To mark the 70th anniversary of the 28 Māori Battalion's part in the Second World War we provided detailed monthly accounts of their activities derived from the original war diaries. These have never been published before.
With the numbers in the unit now close to full strength (i.e. 780 men) the Battalion began training for a new kind of war― highly mobile fighting across the huge spaces of the North African desert.
In late March the 2nd New Zealand Division was sent from Egypt to Greece. Just over 700 members of the 28th (Māori) Battalion disembarked at the port of Piraeus and after two days at Athens they travelled by train to the town of Katerini in a doomed attempt to halt the German invasion.
The Battalion had set sail from England for Egypt back in January. At the beginning of March they reached Port Tewfik near the entrance to the Suez Canal. Most of the month was spent adjusting to the new environment and getting fit enough to cope with the hotter climatic conditions.
