WW2 veteran finally gets paid
For a man presumed dead in 1942, World War 2 veteran Ross Lynneberg looked remarkably chipper yesterday as he clutched a long-overdue pay cheque.
Mr Lynneberg survived four years as a prisoner of war between 1941 and 1945 -- but his 59-year battle for unpaid war wages ended just yesterday.
Sealed in a crisp white envelope marked "On Her Majesty's Service", the money was presented in a service at the Paraparaumu RSA.
Now 83, Mr Lynneberg has been fighting for seven years to receive £226 -- worth an estimated $17,500 in today's money -- in lost wages that were stopped in December 1941 when he was captured by the Japanese.
It followed a letter to his parents back in Wellington explaining their only child was missing, presumed dead.
Defence Chief Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson personally presented the final payment to Mr Lynneberg yesterday and said later an unintentional "injustice" had happened that had now been put right.
Mr Lynneberg said he had no plans on how to spend the confidential payment, but his fight had never been about the money.
"What I've always said is that if you do a job you should get paid for it," he said, wiping away tears. I'm glad this is all over."
Air Marshal Ferguson said settling Mr Lynneberg's pay had been complicated by missing records.
"The Japanese were harsh captors and many prisoners died," he said.
"Mr Lynneberg went through hell during that period."
The settlement was paid out of New Zealand's defence budget.
Mr Lynneberg also thanked Act MP Rodney Hide, who had spent the past two years championing his cause with the Government.
Mr Hide said: "We could never repay Ross and his generation for their sacrifice, but the least we could is pay him."
Mr Lynneberg joined the navy at 18, and as an expert signaller and telegraphist was later seconded to the British forces.
He was captured on Christmas Day 1941 in Hong Kong.
In September, 1942, he was one of 1800 prisoners en route to Japan on an unmarked freighter that was torpedoed by the Americans.
More than half of the prisoners drowned or were murdered by Japanese soldiers in patrol boats.
Mr Lynneberg saw hundreds more comrades die in prison camps in Osaka and Notogawa before being freed in 1945 as the war ended.
©2004, New Zealand Herald