History can be found everywhere – and in Richard Cato’s case, in a bottom drawer. The advocate for getting family stories recorded and told has produced another book with Anzac links.
Richard Cato and Kingsley Field look over Richard’s latest book.
Two long-abandoned tape recordings of the trials and horrors of World War Two, made by a Te Kuiti farmer almost 30 years after he returned from the war, have now been published in two books by the serviceman’s son.
The soldier, Sergeant Colin Cato, headed No. 3 Platoon of the 27th Machine Gun Battalion of the First Echelon of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force. His platoon was involved in some of the most vicious and difficult battles of the North African war. As well, they fought in both Greece and Crete.
His son, Richard Cato, now a retired market-gardener of Te Awamutu, says the tapes had “largely languished in a bottom drawer” until about 2000, when he revived his interest in his father’s military history.
“This interest grew from conversations with my elderly aunts, and my Dad’s ability to write a series of short stories,” says Richard.
“I wanted to share this knowledge of Dad’s,” he says. “When I transcribed the tapes of his time with the 27th Machine Gun Battalion, I realised I had come across an extraordinary story, which should be shared with extended family members. There were also lots of photos Dad had taken at the time.”
Richard spent several years researching his father’s time in the army and war service, and in so doing contacted the families of a number of the men who served with Sergeant Cato, many of whom had come from the Northern King Country centres of Te Kuiti and Ōtorohanga. A number of them sent him letters, diaries, and photos from No. 3 Platoon’s war service with Sergeant Cato.
From that substantial quantity of material, and from an accumulation of family history, Richard has now produced two books on his father – The Life and Times of Colin Leigh Cato (2018), and My Army Mates and Me (2022).
Richard says much of the military material on the No. 3 Platoon of machine gunners came from a tape recording long presumed impossible to transcribe, but which a friend was able to successfully decipher.
“It was,” says Richard, “a very poignant moment when I first heard the voice of my father from that tape, which he had recorded in 1972.”
Colin’s quiet, slightly husky voice begins: “As far as I know, nobody has ever written the saga of the Third Platoon. They should have,” says Colin. “The names of the inmates alone are enough to conjure up all sorts of ideas.”
He then gives details of these remarkable men, and the 50-minute tape continues the extraordinary, often bloody story of their numerous battles against the German Nazis.
Now, these recollections are preserved in Richard’s book. The work includes about 150 photos, and excerpts of Colin’s often dramatic battlefield diary.
“The recently discovered tape has prompted me now to write another book using material from other members of Dad’s No. 3 Platoon. It is material not seen before,” says Richard.
He has been helped in the production of these two works by Te Awamutu journalist and author of more than 25 books, Kingsley Field.
