As ex-servicemen and women age, their memory for many events may dim, but for most, their wartime memories never fade. The people they knew, the people they served alongside, the people they watched die. The memories of those people are etched in their minds forever. Reporter SUE NEWMAN talks to Tinwald woman Joy Sim who started the war in the air force and ended up in the army, hoping for service overseas.
Joy Sim was just a couple of days from heading overseas with the New Zealand Armed Forces when peace was declared.
Instead of finding herself on a troop ship, she was destined to wrap up her war marching around a parade ground in Miramar in pouring rain, celebrating the war's end.
For Joy, however, joining the army involved a long journey, from a Coldstream farm to the air force base at Ashburton and finally to Wellington.
Looking back, she said she was disappointed at the time to find she'd missed out on overseas service, but with the passage of time, she knows she was probably spared heartache and hardship.
"But back then, who wouldn't have wanted to go overseas," she said.
Her war began in 1942.
She'd completed her Red Cross training and was working at home on the family farm.
An opportunity came up to join the air force, almost without leaving home.
This was at a time when the threat of invasion by the Japanese was imminent and the air force was moved its training schools from the North Island to the south.
Ashburton, with a large undeveloped airfield, was an ideal place.
It was close to Wigram, but far enough away from Christchurch that it might not attract the attention of any airborne Japanese.
Joy decided to put her Red Cross training to work, joined up as a member of the Women's Auxilliary Airforce and moved on to the newly developed Ashburton base.
Her new home was a hut under a stand of bluegum trees, a long walk from the main camp.
"We felt quite isolated down there, but I suppose we were hiding from the Japanese in a way."
The isolation of the back paddock did end, as the war progressed and the Japanese invasion seemed less likely.
The relocatable huts were moved closer to headquarters and that meant Joy was able to be part of the in-camp social life.
She was one of five nurses and five orderlies, working with charge sister Compton from Methven and doctors Frances and Priest.
A trip home when leave was allocated meant a bike ride to town and a school bus ride to the farm.
The desire to serve overseas remained and the closure of the Ashburton base in 1944 provided an opportunity to join the army, where overseas service was virtually guaranteed. Peace intervened and Joy stayed home.
For her, as it was for many young women, the arrival of war also meant engagement before farewelling their fiancé for several years.
As Joy Harris, she became engaged to Stuart Sim before he boarded a troop ship as a member of the Tank Corps and headed off to war.
She was one of the lucky young women, her fiancé survived the war and returned to marry his sweetheart.
"That was just what you did then. You got engaged first to make sure you had each other and then you just wrote letters to keep in touch."
As a baker, Stuart was destined to spend his war out of the line of fire, turning out thousands of meals to feed the troops.
When he returned, the couple continued the family tradition of running a bakery at Hinds.
In the years since the war's end, Joy has remained a member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Association, but the Ashburton branch has now closed through lack of members.
For her, as it is for all servicemen and women, Anzac Day is a day of remembrance.
She may not have served overseas, but for her, it is a time to recall the people of the past – those alongside whom she served and those she knew who went overseas and did not return.
And as she has done every year since the end of World War Two, Joy will attend at least one memorial service on Anzac Day.
"Anzac is a time to stand and think and look back."
Joy Sim was just a couple of days from heading overseas with the New Zealand Armed Forces when peace was declared.
Instead of finding herself on a troop ship, she was destined to wrap up her war marching around a parade ground in Miramar in pouring rain, celebrating the war's end.
For Joy, however, joining the army involved a long journey, from a Coldstream farm to the air force base at Ashburton and finally to Wellington.
Looking back, she said she was disappointed at the time to find she'd missed out on overseas service, but with the passage of time, she knows she was probably spared heartache and hardship.
"But back then, who wouldn't have wanted to go overseas," she said.
Her war began in 1942.
She'd completed her Red Cross training and was working at home on the family farm.
An opportunity came up to join the air force, almost without leaving home.
This was at a time when the threat of invasion by the Japanese was imminent and the air force was moved its training schools from the North Island to the south.
Ashburton, with a large undeveloped airfield, was an ideal place.
It was close to Wigram, but far enough away from Christchurch that it might not attract the attention of any airborne Japanese.
Joy decided to put her Red Cross training to work, joined up as a member of the Women's Auxilliary Airforce and moved on to the newly developed Ashburton base.
Her new home was a hut under a stand of bluegum trees, a long walk from the main camp.
"We felt quite isolated down there, but I suppose we were hiding from the Japanese in a way."
The isolation of the back paddock did end, as the war progressed and the Japanese invasion seemed less likely.
The relocatable huts were moved closer to headquarters and that meant Joy was able to be part of the in-camp social life.
She was one of five nurses and five orderlies, working with charge sister Compton from Methven and doctors Frances and Priest.
A trip home when leave was allocated meant a bike ride to town and a school bus ride to the farm.
The desire to serve overseas remained and the closure of the Ashburton base in 1944 provided an opportunity to join the army, where overseas service was virtually guaranteed. Peace intervened and Joy stayed home.
For her, as it was for many young women, the arrival of war also meant engagement before farewelling their fiancé for several years.
As Joy Harris, she became engaged to Stuart Sim before he boarded a troop ship as a member of the Tank Corps and headed off to war.
She was one of the lucky young women, her fiancé survived the war and returned to marry his sweetheart.
"That was just what you did then. You got engaged first to make sure you had each other and then you just wrote letters to keep in touch."
As a baker, Stuart was destined to spend his war out of the line of fire, turning out thousands of meals to feed the troops.
When he returned, the couple continued the family tradition of running a bakery at Hinds.
In the years since the war's end, Joy has remained a member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Association, but the Ashburton branch has now closed through lack of members.
For her, as it is for all servicemen and women, Anzac Day is a day of remembrance.
She may not have served overseas, but for her, it is a time to recall the people of the past – those alongside whom she served and those she knew who went overseas and did not return.
And as she has done every year since the end of World War Two, Joy will attend at least one memorial service on Anzac Day.
"Anzac is a time to stand and think and look back."
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