The 28th (Māori) Battalion
Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū
- When
- 1940–1945
- Reach
- Nationwide
A volunteer battalion organised by tribal area fought through Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy, and took proportionally the heaviest casualties of any New Zealand unit.
Around 3,600 men served; 649 died and 1,712 were wounded — a casualty rate of about two-thirds. Companies were raised by region: A from Northland, B from Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty, C from the East Coast, D from everywhere else. Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngārimu won a posthumous Victoria Cross in Tunisia. Sir Āpirana Ngata argued that service would earn full citizenship; the returning veterans found otherwise, and many became the leaders of the protest generation.
Regions affected
Sources
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Related
The Native Land Court is established
The court converted customary communal title into individual freehold — the mechanism by which most remaining Māori land was lost, without a shot fired.
New Zealand declares war on Germany
‘Where she goes, we go’ — 140,000 served overseas and nearly 12,000 died, from a population of 1.6 million.
New Zealand enters the First World War
About 100,000 served overseas from a population of just over a million. Around 18,000 died and 41,000 were wounded — proportionally among the heaviest losses of any country.
Māori War Effort Organisation
More than 300 tribal committees organised recruitment, production and welfare — the most effective Māori self-administration the Crown had allowed since 1840.