Ministers help family's bid for posthumous award

Ministers are backing a campaign to convince Buckingham Palace to award a posthumous Victoria Cross to World War II soldier Haane Manahi.

Defence Minister Phil Goff said Sergeant Manahi earned the Victoria Cross, the highest Commonwealth award for bravery, "time and time again" when he led Maori soldiers up a mountainside in an attack on German positions in North Africa in 1943.

At the launch of a display of New Zealand Victoria Cross history at the Army museum in Waiouru this week, Mr Goff said Manahi's effort was recognised by "the entire chain of command" including four generals who signed his citation for the award.

"Yet a nameless person in the War Office countermanded the award and he received a Distinguished Conduct Medal instead," he said.

"Manahi displayed outstanding courage and leadership in the North African desert in 1943, leading three men up the near sheer face of a mountain, silencing machinegun posts, and capturing 60 prisoners."

The Government was working with the Manahi family and the Manahi Victoria Cross Committee to see if his case could be reconsidered and a posthumous award could be made.

"I have read the citation. I have read all the information I could about it and I am absolutely convinced, as was the whole of the line of command and those who witnessed his valour, that he should have got the VC."

- NZPA