Churchill's Parade..Tripoli 4th February 1943

Tripoli's big event was the big march and driveby parade through the main city streets of Tripoli. This event known as "Churchill's parade" took place on the 4th of February 1943 and also included top brass in Generals Alexander,Montgomery and our own Lt. Gen. Freyberg.

Above is a photo of acting Captain Ted Hayward standing beside the 28th Battalion carrier of Sgt. Charlie Hohaia with its Vickers water cooled .303 machine gun mounted and Ted's carrier driver Sgt. Whiu Te Purei with his back to us walking away. The lineup of Maori Battalion carriers all spicked and spanned for the parade was beside the battalion's assigned area 15 miles south of the city itself.

May I quote from the Official Histories 28th (Maori) Battalion book written by Mr. J.F. Cody and first published during 1956, which the photo above reflects.

These 2 paragraph are from Chapter 9 "Alamein to Tripoli" page 253.

For the first time in months the troops were in an area where water, cool fresh water, was plentifull and everybody drank gallons of it. There were wells, dozens of windmill-operated wells, in the vicinity and the troops were able to get rid of the alkaline desert dust from their clothes and bodies. The hair on their heads took longer to clean than their bodies for it was one clotted mass through long use of water so brackish that it curdled the tinned milk that was supplied for their tea ration.

A couple of days later (Feb 01) the Battlion moved to an area 15 miles south of the city. It was a nice spot after the arid desert, trees mostly eucalyptus, lined the roads and the orchards of plums,apples, and almonds were in full bloom. Smartening up drill took the place of patrols and there was a divisional parade and march past the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr.Winston Churchill. But from the Maori point of view the resumption of the Rugby competitions, interrupted by the departure from Bardia, was the most important event of that period. The finals were played in Tripoli as General Freyberg had promised they would.