Sunday 21 April, 2013
 
Q+A: Susan Wood Interviews Con Thode, Military Veteran.
  
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Q+A
 
SUSAN WOOD INTERVIEWS CON THODE
 
 
SUSAN WOOD
Con Thode is the only NZ volunteer reserve officer to command a submarine during World War II. Ahead of Anzac Day, I spoke to the 102-year-old about duty and what it was like to be attacked under the sea.
 
CON THODE - Military Veteran
Oh, the most frightening time was depth charging, I suppose. The first patrol I went out on Proteus, we sank a ship, torpedoed her, and then we started to suffer the consequences. And I was standing in the control room, and I suddenly started to shiver. And I thought, ‘That’s funny. It’s not cold.’ I thought, ‘Hello. I wonder if it's because I'm frightened.’ So I asked the captain could I go and get my woolly jumper, which I did. I went and put it on, and I snuggled my neck down into the wool, which I found very comforting. And every time for the next four years that I was in a submarine and we had an alarm, I grabbed my pullover and put it on. And that wool was my comfort.
 
SUSAN           Did people talk about being scared?
 
CON                No. No, they were all pretty casual about it all. Even though when we were getting depth charged, nobody seemed to be upset. They all were, obviously, but they treated it casually.
 
SUSAN           So, what’s it like? What do you hear when you're being depth charged?
 
CON                Well, after the hydrophone operators told you there is a vessel coming, because he can hear the propellers. Ultimately when they get closer you can hear it yourself on the hull of the submarine, and I think that was that waiting for it to happen that was the worst aspect of it.
 
SUSAN           How important are your mates, your colleagues, the men you work with?
 
CON                Oh, they’re always important.
 
SUSAN           You sank many ships as part of your service. Did that weigh on you?
 
CON                No, it doesn't. For instance, we sank a ship off the Aegean, and when we got back through intelligence reports, we were told that it was a troop ship bound for Africa, North Africa, and there had been over 700 Italian Air Force personnel lost. The initial feeling was one of rather shock. And then I thought to myself, ‘Hang on. Those blokes were all going to fight my cobbers.’ And you've just got to realise you’re there to do a job, and you do the job.
 
SUSAN           Were there many times that you did think you might die?
 
CON                No. Never worried me. (CHUCKLES) If it comes, it comes.
 
SUSAN           But you must have seen your friends die.
 
CON                That’s right. I lost quite a few friends. A submarine is allocated a job, and you know they're going out. You'd have a few drinks in the bar with a bunch of blokes, and then one of them who was a particular cobber, you're chatting to him. But then the submarine goes away on patrol and doesn't come back. I think that was the one thing that always used to knock me a bit.
 
SUSAN           Was it a great adventure to go to war?
 
CON                Yes, but I didn't regard it as such, I don't think. Um, I sort of felt duty bound to go to the war.
 
SUSAN           Wars are fought very differently these days.
 
CON                Long-distance stuff now. I don't think I'd like to be involved with it now. (LAUGHS) Although the submarines are different. They are, in many ways, much safer.
 
SUSAN           When you came back home to NZ, did you talk about the war?
 
CON                Only when answering questions. But, no, I finished. You know, been there, done that. (CHUCKLES)
 
SUSAN           What does Anzac Day mean to you?
 
CON                That’s a day commemorating the loss of a lot of friends and a lot of people I didn't know. Just the mere slaughter of it all.
 
SUSAN           Would you do it all over again?
 
CON                Naturally, if there’s the same circumstances. People are wanted. If I could do anything, I'd go. I think most New Zealanders were very British pre-war, before that war. And a feeling of ‘Britain is in trouble. Well, we better go and help.’ That’s me, anyhow. (CHUCKLES)

ENDS

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