John Lind McLean was a quiet man. When this retired Southland farmer died in 1997, he did so miles away from the place he had called home for most of his life. Those who had known the man they called ‘Jack’ in fact knew little about him at all. Jack who had been a bachelor farmer all his life, was retired when he arrived in Richmond, Nelson some thirty years before in the mid-1960s. With no known family connections in Marlborough or the Tasman Jack had died almost anonymously with the exception of the few fellow pensioner veterans he met with at the Waimea or Nelson RSA. When he died the RSA had made the necessary arrangements for an informal burial in the RSA Section of the Marsden Cemetery in Nelson. As a result his medals had ended up with the Nelson RSA executive. Because there was no-one in evidence to pass Jack’s medals on to, they remained in the custody of Nelson RSA for the next 25 years. The re-discovery of Jack’s medals and a copy of his Discharge Certificate at a time the Nelson RSA was affecting a move to a new facility in Stoke prompted the President to contact MRNZ to see whether we could locate a McLean family descendant to return the medals to.
War clouds
John Lind McLean was born on 4 April 1911 at Thornbury, a small township on the east bank of the lower Aparima River in Western Southland, about 10 kilometres north-east of Riverton. Eighteen months later, farmers James McLean and Magdalene (nee LIND) welcomed a daughter, Mona Magdalene McLEAN (1912-2002). The siblings grew up on the family farm at Gladfield, north of Riverton and about 5 kilometres east of Otautau. At the age of fourteen Jack won a free senior place to attend the Riverton District High School after topping the merit list for passing the Matriculation and Senior Scholarship Examinations in 1926. Following his schooling, Jack returned to work as a Farm Hand on the family farm at Gladfield, eventually moving into his own accommodation at Wrights Bush.
When War was declared in September 1939 and it became clear that New Zealand was going to commit an Infantry Division (15-20,000 soldiers) to the British and Allied Forces, recruiting centres were inundated with volunteers. 28 year old Jack McLean was in two minds to volunteer, finally deciding it was better to volunteer than to face the stigma of conscription. Jack enlisted at Invercargill on 28 June 1940, just days ahead of the cut-off date for voluntary enlistment – 22 July 1940, after which balloted national conscription of single eligible men was to commence.
2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force
The government’s announcement of its intention to raise and train an Infantry Division-sized Expeditionary Force as this countries contribution to Britain following the declaration of war on Germany, mobilised a large number of territorial volunteers who formed the basis of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF). This followed our First World War commitment to the Empire which had been the 1st NZEF, or just NZEF. Naval volunteers were attached to serve with the Royal Navy while Air Force volunteers were tested for basic flight capabilities to supply aircrew – pilots, observers/navigators and air gunners. These would undergo selection for suitability in NZ and then be trained in the advanced skills in either New Zealand, or in Canada as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS).
NZ’s commitment of soldiers comprised an Infantry Division of three Rifle battalions (18th, 19th and 20th) plus supporting arms of artillery, engineers, signals, transport & supply, to be called the 2nd NZ (Infantry) Division (2 NZ Div) commanded by Major-General Bernard Freyberg VC. The 15–20,000 troops required for the NZ Division were to be deployed in three Echelons.
The 20th Battalion was formed in Christchurch at Burnham Military Camp on 6 October 1939, with Lieutenant-Colonel Howard Kippenberger of Rangiora in command. Its personnel (all volunteers) were drawn from the South Island. The battalion was formed into four rifle companies, designated from A to D which corresponded to the Canterbury, Southland, Nelson-Marlborough-West Coast and Otago districts. A headquarters company included the specialist support troops; signallers, anti-aircraft and mortar platoons, and transport personnel.
20th (NZ) Battalion
The 1st Echelon landed in Egypt in Feb 1940, while the 2nd Echelon was diverted to Britain upon Italy’s entry into the war and did not reach Egypt until March 1941. The bulk of the 20th Battalion arrived at its base in Maadi, Egypt on 14 February 1940 and was quickly engaged in further training, including brigade level exercises. It also received its infantry support weaponry, such as the Bren light machine gun, Boyes anti-tank rifle and 2-inch mortar. As well as training, the battalion performed garrison duty at a defensive position known as the Baggush Box, in the Western Desert as well as guarding the route between Alexandria and Mersa Matrush, rotating in and out with the other battalions of the 4th Brigade, for most of the next 12 months.
Back in NZ, 15927 Private John Lind McLean was mobilised with some 3000 Infantry reinforcement personnel who had been assembled as part of the 3rd Echelon. The Third Echelon left New Zealand on 27 August 1940 and arrived in Egypt on the 29 September thereby completing the concentration of the 2nd NZ Division (the Div.) in North Africa.
Greece
The Allied entry into the war had forced the German Army to invaded Greece on the 6 April 1941 in support of their Italian allies. After a relatively limited period of training in Egypt, the Div’s 4th Brigade, one of a number of Allied units, was dispatched to Greece in early March 1941 to help defend it from the Italians who were advancing from the north.
The 4th NZ Infantry Brigade was tasked with the defence of the Aliakmon Line in northern Greece with the 20th Battalion preparing and manning the defences along the western end of the line. On 6 April, the Germans invaded Greece and their advance was so rapid that it quickly threatened the Florina Gap. The brigade was withdrawn to the Servia Pass where it manned defences until the Germans reached the Pass on 14 April. The lightly-equipped Allies defended the Pass for three days until forced to withdraw towards the Mediterranean coast, the 4th Brigade being used to provide a protection force to cover their withdrawal. The Brigade was then moved to Porto Rafti, east of Athens, from where it was evacuated to Crete.
The evacuation from Greece began on 28 April 1941 and as the men embarked onto the waiting ships, in order to take the maximum number aboard, the soldiers were forced to throw everything they carried over the side except their rifles and ammunition. Radios, digging tools and heavy weapons were all dumped in the sea before anyone was taken on board.
Crete
In May 1941, many of the weary and ill-equipped troops evacuated from Greece that were landed on the island of Crete became its Garrison Force. The island was placed under the command of General Bernard Freyberg VC, the commander of 2NZEF. After the island sustained two weeks of intense bombing, Crete was subjected to the first total airborne invasion in history. The Kiwis bore the brunt of the attack and after 3 days of tough fighting, Maleme Airfield (the key to the control of Crete) was taken by the Germans.
On Crete, the 20th Battalion was positioned to the east of the town of Galatas. On 22 May, it was used in a counterattack on Maleme airfield, which had been allowed to be occupied by the Germans the previous day. The late arrival of its relief meant the battalion was late to its starting position. The attack was unsuccessful and resulted in heavy casualties, although not as high as the Germans’ own losses.
When Galatas fell to the Germans on 25 May, the 20th Battalion was in danger of being cut off. It successfully regrouped and assisted in the recapture of the town. The battalion withdrew on 26 May, which marked the beginning of a retreat to Hora Sfakion, on the southwest coast of Crete. Once the evacuation commenced it became clear that not all those still on the island would escape. Thousands of men were left behind and these men were ordered to surrender, with many spending the rest of the war in prison camps in Italy or Germany. The Allied Force was forced to withdraw over mountains to evacuate the island. As in Greece, the 2oth Battalion fought a number of rear-guard actions to stop the following Germans. On arrival at the evacuation beaches, it was found that there was insufficient room on the Australian destroyers designated as transport for all of the battalion’s personnel. While the bulk of the battalion was evacuated on 30 May, Kippenberger was forced to select 40 men to stay behind and form a rear guard under the command of Burrows. After manning defensive positions to prevent Germans infiltrating the cordon around the evacuation beaches, the rear-guard was evacuated the following day. About 6,500 soldiers had surrendered while a few escaped into the hills and attempted to find their own way back to Egypt.
North Africa
The 20th Battalion was evacuated to Egypt having lost over half its original complement of personnel during the Greece and Crete campaigns. After a short period of rest, Kippenberger set about bringing the battalion back up to strength. Nearly 400 replacements joined the battalion and stragglers, separated from the battalion for various reasons during the previous two months while in Greece and Crete, continued to arrive for several weeks as they made their way across the Mediterranean by various means, including small sailboats. By mid-June, the battalion was at full strength and several weeks were spent at the battalion’s previous positions at Baggush, engaged in intensive desert training.
Operation CRUSADER
In November 1941, the 20th Battalion was a participant in Operation Crusader, the British Eighth Army’s offensive to halt the drive of the Axis forces (German and Italian) towards Egypt in the North African desert.
On the night of 25 November, the 20th battalion along with the 18th Battalion was tasked with the night-time capture of Belhamed, a hill adjacent to the Sidi Rezegh escarpment in Libya, and which overlooked an airfield where other elements of 2nd NZ Div. were dug in. The securing of Belhamed and Sidi Rezegh were considered essential if the corridor across the airfield to Tobruk on the Mediterranean coast was to be kept open. The 20th was in place in its expected position having taken the Belhamed with few losses.
On 26 November the men were still digging in as they came under attack from heavy artillery, mortar, and small-arms fire from a strong enemy pocket situated in a depression between Belhamed and Sidi Rezegh. Casualties mounted steadily and the pocket of entrenched enemy became the objective of 20th Battalion.
Rommel had concentrated almost his entire force of heavy guns on Belhamed.
After two unsuccessful attempts to relieve Tobruk, 2 NZ Div. as part of the British 8th Army participated in Operation Crusader launched in November 1941. This was a large-scale infantry and armoured offensive designed to crush the Afrika Korps, lift the siege of Tobruk and force the Axis forces from the Cyrenaica region of Libya. This operation was the NZ Division’s first experience in desert warfare.
Leading the 4th NZ Inf Brigade (18, 19, 20) on 21 November, the 20th Battalion cut the road between Bardia and Tobruk and attacked several German trucks. While the 4th Brigade continued to advance, the battalion stayed to cover the road, occasionally intercepting and destroying lightly armoured vehicles of the 21st Panzer Division, until 23 November at which time it was relieved and placed in reserve.
Belhamed
The 6th Brigade (24,25,26) supported by several Valentine tanks to the Sidi Rezegh feature which they did with few losses, capturing 260 German soldiers and three 88 mm guns. The next day, the 20th Battalion led the 4th Brigade in linking up with the 6th Infantry Brigade, which was struggling to hold onto the gains made at Sidi Rezegh. On the night of 25 November, the 20th Battalion along with the 18th Battalion was tasked with the night-time capture of Belhamed, a hill adjacent to Sidi Rezegh. The units advanced to their objective, bayonets fixed, with the 20th Battalion on the left. Instructed to take no prisoners, Belhamed was quickly seized with minimal losses. The battalion began digging in and consolidating its position.
On 28 November, the Germans and Italians began a counter attack. German artillery and mortars were very effective in targeting both Sidi Rezegh and Belhamed over the next three days inflicting numerous casualties while the battalions held firm. After five days, the battle-weary 2oth Battalion now much reduced in numbers, strained almost to the limit of endurance by the constant pounding by German artillery and mortar fire, crouching in damp slit trenches, cold and hungry for almost six days and night, the 20th doggedly defended its position against repeated attacks.
The 1st December was disastrous for the 20th. For some time in the early morning there was complete calm until mid-morning when the 15th Panzer Division appeared in strength, advancing on Belhamed at speed from the south-west. The merciless shelling together with artillery and mortar fire almost destroyed the battalion. Accompanied by significant German and Italian infantry, 15 Panzer Division swarmed over Belhamed and Sidi Rezegh. Units had no other option but to surrender or be annihilated. Among the surviving prisoners of war (POW) was Pte. Jack McLean. Only one Rifleman managed to escape capture.
Captured
The 1st December was a disastrous day for the battalion. For some time in the early morning there was complete calm and then Belhamed began taking German artillery and mortar fire. Allied artillery responded accounting for many of the tanks until German armour arrived and destroyed this capability. The casualty toll of 20 Battalion climbed. The Battalion was ordered to remain in position and that armoured support would be sent to their rescue. These failed to materialise. Unbeknown to the 20th Battalion, Rommell’s 15th Panzer Division with its attendant German and Italian infantry and heavy artillery, had positioned themselves to the south of Belhamed. German armour began its attack, preceded by the infantry that had advanced towards Belhamed in darkness of the early hours of 1 December. The firepower that was reined onto 20 Battalion’s position was overwhelming and all but destroyed the battalion. The Panzers and infantry quickly swept over the battalion’s position giving units little option but to surrender or be annihilated. The survivors, Pte. Jack McLean among become part of the largest group of NZ POWs captured in one action during WW2.
When Operation Crusader was eventually concluded, 20 Battalion’s casualties were the most significant for the battalion of the entire war; 60 soldiers killed or died of their wounds, and another 126 were wounded. Op Crusader had been a very costly campaign for the NZ Division. NZ casualties numbered 4620: 879 killed and 1699 wounded – 2042 men became prisoners of war. The 2nd New Zealand Division had fought its most costly battle of the war. The casualties across all units totaled 879 dead and 1700 wounded.
Benghazi, Libya
Stripped of their weapons and searched, the battalion survivors were herded into groups guarded by Italian infantry. The battalion position was ransacked by both Germans and Italians for food, medical supplies and anything of usefulness and value. Those in the field hospital were loaded onto trucks while the remainder, including the walking wounded, were marched about two kilometres towards Sidi Rezegh where German medics removed the walking wounded to hospitals. The remainder continued to march north-west for another four hours with little food or water, towards the enemy’s rear area from where they would be trucked to Benghazi, the main staging point for POWs being shipped to Italy.
Benghazi was approximately 1000 kilometers west of Belhamed and took two days or considerably longer according to the transport available and the time spent at one or other of the many staging places along the route and manned by Italian infantry. Overnight stops were made at staging compounds, makeshift barbed wire cages in the open desert, sometimes equipped with Italian bivouac tents for shelter, primitive sanitation, and a little bedding. Cold nights, with one blanket among three or more and little or no food and water, before going on next day. Danger also dogged the ‘enemy’ column of vehicles when they were bombed and machine-gunned on occasions by unknowing allied aircraft pilots which resulted in even more casualties.
At Benghazi the mainly British and New Zealand POWs numbered 6000 plus were kept in an open compound which provided only a limited number of barracks and sheds. Over 700 had to jam into each draughty, unlit shed at night, the majority sleeping on the concrete floor. Inadequate food of sorts consisted of half a pound of bread, a little macaroni soup, and a little tinned meat was issued daily. This resulted in men experiencing the ‘blackouts’ through lack of nourishment but enough to stay alive – just. Water had to be brought to the compound in barrels: fresh water for drinking but only sea water for washing. Proper sanitary arrangements were non-existent and dysentery cases were not uncommon.
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Italy
In mid-December, Pte. Jack McLean and fellow prisoners were crammed into the holds of Axis cargo or passenger vessels for the voyage to Tripoli and then a 36-hour voyage across the Mediterranean to Naples. The men had to sleep on the bare iron deck, ‘head to tail’ and alongside each other like sardines in a tin. In each corner of the hold were large buckets for use as toilets. During the daytime a certain amount of fresh air entered the hold but at night the hatch was closed and secured by tarpaulin sheets. There was no artificial lighting available and those that needed to use the buckets at night very rarely found their way to them and certainly not back again. Many of the prisoners were already suffering from dysentery so you can quite imagine the terrible stench in the hold.
The danger in crossing the Mediterranean was from German submarines ‘wolfpacks’ combined with the presence of Allied submarines, a very dangerous place by day and night. The ship’s Italian Master’s wanted to cross the Med at speed because of the dangers from both submarine and air attack. To highlight this danger, on 8 December 1941 a large draft of 2,100 POWs including many from Op Crusader, had left Tripoli on the Dutch cargo ship Sebastian Venier (fmly ka Jantzen; Jason), an 8000-ton cargo vessel under the control of an Italian Master and German guards that was bound for Naples. On the following afternoon, just off Cape Methoni near Pilos on the south-west coast of the Greek Peloponnese, Sebastian Venier was struck** by a torpedo fired from HM Submarine Porpoise. The torpedo hit the ship in one of the forward holds killing 500 or more prisoners packed into the hold including 45 New Zealanders. Hatch-boards covering the holds that had men lying on them also fell in killing others as they crashed below. The ship was semi-steerable however after the Italian master abandoned the ship as lifeboats were lowered to evacuate POWs, and a storm began to build as night fell. A German naval officer onboard took control of the ship and succeeded eventually in grounding the ship on rocks at Methoni Point thereby saving many of the 1500+ POW survivors.
Note: ** POW ships were unmarked and the Allied ULTRA security measures applied to prevent the enemy learning of plans (incl shipping movements) sometimes meant an Allied sub commander might not receive timely advice of the movements of ‘friendly’ shipping. The Master of the ‘Sebastian Venier’ desperate to make the dash across the Mediterranean together with HMS Porpoise’s lack of advice regarding the POW ship’s departure at 1600hrs, tragically resulted in ‘Sebastian Venier’ appearing to be a legitimate enemy target.
Labour camps
On arrival at Naples the POWs were temporarily housed before being moved to camps which would be transitory before being moved towards further north into Germany. The movement of prisoners towards Austria and Germany was necessitated by their ever growing numbers and the lack of purpose built facilities in Italy. This was a stepped process through a series of Italian transit and labour camps while additional facilities in Austria and Germany were constructed. Officers and Other Ranks were separated and would remain in separate camps for the duration of the war. For most men arriving in Italy, long distance travel in closed cattle-wagons was their first experience. From June 1941 until April 1942, long trainloads of POWS travelled the length of Italy on journeys lasting from five to ten days. An average of 35 officers in a wagon made it difficult for everyone to lie down however for those in the Other Ranks (not officers) each wagon had as many as 55 crammed into them. Biscuits and tinned meat – the only rations – seem usually to have been issued only for a four-day journey and generally on a very lean scale. Toilet facilities were confined to one bucket which quickly filled to overflowing.
Italy: Campo PG 52 ~ POW No. 7398
In early February 1942, POW #7398 Pte. Jack McLean together with most of NZ’s capture Other Ranks were transported to a Labour Camp, Campo PG 52 at Fontanabuona near the city of Chivaria in northern Italy, about 14 kilometres inland from Genoa. The conditions in Campo PG 52 were much better than at Capua as it was a large camp of about 2,000 prisoners, mostly British and South Africans.
Accommodation was in Nissan huts, about 60 to each hut under the command of a British NCO. Double bunk beds were an improvement compared to the transit camps, and the first Red Cross parcels arrived, one parcel between five men per week. These contained biscuits, butter, cheese, dried milt, tea, coffee or cocoa, meat, fish, tinned paste, Oxo or Bovril, 50 cigarettes and many other things. All empty tins were saved which were used to make stoves and what was known as ‘brew-up machines’ for hot drinks and cooking food. The prisoners were issued with a battle dress jacket and trousers, underwear and basic toiletries which were badly needed. Other POW facilities at the camp included educational classes, an orchestra and a concert party, the instruments being sent from England.
Campo PG 52 was a farm oriented Labour Camp where the men carried out general farm work, digging ditches and assisting where needed collecting fruit and tomatoes. Jack spent six months at PG 52 (02 Feb 1942-14Aug 1942) until he was transferred east to Labour Camp PG 107 near Udine, 4-500 kilometers closer to Austria.
Italy: Campo PG 107
Campo PG 107 was one of a cluster of Labour Camps in north-east Italy near the city of Udine. Apart from PG 107 the others included 107/2 (Prati), 107/4 (San Donà di Piave), 107/5 (Torre di Confine), and 107/7 (La Salute di Livenza). PG 107 situated five kilometers from Torviscosa, Udine interned mostly New Zealanders and South Africans. The POWs here were engaged in general labouring and construction tasks. Jack McLean remained in this camp for a year until 15 Aug 1943 at which time the POWs were entrained for work camps in Austria and Germany. Jack was destined for a German POW camp, 220 kilometers from Udine across the north-east border into Austria.
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Austria: Stalag XVIII–A
Pte. Jack McLean and his fellow NZ POWs were transferred in August 1943 to a POW camp at Wolfsberg, Stalag XVIIIA (18a) which was the primary POW camp in Austria. Stalag XVIII was a hub for several smaller work camps, or Arbeitskommandos, usually abbreviated to kommando.
Arbeitskommandos were preferable to most others camps. As well as an apparent tendency to transfer British and especially Dominion prisoners from the industrial work camps to the farm camps, the rigid policing and disciplining of prisoners in the farm camps was eased and in some cases almost lax. Typically only soldiers and NCOs below the rank of Sergeant were sent to these camps, of which there were many thousands. Though the hours of work in the farm camps were much longer – sometimes fifteen or sixteen as against eight to ten hours daily – they were no longer than those worked by Austrian men and women. The work could be as strenuous as one liked to make it, and the outdoor life kept the men tanned and fit. Sleeping quarters were often warmer and more comfortable, and there was invariably more food to eat. Prisoners were in fact usually given the same as the civilian workers. There was also a certain amount of freedom to move about, and the civilian farming population people were on the whole quite friendly once the initial suspicions and language barriers had been broken down.
The Germans even made little improvement in this period. At the end of 1941 the British compound still contained only the original three converted stables, which were still too crowded to allow any space for indoor recreation. There were too few tables and seats to accommodate all the occupants so the remainder were accommodated in tents – not a good place to be in the winter! Stoves were fitted in time to provide winter heating; but for some time only a certain proportion of the prisoners had more than one blanket, and although a large reserve of clothing had arrived from Geneva, the Germans placed every obstacle in the way of its issue, so that everyone was short of warm underclothing and socks. The lighting was bad enough to make reading virtually impossible. Even the few ineffectual lamps installed were switched off at dark because there were no blackout fittings for the stable windows. There was no interference with the issue of one Red Cross food parcel a week, but an International Red Cross visitor reported that the commandant thought the British prisoners received too many parcels and had therefore decided to cut down their rations. The general impression recorded at this time was that British prisoners were not being treated as well as prisoners of other nationalities.
The large numbers of prisoners in the working camps attached to Stalag XVIII-A did not have so much time to think. By the time they had done their nine and a half or ten and a half hours’ work (even longer on the farms), got back to their camps and done their chores, they had little time or energy left for anything but food and sleep. There were nearly two hundred New Zealanders among the hundreds working on the large dam at Lavamünd, some fifty at Klagenfurt on building work, other parties on road-making, railway maintenance, or at sawmills, and dozens of small parties on the many farms in the Stiermark-Kärnten area within the Stalag’s control.
The POW population in Stalag XVIII-A as of Aug 1943 numbered 5,316: 3178 English, 407 Scottish, 34 Irish, 833 Australian, 814 New Zealanders (including 320 Maoris), 12 Canadians, 5 South Africans.
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In September 1943 the POWs learned that an armistice had been signed between Italy and the Allied Forces, who were then on the point of invading Italy from Sicily. This lead to the split between Italians loyal to the Crown and those who supported the Facists led by Mussolini. The writing appeared to be on the wall for many of their guards who became a lot less vigilant and almost semi-friendly towards their charges.
In October, Pte. Jack McLean was allocated to Work Camp A95GW at Marien en Martzoul where the work largely involved farm labouring. After nine months in this camp to July 1944, Jack and the NZers at Stalag XVIII-A were transferred to another sub-camp, Work Camp 1139L at Gamo which was also a farm work camp. Here Jack remained until 3 April 1945.
In December 1944, Stalag XVIII-A was inadvertently bombed by the US Air Force during which the British Surgery and Chapel were destroyed and 61 POWs were killed. By the end of the month the number of POWs at Stalag XVIII-A had doubled, reaching its peak of 10,667 of which 40% were Australian and 10% New Zealanders, the remainder being British.
References: Wikipedia: ‘Op Crusader’; https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/; www.stalag18a.org; www.forces-war-records.co.uk
Escape!
While some of the POWS engaged their free time with various pastimes, for others there was an absorbing outlet in escape. Few made the attempt from the Stalag, but there were many attempted escapes from working camps during what was known to prisoners as the ‘spring handicap’. It was not very difficult to get away from a working party, pick up a cache of food and civilian clothing, and make across country. The objectives at this period were Switzerland or Hungary, or the partisan-held hill territory in Yugoslavia. In spite of the sparseness of frontier guards at this stage of the war, there were few successes. For those caught the punishment was usually three weeks in solitary confinement on bread and water, followed by a period at one of the ‘disciplinaire’ Arbeitskommandos, which had been created to discourage prisoners who broke the rules. At these there was usually heavy pick-and-shovel work.
The 4th of April, 1945 was Pte. Jack McLean’s 34th birthday. Jack decided to give himself a birthday to remember by making his only successful escape bid of his four years ‘in the bag’. While being marched from the farm paddocks back to Camp 1139L at the end of a long day, Jack managed to slip away from the column without the guards noticing and disappeared. He remained at large until 14 April when he was unexpectedly surprised by civilian police, apprehended and and returned to the work camp. The birthday present to himself netted him and added bonus of three weeks in solitary confinement on bread and water only.
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Home Sweet Home
On April Fools Day, 1945 the Allies began their offensive in northern Italy. After Mussolini was executed on the 28 April,
the 2nd NZ Division pushed north towards what would be its last battle on Italian soil. The NZ Div. successfully took the city of Trieste on 2 May after which the Germans in Italy surrendered. Word travelled fast and soon the occupants of the two work camps in Austria that contained NZers made their way down towards port city of Trieste, a mere 130 kilometres south of Udine.
On arrival at the New Zealanders base depot the POWs were issued with Army uniforms and given their first English breakfast in several years. After an extended period of celebration with as much merriment, eating and drinking as the weakened POWs could handle, gradually they absorbed the feeling of freedom, attending to their wounds and sickness, and taking much needed time to recover from their extend ordeal. Being able to relax and enjoy the sights of Trieste was a bonus while awaiting the availability of troopships to take them back to Egypt.
Having had their ills and injuries attended to and their strength rebuilt with good food (and plenty of the local liquid ‘pick me-up’), a debrief of the POWs time spent in captivity was conducted during which the men had to complete a post-captivity questionnaire for intelligence purposes. Being a man of few words, Jack McLean’s responses were predictably brief:
The troops were eventually ferried back to England and following a period of recovery and local leave, were returned to New Zealand.
Medals: 1939/45 Star, Africa Star w/ “8th ARMY” clasp, Italy Star, War Medal 1939/45, NZ War Service Medal (1939/45)
Service Overseas: 4 years 169 days
Total 2NZEF Service: 5 years 21 days
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After the war ….
Jack McLean returned to New Zealand and the family farm at Gladfield to his parents and sister, Mona. Jack kept a low profile busing himself with his work. When Jack’s father died in 1947, his mother Magdalene and Mona carried on farming. Magdalene McLean died in 1951 and was buried with her husband at Riverton. Mona and Jack remained on the farm, Mona being his housekeeper. Around 1963 Jack sold the farm and he and Mona moved to 441 Herbert Street, Invercargill from where he continued to undertake more localised farm work. Around 1973, Jack decided it was time to retire and to seek a warmer climate. He said farewell to Mona and moved north to Richmond in Nelson. Home for the first decade or so of his retirement was 68 Bateup Road until old age caught up with him and he re-located around 1985 closer to the centre of town to a pensioner flat at 4/145 Upper Queen Street, Richmond. Here Jack lived out his days.
John Lind McLean died on 4 May 1997 at the age of 86 and was buried in the RSA Section of the Wakapuaka Cemetery in Nelson. Jack’s sister Mona Magdalene McLean who remained unmarried, died in Invercargill on Armistice Day 2002 at the age of 89. Mona was buried in the family’s original home town of Riverton. On her parents grave at Invercargill, both sister and brother are remembered together.
Limited options
With neither Jack nor Mona having married or having children, my search for a descendant to become the custodian of Jack’s medals presented me with limited options. Having found Jack’s parents grave and that of Mona in the Riverton Cemetery, I was able to work backwards to locate the last of the McLean siblings of J.B. McLean Snr. to have been working the Brakenridge farm. Given the farm had been in McLean hands continuously since the late 1800s, it was quite on the cards there would still be McLean descendants of J. B. McLean’s other sons and daughters in the general area. I didn’t have to go far from the Brackenridge Farm at Thornbury to find a nephew of Jack McLean.
John Brown McLEAN (Jnr) was the seventh child of J. B. McLean Snr. and the brother of Jack McLean’s father James McLean. John Brown had spent his life on Brackenridge working with his father until he died at Thornbury in 1947. Married to Florence Mary CASSELLS (1877-1967) of Riverton, the couple had two children – Colin Charles McLEAN (1912-1980) and Clarice Cassells McLEAN (1910-1994) were also born at Riverton. While Clarice remained a spinster all her life, Colin married Isobel Henrietta COWAN (1915-1958) of Invercargill and together they had two sons, John Brian McLEAN and Colin Murray McLEAN both of who carried on the McLean sheep farming legacy in Thornbury. Locating at least one of these gentlemen was not difficult.
The McLeans and Thornbury have a long family history together and as they say ‘apples don’t fall far to from the tree’. The Otautau Electoral Rolls pointed me directly to Colin McLean (known as Murray) whose address was, hard to believe I know: 143 Limestone Plains Road, Thornbury, R.D. 3, Otautau. I think I could have just about solved this case in my sleep by recalling just two words – “McLean” and “Thornbury” as both have been synonymous with each other for decades. Making contact with Murray via the Facebook page of his daughter who just happens to live almost opposite, was an easy win. Murray McLean, still a man of the land in Thornbury and likely to be so till the day he dies, is now the proud owner of his uncle John Lind McLean’s forgotten war medals and Jack’s wartime history to go with them.
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Thanks to the Nelson RSA, Jack McLean’s medals are now back in Thornbury in the hands of his descendant family where they rightfully belong.
The reunited medal tally is now 509.