Tini Glover describes being attacked in Italy

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Interview between Tautini Glover (Tautini Moana Karawa, 802006) and Megan Hutching.

Transcript (edited)

We went beyond there. Nepia Mahuika was our officer. We went into a grove of trees for the night, and in the morning he told us to go across this slope. We were halfway across and he said, 'Get back! Get back into the copse of trees.' As soon as we got back, down came the screaming meemees, six-barrel mortars, and peppered the whole area. We would have all died except for Nepia. I said to him, 'Nep, why did you send us back?' He said, 'Well, I thought about getting the cows in, in Ruatoria. When I go to get the cows, early in the morning, the birds are singing, and they've got their wings down, drying themselves on the top of the trees in the sun. I didn't hear a bird.' Now, that's from the old people. That's an inheritance, in my opinion. Bushcraft is there. He was a good man.

Reference:

Tautini (Tini) Glover , Te Aitanga a Hauiti, born 1923, interviewed by Megan Hutching, 16 August 2003, for the Second World War oral history project - Italy

From the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library Oral History and Sound collection, OHInt-0748-02.   All rights reserved. Permission of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage must be obtained before any re-use of this sound file

Image: Tautini Glover.

Submitter:
Submitted by mbadmin on

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