurch 1985

This printed Card, was found tucked carefully away in a photograph album that belonged to my Aunt Alma Caldwell. This little card, with its poignant message, had survived a journey from 鈥榮omewhere鈥� on the other side of the world to Greymouth New Zealand.
鈥楩rom the Battle of Britain鈥� to?
Where had he been during the Battle of Britain?
Where was he going?
Edward Caldwell enlisted for active service in Greymouth on 20 September 1939.
Edward鈥檚 occupation was a Savings Bank Teller, with the NZ Post and Telegraph Department, Greymouth. 15 years earlier, he enlisted in the infantry of the Nelson Marlborough and West Coast Regiment, NZ Territorials. He received a commission to a 2nd Lieutenant on 11 September 1929, and promoted to Captain on 2 October 1938. On 7 November 1939, he was confirmed Captain in the 2 NZEF.
A troopship berthed in Lyttelton on 12 April 1940.
On 27 April 1940 a special parade and civic farewell function was held in Christchurch.
On 30 April 1940 the order to pack for departure was given.
At this time of departure from New Zealand, he was listed as 2 i/c C Company.The date was 1 May 1940.
All three New Zealand Echelons linked with the larger Australian contingents en route. The First and Third duly landed in Egypt, but the Second on the high seas when Germany invaded France, and Italy entered the war, was diverted to the United Kingdom.
16 June 1940 United Kingdom - Second Echelon of 2 NZEF arrives in Greenock, Scotland after a voyage of 17,000 miles from New Zealand.
18 June 1940 The Second Echelon arrives at Aldershot, Kent the troops are to be accommodated in camps at Mytchett and thereabouts.
16 July 1940 - United Kingdom, King George VI visits Second Echelon of 2 NZEF.
4 September 1940 The Prime Minister (Winston Churchill) inspects the Second Echelon of 2 NZEF at Mytchett.
5 September 1940 - Units of the Second Echelon leave Aldershot for defensive positions in the Kent and Sussex coastal sectors as reserve for a counter offensive in the event of an invasion.
In the album were pages torn from a school magazine, telling a student鈥檚 recollections of those dark days in England.
鈥業 was happily swimming in the sea at Broadstairs on Sunday morning, 3 September 1939, when I noticed that strange things were happening on the beach. People were crying and hugging each other then the sirens blew and planes were heard overhead. I soon discovered that the long-threatened war had at last been declared. All thoughts of holidays were abandoned and we went straight back home.
In October 1939 the school rented 鈥楳eadfoot鈥�, and my mother and father took me down there. To my relief and surprise this turned out to be a compact, homely house, totally different from the forbidding Gothic Convent on Central hill which I had found a chilly and frightening place. At Meadfoot the smaller numbers and the fact of being in an ordinary house, made it seem more like being on big family, and I was much happier.

Convoys of soldiers often went past the house and we would go out and cheer and wave to them - I think the nuns didn鈥檛 object to this unladylike conduct, because we were improving the morale of the men, and in some small way, contributing to the war effort. They even used to give us money to buy cigarettes to throw into the lorries. One day in the summer of 1940, a particularly long convoy came by and we spent most
of the morning standing at the gate. Then to our joy, one of the company of infantry came to a stop right outside the gate and the Captain approached us and asked if they could rest in the field next to us. It wasn鈥檛 our field, but Mother St. Thomas offered them the use of our garden and, in what was certainly one of the most exciting times of our young lives, one hundred men marched smartly into the garden and settled down on the lawn. We brought out pails of water or them to wash in, but first one group had to set up the Bren gun, which they said they always had to wherever they stopped.
Then they cooked their meal on little stoves and we brought out lemonade for them. They were New Zealanders - they gave us an address to write to and some of us became their pen pals. Captain CALDWELL visited us several times afterwards and much later, the Prime Minister of New Zealand Mr Neil (Peter) Fraser, came to see us and thank us for the welcome we had given to his men. Before they left, the men sang to us 鈥淔rom the Land of the Long White Cloud we come, Sons of the Empire every one...鈥� It was a moving moment because for us, I think it was the first time that we realised that those casualty figures were not just statistics but real people like these鈥�.

31 October 1940 - The Battle of Britain concludes.
2 - 4 November 1940 The units of the Second Echelon of 2NZEF return to Aldershot.
12 January 1941
The Second Echelon of 2 NZEF then embarked on two ships, the 鈥楢thlone Castle鈥� and 鈥楧uchess of Bedford鈥� at Liverpool. They were part of a convoy of 28 ships sailing for Egypt via Capetown. The convoys of ships carried many thousand officers, NCO鈥檚 and men, together with stores, transport, guns, ammunition, food and equipment.

After leave in Capetown, the ships continued on to Tewfik, by the Suez Canal, arriving there on 3 March 1941.
Edwards time in Egypt was short, three days later,
6 March, 1940 he was embarking on the 鈥楬ellas鈥� formerly the royal yacht of the King of Greece. Once again an overcrowded trip with 1700 soldiers jammed aboard. They moored at Piraeus, the port of Athens. By the end of the month, the whole Division, transported in several convoys, is in Greece.
5 April 1941, New Zealand Division comes under the command of 1 Australian Corps; Brigades are based in the coastal section north of Mount Olympus, and covers passes on the slopes of Mount Olympus.
6 April 1941 Germany invade Greece and Yugoslavia.
21 April The British decide to withdraw from Greece. The embarkation of troops begins next day.
22 April Greece Government goes to Crete.
26-27 April About half the men of various nationalities who have gathered at Kalamata are evacuated. the New Zealand Reinforcement Battalion is among the 8000 who remain.
28-29 April Senior Commanders (including Major General Freyberg) and other troops embark at Monemvasia and are taken to Suda Bay where they tranship to Egypt.
A New Zealand composite Battalion and its officers, including Captain Caldwell participated in the fighting at Kalamata on this night. They were taken prisoners when the plans for evacuation broke down, and consequently 7000 men surrendered.
Captain Caldwell reported missing 18 May 1941.
Geneva confirms Prisoner of War Germany 28 July 1941.
Some months after the Caldwell family had received official confirmation from the War Office of Edwards imprisonment a large wooden trunk was delivered to my Aunt鈥檚 home in Greymouth, from the 鈥楳eadfoot鈥� Cuckfield, Kent.
Inside the trunk were Edwards possessions, including photographs taken in England.Shakespeare鈥檚 Cottage at Stratford on Avon, The Cemetery where Grey wrote his elegy. Soldiers under canvas in an english field. Articles of clothing, having been laundered and pressed, were carefully wrapped in tissue paper.
And so began correspondence that was to continue through the War and for the rest of Edward and Alma鈥檚 lifetime. The Mother Superior and Nuns at the Convent received food parcels and used postage stamps, from Greymouth. The Nuns, in turn, forwarded the parcels, together with articles knitted by them, on to my Uncle, at the various Stalags where he was a prisoner of war.
Edward returned to Greymouth and the Post Office and completed 40 years service in many New Zealand towns, before retiring to Christchurch. He did not travel overseas again.
Another clipping found in the album, from the School Magazine of 1985 reads:
鈥榃e heard the sad news on August 24 1985 that Captain Ted Caldwell had passed peacefully away in his sleep at his home in Christchurch New Zealand. For those Fidelians who were evacuated to CUCKFIELD you will remember the day when our house 鈥淢eadfoot鈥� welcomed Captain Caldwell and his Company and gave them rest and some refreshments on their long way to the coast and to war.
In memory of that day, Captain Caldwell returned after the Armistice and presented 鈥楩idelis鈥� with an engraved silver salver as a token of his gratitude.
We treasure this souvenir as we do our long connection with Ted. Alma wrote and described his funeral which was in Christchurch New Zealand. We shall always keep in touch with Alma, as we have for forty years鈥�.

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