Capture by A photoblog

The YMCA Canteen Bus, Company C, 28th Maori Battalion, around 1943, somewhere in Europe.

It's a week for remembrance in our family, as the Tangi for one of the last remaining Officers of the Maori Battalion, and close family friend, Major John Waititi is being held in Cape runaway. As the report says, 'a great leader and a humble man'.

Brilliant work Jonathan.

Wow, thanks for posting this. I was drawn to some of John Pascoe's mountaineering writings several years ago by some of his legendary "colourful" descriptions of the Tararua Range (one of my favourite New Zealand mountain ranges but not everyone's cup o' tea) which he spent a fair amount of time exploring near the war-time years. This is a side of his work I hadn't seen before.

Thanks for doing this Jon. I'm coming to come back and take a long, long look at these images.

He also did a great series of the Polish refugee children arriving and then settling in Pahiatua. Here's one of the arrival. With Beta you can zoom in and look at the expressions on the faces. Not sure how to copy image onto this thread though.
http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/view/action/ieViewer.do?dps_pid=IE150203&dps_custom_att_1=tapuhi&dps_dvs=1340768056376~597&dps_pid=IE150203&change_lng=en

Now these ones bring tears to my eyes... must be the Polish blood trilling in my veins. I love all of Pascoe's work... the 6x6 format in black and white and the way he got so close to so many rich emotions and how raw life was back then. Have always adored the poise and energy of the woman in that last photo that Jonathan has featured. Lovely to see them here...

Unfortunately your link gives me an "Attention! Delivery not permitted. The page you are trying to see has expired, please close this tab and reload the page."

Unfortunately your link gives me an “Attention! Delivery not permitted.

Chris, try here and put Pascoe polish in the search field.

Ah, got it, thanks.

Any chance of adding a photo of the Hamilton munitions workers? A row of their houses ('Artillery Flats") still stand in Peachgrove Road in Hamilton East.

I have added one to the post. "Workers from a World War 2 munitions factory during their meal break, Hamilton". The original caption also reads "Another angle of workers in the Recreation Centre restaurant. The meals are substantial and the charges reasonable."

If you want to know more about any of the images in the post, copy the 'http://beta.natlib.govt.nz/records/_______' url from the photo caption into your browser. The full record on the National Library site will often contain specific notes made by Pascoe.

These are not NZers. English. My Grandpa Charlie. Spent a long time in Syria, Italy and thereabouts in the war, must have bumped into a lot of NZr’s. He was in a unit responsible for finding water. Hence the machinery.

He’s the one with the ’tache.

Not wartime, but definitely New Zealanders.

Farmer’s legs (no relations), Dargaville stock yards.
Sometime in the late 70’s.

Thanks for the pictures, Jonathan, and everybody. After all the movies etc., it's good to see the real thing.

A New Zealander, wartime. My grandad.

What a treasure! It's great how many of the photos have a casual and candid look rather than formalised, which was more prevalent in that period.
Great find - thanks!