Account

Medals

A family poem

Journey of a story is based in part on real-life events, making it an intensely personal film for the filmmakers. The parts of the film set in Greece and Austria from 1941-1945 are drawn directly from the account of Pvt George Parrish, 5th Field Ambulance.

The ship Aquitania, Wellington, [ca 1940]
Reference Number: PAColl-5927-35

The ship `Aquitania', also known as the `Ship Beautiful', as a troopship circa 1940. Shown here in Wellington.

http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=7464

George left his wife Nellie and son Tony in August 1940. After basic training in Egypt with the Second Echelon, George took part in the Greek campaign. Hardly a bright spot in the New Zealand's war effort, ANZAC forces took a pounding defending Greece and made an early retreat.

Wife Nellie (Helen) and young Tony

The luxury liner Hellas was bombed and sunk in the Piraeus harbour on April 24, 1941 while evacuating Allied wounded and civilians. George was captured trying to meet the evacuating troop ships a few days later on the west coast of Greece; he spent the rest of the war in a German labour camp in Austria.

The boys in the labour camp - George is front middle.

Personal account
"I was in the 5th Field Ambulance and during the retreat from Mount Olympus our truck got left behind after being bombed and machine-gunned by Stuka dive bombers. We were unable, because of this continuous machine-gunning and bombing, to catch up with the convoy and finished up in a camp near Athens.

"The next day, the 24th April, we were taken to the Piraeus Harbour and boarded the Hellas. After the five bombing, with the boat on fire, I was forced to jump, we were picked up by a life-boat, which took ashore where we were picked up by ambulance and spent the night in a hospital in Athens. The next day, Anzac Day, we were moved to a nearby camp where we spent the day.

George in uniform

"The following day a convoy started out for the south of Greece. During the trip we were continually bombed and machine-gunned so seven of use decided to walk around the coast to the next village. Here we managed to persuade some Greeks to sail us across the harbour to a troop-ship on the other side.

"We set sail at 11pm and at 2am, when we arrived, we found the ship had already left. The next morning, 28th April, we were told to parade in the street where an officer informed us we were now prisoners of war. I spent some time in the Corinth prisoner camp and was later transferred to the POW camp at Salonika. From here I was transferred to the POW camp at Marburg.

"Later I worked on a farm in central Austria near Graz. When the war ended we were transported to Italy, first Rome and then Naples, where we left by plane for England. After spending some time in England we left from Southhampton on the Andes for New Zealand and home, arriving in Lyttleton on the 25th October 1945."

-Pvt. George Parrish

Medals

From left to right: Africa Star, 1939-45 Star, NZ War Service Medal 1939-45, Defence Medal, War Medal 1939-45

A family poem
A poem written by Connor Wyllie, great grandson of George

Our friends and family,
Drenched in their faithful fear.
The ones that are forgotten,
Will always be remembered here.
 
The heroes that they are,
Fighting in the desert sand.
And I stand here waiting,
For them to return to their home land.
 
The brutality seems pointless,
As the poppies sing their song.
Slowly the rising sun sets,
As nightfall takes it's toll.
 
This darkness is a lonely ghost,
As the fallen heroes are the same.
For the death of our beloved,
Are we the ones to blame?
 
The crack of the echoed gunfire,
Still shatters my tender drums.
Their pain is like an endless torture,
But the suffering aren't the only ones.
 
Our eternal desert enemy,
Will never show their fear.
The ones that are forgotten,
Will always be remembered here.

Connor Wyllie

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