Old soldier finally has his medals

BY IAN STEWARD

Ron Hermanns, 98, finally received his World War II service medals in Christchurch yesterday after being persuaded to break a 65-year-old pact.

Hermanns, who served two terms in the Pacific, was among the returned servicemen who refused their medals on the grounds they did not bear their names, like those in World War I.

With the assistance – and insistence – of neighbour Joy Monteath, Hermanns finally applied for his medals last year.

Air Force deputy chief Air Commodore Gavin Howse yesterday presented Hermanns with the 1939-45 Star, the Pacific Star, the Defence Medal, the War Medal 1939-45, and the New Zealand War Service Medal in a ceremony at the Air Force Museum at Wigram.

Hermanns, a ground-crew engineer in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, spent his spare moments during the war making jewellery from crashed-aircraft parts and munitions, incorporating paua shell he had brought from New Zealand.

He yesterday donated the works to the Air Force Museum.

Hermanns said he had joined the air force because he was interested in aircraft. "Hitler was playing up, so we thought something would happen."

Hermanns was stationed on Guadalcanal, working on a runway carved out between rows of coconut trees, when a plane carrying bombs crash-landed.

"We could hear the bombs rolling around inside and we didn't know if the safety caps were still on," he said.

"We said to the other men, `get back into the jungle and stand behind a good stout tree'."

Luckily, the caps were in place.

Monteath said Hermanns was an amazing man who, despite being legally deaf and blind, still rode his bike to the supermarket.

Hermanns said his doctor had asked him if anything unusual about his lifestyle explained his longevity.

Hermanns replied that he had never married, which his doctor said was "cheating".

Hermanns thanked everyone who had helped him receive his medals which, for the record, still did not bear his name.

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