E - Gazette Mk II

New Zealand Antique amp Historical Arms Association Inc 41 May 2014

The e-Gazette Mk II is a monthly news-letter circulated free to members of the NZAHAA and their friends by

e-mail only It may be copied and forwarded to fellow collectors we ask that any material used by others is

acknowledge to this publication

Copyright where indicated remains with the contributor of the item

Views expressed here are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NZAHAA or its

Branches

All correspondence relating to the e-Gazette should be addressed to

The Editor Phil Cregeen at oilyragxtraconz To unsubscribe e-mail the Editor

All correspondence relating to NZAHAA membership should be addressed to the National Secretary

PO Box 4487 Cashel Street Christchurch 8140 e-mail nzahaasecretarygmailcom

EDITORIAL

Following the AGM in April we welcome a New President and Vice President to the leadership roles of the

Association Steve Privett and Andrew Edgcombe were both elected un-apposed Kath Arnold had stood down

after four years as our National President during this time she has dealt with two changes of National Secre-

tary and two changes of Editor as well as representing our interests at the Police Firearms Advisory Forum and

chairing the twice yearly management and general meetings of our organisation Thank you Kath for all your

efforts on our behalf Congratulations to Noel Taylor who was nominated to receive the Scott Rose Bowl for

his article on Long Toms

April proved an interesting month for me as Pam and I spent nearly six weeks touring the South Island in our

campervan Highlights for me were Warbirds over Wanaka Omaka WW I Aviation Museum RNZAF Mu-

seum at Wigram South Canterbury Branch auction and Ted Rogers Militaria auction in Wellington on the

way home not forgetting the many scenic and historic sites we visited along the way I am also grateful to a

couple of our members who kindly showed me their collections We also stopped at many antique and junk

shops looking for treasures Pam now has a nice collection of vintage cameras but sadly militaria was very

thin on the ground It was also good to catch up with members at the two auctions

My thanks to all of you who have contributed material for this edition

Phil

NZ Arms Register

wwwarmsregistercom

Back issues of the e-Gazette will be found in the Articles section

2014 AGM AND AUCTION REPORT by Andrew Edgcombe

My 2014 AGM and Auction entailed a trip from Taranaki on the Friday morning with a 430 am start to make

the management committee meeting Arriving with time to spare I was able to enjoy the pleasant surroundings

of the waterfront while downing a coffee at a local cafeacute setting the mood for the weekend As always it is

great to catch up with my fellow branch representatives and it is satisfying to know that we can positively con-

tribute to the future on the New Zealand Antique amp Historical Arms Association while being the voice of our

own individual branches It was a pleasure to welcome the new Wellington Branch Representative Mr Alwyn

Davies to the Management Committee

Saturdays AGM was just how we like it before any auctionhellipshort

and sweet All relevant points were covered and with Kath Arnold

stepping down from the presidency after four years the two candi-

dates previously nominated for the role of President and Vice Presi-

dent now taking up their respective positions President Steve

Privett Wellington Branch and Vice President Andrew Edgcombe

Taranaki Branch Steversquos first official job as President was thanking

Kath for all her time and effort over her presidency and the whole

Management Committee would be unanimous is agreeing it was a

pleasure to work alongside Kath on both an official and informal

basis Kath was presented a bouquet of flowers in appreciation for

services rendered and is now enjoying a well deserved rest The

Scott Rose Bowl was awarded to Noel Taylor for his article on the

Long Tom which appeared in the September 2013 Gazette

We were privileged to have Inspector Joe Green attend the meeting where he spoke at length on the recent

Arms Act Amendment relating to E category pistol grip definitions and the Police Community Advisory Fo-

rum meetings where this issue was discussed At the conclusion of his talk Joe answered questions from the

floor Sadly Joe will be taking up another role within the New Zealand Police in the near future and we will

have a new person taking over from Joe Letrsquos hope that we can develop good working relationships and main-

tain the standards that we have enjoyed over Joersquos tenure

How do you judge the measure of success of an auction The Hawkes Bay Branch managed to rustle up some

500 lots put together and distribute a well presented catalogue and there were more than a few good sales

made and some bargains to be had for the astute buyer Graeme Barber was auctioneer and ran through the lots

quickly and efficiently a good supply of tea coffee and snacks was available throughout the day and the arms

officer was also in attendance to fulfill purchasers permit requirements I had a great weekend and the Napier

area is a wonderful place for a visit so in my opinion Paul Shoebridge and the Hawkes Bay team turned on a

well organized and well run event for all who attended

Hosting an AGM or Half yearly meeting is

something all branches should endeavor to

do its great promotion for your branch

your hobby and your district and it is good

for the membership to get together and run

an event as a team so maybe put some seri-

ous thought into putting your hands up for a

national event As daunting a prospect as it

may seem with a team effort it can be a

positive experience and a good chance to

get your selves ldquoon The Maprdquo

New President Steve and Vice President Andrew

SOUTH CANTERBURY AUCTIONB REPORT by Gordon Hill

The South Canterbury Swap Day and Auction was held on the 6th April

This year saw a new venue the old one now closed The Phar Lap raceway proved ideal as it had room for

sales tables displays the auction lots had good off street parking and food and drink available all day

For many years Russell Wood was our auction convenor but his death nearly a year ago made us change

course An enthusiastic committee of eight people plus Graeme Barber from Canterbury as auctioneer all

worked well together

We wanted a small catalogue plus items brought along on the day There was no commission on sales either

for vendors or buyers but vendors paid a small entry fee per item This enabled auction lots to be bought or

sold at minimal cost The catalogue was distributed via the E Gazette

Because some members do not get the E Gazette or indeed still do not have a computer the branches were sent

the catalogue to be distributed electronically We think very few people were disadvantaged by that Every

member should make a point of subscribing to the E Gazette

Members from Whangarei to Invercargill attended Phill Cregeen consented to judge the displays First prize

went to Malcolm Brady for his display of WW1 officers equipment Second prize went to Mark Twiname for

his display of a Japanese samurai warrior with his weapons and equipment Third prize went to Phil Moore

for his bayonet display

No decision has yet been made about another event next year but the favourable comments received make a

repeat almost mandatory Watch this Space

Three winning displays below and others over the page

South Canterbury Auction Prices

LOT SALE PRICE

1 300

2 170

3 425

4 75

5 75

6 WD

7 150

8 60

9 60

10 WD

11 WD

12 WD

13 WD

14 WD

15 25

16 10

17 WD

18 WD

19 2

20 28

21 150

22 170

23 60

24 30

25 25

26 35

27 80

28 45

29 5

30 25

31 25

32 24

33 10

34 WD

35 60

36 60

37 80

38 10

39 40

40 150

41 30

42 50

43 90

44 50

45 WD

46 75

47 WD

48 210

49 WD

50 110

51 WD

52 WD

53 130

54 WD

55 WD

56 WD

57 WD

58 WD

59 80

60 50

61 50

62 150

63 150

64 250

65 70

66 WD

67 WD

68 WD

69 70

70 70

71 35

72 60

73 WD

74 WD

75 850

76 450

77 95

78 5

79 3

80 WD

81 40

82 WD

83 99

84 4

85 120

86 8

87 50

88 50

89 WD

90 50

91 WD

92 WD

93 14

94 WD

95 1250

96 WD

97 120

98 WD

99 40

100 10

101 50

102 50

103 100

104 80

105 50

106 50

107 WD

108 99

109 150

110 500

111 25

112 14

113 55

114 50

115 25

116 45

117 70

118 45

119 60

120 10

121 55

122 25

123 25

124 70

125 45

126 40

127 30

128 40

129 35

130 110

131 40

132 400

133 90

134 WD

135 750

136 WD

137 WD

138 199

139 WD

140 450

141 40

142 50

143 30

144 WD

145 10

146 WD

147 WD

148 600

149 WD

150 60

151 WD

152 WD

153 WD

154 WD

155 WD

156 WD

157 WD

158 WD

159 WD

160 WD

161 200

162 WD

163 WD

164 WD

165 WD

166 WD

167 WD

168 WD

169 WD

170 WD

171 200

172 30

Kumeu Militaria Show Report by Danny Paton

A Success That was the announcement made by the organisers of the 1st annual Kumeu Militaria Show

Event promoters Danny Paton and Clayton Gillespie are happy that there is a future for this type of event in

Auckland after more than two thousand people attended the show on Saturday

Large indoor displays from private collectors placed beside a huge array of firearms and Militaria for sale

gave the public an opportunity to see the passion New Zealanders have in remembering and honouring our

military history

Outside was a fantastic combination of static and mobile displays ranging from educational to pure fun for

the family

Support organisations and local community groups were present and provided information and assistance

(plus the odd fundraising sausage or kebab) This allowed patrons to learn more about what support services

are available to them and their families

The ability to talk face to face with our Defence Force members and our Veterans proved to be educational

and rewarding Watching the hordes of young children climbing over tanks working the Armyrsquos field gun

and just enjoying themselves was great to see

The Kumeu Showgrounds has proven to be an ideal venue with its large indoor exhibition areas plenty of

room for outdoor displays and mountains of room for easy access and parking

Danny and Clayton would like to thank the following groups and organisations for making the Kumeu Mili-

taria Show a success and they look forward to seeing a bigger show and a greater attendance next year

New Zealand Defence Force

New Zealand Cadet Force

NZ Antique and Historical Arms Association

International Military Arms Society

Firearms dealers and traders

MOTAT Living History Unit

Military Re-enactment Society NZ

Historical Re-enactment Society (NZ) Inc

NZ Military Vehicles Collectors club

MOTAT

Returned Services Association

Kings Empire Veterans

Patriots NZ Defence Force MC

Motutara Waimauku Scout group

Sporting Shooters Association of NZ

For further great pictures and info from the day check

them out on the their Facebook page for any feedback

on how we can improve the experience please contact

Danny at kumeumilitariashowgmailcom

(Photos from Noel Taylor)

SOUTH CANTERBURY AUCTIONB REPORT by Gordon Hill

The South Canterbury Swap Day and Auction was held on the 6th April

This year saw a new venue the old one now closed The Phar Lap raceway proved ideal as it had room for

sales tables displays the auction lots had good off street parking and food and drink available all day

For many years Russell Wood was our auction convenor but his death nearly a year ago made us change

course An enthusiastic committee of eight people plus Graeme Barber from Canterbury as auctioneer all

worked well together

We wanted a small catalogue plus items brought along on the day There was no commission on sales either

for vendors or buyers but vendors paid a small entry fee per item This enabled auction lots to be bought or

sold at minimal cost The catalogue was distributed via the E Gazette

Because some members do not get the E Gazette or indeed still do not have a computer the branches were sent

the catalogue to be distributed electronically We think very few people were disadvantaged by that Every

member should make a point of subscribing to the E Gazette

Members from Whangarei to Invercargill attended Phill Cregeen consented to judge the displays First prize

went to Malcolm Brady for his display of WW1 officers equipment Second prize went to Mark Twiname for

his display of a Japanese samurai warrior with his weapons and equipment Third prize went to Phil Moore

for his bayonet display

No decision has yet been made about another event next year but the favourable comments received make a

repeat almost mandatory Watch this Space

Three winning displays below and others over the page

South Canterbury Auction Prices

LOT SALE PRICE

1 300

2 170

3 425

4 75

5 75

6 WD

7 150

8 60

9 60

10 WD

11 WD

12 WD

13 WD

14 WD

15 25

16 10

17 WD

18 WD

19 2

20 28

21 150

22 170

23 60

24 30

25 25

26 35

27 80

28 45

29 5

30 25

31 25

32 24

33 10

34 WD

35 60

36 60

37 80

38 10

39 40

40 150

41 30

42 50

43 90

44 50

45 WD

46 75

47 WD

48 210

49 WD

50 110

51 WD

52 WD

53 130

54 WD

55 WD

56 WD

57 WD

58 WD

59 80

60 50

61 50

62 150

63 150

64 250

65 70

66 WD

67 WD

68 WD

69 70

70 70

71 35

72 60

73 WD

74 WD

75 850

76 450

77 95

78 5

79 3

80 WD

81 40

82 WD

83 99

84 4

85 120

86 8

87 50

88 50

89 WD

90 50

91 WD

92 WD

93 14

94 WD

95 1250

96 WD

97 120

98 WD

99 40

100 10

101 50

102 50

103 100

104 80

105 50

106 50

107 WD

108 99

109 150

110 500

111 25

112 14

113 55

114 50

115 25

116 45

117 70

118 45

119 60

120 10

121 55

122 25

123 25

124 70

125 45

126 40

127 30

128 40

129 35

130 110

131 40

132 400

133 90

134 WD

135 750

136 WD

137 WD

138 199

139 WD

140 450

141 40

142 50

143 30

144 WD

145 10

146 WD

147 WD

148 600

149 WD

150 60

151 WD

152 WD

153 WD

154 WD

155 WD

156 WD

157 WD

158 WD

159 WD

160 WD

161 200

162 WD

163 WD

164 WD

165 WD

166 WD

167 WD

168 WD

169 WD

170 WD

171 200

172 30

Kumeu Militaria Show Report by Danny Paton

A Success That was the announcement made by the organisers of the 1st annual Kumeu Militaria Show

Event promoters Danny Paton and Clayton Gillespie are happy that there is a future for this type of event in

Auckland after more than two thousand people attended the show on Saturday

Large indoor displays from private collectors placed beside a huge array of firearms and Militaria for sale

gave the public an opportunity to see the passion New Zealanders have in remembering and honouring our

military history

Outside was a fantastic combination of static and mobile displays ranging from educational to pure fun for

the family

Support organisations and local community groups were present and provided information and assistance

(plus the odd fundraising sausage or kebab) This allowed patrons to learn more about what support services

are available to them and their families

The ability to talk face to face with our Defence Force members and our Veterans proved to be educational

and rewarding Watching the hordes of young children climbing over tanks working the Armyrsquos field gun

and just enjoying themselves was great to see

The Kumeu Showgrounds has proven to be an ideal venue with its large indoor exhibition areas plenty of

room for outdoor displays and mountains of room for easy access and parking

Danny and Clayton would like to thank the following groups and organisations for making the Kumeu Mili-

taria Show a success and they look forward to seeing a bigger show and a greater attendance next year

New Zealand Defence Force

New Zealand Cadet Force

NZ Antique and Historical Arms Association

International Military Arms Society

Firearms dealers and traders

MOTAT Living History Unit

Military Re-enactment Society NZ

Historical Re-enactment Society (NZ) Inc

NZ Military Vehicles Collectors club

MOTAT

Returned Services Association

Kings Empire Veterans

Patriots NZ Defence Force MC

Motutara Waimauku Scout group

Sporting Shooters Association of NZ

For further great pictures and info from the day check

them out on the their Facebook page for any feedback

on how we can improve the experience please contact

Danny at kumeumilitariashowgmailcom

(Photos from Noel Taylor)

South Canterbury Auction Prices

LOT SALE PRICE

1 300

2 170

3 425

4 75

5 75

6 WD

7 150

8 60

9 60

10 WD

11 WD

12 WD

13 WD

14 WD

15 25

16 10

17 WD

18 WD

19 2

20 28

21 150

22 170

23 60

24 30

25 25

26 35

27 80

28 45

29 5

30 25

31 25

32 24

33 10

34 WD

35 60

36 60

37 80

38 10

39 40

40 150

41 30

42 50

43 90

44 50

45 WD

46 75

47 WD

48 210

49 WD

50 110

51 WD

52 WD

53 130

54 WD

55 WD

56 WD

57 WD

58 WD

59 80

60 50

61 50

62 150

63 150

64 250

65 70

66 WD

67 WD

68 WD

69 70

70 70

71 35

72 60

73 WD

74 WD

75 850

76 450

77 95

78 5

79 3

80 WD

81 40

82 WD

83 99

84 4

85 120

86 8

87 50

88 50

89 WD

90 50

91 WD

92 WD

93 14

94 WD

95 1250

96 WD

97 120

98 WD

99 40

100 10

101 50

102 50

103 100

104 80

105 50

106 50

107 WD

108 99

109 150

110 500

111 25

112 14

113 55

114 50

115 25

116 45

117 70

118 45

119 60

120 10

121 55

122 25

123 25

124 70

125 45

126 40

127 30

128 40

129 35

130 110

131 40

132 400

133 90

134 WD

135 750

136 WD

137 WD

138 199

139 WD

140 450

141 40

142 50

143 30

144 WD

145 10

146 WD

147 WD

148 600

149 WD

150 60

151 WD

152 WD

153 WD

154 WD

155 WD

156 WD

157 WD

158 WD

159 WD

160 WD

161 200

162 WD

163 WD

164 WD

165 WD

166 WD

167 WD

168 WD

169 WD

170 WD

171 200

172 30

Kumeu Militaria Show Report by Danny Paton

A Success That was the announcement made by the organisers of the 1st annual Kumeu Militaria Show

Event promoters Danny Paton and Clayton Gillespie are happy that there is a future for this type of event in

Auckland after more than two thousand people attended the show on Saturday

Large indoor displays from private collectors placed beside a huge array of firearms and Militaria for sale

gave the public an opportunity to see the passion New Zealanders have in remembering and honouring our

military history

Outside was a fantastic combination of static and mobile displays ranging from educational to pure fun for

the family

Support organisations and local community groups were present and provided information and assistance

(plus the odd fundraising sausage or kebab) This allowed patrons to learn more about what support services

are available to them and their families

The ability to talk face to face with our Defence Force members and our Veterans proved to be educational

and rewarding Watching the hordes of young children climbing over tanks working the Armyrsquos field gun

and just enjoying themselves was great to see

The Kumeu Showgrounds has proven to be an ideal venue with its large indoor exhibition areas plenty of

room for outdoor displays and mountains of room for easy access and parking

Danny and Clayton would like to thank the following groups and organisations for making the Kumeu Mili-

taria Show a success and they look forward to seeing a bigger show and a greater attendance next year

New Zealand Defence Force

New Zealand Cadet Force

NZ Antique and Historical Arms Association

International Military Arms Society

Firearms dealers and traders

MOTAT Living History Unit

Military Re-enactment Society NZ

Historical Re-enactment Society (NZ) Inc

NZ Military Vehicles Collectors club

MOTAT

Returned Services Association

Kings Empire Veterans

Patriots NZ Defence Force MC

Motutara Waimauku Scout group

Sporting Shooters Association of NZ

For further great pictures and info from the day check

them out on the their Facebook page for any feedback

on how we can improve the experience please contact

Danny at kumeumilitariashowgmailcom

(Photos from Noel Taylor)

Kumeu Militaria Show Report by Danny Paton

A Success That was the announcement made by the organisers of the 1st annual Kumeu Militaria Show

Event promoters Danny Paton and Clayton Gillespie are happy that there is a future for this type of event in

Auckland after more than two thousand people attended the show on Saturday

Large indoor displays from private collectors placed beside a huge array of firearms and Militaria for sale

gave the public an opportunity to see the passion New Zealanders have in remembering and honouring our

military history

Outside was a fantastic combination of static and mobile displays ranging from educational to pure fun for

the family

Support organisations and local community groups were present and provided information and assistance

(plus the odd fundraising sausage or kebab) This allowed patrons to learn more about what support services

are available to them and their families

The ability to talk face to face with our Defence Force members and our Veterans proved to be educational

and rewarding Watching the hordes of young children climbing over tanks working the Armyrsquos field gun

and just enjoying themselves was great to see

The Kumeu Showgrounds has proven to be an ideal venue with its large indoor exhibition areas plenty of

room for outdoor displays and mountains of room for easy access and parking

Danny and Clayton would like to thank the following groups and organisations for making the Kumeu Mili-

taria Show a success and they look forward to seeing a bigger show and a greater attendance next year

New Zealand Defence Force

New Zealand Cadet Force

NZ Antique and Historical Arms Association

International Military Arms Society

Firearms dealers and traders

MOTAT Living History Unit

Military Re-enactment Society NZ

Historical Re-enactment Society (NZ) Inc

NZ Military Vehicles Collectors club

MOTAT

Returned Services Association

Kings Empire Veterans

Patriots NZ Defence Force MC

Motutara Waimauku Scout group

Sporting Shooters Association of NZ

For further great pictures and info from the day check

them out on the their Facebook page for any feedback

on how we can improve the experience please contact

Danny at kumeumilitariashowgmailcom

(Photos from Noel Taylor)

WARBIRDS OVER WANAKA by Phil Cregeen

As members of the NZ Motor Caravan Association we were able to book a 3 day pass and a site on the terrace

overlooking Wanaka airfield for Easter weekend this gave us a grandstand view of Warbirds over Wanaka air

display and also the opportunity to walk down the steep hill and view the ground displays The aerial displays

ranged from WW I biplanes to modern (Australian) fighter jets and included many vintage warplanes as well

as civilian light aircraft and helicopters and the NZ Defence Forces latest helicopters

Wanaka Airfield viewed from the terrace

Douglas C-47 Dakota - DC-3

Bristol F 2 Fighter Sopwith Triplane

For me seeing a Spitfire in flight for the first time since I was a young boy was a moving experience and see-

ing two vampires a DC 3 and an Avro Anson doing their stuff was icing on the cake I also discovered that a

Hercules can taxi in reverse and land and take off on an incredibly short runway The choreography of the air

display was most impressive one act following on seamlessly from another with an excellent commentary

Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX

Mustang and Spitfire

North American P 51D Mustang Curtiss P 40 Kittyhawk

Vought FG-1D Corsair Grumman Avenger TBFTBM

De Havilland Vampires

Avro Anson Mk I Series II

150 ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION OF THE BATTLE AT ORAKAU

1 amp 2 April 2014 Photos provided by John Osborne

The ceremony commenced at 630 am on 1 April with raising of the flags and karakia (prayers) at the battle

site at 730 the host tribes performed a powhiri and welcome speeches for the hundreds of guest and this was

followed by breakfast From 1030 am another powhiri was performed to welcome the Crown guest which

included the Governor General and Prime Minister After lunch a special commemorative plaque was dedi-

cated with prayers and speeches several haka and a guard of soldiers and warriors mounted on a cenotaph

The day concluded with a formal dinner in the evening

Following the raising of flags and karakia at the battle site on 2 April a memorial service was held at 730 am

for the fallen at St Johns Anglican Church At 1030 am a hiikoi (walk) was taken along the axis of maori re-

treat to the Puuniu River where speakers talked about their ancestors involvement The day closed with clos-

ing address and lowering of flags at the battle site at 330 pm

Powhiri to the Crown ‐ Welcome to the Governor General Prime Minister and Dignitaries

Memorial Service for the Fallen

The first British fatality by John Litchfield

John Lichfield tells the moving story of Private John Parr the first of a million soldiers fighting for

Britain to die in the first industrialised conflict

What a lark it must have been for the young men in khaki as they bumped over the cobbles of the dreary mining villages

north of Mons What a shock they must have had when they ran into the grey ranks of General Alexander von Klucks

German First Army The British top brass knew that the Germans were approaching but had no idea that they had moved

so far and so fast

And what a shock it must have been to the Germans that evening when they collided with John Parr and his mates De-

spite the existence of military aeroplanes and the telegraph and even the telephone the German top brass had no idea

that the British Army was already in northern France let alone Belgium

German army headquarters in Koblenz had telegraphed a message to General Kluck the day before The opinion here is

that large English disembarkations have not yet taken place

John Parr from Finchley north London is believed to have dismounted from his bike to cover his comrades as they ped-

alled away to warn the British that the Germans were coming His mates never saw him again

Private Parr of Fourth Battalion the Middlesex Regiment is generally accepted to have been the first British Empire

combat casualty of the worlds first industrial war ndash the first of more than a million British Empire deaths of these more

than 700000 servicemen came from the British Isles He was 16 He had lied about his age when he left his job as a golf

caddy at the North Middlesex Golf Course in Friern Barnet Lane north London and joined the regiment in the summer

of 1913

John Parr was also the first British combat casualty in western Europe since the battle of Waterloo fought 30 miles

away 99 years and two months earlier Parrs story such as we know of it helps us to understand the nature of the early

fighting in August 1914 It reminds us that the first battles ndash and in some respects the whole war ndash were fought in a No

Mans Land between two ages A Contribution from Dave Craze

Captain Jerry Roberts Bletchley Park codebreaker who helped crack the Tunny code

Hitler used to communicate with generals By Martin Childs

Raymond Roberts codebreaker and businessman born Wembley London 18 No-

vember 1920 MBE 2013 married Mei (seven children) died Liphook Hampshire

25 March 2014

Captain Raymond Jerry Roberts was the last survivor of an elite four-man team at Bletchley Park that

cracked the German High Commands Tunny code the system of high-level Nazi communications en-

cryption machines used by Hitler and Mussolini to communicate with their generals in the field

Roberts a French and German linguist was recruited to the British listening post in Buckinghamshire in

1941 following a recommendation from Professor Leonard Willoughby his tutor at University College

London Roberts was interviewed and accepted by the renowned Colonel John The Brig Tiltman as a

cryptographer and linguist at the Government Code and Cypher School

Roberts was one of four founder-members of the Testery an exclusive unit established in October 1941 and named after the man

leading it Major Ralph Tester and including Captain Peter Ericsson and Major Denis Oswald All four were fluent in German

After a few months of breaking of a Double Playfair cipher system used by the German Military Police from 1 July 1942 the team

was given the task of breaking Tunny a cipher that only carried the highest-grade intelligence messages from a handful of Hitlers

top Generals and Field Marshals ndash including von Rundstedt Rommel Keitel and Jodl ndash to German Army HQ in Berlin and des-

patches from the Fuumlhrer himself

The Germans were convinced that the Tunny cipher system was unbreakable The system used 12 encryption wheels four times as

many as the famous Enigma machine which was used in the field and carried standard military communications Though the Tunny

was more advanced and complex faster and far more secure it was less well-known than Enigma partly because it was only declas-

sified in 2002

The Tunny traffic was produced by a Lorenz CZ cryptography machine which the Bletchley Park mathematicians were able to repli-

cate without seeing it When German signallers mistakenly sent the same message twice with the same settings the British team

were able to reverse-engineer the process and build the machines responsible for the messages a process later described by

Bletchley Park as an incredible feat of dedication Initially the codes were broken by hand before basic computers called Robin-

sons were used while from 1943 the Colossus computer was introduced

The stream of intelligence proved vital at key junctures of the war The Russians were warned three or four months in advance of a

major German offensive Operation Citadel the Battle of Kursk in July 1943 which went down in history as the biggest ever tank

battle The Russians were told how the attack would be carried out ndash a pincer movement ndash as well as the numbers involved If the

Germans had been successful they would then have been available to fight on the Western Front Other intelligence enabled the Al-

lies to ascertain German movements when planning D-Day helping save thousands of lives

Sir Harry Hinsley a Bletchley veteran and official historian of British Intelligence during the Second World War has estimated that

the intelligence shortened the war by at least two years

By the end of the war the Testery had grown to nine cryptanalysts among a total staff of 118 organised in three shifts working

round the clock

Roberts never forgot his past and became a tireless ambassador for the memory of those who had served their country in secret Pas-

sionate about what he and his colleagues had achieved he spent years campaigning for greater acknowledgement of his colleagues

in the Testery and the three men responsible for major discoveries ndash Alan Turing who broke the naval Enigma Bill Tutte who

broke the Tunny system in spring 1942 and Tommy Flowers who designed and built the Colossus which sped up some stages of

the process of breaking Tunny It was a war where we knew comprehensively what the other side were doing and that was thanks

to Alan Turing who basically saved the country by breaking Enigma in 1941 Roberts said

In recognition of his wartime service Roberts was awarded the MBE in 2013 and in April the same year was honoured with a set of

commemorative stamps which feature him receiving his MBE from the Queen He said it was extraordinary to be on the same

stamp as Her Majesty not many people have that privilege Roberts wrote two books on his time at Bletchley Park published in

2006 and 2009 MARTIN CHILDS

A Contribution from Dave Craze

MYSTERY OBJECT (below right) answer please to oilyragxtraconz

Last month (below left) attracted only one answer which was from Kevin Adams who thought it was a

ldquo150mm HE German Artillery Shell Booster model dmz Np10rdquo And he may be correct however according

to Andrew Edgcombe who supplied the image it is a impact fuse for a German WWII Panzerfaust Hollow

Charge Anti Tank Grenade

FROM THE WWW (ctrl+click to follow the link or copy and paste to your browser)

From Tony Bruce What is life really like for the soldier of 2012 httpwwwtelegraphcouknewsworldnews9329265What-is-life-really-like-for-the-soldier-of-2012html

Another from Tony Bruce New California Gun Law

httpwwwfoxnewscomus20140124smith-wesson-to-stop-selling-some-pistols-in-california-due-to-gun-law

ATTTENTION COLLECTORS

Here is an opportunity for you to acquire a 762 mm Bren L4A4 These guns are being assembled in the UK

from a container of parts but will arrive in fully working order but numbers will not be matching Estimated

cost will be in the region of $4000 with a delivery date in September this year

To secure your L4 Bren contact Alec at WaihueKidxtraconz

Photo courtesy of Rod Woods

For me seeing a Spitfire in flight for the first time since I was a young boy was a moving experience and see-

ing two vampires a DC 3 and an Avro Anson doing their stuff was icing on the cake I also discovered that a

Hercules can taxi in reverse and land and take off on an incredibly short runway The choreography of the air

display was most impressive one act following on seamlessly from another with an excellent commentary

Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX

Mustang and Spitfire

North American P 51D Mustang Curtiss P 40 Kittyhawk

Vought FG-1D Corsair Grumman Avenger TBFTBM

De Havilland Vampires

Avro Anson Mk I Series II

150 ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION OF THE BATTLE AT ORAKAU

1 amp 2 April 2014 Photos provided by John Osborne

The ceremony commenced at 630 am on 1 April with raising of the flags and karakia (prayers) at the battle

site at 730 the host tribes performed a powhiri and welcome speeches for the hundreds of guest and this was

followed by breakfast From 1030 am another powhiri was performed to welcome the Crown guest which

included the Governor General and Prime Minister After lunch a special commemorative plaque was dedi-

cated with prayers and speeches several haka and a guard of soldiers and warriors mounted on a cenotaph

The day concluded with a formal dinner in the evening

Following the raising of flags and karakia at the battle site on 2 April a memorial service was held at 730 am

for the fallen at St Johns Anglican Church At 1030 am a hiikoi (walk) was taken along the axis of maori re-

treat to the Puuniu River where speakers talked about their ancestors involvement The day closed with clos-

ing address and lowering of flags at the battle site at 330 pm

Powhiri to the Crown ‐ Welcome to the Governor General Prime Minister and Dignitaries

Memorial Service for the Fallen

The first British fatality by John Litchfield

John Lichfield tells the moving story of Private John Parr the first of a million soldiers fighting for

Britain to die in the first industrialised conflict

What a lark it must have been for the young men in khaki as they bumped over the cobbles of the dreary mining villages

north of Mons What a shock they must have had when they ran into the grey ranks of General Alexander von Klucks

German First Army The British top brass knew that the Germans were approaching but had no idea that they had moved

so far and so fast

And what a shock it must have been to the Germans that evening when they collided with John Parr and his mates De-

spite the existence of military aeroplanes and the telegraph and even the telephone the German top brass had no idea

that the British Army was already in northern France let alone Belgium

German army headquarters in Koblenz had telegraphed a message to General Kluck the day before The opinion here is

that large English disembarkations have not yet taken place

John Parr from Finchley north London is believed to have dismounted from his bike to cover his comrades as they ped-

alled away to warn the British that the Germans were coming His mates never saw him again

Private Parr of Fourth Battalion the Middlesex Regiment is generally accepted to have been the first British Empire

combat casualty of the worlds first industrial war ndash the first of more than a million British Empire deaths of these more

than 700000 servicemen came from the British Isles He was 16 He had lied about his age when he left his job as a golf

caddy at the North Middlesex Golf Course in Friern Barnet Lane north London and joined the regiment in the summer

of 1913

John Parr was also the first British combat casualty in western Europe since the battle of Waterloo fought 30 miles

away 99 years and two months earlier Parrs story such as we know of it helps us to understand the nature of the early

fighting in August 1914 It reminds us that the first battles ndash and in some respects the whole war ndash were fought in a No

Mans Land between two ages A Contribution from Dave Craze

Captain Jerry Roberts Bletchley Park codebreaker who helped crack the Tunny code

Hitler used to communicate with generals By Martin Childs

Raymond Roberts codebreaker and businessman born Wembley London 18 No-

vember 1920 MBE 2013 married Mei (seven children) died Liphook Hampshire

25 March 2014

Captain Raymond Jerry Roberts was the last survivor of an elite four-man team at Bletchley Park that

cracked the German High Commands Tunny code the system of high-level Nazi communications en-

cryption machines used by Hitler and Mussolini to communicate with their generals in the field

Roberts a French and German linguist was recruited to the British listening post in Buckinghamshire in

1941 following a recommendation from Professor Leonard Willoughby his tutor at University College

London Roberts was interviewed and accepted by the renowned Colonel John The Brig Tiltman as a

cryptographer and linguist at the Government Code and Cypher School

Roberts was one of four founder-members of the Testery an exclusive unit established in October 1941 and named after the man

leading it Major Ralph Tester and including Captain Peter Ericsson and Major Denis Oswald All four were fluent in German

After a few months of breaking of a Double Playfair cipher system used by the German Military Police from 1 July 1942 the team

was given the task of breaking Tunny a cipher that only carried the highest-grade intelligence messages from a handful of Hitlers

top Generals and Field Marshals ndash including von Rundstedt Rommel Keitel and Jodl ndash to German Army HQ in Berlin and des-

patches from the Fuumlhrer himself

The Germans were convinced that the Tunny cipher system was unbreakable The system used 12 encryption wheels four times as

many as the famous Enigma machine which was used in the field and carried standard military communications Though the Tunny

was more advanced and complex faster and far more secure it was less well-known than Enigma partly because it was only declas-

sified in 2002

The Tunny traffic was produced by a Lorenz CZ cryptography machine which the Bletchley Park mathematicians were able to repli-

cate without seeing it When German signallers mistakenly sent the same message twice with the same settings the British team

were able to reverse-engineer the process and build the machines responsible for the messages a process later described by

Bletchley Park as an incredible feat of dedication Initially the codes were broken by hand before basic computers called Robin-

sons were used while from 1943 the Colossus computer was introduced

The stream of intelligence proved vital at key junctures of the war The Russians were warned three or four months in advance of a

major German offensive Operation Citadel the Battle of Kursk in July 1943 which went down in history as the biggest ever tank

battle The Russians were told how the attack would be carried out ndash a pincer movement ndash as well as the numbers involved If the

Germans had been successful they would then have been available to fight on the Western Front Other intelligence enabled the Al-

lies to ascertain German movements when planning D-Day helping save thousands of lives

Sir Harry Hinsley a Bletchley veteran and official historian of British Intelligence during the Second World War has estimated that

the intelligence shortened the war by at least two years

By the end of the war the Testery had grown to nine cryptanalysts among a total staff of 118 organised in three shifts working

round the clock

Roberts never forgot his past and became a tireless ambassador for the memory of those who had served their country in secret Pas-

sionate about what he and his colleagues had achieved he spent years campaigning for greater acknowledgement of his colleagues

in the Testery and the three men responsible for major discoveries ndash Alan Turing who broke the naval Enigma Bill Tutte who

broke the Tunny system in spring 1942 and Tommy Flowers who designed and built the Colossus which sped up some stages of

the process of breaking Tunny It was a war where we knew comprehensively what the other side were doing and that was thanks

to Alan Turing who basically saved the country by breaking Enigma in 1941 Roberts said

In recognition of his wartime service Roberts was awarded the MBE in 2013 and in April the same year was honoured with a set of

commemorative stamps which feature him receiving his MBE from the Queen He said it was extraordinary to be on the same

stamp as Her Majesty not many people have that privilege Roberts wrote two books on his time at Bletchley Park published in

2006 and 2009 MARTIN CHILDS

A Contribution from Dave Craze

MYSTERY OBJECT (below right) answer please to oilyragxtraconz

Last month (below left) attracted only one answer which was from Kevin Adams who thought it was a

ldquo150mm HE German Artillery Shell Booster model dmz Np10rdquo And he may be correct however according

to Andrew Edgcombe who supplied the image it is a impact fuse for a German WWII Panzerfaust Hollow

Charge Anti Tank Grenade

FROM THE WWW (ctrl+click to follow the link or copy and paste to your browser)

From Tony Bruce What is life really like for the soldier of 2012 httpwwwtelegraphcouknewsworldnews9329265What-is-life-really-like-for-the-soldier-of-2012html

Another from Tony Bruce New California Gun Law

httpwwwfoxnewscomus20140124smith-wesson-to-stop-selling-some-pistols-in-california-due-to-gun-law

ATTTENTION COLLECTORS

Here is an opportunity for you to acquire a 762 mm Bren L4A4 These guns are being assembled in the UK

from a container of parts but will arrive in fully working order but numbers will not be matching Estimated

cost will be in the region of $4000 with a delivery date in September this year

To secure your L4 Bren contact Alec at WaihueKidxtraconz

Photo courtesy of Rod Woods

North American P 51D Mustang Curtiss P 40 Kittyhawk

Vought FG-1D Corsair Grumman Avenger TBFTBM

De Havilland Vampires

Avro Anson Mk I Series II

150 ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION OF THE BATTLE AT ORAKAU

1 amp 2 April 2014 Photos provided by John Osborne

The ceremony commenced at 630 am on 1 April with raising of the flags and karakia (prayers) at the battle

site at 730 the host tribes performed a powhiri and welcome speeches for the hundreds of guest and this was

followed by breakfast From 1030 am another powhiri was performed to welcome the Crown guest which

included the Governor General and Prime Minister After lunch a special commemorative plaque was dedi-

cated with prayers and speeches several haka and a guard of soldiers and warriors mounted on a cenotaph

The day concluded with a formal dinner in the evening

Following the raising of flags and karakia at the battle site on 2 April a memorial service was held at 730 am

for the fallen at St Johns Anglican Church At 1030 am a hiikoi (walk) was taken along the axis of maori re-

treat to the Puuniu River where speakers talked about their ancestors involvement The day closed with clos-

ing address and lowering of flags at the battle site at 330 pm

Powhiri to the Crown ‐ Welcome to the Governor General Prime Minister and Dignitaries

Memorial Service for the Fallen

The first British fatality by John Litchfield

John Lichfield tells the moving story of Private John Parr the first of a million soldiers fighting for

Britain to die in the first industrialised conflict

What a lark it must have been for the young men in khaki as they bumped over the cobbles of the dreary mining villages

north of Mons What a shock they must have had when they ran into the grey ranks of General Alexander von Klucks

German First Army The British top brass knew that the Germans were approaching but had no idea that they had moved

so far and so fast

And what a shock it must have been to the Germans that evening when they collided with John Parr and his mates De-

spite the existence of military aeroplanes and the telegraph and even the telephone the German top brass had no idea

that the British Army was already in northern France let alone Belgium

German army headquarters in Koblenz had telegraphed a message to General Kluck the day before The opinion here is

that large English disembarkations have not yet taken place

John Parr from Finchley north London is believed to have dismounted from his bike to cover his comrades as they ped-

alled away to warn the British that the Germans were coming His mates never saw him again

Private Parr of Fourth Battalion the Middlesex Regiment is generally accepted to have been the first British Empire

combat casualty of the worlds first industrial war ndash the first of more than a million British Empire deaths of these more

than 700000 servicemen came from the British Isles He was 16 He had lied about his age when he left his job as a golf

caddy at the North Middlesex Golf Course in Friern Barnet Lane north London and joined the regiment in the summer

of 1913

John Parr was also the first British combat casualty in western Europe since the battle of Waterloo fought 30 miles

away 99 years and two months earlier Parrs story such as we know of it helps us to understand the nature of the early

fighting in August 1914 It reminds us that the first battles ndash and in some respects the whole war ndash were fought in a No

Mans Land between two ages A Contribution from Dave Craze

Captain Jerry Roberts Bletchley Park codebreaker who helped crack the Tunny code

Hitler used to communicate with generals By Martin Childs

Raymond Roberts codebreaker and businessman born Wembley London 18 No-

vember 1920 MBE 2013 married Mei (seven children) died Liphook Hampshire

25 March 2014

Captain Raymond Jerry Roberts was the last survivor of an elite four-man team at Bletchley Park that

cracked the German High Commands Tunny code the system of high-level Nazi communications en-

cryption machines used by Hitler and Mussolini to communicate with their generals in the field

Roberts a French and German linguist was recruited to the British listening post in Buckinghamshire in

1941 following a recommendation from Professor Leonard Willoughby his tutor at University College

London Roberts was interviewed and accepted by the renowned Colonel John The Brig Tiltman as a

cryptographer and linguist at the Government Code and Cypher School

Roberts was one of four founder-members of the Testery an exclusive unit established in October 1941 and named after the man

leading it Major Ralph Tester and including Captain Peter Ericsson and Major Denis Oswald All four were fluent in German

After a few months of breaking of a Double Playfair cipher system used by the German Military Police from 1 July 1942 the team

was given the task of breaking Tunny a cipher that only carried the highest-grade intelligence messages from a handful of Hitlers

top Generals and Field Marshals ndash including von Rundstedt Rommel Keitel and Jodl ndash to German Army HQ in Berlin and des-

patches from the Fuumlhrer himself

The Germans were convinced that the Tunny cipher system was unbreakable The system used 12 encryption wheels four times as

many as the famous Enigma machine which was used in the field and carried standard military communications Though the Tunny

was more advanced and complex faster and far more secure it was less well-known than Enigma partly because it was only declas-

sified in 2002

The Tunny traffic was produced by a Lorenz CZ cryptography machine which the Bletchley Park mathematicians were able to repli-

cate without seeing it When German signallers mistakenly sent the same message twice with the same settings the British team

were able to reverse-engineer the process and build the machines responsible for the messages a process later described by

Bletchley Park as an incredible feat of dedication Initially the codes were broken by hand before basic computers called Robin-

sons were used while from 1943 the Colossus computer was introduced

The stream of intelligence proved vital at key junctures of the war The Russians were warned three or four months in advance of a

major German offensive Operation Citadel the Battle of Kursk in July 1943 which went down in history as the biggest ever tank

battle The Russians were told how the attack would be carried out ndash a pincer movement ndash as well as the numbers involved If the

Germans had been successful they would then have been available to fight on the Western Front Other intelligence enabled the Al-

lies to ascertain German movements when planning D-Day helping save thousands of lives

Sir Harry Hinsley a Bletchley veteran and official historian of British Intelligence during the Second World War has estimated that

the intelligence shortened the war by at least two years

By the end of the war the Testery had grown to nine cryptanalysts among a total staff of 118 organised in three shifts working

round the clock

Roberts never forgot his past and became a tireless ambassador for the memory of those who had served their country in secret Pas-

sionate about what he and his colleagues had achieved he spent years campaigning for greater acknowledgement of his colleagues

in the Testery and the three men responsible for major discoveries ndash Alan Turing who broke the naval Enigma Bill Tutte who

broke the Tunny system in spring 1942 and Tommy Flowers who designed and built the Colossus which sped up some stages of

the process of breaking Tunny It was a war where we knew comprehensively what the other side were doing and that was thanks

to Alan Turing who basically saved the country by breaking Enigma in 1941 Roberts said

In recognition of his wartime service Roberts was awarded the MBE in 2013 and in April the same year was honoured with a set of

commemorative stamps which feature him receiving his MBE from the Queen He said it was extraordinary to be on the same

stamp as Her Majesty not many people have that privilege Roberts wrote two books on his time at Bletchley Park published in

2006 and 2009 MARTIN CHILDS

A Contribution from Dave Craze

MYSTERY OBJECT (below right) answer please to oilyragxtraconz

Last month (below left) attracted only one answer which was from Kevin Adams who thought it was a

ldquo150mm HE German Artillery Shell Booster model dmz Np10rdquo And he may be correct however according

to Andrew Edgcombe who supplied the image it is a impact fuse for a German WWII Panzerfaust Hollow

Charge Anti Tank Grenade

FROM THE WWW (ctrl+click to follow the link or copy and paste to your browser)

From Tony Bruce What is life really like for the soldier of 2012 httpwwwtelegraphcouknewsworldnews9329265What-is-life-really-like-for-the-soldier-of-2012html

Another from Tony Bruce New California Gun Law

httpwwwfoxnewscomus20140124smith-wesson-to-stop-selling-some-pistols-in-california-due-to-gun-law

ATTTENTION COLLECTORS

Here is an opportunity for you to acquire a 762 mm Bren L4A4 These guns are being assembled in the UK

from a container of parts but will arrive in fully working order but numbers will not be matching Estimated

cost will be in the region of $4000 with a delivery date in September this year

To secure your L4 Bren contact Alec at WaihueKidxtraconz

Photo courtesy of Rod Woods

150 ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION OF THE BATTLE AT ORAKAU

1 amp 2 April 2014 Photos provided by John Osborne

The ceremony commenced at 630 am on 1 April with raising of the flags and karakia (prayers) at the battle

site at 730 the host tribes performed a powhiri and welcome speeches for the hundreds of guest and this was

followed by breakfast From 1030 am another powhiri was performed to welcome the Crown guest which

included the Governor General and Prime Minister After lunch a special commemorative plaque was dedi-

cated with prayers and speeches several haka and a guard of soldiers and warriors mounted on a cenotaph

The day concluded with a formal dinner in the evening

Following the raising of flags and karakia at the battle site on 2 April a memorial service was held at 730 am

for the fallen at St Johns Anglican Church At 1030 am a hiikoi (walk) was taken along the axis of maori re-

treat to the Puuniu River where speakers talked about their ancestors involvement The day closed with clos-

ing address and lowering of flags at the battle site at 330 pm

Powhiri to the Crown ‐ Welcome to the Governor General Prime Minister and Dignitaries

Memorial Service for the Fallen

The first British fatality by John Litchfield

John Lichfield tells the moving story of Private John Parr the first of a million soldiers fighting for

Britain to die in the first industrialised conflict

What a lark it must have been for the young men in khaki as they bumped over the cobbles of the dreary mining villages

north of Mons What a shock they must have had when they ran into the grey ranks of General Alexander von Klucks

German First Army The British top brass knew that the Germans were approaching but had no idea that they had moved

so far and so fast

And what a shock it must have been to the Germans that evening when they collided with John Parr and his mates De-

spite the existence of military aeroplanes and the telegraph and even the telephone the German top brass had no idea

that the British Army was already in northern France let alone Belgium

German army headquarters in Koblenz had telegraphed a message to General Kluck the day before The opinion here is

that large English disembarkations have not yet taken place

John Parr from Finchley north London is believed to have dismounted from his bike to cover his comrades as they ped-

alled away to warn the British that the Germans were coming His mates never saw him again

Private Parr of Fourth Battalion the Middlesex Regiment is generally accepted to have been the first British Empire

combat casualty of the worlds first industrial war ndash the first of more than a million British Empire deaths of these more

than 700000 servicemen came from the British Isles He was 16 He had lied about his age when he left his job as a golf

caddy at the North Middlesex Golf Course in Friern Barnet Lane north London and joined the regiment in the summer

of 1913

John Parr was also the first British combat casualty in western Europe since the battle of Waterloo fought 30 miles

away 99 years and two months earlier Parrs story such as we know of it helps us to understand the nature of the early

fighting in August 1914 It reminds us that the first battles ndash and in some respects the whole war ndash were fought in a No

Mans Land between two ages A Contribution from Dave Craze

Captain Jerry Roberts Bletchley Park codebreaker who helped crack the Tunny code

Hitler used to communicate with generals By Martin Childs

Raymond Roberts codebreaker and businessman born Wembley London 18 No-

vember 1920 MBE 2013 married Mei (seven children) died Liphook Hampshire

25 March 2014

Captain Raymond Jerry Roberts was the last survivor of an elite four-man team at Bletchley Park that

cracked the German High Commands Tunny code the system of high-level Nazi communications en-

cryption machines used by Hitler and Mussolini to communicate with their generals in the field

Roberts a French and German linguist was recruited to the British listening post in Buckinghamshire in

1941 following a recommendation from Professor Leonard Willoughby his tutor at University College

London Roberts was interviewed and accepted by the renowned Colonel John The Brig Tiltman as a

cryptographer and linguist at the Government Code and Cypher School

Roberts was one of four founder-members of the Testery an exclusive unit established in October 1941 and named after the man

leading it Major Ralph Tester and including Captain Peter Ericsson and Major Denis Oswald All four were fluent in German

After a few months of breaking of a Double Playfair cipher system used by the German Military Police from 1 July 1942 the team

was given the task of breaking Tunny a cipher that only carried the highest-grade intelligence messages from a handful of Hitlers

top Generals and Field Marshals ndash including von Rundstedt Rommel Keitel and Jodl ndash to German Army HQ in Berlin and des-

patches from the Fuumlhrer himself

The Germans were convinced that the Tunny cipher system was unbreakable The system used 12 encryption wheels four times as

many as the famous Enigma machine which was used in the field and carried standard military communications Though the Tunny

was more advanced and complex faster and far more secure it was less well-known than Enigma partly because it was only declas-

sified in 2002

The Tunny traffic was produced by a Lorenz CZ cryptography machine which the Bletchley Park mathematicians were able to repli-

cate without seeing it When German signallers mistakenly sent the same message twice with the same settings the British team

were able to reverse-engineer the process and build the machines responsible for the messages a process later described by

Bletchley Park as an incredible feat of dedication Initially the codes were broken by hand before basic computers called Robin-

sons were used while from 1943 the Colossus computer was introduced

The stream of intelligence proved vital at key junctures of the war The Russians were warned three or four months in advance of a

major German offensive Operation Citadel the Battle of Kursk in July 1943 which went down in history as the biggest ever tank

battle The Russians were told how the attack would be carried out ndash a pincer movement ndash as well as the numbers involved If the

Germans had been successful they would then have been available to fight on the Western Front Other intelligence enabled the Al-

lies to ascertain German movements when planning D-Day helping save thousands of lives

Sir Harry Hinsley a Bletchley veteran and official historian of British Intelligence during the Second World War has estimated that

the intelligence shortened the war by at least two years

By the end of the war the Testery had grown to nine cryptanalysts among a total staff of 118 organised in three shifts working

round the clock

Roberts never forgot his past and became a tireless ambassador for the memory of those who had served their country in secret Pas-

sionate about what he and his colleagues had achieved he spent years campaigning for greater acknowledgement of his colleagues

in the Testery and the three men responsible for major discoveries ndash Alan Turing who broke the naval Enigma Bill Tutte who

broke the Tunny system in spring 1942 and Tommy Flowers who designed and built the Colossus which sped up some stages of

the process of breaking Tunny It was a war where we knew comprehensively what the other side were doing and that was thanks

to Alan Turing who basically saved the country by breaking Enigma in 1941 Roberts said

In recognition of his wartime service Roberts was awarded the MBE in 2013 and in April the same year was honoured with a set of

commemorative stamps which feature him receiving his MBE from the Queen He said it was extraordinary to be on the same

stamp as Her Majesty not many people have that privilege Roberts wrote two books on his time at Bletchley Park published in

2006 and 2009 MARTIN CHILDS

A Contribution from Dave Craze

MYSTERY OBJECT (below right) answer please to oilyragxtraconz

Last month (below left) attracted only one answer which was from Kevin Adams who thought it was a

ldquo150mm HE German Artillery Shell Booster model dmz Np10rdquo And he may be correct however according

to Andrew Edgcombe who supplied the image it is a impact fuse for a German WWII Panzerfaust Hollow

Charge Anti Tank Grenade

FROM THE WWW (ctrl+click to follow the link or copy and paste to your browser)

From Tony Bruce What is life really like for the soldier of 2012 httpwwwtelegraphcouknewsworldnews9329265What-is-life-really-like-for-the-soldier-of-2012html

Another from Tony Bruce New California Gun Law

httpwwwfoxnewscomus20140124smith-wesson-to-stop-selling-some-pistols-in-california-due-to-gun-law

ATTTENTION COLLECTORS

Here is an opportunity for you to acquire a 762 mm Bren L4A4 These guns are being assembled in the UK

from a container of parts but will arrive in fully working order but numbers will not be matching Estimated

cost will be in the region of $4000 with a delivery date in September this year

To secure your L4 Bren contact Alec at WaihueKidxtraconz

Photo courtesy of Rod Woods

The first British fatality by John Litchfield

John Lichfield tells the moving story of Private John Parr the first of a million soldiers fighting for

Britain to die in the first industrialised conflict

What a lark it must have been for the young men in khaki as they bumped over the cobbles of the dreary mining villages

north of Mons What a shock they must have had when they ran into the grey ranks of General Alexander von Klucks

German First Army The British top brass knew that the Germans were approaching but had no idea that they had moved

so far and so fast

And what a shock it must have been to the Germans that evening when they collided with John Parr and his mates De-

spite the existence of military aeroplanes and the telegraph and even the telephone the German top brass had no idea

that the British Army was already in northern France let alone Belgium

German army headquarters in Koblenz had telegraphed a message to General Kluck the day before The opinion here is

that large English disembarkations have not yet taken place

John Parr from Finchley north London is believed to have dismounted from his bike to cover his comrades as they ped-

alled away to warn the British that the Germans were coming His mates never saw him again

Private Parr of Fourth Battalion the Middlesex Regiment is generally accepted to have been the first British Empire

combat casualty of the worlds first industrial war ndash the first of more than a million British Empire deaths of these more

than 700000 servicemen came from the British Isles He was 16 He had lied about his age when he left his job as a golf

caddy at the North Middlesex Golf Course in Friern Barnet Lane north London and joined the regiment in the summer

of 1913

John Parr was also the first British combat casualty in western Europe since the battle of Waterloo fought 30 miles

away 99 years and two months earlier Parrs story such as we know of it helps us to understand the nature of the early

fighting in August 1914 It reminds us that the first battles ndash and in some respects the whole war ndash were fought in a No

Mans Land between two ages A Contribution from Dave Craze

Captain Jerry Roberts Bletchley Park codebreaker who helped crack the Tunny code

Hitler used to communicate with generals By Martin Childs

Raymond Roberts codebreaker and businessman born Wembley London 18 No-

vember 1920 MBE 2013 married Mei (seven children) died Liphook Hampshire

25 March 2014

Captain Raymond Jerry Roberts was the last survivor of an elite four-man team at Bletchley Park that

cracked the German High Commands Tunny code the system of high-level Nazi communications en-

cryption machines used by Hitler and Mussolini to communicate with their generals in the field

Roberts a French and German linguist was recruited to the British listening post in Buckinghamshire in

1941 following a recommendation from Professor Leonard Willoughby his tutor at University College

London Roberts was interviewed and accepted by the renowned Colonel John The Brig Tiltman as a

cryptographer and linguist at the Government Code and Cypher School

Roberts was one of four founder-members of the Testery an exclusive unit established in October 1941 and named after the man

leading it Major Ralph Tester and including Captain Peter Ericsson and Major Denis Oswald All four were fluent in German

After a few months of breaking of a Double Playfair cipher system used by the German Military Police from 1 July 1942 the team

was given the task of breaking Tunny a cipher that only carried the highest-grade intelligence messages from a handful of Hitlers

top Generals and Field Marshals ndash including von Rundstedt Rommel Keitel and Jodl ndash to German Army HQ in Berlin and des-

patches from the Fuumlhrer himself

The Germans were convinced that the Tunny cipher system was unbreakable The system used 12 encryption wheels four times as

many as the famous Enigma machine which was used in the field and carried standard military communications Though the Tunny

was more advanced and complex faster and far more secure it was less well-known than Enigma partly because it was only declas-

sified in 2002

The Tunny traffic was produced by a Lorenz CZ cryptography machine which the Bletchley Park mathematicians were able to repli-

cate without seeing it When German signallers mistakenly sent the same message twice with the same settings the British team

were able to reverse-engineer the process and build the machines responsible for the messages a process later described by

Bletchley Park as an incredible feat of dedication Initially the codes were broken by hand before basic computers called Robin-

sons were used while from 1943 the Colossus computer was introduced

The stream of intelligence proved vital at key junctures of the war The Russians were warned three or four months in advance of a

major German offensive Operation Citadel the Battle of Kursk in July 1943 which went down in history as the biggest ever tank

battle The Russians were told how the attack would be carried out ndash a pincer movement ndash as well as the numbers involved If the

Germans had been successful they would then have been available to fight on the Western Front Other intelligence enabled the Al-

lies to ascertain German movements when planning D-Day helping save thousands of lives

Sir Harry Hinsley a Bletchley veteran and official historian of British Intelligence during the Second World War has estimated that

the intelligence shortened the war by at least two years

By the end of the war the Testery had grown to nine cryptanalysts among a total staff of 118 organised in three shifts working

round the clock

Roberts never forgot his past and became a tireless ambassador for the memory of those who had served their country in secret Pas-

sionate about what he and his colleagues had achieved he spent years campaigning for greater acknowledgement of his colleagues

in the Testery and the three men responsible for major discoveries ndash Alan Turing who broke the naval Enigma Bill Tutte who

broke the Tunny system in spring 1942 and Tommy Flowers who designed and built the Colossus which sped up some stages of

the process of breaking Tunny It was a war where we knew comprehensively what the other side were doing and that was thanks

to Alan Turing who basically saved the country by breaking Enigma in 1941 Roberts said

In recognition of his wartime service Roberts was awarded the MBE in 2013 and in April the same year was honoured with a set of

commemorative stamps which feature him receiving his MBE from the Queen He said it was extraordinary to be on the same

stamp as Her Majesty not many people have that privilege Roberts wrote two books on his time at Bletchley Park published in

2006 and 2009 MARTIN CHILDS

A Contribution from Dave Craze

MYSTERY OBJECT (below right) answer please to oilyragxtraconz

Last month (below left) attracted only one answer which was from Kevin Adams who thought it was a

ldquo150mm HE German Artillery Shell Booster model dmz Np10rdquo And he may be correct however according

to Andrew Edgcombe who supplied the image it is a impact fuse for a German WWII Panzerfaust Hollow

Charge Anti Tank Grenade

FROM THE WWW (ctrl+click to follow the link or copy and paste to your browser)

From Tony Bruce What is life really like for the soldier of 2012 httpwwwtelegraphcouknewsworldnews9329265What-is-life-really-like-for-the-soldier-of-2012html

Another from Tony Bruce New California Gun Law

httpwwwfoxnewscomus20140124smith-wesson-to-stop-selling-some-pistols-in-california-due-to-gun-law

ATTTENTION COLLECTORS

Here is an opportunity for you to acquire a 762 mm Bren L4A4 These guns are being assembled in the UK

from a container of parts but will arrive in fully working order but numbers will not be matching Estimated

cost will be in the region of $4000 with a delivery date in September this year

To secure your L4 Bren contact Alec at WaihueKidxtraconz

Photo courtesy of Rod Woods

Captain Jerry Roberts Bletchley Park codebreaker who helped crack the Tunny code

Hitler used to communicate with generals By Martin Childs

Raymond Roberts codebreaker and businessman born Wembley London 18 No-

vember 1920 MBE 2013 married Mei (seven children) died Liphook Hampshire

25 March 2014

Captain Raymond Jerry Roberts was the last survivor of an elite four-man team at Bletchley Park that

cracked the German High Commands Tunny code the system of high-level Nazi communications en-

cryption machines used by Hitler and Mussolini to communicate with their generals in the field

Roberts a French and German linguist was recruited to the British listening post in Buckinghamshire in

1941 following a recommendation from Professor Leonard Willoughby his tutor at University College

London Roberts was interviewed and accepted by the renowned Colonel John The Brig Tiltman as a

cryptographer and linguist at the Government Code and Cypher School

Roberts was one of four founder-members of the Testery an exclusive unit established in October 1941 and named after the man

leading it Major Ralph Tester and including Captain Peter Ericsson and Major Denis Oswald All four were fluent in German

After a few months of breaking of a Double Playfair cipher system used by the German Military Police from 1 July 1942 the team

was given the task of breaking Tunny a cipher that only carried the highest-grade intelligence messages from a handful of Hitlers

top Generals and Field Marshals ndash including von Rundstedt Rommel Keitel and Jodl ndash to German Army HQ in Berlin and des-

patches from the Fuumlhrer himself

The Germans were convinced that the Tunny cipher system was unbreakable The system used 12 encryption wheels four times as

many as the famous Enigma machine which was used in the field and carried standard military communications Though the Tunny

was more advanced and complex faster and far more secure it was less well-known than Enigma partly because it was only declas-

sified in 2002

The Tunny traffic was produced by a Lorenz CZ cryptography machine which the Bletchley Park mathematicians were able to repli-

cate without seeing it When German signallers mistakenly sent the same message twice with the same settings the British team

were able to reverse-engineer the process and build the machines responsible for the messages a process later described by

Bletchley Park as an incredible feat of dedication Initially the codes were broken by hand before basic computers called Robin-

sons were used while from 1943 the Colossus computer was introduced

The stream of intelligence proved vital at key junctures of the war The Russians were warned three or four months in advance of a

major German offensive Operation Citadel the Battle of Kursk in July 1943 which went down in history as the biggest ever tank

battle The Russians were told how the attack would be carried out ndash a pincer movement ndash as well as the numbers involved If the

Germans had been successful they would then have been available to fight on the Western Front Other intelligence enabled the Al-

lies to ascertain German movements when planning D-Day helping save thousands of lives

Sir Harry Hinsley a Bletchley veteran and official historian of British Intelligence during the Second World War has estimated that

the intelligence shortened the war by at least two years

By the end of the war the Testery had grown to nine cryptanalysts among a total staff of 118 organised in three shifts working

round the clock

Roberts never forgot his past and became a tireless ambassador for the memory of those who had served their country in secret Pas-

sionate about what he and his colleagues had achieved he spent years campaigning for greater acknowledgement of his colleagues

in the Testery and the three men responsible for major discoveries ndash Alan Turing who broke the naval Enigma Bill Tutte who

broke the Tunny system in spring 1942 and Tommy Flowers who designed and built the Colossus which sped up some stages of

the process of breaking Tunny It was a war where we knew comprehensively what the other side were doing and that was thanks

to Alan Turing who basically saved the country by breaking Enigma in 1941 Roberts said

In recognition of his wartime service Roberts was awarded the MBE in 2013 and in April the same year was honoured with a set of

commemorative stamps which feature him receiving his MBE from the Queen He said it was extraordinary to be on the same

stamp as Her Majesty not many people have that privilege Roberts wrote two books on his time at Bletchley Park published in

2006 and 2009 MARTIN CHILDS

A Contribution from Dave Craze

MYSTERY OBJECT (below right) answer please to oilyragxtraconz

Last month (below left) attracted only one answer which was from Kevin Adams who thought it was a

ldquo150mm HE German Artillery Shell Booster model dmz Np10rdquo And he may be correct however according

to Andrew Edgcombe who supplied the image it is a impact fuse for a German WWII Panzerfaust Hollow

Charge Anti Tank Grenade

FROM THE WWW (ctrl+click to follow the link or copy and paste to your browser)

From Tony Bruce What is life really like for the soldier of 2012 httpwwwtelegraphcouknewsworldnews9329265What-is-life-really-like-for-the-soldier-of-2012html

Another from Tony Bruce New California Gun Law

httpwwwfoxnewscomus20140124smith-wesson-to-stop-selling-some-pistols-in-california-due-to-gun-law

ATTTENTION COLLECTORS

Here is an opportunity for you to acquire a 762 mm Bren L4A4 These guns are being assembled in the UK

from a container of parts but will arrive in fully working order but numbers will not be matching Estimated

cost will be in the region of $4000 with a delivery date in September this year

To secure your L4 Bren contact Alec at WaihueKidxtraconz

Photo courtesy of Rod Woods

MYSTERY OBJECT (below right) answer please to oilyragxtraconz

Last month (below left) attracted only one answer which was from Kevin Adams who thought it was a

ldquo150mm HE German Artillery Shell Booster model dmz Np10rdquo And he may be correct however according

to Andrew Edgcombe who supplied the image it is a impact fuse for a German WWII Panzerfaust Hollow

Charge Anti Tank Grenade

FROM THE WWW (ctrl+click to follow the link or copy and paste to your browser)

From Tony Bruce What is life really like for the soldier of 2012 httpwwwtelegraphcouknewsworldnews9329265What-is-life-really-like-for-the-soldier-of-2012html

Another from Tony Bruce New California Gun Law

httpwwwfoxnewscomus20140124smith-wesson-to-stop-selling-some-pistols-in-california-due-to-gun-law

ATTTENTION COLLECTORS

Here is an opportunity for you to acquire a 762 mm Bren L4A4 These guns are being assembled in the UK

from a container of parts but will arrive in fully working order but numbers will not be matching Estimated

cost will be in the region of $4000 with a delivery date in September this year

To secure your L4 Bren contact Alec at WaihueKidxtraconz

Photo courtesy of Rod Woods

UP COMING EVENTS - If you have dates for events in 2014 please advise oilyragxtraconz

2014

24 May Ruahine Branch Gun Show Feilding

25 May Carvellrsquos Auction Auckland

1 June Northland Branch Fun Shoot-Oramahoe Range

21 June Whangarei Hunting Shooting amp Fishing Show

6 July Auckland Branch Gun Show Mt Eden

12 amp 13 July Wellington Branch Auction Kilbirnie

26 July Mainland Arms amp Militaria Show Christchurch

16 amp 17 August Tauranga Arms amp Militari Show

13 September Canterbury Branch Swapmeet Riccarton

25 amp 26 October Ted Rogers Militaria Auction Kilbirnie Wellington

1 amp 2 November Taranaki Branch Gun Show

GUNS WHERE ARE THEY Send me a photo and details of your local guns

105 mm L5A1 Pack Howitzer outside Napier RSA on the corner of Hastings and Vautier St From Tom

Cartwright

BUY SELL OR SWAP List items free for two months

FOR SALE US WW I Model 1903 Springfield Sniper Rifle fitted with Warner amp Swasey Model 1913

Musket Sight and original leather Scope Carry Case US WW I Issue inert VB Rifle Grenades US Krag

M1896 amp M1898 Rifle barrels Krag Rifle rear sights M1903 Rifle barrels ( SA amp RIA ) amp M1903 rear

sights US Leather Slings for M1898 amp M1903 Rifles US Vietnam Issue ART II Scope with Mount and

complete with Original Fibreglass Carry Case MLE Rifle fitted with Winchester A5 Scope stock with

RMC Duntroon markings and possibly came from their reference collection Scarce British SMLE amp Pat-

tern 14 Rifle combination tools and early brass oil bottles German WW I set of front amp rear Auxiliary

Night Sights for GEW 98 Rifle Australian AOC Pattern 1918 Telescopic Sights with Carry Case for WW

II Lithgow Sniper Rifles

WANTED British Commonwealth Trials Rifles especially Pattern 1913 No I MK VI amp No 4 Trials Ri-

fles WW I Lattey Gibbs Martin and similar Optical Sights Rifle Grenade Cups amp Spigots and Wire Cut-

ters amp Breakers

CONTACT Colin Green 5 Tiffany Grove Templestowe Victoria 3106 Australia

Phone 61 3 98462070 Email colingreenausthotmailcom

FOR SALE US WW I Model 1903 Springfield Sniper Rifle complete with Winchester A5 Telescopic

Sight and original Scope Carry Case Rare Japanese Type 99 Special Naval Rifle

Australian AOC Pattern 1918 Telescopic Sights with Carry Case for WW II Lithgow Sniper Rifles Inert

US WW I Issue VB Rifle Grenades US Vietnam Issue ART II Scope with Mount and complete with

Original Fibreglass Carry Case Various US Rifle parts and accessories US M1896 amp M1898 Krag Rifle

barrels Krag Rifle rear sights M1903 Rifle barrels ( SA amp RIA ) amp M1903 rear sights US Leather

Slings for M1898 amp M1903 Rifles Scarce British SMLE amp Pattern 14 Rifle combination tools and early

brass oil bottles German WW I set of front amp rear Auxiliary Night Sights for GEW 98 Rifle

WANTED British Commonwealth Trials Rifles especially Pattern 1913 No I MK VI amp No 4 Trials Ri-

fles WW I Lattey Gibbs Martin and similar Optical Sights Rifle Grenade Cups amp Spigots and Wire Cut-

ters amp Breakers

CONTACT Colin Green 5 Tiffany Grove Templestowe Victoria 3106 Australia

Phone 61 3 98462070 Email colingreenausthotmailcom

WHANGAREI

HUNTING SHOOTING

amp FISHING SHOW

FORUM NORTH

RUST AVENUE

SATURDAY 21 JUNE

1000 am to 400 pm

Contact Phil for Sales or Display Tables

oilyragxtraconz

Contact Vic on 06 3268685

RUAHINE BRANCH ANNUAL AUCTION

6 September 2014

We are seeking

auction items of good quality

Cut off date for lots is 31 May 2014

Commission

5 for both Buyer amp Vendor

Contact Tony Matthews

Email ruahineauctionhotmailconz

Or phone evenings 06 3749164

daytime 027 2445186

Have you paid your 2014

NZAHAA Subs

If you havenrsquot then the June printed

Gazette will be the last you will re-

ceive until you do

Contact your Branch Secretary

WANTED

Your articles

for both the Gazette and e-Gazette