A few weeks ago, Act Party MP Mark Cameron called out the Auckland War Memorial Museum/Tāmaki Paenga Hira for being “divisive and disrespectful” with its.
Huge crowds return to Anzac services
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Dame Trelise Cooper at Leigh.
Servicemen with the NZ Navy and Air Force marched over the Memorial Park bridge at the end of the Puhoi ceremony.
At Matakana. Photo, Emma MacDonald.
Keith Tennant, left, and Thomas Dowling.
After two years of cancellations and disruptions, Anzac Day 2021 dawned bright, warm and clear across the Mahurangi region, prompting an impressive turnout at local parades and services. Speakers at Puhoi – historian Richard Hern – and Leigh – JP Vince Anaki – reminded the crowds that New Zealand had, in both world wars, sent a disproportionately high percentage of its population to fight – and it had suffered correspondingly huge losses. Meanwhile, at Warkworth, RSA president Bob Harrison said the challenges and sacrifices of Covid-19 were in many ways similar to those of wartime.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, with Lieutenant-Colonel George Dittmer at his side, watches 16 Platoon of D Company, 28th Maori Battalion, march past in England, 1940. The Maori Battalion, along with the rest of 2NZEF’s Second Echelon, had been en route to the Middle East in May 1940 when they were diverted to Britain. In July they were deployed to southern England to help defend against a possible German invasion. After six months in Britain the men of the Second Echelon sailed for their original destination, Egypt, where they arrived in early March 1941.
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.