The Second World War commenced on 1 September 1939. From then, each local council across the Auckland metropolitan area developed their own Emergency Precautions Scheme. Devonport Borough’s scheme dated from July 1940, and designated the Naval Base, Fort Takapuna and the installations on both North Head and Mount Victoria as prime targets for any attack or invasion. Devonport was divided up into eight blocks, each with sub-wardens and deputies, with defined evacuation procedures and ways of dealing with potential casualties. Takapuna and Devonport residents may recall stories of barbed wire defences stretched across their local beaches.

Linked to this was the Home Guard, formed in August 1940 and modelled on that of the United Kingdom where around 1.5 million men became members. New Zealand’s eventually reached between 119,000 and 123,000 members, proportionally double that of the United Kingdom. Initially it was voluntary for those 15 years old and above, but from 1942 membership in the New Zealand Home Guard became compulsory for those aged between 35 and 50 years old. There was at first no uniform, only an armband, but by 1943 most Home Guard members had uniforms and access to rifles. 
In Devonport, the local Home Guard's first street parade was on 7 December 1940, with 20 recruits led by the Scottish Regimental Pipe Band. Illustrating the population dominance of the Devonport area across the North Shore at that time, Devonport had its own battalion (Number 12) in the Home Guard, with eventually four companies, serving under Captain (later Major) Hermann Henry Osmers (1894-1978). In March 1943, the New Zealand Coastguard Service became the marine section of the Devonport Home Guard.
Elsewhere on the North Shore, all of Takapuna, Northcote, Birkenhead, Chelsea, Beach Haven, and Castor Bay (with a borderline from Beach Haven through Glenfield to Castor Bay) were included in Number 13 Battalion. The Takapuna area was further divided into two companies; north and south. The commander of that battalion of the Home Guard was Major Kenneth John Dellow (1890-1971). A Mairangi Bay resident, Dellow was also headmaster of Takapuna Grammar from 1935 to 1953. 
The first parade for the Northcote and Birkenhead area was on 19 December 1940 (with around 150 in attendance), and that for Takapuna on 20 December 1940 (again with around 150 in attendance). My grandfather Roy Kelly and his son Trevor, on my mother’s side, both served in C Company of the Number 13 Battalion of the Home Guard in Northcote. My late mother described to me the ‘bomb shelter", covered by corrugated iron, that my grandfather dug in the family backyard in Seaview Avenue, Northcote.
As examples of military exercises carried out, in March 1941 the Devonport's Number 12 Battalion fended off a mock attack on the road to Silverdale from a supposed landing at Browns Bay, while Number 13 Battalion dealt with a mock attack on Northcote Road’s power station (at the corner with Sunnybrae Road) from a supposed landing in Shoal Bay. Sunday parades were a mainstay for all, and members learned unarmed combat and the use of weapons, including small machine-guns and mortars. Some members were veterans of the First World War, but for others it was all a new experience.
With the lessening of the Japanese invasion threat from early 1944, the two main North Shore based Home Guard battalions began to wind up. The Takapuna, Milford and Bays based members of Number 13 Battalion handed back their clothing, web equipment, and steel helmets on 6 February 1944. They were followed by Glenfield-based members on 8 February, Northcote and Birkenhead members on 11 February, and Albany-based members on 15 February 1944. The Devonport-based Home Guard followed on 25 March 1944.

david.verran@xtra.co.nz