28th Māori Battalion and the Second World War
The Maori
By the time the Second World War ended in 1945, 28 (Maori) Battalion had become one of the most celebrated and decorated units in the New Zealand forces. The pinnacle of its achievement was the Victoria Cross won by Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngārimu in 1943. Ultimately, nearly 16,000 Māori enlisted for service during the Second World War.
New Zealanders reacted with patriotic fervour to the outbreak of war in South Africa in 1899 and again when the First World War began in 1914. Imperial policy had officially excluded Māori from fighting in South Africa, but a number still enlisted. That policy was still in place in 1914, but a change of heart in London saw several thousand Māori eventually fight in the First World War.
Some Maori leaders, such as Apirana Ngata, saw participation in war as the ‘price of citizenship’. Others, such as the Kingitanga leader Te Puea Hērangi, questioned why Māori should fight for an Empire that had, within living memory, invaded and occupied their lands.
When the Second World War began, some Māori opposition to participation remained. One concern was the ability of Māori to maintain a combat force, given the size of their population. Most elders, however, were resigned to the fact that they were obliged to allow their sons to serve. As one of the volunteers in the Second World War later wrote:
Their request could not be denied them by their elders and chieftains, all their long history had been steeped in the religion of war, and the training of the Maori child from his infancy to manhood was aimed at the perfection of the warrior-class, while to die in the pursuit of the War God Tumatauenga was a sacred duty and a manly death.
While leaders such as Apirana Ngata stressed the ‘price of citizenship’ line, ultimately many Māori enlisted for a mixture of reasons – to escape poverty or life in the backblocks or to follow their mates.
The Māori response to the declaration of war
‘The price of citizenship’
Telegrams from Māori leaders offering men for both home defence and overseas service reached Parliament soon after war was announced in September 1939. Māori requests for their own military unit followed.
One group proposed naming the battalion ‘Treaty of Waitangi’ to draw the attention of both Māori and Pākehā to their respective obligations under the Treaty. The Treaty focus was in line with the stance that many iwi took during the First World War. Article Three imparted the rights of British citizenship to Māori. In accepting those rights, Māori agreed that the Treaty imposed on them certain obligations and duties. As British subjects Māori should serve in the defence of the Empire. ‘British sovereignty was accepted by our forefathers,’ explained Sir Apirana Ngata, ‘and it has given the Māori people rights which they would not have been accorded under any conqueror.’
We are participants in a great Commonwealth, to the defence of which we cannot hesitate to contribute our blood and our lives. We are the possessors of rights which we must qualify to exercise, also of obligations which the Māori must discharge always in the future as he has done in the past.
Moreover, if Māori were to have a say in shaping the future of the nation after the war they needed to participate fully during it. Ngata summed the situation up:
We are of one house, and if our Pākehā brothers fall, we fall with them. How can we ever hold up our heads, when the struggle is over, to the question, ‘Where were you when New Zealand was at war?’
The government agreed. 28 (Maori) Battalion was formed on racial lines and organised on a tribal basis. The Official history of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–1945 described its formation as follows:
The battalion was to be organised on a tribal basis, and to this end men from North Auckland (the Ngāpuhi and subtribes) were marched into A Company lines; B Company received the men from Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, Taupo, and the Thames–Coromandel areas, mostly from the Arawa confederation and Tuhoe tribes; C Company comprised the tribes of the East Coast from south of Gisborne to the East Cape, Ngātiporou, Rongowhakaata, and sub-tribes; D Company, unlike the others, which were from compact areas with a closely-knit tribal organisation, extended from the Waikato–Maniapoto confederation area south of Auckland and included the Taranaki tribes, the Ngāti Kahungunu of Hawke’s Bay–Wairarapa, the Wellington Province, the whole of the South Island, the Chathams and Stewart Island, and odd men from the Pacific Islands.
The government decided to keep Māori enlistment voluntary after conscription was introduced at the end of May 1940.
Dissenting voices
Some Māori opposed the formation of an infantry battalion. They argued that casualties were bound to be numerous and that the Māori population could not maintain a constant flow of reinforcements. ‘Let our young men enlist by all means,’ said one leader, ‘but let our men join up dispersed among Pākehā units. This will lessen the possibility of heavy losses.’
Some supported the idea of a pioneer role where Māori would provide logistical support, similar to that performed in the First World War. They believed that the manpower available from a race numbering not quite 90,000 would be unable to keep up its commitments to an infantry battalion, while the strength of a pioneer unit could be maintained no matter how long the struggle.
Some objected to Māori troops being deployed overseas at all and called for any Māori unit to be kept in New Zealand for home service only. The root cause among those who objected to overseas service could be traced back to the legacy of the wars of the 1860s.
This attitude focused attention once more on Te Puea Hērangi, who reaffirmed her unwavering opposition to Waikato people fighting overseas while the government ignored their land grievances. During the First World War, Te Puea had been accused of being a German sympathiser, and these old accusations and rumours lingered in 1940. She summed up her feelings and those of many in Tainui, however, when she told Prime Minister Peter Fraser in 1941, ‘Look, Peter, it’s perfectly simple. I’m not anti-Pākehā; I’m not pro-German; I’m pro-Māori.’
Her position had softened somewhat since the First World War when she had actively opposed Waikato participation and resisted the introduction of conscription. Those who volunteered to enlist in the Second World War would not be stopped, and by 1942 nearly 1000 Waikato men had volunteered for service.
The 28th (Māori) Battalion was part of the 2nd New Zealand Division, the fighting arm of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2NZEF) during the Second World War (1939-45). A frontline infantry unit made up entirely of volunteers, the Battalion usually contained 700-750 men, divided into five companies.
The NZ Division was made up of 15,000-20,000 men, divided into three infantry brigades (the 4th, 5th and 6th Brigades), plus artillery, engineers, signals, medical and service units. Each brigade initially had three infantry battalions (numbered from 18th to 26th). The 28th (Māori) Battalion was a specially formed battalion that was at times attached to each of the Division’s three brigades. Each battalion was commanded by a lieutenant-colonel.The Māori BattalionBattalion Company boundariesLike the other infantry battalions, the Māori Battalion was divided into five companies: four rifle companies of about 125 men each and a headquarters (HQ) company of around 200 men. Each company was commanded by a major or captain. The Battalion’s four rifle companies (named A, B, C and D) were organised along tribal lines, while HQ Company drew its personnel from all over Māoridom.
Each rifle company was divided into three platoons led by a lieutenant. Each platoon was in turn made up of three sections of about 10 men led by a non-commissioned officer (NCO). HQ Company was made up of six specialist platoons: signals, anti-aircraft, mortars, Bren Gun Carriers, pioneers and transport.
Reinforcements
The main body of the Māori Battalion left New Zealand as part of 2NZEF’s 2nd Echelon in May 1940. To maintain its strength throughout the war, especially when heavy losses were suffered, groups of new recruits were regularly sent from New Zealand. 2NZEF’s 3rd Echelon sailed for the Middle East in August 1940, followed by the 4th Reinforcements in November and the 5th, 6th and 7th Reinforcements in 1941.
The last Māori recruits to see action, part of 2NZEF’s 14th Reinforcements, arrived in Italy in April 1945 (the 15th Reinforcements did not reach Egypt until May 1945, after the war in Europe ended). Read more about the Māori Reinforcements.
Counting the Cost Cemetery.
In total, almost 3600 men served overseas with the Māori Battalion between 1940 and 1945. Of these, 649 were killed in action or died on active service – more than 10% of the 6068 New Zealanders who lost their lives serving with 2NZEF in the Middle East and Europe. In addition, 1712 men were wounded and 237 were prisoners of war.In the words of Lieutenant-General Bernard Freyberg, who commanded the 2nd NZ Division, ‘no infantry battalion had a more distinguished record, or saw more fighting, or, alas, had such heavy casualties as the Maori Battalion.’