Smokescreen over Cassino, Italy

On the night of 17/18 February 1944 about 200 men from the Māori Battalion's A and B Companies were sent across the Rapido River to assault Cassino's railway station. The success of this attack hinged on the equally courageous engineers who followed the assault troops. They laboured under heavy fire to repair the demolished railway causeway so that Allied tanks could reach the station, but were unable to complete their task before daylight.

On the 18th, as the Māori troops desperately clung to their positions around the station, Allied artillery fired more than 17,000 rounds of smoke over Cassino to provide some cover. C Company's 14 Platoon was sent forward to help, but suffered heavy casualties on the exposed causeway. Under murderous fire from three sides, the isolated Māori troops were soon driven out of the station by fierce German counter-attacks backed by tanks. Total Māori casualties numbered more than 150.