War nightmares are over but memories remain

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

"Left, right, left, right ... " the clipped voice rang out, piercing the silence of pre-dawn darkness.

Old soldiers, muffled against the chill, squared their shoulders and summoned up every last ounce of dignity to march the short distance on to Whakaue Marae in the Bay of Plenty seaside settlement of Maketu. More than 60 years on, neither the drill nor war was forgotten.

About 50 returned service people, their numbers swelled by relatives, locals and visitors, presented a sombre front at the half-hour memorial service in Maori and English.

Like hundreds of small towns around the country, war was close and personal. The village of Maketu sent one-third of its population - less than 200 back then, now around 6000 - to fight in World War II.

In World War I several members each from the Tapihana, Tapsell and Garlick families had played their part. Little more than 20 years later, fathers, sons, brothers and cousins put their lives on the line. Some were taken but most survived.

The families were among the warriors of the famous 28th Maori Battalion. The handsome faces of the uniformed men in photographs propped up outside the meeting house yesterday were invariably youthful, vulnerable and proud.

Colonel Aubrey Balzer of B Company left for war from Rotorua but has close Te Arawa links with Maketu, where he has a bach. The 84-year-old has never missed an Anzac Day commemoration, and they still move him to quiet tears.

"It all comes back - both the good and bad memories," he said at breakfast afterward. The gathering would move on to a mid-morning civic service in Te Puke, followed by a get-together at the Maketu fishing club.

Little more than boys when they left home, the young men were changed forever by their time on overseas battlefields, Mr Balzer said. They came home "older and wiser", traumatised and struggling to adjust to everyday life.

"There was no counselling in those days, but we needed it. You cannot imagine the horror of war."

The skills Mr Balzer brought back - "how to survive and kill people" - were of little practical help in picking up his life in New Zealand.

"In the Army we were in a time capsule. We were whanau in the Maori Battalion - a special bond you wouldn't get in other battalions. We were all related or had grown up together. That was our strength."

But they missed out on dances, romance and having fun.

"We came back as men, without ever really having been young men. Girls our age had already settled down with families and most of us did not marry until we were 30, to wives 10 years younger."

Mr Balzer said he could not adjust to a bed after six years of sleeping on the ground. "I used to pull my mattress down on the floor."

Arriving home in his mid-20s, he burned his uniform. "I didn't want anything more to do with war."

Mr Balzer, who attained the rank of lieutenant in the infantry, was recalled to the Territorials a few years later and became a colonel in the Hauraki regiment.

It took him five years to recover sufficiently from the war to train as a motor mechanic, marry and have three children."The nightmares went on for ages and ages."

An American couple staying at Maketu were impressed by the dawn service.

"It was the most moving ceremony I have every attended," said Sonja Reetze from Santa Cruz, California. Husband Al agreed.

They said their country's Veterans' Day in November could not compare and young people were not as interested and knowledgeable as New Zealand youth about the history of the world wars.

"Perhaps it is that the number of people killed was greater proportionally in New Zealand," Mr Reetze said.