Time to think of our loved ones and forebears who served their country in war, horrible wars, far away from these beautiful islands we all call home.
ANZAC Day tomorrow. Time to think of our loved ones and forebears who served their country in war, horrible wars, far away from these beautiful islands we all call home.
I think of my grandfather, great uncles, uncles, father, father in law and son who all fought in our country's name on foreign shores.
I never served in the military, nor did any male cousins of my generation. I was actually called up for National Service in 1970 but was already in Trentham Army Camp doing my 19 month police cadetship. Police are exempt, can't be everywhere at once.
I particularly remember two of my great uncles who fought at Gallipoli. Two NZ boys, one Maori, the other a son of Irish immigrants.
Private Charles Michael Hennessey of the Wellington Regiment died at Gallipoli leaving a recently widowed mother and siblings in Blenheim. Uncle Charlie was a barber, a family calling. A stocky, tough country boy following his father's footsteps to war. His father was ex British Army.
Lieutenant George Frederick Bertrand, Ngati Mutunga, Wellington Regiment, was wounded at Gallipoli, recovered and went on to the Western Front in Belgium, surviving the war. A teacher born in Urenui and educated at Te Aute.
Uncle George was wounded again in Belgium. He came home and remained an officer in the Territorial Army.
One of few Maori commissioned officers at that time he was appointed 2nd in Charge Major under Lt Colonel Dittmer, the two officers who formed the 28th Maori Battalion in 1940.
Uncle George fought in Greece and Crete with the battalion before coming home and forming the 2nd Maori Battalion as its Lieutenant Colonel in 1942 in NZ. It acted as a feeder battalion for the 28th with some talk of it being used eventually in the invasion of Japan which thankfully never happened. The 2nd was known as "the forgotten Maori Battalion".
Two young men, very different men but two warriors. One a country school boy, the other a highly educated boy.
Do you know 98,950 young NZ men went to WW1, one-tenth of our country's population at the time of one million.
Over 18,000 died, nearly 42,000 were wounded, 60% casualty rate. Many more who made it home died young in the 1920s and 30s from illness, suicide or just worn out young.
A whole generation of our fittest and best men.
Lest we forget. At the going down of the sun we will remember them, we will remember them.
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