For World War II Veteran and former prisoner of war Walter Malcolm, Anzac Day is about much more than parades.
As the last surviving WWII veteran in Central Hawke’s
Bay, he now spends his days at home, making the most of the sunshine and his family.
The 102-year-old is no longer able to attend the Anzac Day services. Nevertheless, he seeks solace in the fact he served New Zealand Army and is here to tell his story.
“To go through and still survive, you could say it’s a miracle.”
However, Malcolm saw both the best and the worst of humanity when he was captured by German soldiers and taken as a prisoner of war (POW) on December 3, 1943 and transported by rail in cattle waggons to Moosburg, Germany.
“A chap came and he was on the floor – he had a machine gun, and if he had pulled the trigger, he would have wiped most of us out. Instead of that, he told us to come out and drop our weapons.”
He described the feeling of being a prisoner as being “at a disadvantage”, and through his experience he survived many near-misses: “You lost count of the times you could have been wiped out.”
“We were put into the hands of a real nasty piece of work. He was an SS officer and he was immaculate and dressed to perfection, and he said, ‘We are going to get you up to Germany and you are going to work for the fatherland’.”
As a POW, he delivered beer, something he found himself forever grateful for, as many of his comrades were stuck back at the camps and became “wire-happy”.
“They had been pushed around for so long, it had the effect that they had lost their way.”
There were moments when he found a version of peace in the form of a photograph of his sweetheart, Hastings woman Peggy White, as he shared tender moments with German soldiers.
“They were very decent chaps – here we are [at the camps] swapping photos of sweethearts and wives and families.”
He later went on to marry White and have three sons and a daughter.
Many times on the front line when faced with the enemy, he had to act out of instinct and carry out what he was trained to do – “getting rid of the other fella”.
“There is nothing you can do about it, and you are confronted with a situation – it’s either you or him, and I’m afraid you don’t hesitate. It’s crazy, isn’t it, killing a human being?”
He said it was important to commemorate Anzac Day because war is such a “horrible business”. He planned to spend it at home and looked forward to visits from family.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings and Central Hawke’s Bay newsrooms. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and has a love for sharing stories about farming and rural communities.
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