Tini Glover describes going into battle

Tini Glover (Tautini Moana Karawa, 802006) describes how Māori soldiers screamed when going into battle. From an interview with Megan Hutching.

Transcript

But we were all frightened. I tell you what, I never heard a haka. Somebody asked me, 'Did you haka when you went into action?' I said, 'Not haka really.' But we screamed. We screamed like devils and I think that was our inheritance coming out. The old people. As soon as we went in and saw a German, we started yelling. It's a queer scream, a high scream. We screamed at the top of our voices. And some Germans got paralysed behind their guns. I've seen them, many a time, attacking and the joker behind the gun, with that scream, it put him off. He'd got his hands up. 'Ka mate, ka mate', we had no time for that; but that scream, it seemed to help us.

Reference: 
<p>Tautini (Tini) Glover , Te Aitanga a Hauiti, born 1923, interviewed by Megan Hutching, 16 August 2003, for the <em>Second World War oral history project - Italy</em></p> <p>From the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library Oral History Centre, OHInt-0748-02.   All rights reserved. Permission of the <a href="http://www.mch.govt.nz/">Ministry for Culture and Heritage</a> must be obtained before any re-use of this sound file. </p> <p>Image: Tautini Glover. </p>

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