August 11, 2015
Emotional pilgrimage for Maori Battalion descendants
A group of 29 boys from Tauranga Boys College have returned to school this week after an emotional trip to Europe to follow the footsteps of their Maori Battalion ancestors.
The boys accompanied by teachers and parents all had relatives who fought with the Maori Battallion in Italy and Greece during the second world war and things were at times highly emotional especially when visiting sites where their ancestors had fallen.
16 year old Mikaere Leef says visiting the Phaleron War Cemetery in Athens where his relative Harding Leef who died in the Battle of Crete is buried was particularly moving.
The group also visited the memorials to the Crete Battle of 42nd Street, where the Maori Battallion, including 14 year old Tahuriwakanui Durie's great grand uncle Paratene Kohere was involved in a bayonet charge.
While the fact that the local people still remember the deeds of the Maori boys from New Zealand of earlier times was borne out when one of the group went to buy a pair of sun glasses at a local market stall and wasn't allowed to pay for them.
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