The Secret Mission That Never Took Flight

Ten American Servicemen who perished
on B -17E Flying Fortress 41-2667 June 9th 1942
were interred in Waikumete Cemetery between these flags.
Photo: Cathy Currie

During the second world war a secret lay buried beneath the clay in this ordinary corner of Waikumete Cemetery. It wasn't until December 1945 that details were finally revealed of the explosion which woke half of Auckland in the dead of night. [1]

Although there was a total censorship ban to withhold information from the Japanese, there was much talk among the community, stories were rife with many exaggerating the event, and there were also accounts that were very close to what had actually taken place. [1]

The Anguish of Alcohol and the Asylum - The Bible family

The Bible family grave
Photo: Cathy Currie

The words ‘Erected by his sorrowing mother’ inscribed on the leaning headstone of John William Bible, haunted me until I began to probe into the death of this man, who passed in what one would expect to be the prime years of his life. He rests with his family in a grave surrounded by kauri fencing that has stood the ravages of time in a heritage area of the cemetery.

Early newspapers indicate that William had built up a reputation in both the Hawkes Bay and Auckland for being a drunkard. It was obvious the man had suffered an alcohol addiction for many years. The seriousness of his illness was reported through his repeated court appearances from 1888 onwards. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Newspaper reporters made light of Williams illness when his concerned mother took out a prohibition order in November 1890 to prevent people from suppling her son with spirits [8] [9]. The more I read of charges brought against him and the penalties imposed including fines [10] and incarceration with periods of hard labour, [11] [12] [13] medical treatment,[14] injury suffered while intoxicated,[15] his begging [16] and effects after drinking including Delerium Tremens; the more I realised the significant impact his illness must have had on his loved ones, and wondered what part it may have played in his death.
                                                     

Daily Telegraph, Issue 6741, 25 April 1893

David Barclay - "Flash flood takes workers' lives as they sleep"

The single men's quarters at the Kopuawhara no 4
public works camp before the flood.
Gisborne Photo News N0 87 Sep 7 1961 044a
photonews

David Barclay would have been tucked up in his bed at the  public works single men’s camp along the banks of Kopuawhara Stream in a remote area of Hawkes Bay, when the powerful force of a 16 foot high water wall overwhelmed the camp in the wee hours of Saturday morning the 19 February 1938.

At around 3.30 a.m. water began to rush across the camp at 25 miles per hour battering huts and tents with large boulders, logs and debris from a washed out bridge and the surrounding hillside. A worker raised the alarm banging on doors and ringing the cookhouse gong before he was swept away. Men fought for their lives in the darkness and cold as they struggled to reach high ground as the water rapidly rose to their necks many scrambling onto the rooves of huts which broke up and collapsed like balsa wood as the flood engulfed almost everything in its path. The camp waitresses hut was one of the first to be swept away and two men lost their lives wading into the torrent in an attempt to locate her. Sadly she was going to return home for her father’s birthday and decided to stay the night and go home the next day. She would not see her father again. [1]

The devastation after the flood.
Gisborne Photo News N0 87 Sep 7 1961 044b
photonews

Eleven men attempted to escape the flood in a truck which was turned over in the deluge, and the men were swept away to their deaths. The only part of the truck recovered was the bonnet located 10 kilometres downstream.

Survivors told tales of heroism, and there are varying reports of a group of people who survived by clambering onto the roof of the cookhouse,  then jumping across to the caterer’s quarters in the nick of time. [2]  An elderly man and a five year old girl were pulled to the safety of high ground after the man lashed himself to a hut with an electrical cable and held the girl above the water for an hour. Only three huts remained standing, one fortunate soul had sought shelter behind one of them. [3]