Wikiriwhi Hona

My koro, Wikiriwhi William Hona. As a child I would often sit with my koro and we would just stare blankly into the air. I would often ask him about the war. He would sit there with such sadness on his face. He'd continue to tell me some stories but often stopped short and found it hard to carry on. I realised perhaps the atroscities and tragedies he witnessed would forever haunt him. My war time memories with my darling Korox

Does anyone know where my Koro traveled to? Who were some of the group of men he traveled with, how long was he in the war for? Thank you, I would really like to try and capture of journey of my koros experience in the war, right to him coming home to Nanny.

Kia ora, You should request your koro's personnel file from the NZDF Archives. Details to do so are here: https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/nzdf/medal-and-service-records/service-records/You may not get a lot of detail, but you will get dates of when he embarked, arrived in camp, entered into battle. With these dates you can match the detail with historical information from the Battalion diaries (which we have some on the site), The Official 28th Maori Battalion history by JF Cody and Monty Soutar's Nga Tama Toa.If you can get your hands on the Battalion reunion magazines, sometimes those will have stories and details about soldiers service that aren't well known. There may also be information on our website as well. So when you have a bit more information you should come back and have a look here again. All the best with your research. Noho ora mai, Leanne (Site Admin)