2 SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 2014 manawatustandard.co.nzNEWS

‘Support crew’ have a special placeA museum dedicated to our military engineers is oneof Manawatu’s best-kept secrets.

MEMORYLANE

TINA WHITE

Military symbol: Assistant curator Joe Hollander with the Corps ofRoyal NZ Engineers’ flag. Photos: WARWICK SMITH/FAIRFAX NZ

Tunnellers’ toil: Sappers photographed training at Tai Tapu,Canterbury, 1917.

Remembrance: A commemorativewindow honouring World War 2North Africa campaign sappers inthe Royal NZ Engineers’ memorialchapel of St Martin, which is alsothe Linton Camp garrison chapel.

Your Country Needs You: WorldWar I leader Field Marshal LordKitchener, pictured at themuseum.

Just 20 minutes’ drive fromPalmerston North, nestledinside Linton MilitaryCamp, is a surprising but

little-known museum.It’s dedicated to a special breed

of soldier: the Corps of Royal NewZealand Engineers, also known asthe Sappers.

The Engineer Corps MemorialCentre (ECMC) is a three-partcomplex of library, museum andchapel with almost 60,000 items,including books, maps, equipment,memorabilia, uniforms, weapons,war art, medals, photos, anddisplays from every war theSappers have been involved in.

It’s run by the RNZE CharitableTrust. Joe Hollander, the trustboard chair and associate curator,describes the centre as ‘‘one ofManawatu’s best-kept secrets’’.

Open to the public on Thursdaysfrom 8.30am to 4pm, this modestbuilding isn’t the kind of place youcan hurry through, so crammed isit with historic treasures.

But what exactly is a Sapper?Hollander explains. ‘‘It comes

from the French word ‘sape’(spadework, or trench), datingfrom the Battle of Hastings. Thesappeurs, or sappers, were soldierswho dug covered trenches up tothe walls of an enemy fort.’’

Once under the walls, thesoldiers would collapse thetunnels, undermining the fort.

In a modern army, engineers arethe ultimate battlefield supportcrew. They install portablebridges, tank traps and otherconstructions, dig trenches, andbuild supply roads, railways,barracks and fuel depots. Theyprepare survey maps, and risktheir lives to disarm and dispose ofmines and unexploded bombs andshells.

Currently, there are around 500Sappers serving in the NewZealand Army.

At the ECMC, Hollander pointsout a diorama of an early NewZealand hilltop pa.

‘‘Maori were the originalmilitary engineers of this country.Their pas and defensive works

were so intricate and tacticallywell-designed that battles such asGate Pa (Pukehinahina) andRangiriri are taught at militarystaff colleges overseas. Maoriwarriors and chieftains knew a lotabout practical defences.’’

The New Zealand corps startedby linking with volunteer RoyalEngineers from Britain during the1860s New Zealand Wars era andup to 1910.

The British troops were based in

Canterbury, Auckland, Wellingtonand Dunedin. Their eye-catchinguniforms featured scarletGaribaldi jackets with blackfacings and silver buttons, blacktrousers with a red stripe, and ashako with a white plume. Afterdemobilisation, many stayed inNew Zealand and became theforebears of many Kiwi families.

Sappers are ‘‘good ambassadorsfor the military both in peacetimeand war’’, says Hollander.

‘‘They also established anddeveloped the basic infrastructureof New Zealand – civil engineeringcame out of military engineering.’’

The immaculately arrangedmuseum tells the Sappers’ story inboth world wars and on throughmore recent service,reconstruction and de-miningassignments in many countries –so many that one Sapper motto is‘‘Ubique’’, or ‘‘everywhere’’.

‘‘There are six or seven

thousand photos, slides andnegatives we’re still cataloguing,’’adds Hollander, who works withhonorary curator and RNZEhistorian Howard Chamberlain, ofWaikanae, and volunteers who popin from time to time.

‘‘It would be great to have morefolk take an interest in the ECMCand assist us with cataloguing,conservancy and display tasks, asthis has almost become a fulltimejob.’’

The library area of the museum

is the Hollander Wing. Amammoth array of books andtechnical reference material isstored here, including Gallipolilandscape paintings, a mapcollection dating back to 1916, andconstruction drawings of the earlystages of Waiouru’s National ArmyMuseum.

Hollander is himself a retiredlieutenant-colonel of the corps(1969-1991) and currently a semi-retired engineering andconstruction industry consultant.

He has poured years ofdedication into the ECMC. Why?

‘‘If I hadn’t received the sort ofexpertise, training, knowledge andskills in my early years that thecorps gave me, I wouldn’t have hada 40-plus-year successful career inthe engineering profession,’’ hesays.

‘‘This is giving something backand preserving the heritage andhistory of the corps.’’

The idea for the museum andlibrary came in 1964. After a lot ofplanning and fundraising, itopened in January 1982, and extralibrary space was added in 1987-88.

Over the past four years it hasbeen undergoing an extensiverefurbishment.

Nearby stands the third part ofthe complex: the Royal NZEngineers’ memorial (and LintonCamp garrison) Chapel of StMartin.

The chapel, originally dedicatedin 1899 at Makotuku, nearNorsewood, closed in the 1960s andwas later offered to Linton Campas a garrison church.

Transported to Linton insections, it was rebuilt by theSappers and ceremonially openedon July 20, 1974. The chapel is nowthe corps’ spiritual home andcontains its rolls of honour.

Because the ECMC and museumis inside Linton Camp proper,there are security checks at thegate, but that hasn’t discouragedvisitors. For a facility open only onThursdays, it has attracted largenumbers of civilians as well asretired military personnel, formerSappers and their families, anddeployment reunions.

‘‘Since early last year, we’ve hadover 900 visitors through theECMC,’’ Hollander says.

For further information, call351 9367.

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