Main page

Howdy folks, this time we turn our spotlight on the 28th Battalion, an all Maori unit.  You can read the full text here!

As a proud New Zealander it is great to see our history recognized on a site like this
Thank you.

my grandfather and many whanau (family) were apart of the 28th MB during the WW2. very proud of them... thank you World of Tanks

We Kiwis are proud of New Zealand's part in all of the wars we have been in. Just a couple of notes:

New Zealand is made up of a lot of islands not just one.

The South Island is really called 'Te Wai Ponamu' or 'The Water and Greenstone' (N.Z. jade).' Aoteroa' or 'Land of the Long White Cloud' really refers just to the North Island.

Damn, that photo of them doing a Haka is awesome....some great stuff in that article. Thanks for posting it, and thanks for the history lesson. Never too old to learn.

Badasses. Never knew of them or at least I may have forgotten their unit. Too easy to forget such things in this day and age. Glad you found fit to post this.

Yeah, great to see that Wargaming make the effort to recognise the contribution of the smaller nations in WW2.
Makes me proud to be a New Zealander!

Keep up the good work.
Hokie

I too am very proud of our Maori Battalion, to see them recognised in any way is great.
Kia Kaha (be Strong) Maori Battalion!
The song of the battalion:
In the days that have now gone
when the Maoris went to war
They fought and fought until the last man died
for the honour of their tribe
And so we carry on
the conditions they have laid
And as we go on day by day
You will always hear us say...

Maori Battalion march to victory
Maori Battalion staunch and true
Maori Battalion march to glory
Take the honour of the people with you
We will march, march, march to the enemy
And we'll fight right to the end.
For God! For King! And for Country!
AU - E! Ake, ake, kia kaha e!

    A loyal band of Maoris
Sailing from New Zealand
To win us freedom and peace
Marching shoulder to shoulder onward
And we will shout again
Ake aka kia kaha e
Haere tonu haere tonu ra
Kia - o - ra Kia - o - ra
Thank you W.O.T.

as a direct decendant of a member of the 28th maori battalion a company gum diggers i am proud to see our history represented nice!!! NgapuhiToa09

Kia Ora Whanau!!!


We have a clan in Memory of the Maori Battalion .....Maori Battalion Tank Division [MAORI].....Much Love to all Whanau and People that have Love for The Maori Battalion.


Maori Battalion march to victory
Maori Battalion staunch and true
Maori Battalion march to glory
Take the honour of the people with you
We will march, march, march to the enemy.



CHURR WHANAU!!!

Thank you very much for a great article. As an ex member of the New Zealand Infantry Regiment I can say NZer's have always been proud of their history and involvement which carries on to this day. No community in our small country was untouched by the commitment of our servicemen and women in either world war and that commitment carries on today. Please give thought to our people serving over seas on peace keeping duties atm. NZ serviceman have earned the right to be proud and punch well above the weight you would expect from such a small nation.

The Germans only outnumbered the Allies on Crete in the last days of the offensive, after the Mountain troops had been brought in by air. The majority of the fighting was done by the skeleton Fallschimjager units that fought against the numerically superior BRITISH and GREEKS, not the other way around.

The article was pretty good, just alittle inaccurate, which is understandable considering the substantial amount of British hype around Crete, mostly for propaganda purposes during the time.

All information was obtained via Franz Kurowski's Fallschimjager


EDIT:
really? -2 and only one counter-argument that didn't really effectively counter what I said? Welcome to the Internet, I guess.
Edited by whukid, Jun 28 2012 - 05:21.

Yes they were very good at close combat and scavanged as many automatic weapons as possible.

I feel a surge of national pride.

Thank you WG for recognising us

I find the more I learn of all that fought in WWII the more pride free people should feel that truly men of many creeds, nations, and colrs fought in common united cause to over come a true evil that sprung from Germany and Japan..

I can but say a prayer for these fine people who fought so far away from their homes and died and never returned to their Native land..

  kia kaha

Kia Ora!

Great article and some great pictures!

Would it be possible to get a similar article on Indigenous Australians sometime in the future?

Very good article, does anybody know anything of those little armored vehicles they were in?

Moa birds Grampy ;-)

Universal carrier - the 'Bren gun carrier' http://en.wikipedia....iversal_Carrier

As a New Zealander with a Grandfather that served in WW2 and a Father that served in Vietnam any time there is recognition of this it makes me so proud...

A fitting video/song for this post (http://www.youtube.c...h?v=ef9pNt3599I)