Going Nowhere Without My Bikes..

 In sunny warm weather as shown even pushbikes go along with the NZ Division as this 28 (Maori) Battalion member Pvt. Arthur King from Kaitai of  Northland, New Zealand is happy to demonstrate. His Maori unit is following the retreating Germans in the Liri Valley after break out from Cassino on the Italian battlefront during WW2 on 28th of May 1944.

Noteworthy is the known (as others) NZ Division aquisition and trading ability of various comodities that were regarded by the Italian civilians as "highly valuable" Such goods like Army apparell, particularily American goods, footwear, socks, clothing, female hosiery etc..even petrol was in high demand but  the valuable pushbikes above were greatly cherished by all Italian civilians. The NZ Maori boys had a high level of understanding and knowledge of what the Italians liked mostly because of the natural language ability with the Italian public. So it maybe these bikes on board the back of the jeep could have been articles of "trade" value, which potentialy in turn provided things to our 2 NZEF boys such as food, alcohol and all manner of desired requirements that could re traded into the ranks. The wary smile of Private King towards the Army photgrapher above speaks a sentence or two..

 

 

 

 

Reference:

NZ Army photo by G.F. Kaye. Denis Clough archive

Submitter:
Submitted by aircrew on

Takupu (0)