Pair seeking battalion comrades

Calling all surviving members of the Taranaki Regiment's 1st Battalion, your old comrades are looking for you.
Former Taranaki men Stan Martin and Bert Inteman are trying to trace old soldiers who were members of the 1st Battalion and left New Plymouth by train on December 15, 1941, one week after Japan bombed Pearl Harbour.
The 600 men first made camp at the Palmerston North Showgrounds but later moved to the Awatapu golf course, which is now Awatapu College.
The two men have approval from the college's board to put up a plaque in the grounds to mark the regiment's occupation of the site in 1942.
Mr Martin (85) says the idea for the plaque was suggested by his wife, June, on Anzac Day, while he was at Awatapu paying homage to the boys who never came home.
The men spent about eight months together before splitting up once the United States said New Zealand was not under threat from the Japanese. "We don't know how many of our blokes are left. Those boys would have never forgotten, we all got dispersed to different parts of the world. We had some great men in the regiment."
Old diggers don't often speak of the war to outsiders and reunions mean everything, he says.
"People say you blokes never talk anything about the war. That's quite right you don't. When you get your old mates together, you do, because they understand. You haven't got to explain everything to them and they know you're not just talking rubbish, they understand all about it," Mr Martin said. "Sadly, many of these men, the flower of the province's young manhood lie now and forever in soldiers' graves the length and breadth of Italy."
Mr Inteman (84) was only 17 at the time and needed to be 21 before serving overseas with the army so he transferred to the navy to get into the action.
He was looking forward to catching up with old friends. The plaque would be a fitting tribute to those who never came home.
"I think it is a remarkable thing. The school is giving us all of the support in the world, and if we can get a plaque in that area we will do it right. I don't think there will be many left but the ones that are, and if they could make it, it would be a really good get-together," Mr Inteman said. LEIGHTON KEITH leighton.keith@tnl.co.nz - Taranaki Saturday, 30 June 2007