I don’t want to say much about my war except that I enlisted in the navy along with Ela’s brother and cousins – not straightforward for me, as I was not naturalised. I didn’t want to join up in my own country, which would have meant training at home and going to England, Africa, Italy – other people’s countries – while US marines, many soon to be encamped in Aotearoa, were preparing to defend the Pacific. It was my wife’s country that was endangered should there be war in the region, which could mean that my own country was vulnerable as well.

We came into port on that soundless early morning of quiet sea. The dark mountains stood sharp against a clear sky and we were out on deck fastening the hatches, our last duty for the night. After another week of intensive training out at sea all our ships were in port for the day of rest, ships of all descriptions – battleships, ten in all, heavy and light cruisers, destroyers and others, all lined up – like skittles as it turned out. The only part of the fleet not in port were the aircraft carriers, which were away on a mission.

At first, the sound was like something felt more than something heard, a sensation, incongruous, which didn’t quite register on this peaceful day.

It was a sound which was soon to become defined as aircraft coming our way. It could’ve been our B17s coming in. Banter started up among us as we kept to our task of dogging down. Don’t they know it’s a day of rest, someone said. Here come the Japs, someone else said, not for a moment believing it.

Even when the first torpedo planes swooped, we didn’t give our attention until one of them came at us and we heard the splash of what we soon knew to be a live torpedo. There was a shout from above, and on looking up we saw the underbelly of the yellow plane as it roared upwards, the red eyes of the rising sun on its underwings. It seemed only an arm’s length away as we flattened ourselves on the deck. There was an enormous jolt, which concussed us all for a moment. There was a stink of oil, and banks of heavy smoke rolled along the deck. Soon the decks were wrapped in fire and the ship was rolling on its side. Some of us jumped overboard into water, but that was also on fire. Bombers, high above the torpedo planes, were dropping their loads.