THE PRO PATRIA PROJECT
MOIR Thomas
1481, Sergeant, 4th Field Regiment, New Zealand Artillery
CITATION
Distinguished Conduct Medal
Gazetted 8 September 1942, p3949
Sergeant Moir was one of a party of nine which escaped from CRETE. They were all captured immediately after the fighting but escaped within a month and then like other odd prisoners of war at liberty on Crete they wandered in twos and threes from village to village, living as long as they could in each place, generally in the district west of Maleme. They found a boat, only to discover it was not seaworthy. They tried a second time, but this time the weather defeated them. They then heard of two diesel-engined and several sailing boats at the village of Mesoyia. They stole the best-looking sailing boat, as the owner might have removed a vital part of the diesel-engined craft, and the noise of the engines might attract the Germans. There was also the problem of fuel. They spent the next two days collecting olives and bread from their friends in the hills, but many others must have known they were going as they were caught as they set off. Though the Cretans were sympathetic, robbery was not taken lightly; protests and warnings of weather and certain shipwreck were flung at them. But nine determined men, hardened by months of rough living, were not easily thwarted and they sailed at midnight on 8 April 1942. They had little water and put in at a sheltered creek where they knew of a brackish but drinkable well in the hills above and left again that night hoping to reach Mersah Matruh. Two days later the mountains of Crete could still be seen about sixty miles away. German aircraft passed but paid no attention. Sergeant Moir had had some experience of navigation and another member of the party had done some sailing. On 14 April 1942 they landed at Sidi Barrani, Egypt, with about 16 days supply of water, a few olives and three loaves of bread in hand. There seems to have been no question of the leadership of this party. Their problems were resolved by discussion but credit for their safe crossing must go chiefly to Sergeant Moir. This party, in view of their long stay on the island under the most trying conditions and in constant danger of recapture, experienced an extraordinarily difficult time behind enemy lines in Crete, and their final escape required great courage and determination. Undaunted by all they had been through, Sergeant Moir and three other members of the party volunteered to return to Crete to rescue other escapers known to be hiding on the island.
Military Medal
Gazetted 20 June 1946, p3116
Staff Sergeant Moir escaped from Crete and then volunteered to return to the island and help personnel remaining there. He was landed in Crete on the 17th March, 1943*, for the purpose of collecting and assisting Imperial personnel known to be hiding on the island. For nearly two months he walked the mountains locating escapees and preparing a plan for their evacuation. During this time Staff Sergeant Moir showed great tenacity and underwent considerable physical hardships and privation. At the beginning of June, 1943*, a party of 50 Imperial personnel were ready for evacuation. Unfortunately, on the 4th June, Staff Sergeant Moir was captured by a German patrol. Attempts were made to effect his escape but they were unsuccessful and he was eventually taken to Germany. The fact that Staff Sergeant Moir was captured only three days before the evacuation was to take place and that all of his plans were ready made, enabled the operation to be carried out despite his capture. It was entirely due to the efforts of Staff Sergeant Moir that the 50 Imperial personnel were collected and dispatched to the Middle East. In addition, a further 17 Greeks were also evacuated with the party.
*On the citation certificate the date is mistakenly typed as 1941
KNOWN AWARDS
Distinguished Conduct Medal
Military Medal
1939-45 Star
Africa Star
8th ArmyWar Medal 1939-45
New Zealand War Service Medal
NOTES
Born 4 January 1916 Kaingaroa, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
Died 24 December 1975 Wellington, New Zealand
Cremated in Wellington, no known grave.
BIOGRAPHICAL
Tom Moir was a single, 23 year-old service station attendant in Hamilton when war broke out in 1939. He enlisted almost immediately and, with five years previous experience in the Territorials, swiftly rose through the ranks to Sergeant.
After a short period of training in New Zealand, he disembarked with the First Echelon of 2 New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Egypt on 12 February 1940. His History Sheet is silent about his progress until the following October, when he was sent to the NZ Artillery Training Unit. It was from here, after a brief spell in hospital, that he was posted to 4 Field Regiment New Zealand Artillery at the end of February 1941.Moir’s experience of war as a conventional artilleryman lasted for less than three months. In March 1941 Moir’s regiment sailed with the rest of the 2 New Zealand Division to Greece to oppose a threatened German attack. However, within days of the German invasion on 6 April, the Division was ordered to join a general retreat ending in the complete evacuation of the country by the end of the month.Having destroyed and abandoned all of its vehicles and heavy weapons in Greece, those parts of the Division that were re-assembled in Crete at the beginning of May 1941 were seriously short of equipment. 4 Field Regiment NZA, with almost no artillery, was deployed as infantry. Nevertheless, the Division fought a furious six-day battle against a German air assault on the island which began on 20 May before being ordered to retreat and begin another evacuation on the 29th.In the chaos of the battle and retreat just under half of the 7,702 New Zealanders engaged on Crete became casualties, including 2,180 who were captured. However, it was not until his regiment had returned to Egypt that Moir was posted as among the missing. It was a disastrous beginning to the war.Detailed narratives of these two campaigns and the contribution of 4 Field Regiment NZA can be found in the volumes of the New Zealand Official History dealing with Greece, Crete and 2nd New Zealand Divisional Artillery. A list of other books is available in the bibliography of New Zealand Military History.The remarkable story of what had happened to Moir was not revealed until April 1942 when a small boat containing 9 men led by Sergeant Moir landed close to Sidi Barrani on the North African coast. Having escaped less than a month after his capture, Moir had evaded the Germans for almost a year disguised as a Cretan civilian until he finally managed to commandeer a boat and sail for Egypt. Details of his exploits are recounted in the Official History volume on Crete. The citation for the Distinguished Conduct Medal that he was awarded, and those of others who received this award, can be found in Polaschek, A., The Complete NZ Distinguished Conduct Medal. An account of the New Zealand Recipients (Christchurch: Medals Research Christchurch, 1983), p306. The text of Moir’s DCM citation is not available on his file, but can be seen here: DCM Citation.In addition, an account of Moir’s escape and life on Crete as an evader, made shortly after his return to Egypt, is held at Archives New Zealand in Wellington under reference WAII Series1. DA 4477.22/14.On his return to Egypt, Moir was recruited for ‘special duty’ by the Cairo branch of MI9, the British Intelligence organisation set up to help escapers and evaders reach Allied lines. He was convinced that there were more Allied servicemen in hiding on the island and volunteered to return. MI9 were keen to recruit former prisoners for this work as they had an intimate knowledge of local conditions and if recaptured had a good chance of passing as ordinary escapers.Moir was landed on Crete in March 1943 and by the following June had arranged for the evacuation of 51 soldiers from the island, although he was himself recaptured. Moir’s gallantry and resourcefulness on this occasion were duly recognised in the further award of the Military Medal in 1946. The full text of his MM citation and of others awarded to New Zealanders during the Second World War is available at Archives New Zealand in Wellington under reference WAII Series 1. DA 409.2/2. Copies of these citations are also available for purchase from The National Archives website in the United Kingdom. Unusually, the text of Moir’s MM Citation is also available on his file and can be viewed here: MM citation.Excellent accounts of life on Crete for New Zealand and Australian escapers and evaders, which include further details about Moir, are provided in the recent books by Sean Damer and Ian Frazer, On the Run. Azac escape and evasion in enemy-occupied Crete (Auckland: Penguin, 2006); and Murray Elliot, Vasili: the Lion of Crete (Auckland: Century Hutchinson, 1987).Although Moir attempted at least one further escape, he spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of the Germans before final liberation in May 1945. After being flown to Britain, he finally returned to New Zealand on 4 August 1945 and was swiftly demobilised. Further details about Moir, MI9, conditions for Prisoners of War and the organisation in the United Kingdom set up to rehabilitate and repatriate NZ prisoners are available in the Prisoners of War volume of the Official History.After a brief period as an army reservist, Thomas Moir DCM MM was finally discharged from all further military service obligations on 29 April 1947. A note on his file records that he died in 1975[Courtesy NZDF]
