A new film about one of the dark sides of New Zealand history is impressing visitors to Auckland's North Head.
An historian and a film-maker have banded together to show New Zealanders just how close the country came to being invaded during World War II.
Auckland like you've never seen it before - armed to the teeth, braced for an invasion by a foreign army.
"It wasn't if the Japanese were coming, it was when they were coming," says historian and film maker Dave Veart. "And every night we manned the guns thinking this could be it".
He says the Japanese came much closer to New Zealand than many realise. So close, they sent a spotter plane on a reconnaissance mission over Auckland.
"New Zealand appeared to be defenceless, and people were very, very worried. So it's the story of what New Zealand planned to do - to repel one of the world's biggest armies - the Japanese imperial forces," he says.
"Three big guns on Motutapu Island here behind Rangitoto were designed to keep the Japanese at bay. Now if they managed to get past they'd have to contend with Auckland Harbour which the government had already rigged with mines and guns on either side."
They faced the threat at a time when most of New Zealand's troops were overseas fighting German soldiers in North Africa.
"Largely the guns are operated mostly by women soldiers. As one elderly woman said to me, we did everything except pull the trigger and that was what the blokes did," Veart says.
At that time no one could withstand the might of the Japanese army. It took three years of fighting in the Pacific for the Japanese to be defeated.
The Department of Conservation has put the film on YouTube, but people who want a more life-like experience can now watch it in the original control room where it runs all day.
3 News
source: newshub archive
