Embedded Files
Dear Rimini and Benedict
This is a letter to Rimini and Benedict from Tu, their uncle. The letter tells the reader that he had been reluctant, before now, to hand over the diaries because they would reveal the truth about what really happened to him. He is giving the diaries to his niece and nephew because they came asking for information to help them to get to know their father, whom they had never met. Tu also says that he did not reveal the diaries before now in order to keep Ma’s secret. We find that Tu has been in the ‘loony bin and now lives alone ‘back under our mountain.’ We also find that Benedict has been named in remembrance of the bombing of a Benedictine Abbey at the base of Monte Trocchio near Cassino where Tu and their fathers fought. Near the end of the letter our curiosity is piqued further when Tu speaks of ‘an error with an apostrophe several paragraphs back’ and that they will understand later that it was no mistake.
Thus the stage is set for the unraveling of the story and revelations of the truth.
Left Papaukura by train...
Chapter 1: away
This chapter covers Tu’s journey to war via Australia (Port of Freemantle – Perth) and Africa. 31st June to18th July,1943. We find that Ma has not forgiven him, though she is there to see him off from Wellington harbour. Tu is young, as he comments that he was ‘not so long ago a schoolboy’... and now was running ‘out of the iron gates and away to war.’
Chapter 2: iron
We hear for the first time about Tu’s older brother Rangi, who is already at war. We find that going to war was Tu’s escape from boredom and boyhood and that sending him to boarding school was a way of the family protecting him and preventing him going to war. Tu saw school as ‘[his] prison until the war ended’. He was 17 years old and wanted to break away from ‘the family protection that had always coated [him]’. Tu escaped to war by lying to his mother that he was going to stay with his Uncle Willy in the holidays and then enlisting with the army. Finally he forged his mother’s signature to say that he was leaving the school in Wellington.
Chapter 3: maadi
Tu arrives at the Port of Cairo on 5th August. He describes the countryside and their base, Maadi Camp. This time is occupied with training and taking part in sports competitions, while waiting to be deployed to war. On the first night Tu bumps into his older brother Pita (twelve years older than Tu) who does not seem pleased to see him, and later he meets up with his oldest brother Rangi. At the end of the chapter Pita opens up to Tu, wanting to tell him about personal matters. (a large portion of the rest of the novel tells Pita’s story).
Chapter 4: dream
Change in narration to Third Person. The beginning of Pita’s story and his dream. Pita joined the war against the wishes of his family. Older brother Rangi had been away for nearly three year. They said one war was enough, alluding to what WW1 had done to their father and to Ma. We find that Pita went because he felt he had to help and also to escape ‘the mess of himself and what it did to dreams.’ This flashes back to Pita’s life in Wellington and a girl who becomes part of his dream. He has dreams for Ma and the family which he hopes to see realized through hard work at the freezing works. The girl, who is Pakeha, is also part of her dream, but he always sees her as unattainable, ‘even though the world was free.’ Pita worries about his sisters, Sophie and Moana, who know the girl at the cake shop and roam the streets. He worries that they will get into trouble and that it will result in disaster for the family.
This chapter tells of the family’s arrival in Wellington after Pita’s father dies and their membership in the Nga Poneke Club, where Maori people moving to the cities can retain their culture and together support and protect each other while adjusting to the new type of life in the city with its challenges and evils.
Chapter 5: moving
Narrated by Tu, this chapter is set in a transit camp a hundred miles from Maadi, where the battalion are preparing for combat. Tu experiences death in war for the first time when during practice something goes wrong and live ammo started falling short. The battalion travels by boat to Italy. Indications are that the war is coming to and end and Tu is keen to ‘have a crack’ before it is over.
Chapter 6: hero
Pita’s story continues with, at aged four, his first memories of his father who, mentally traumatized by war, was in Wellington hospital and subsequently at home where he is ‘a dead space in their house and in their lives.’ The chapter graphically reveals the effects of war on their father and on the family.
Chapter 7: free
Pita’s story continues with the birth of baby Sophie when Pita is seven. We learn of Pita’s early concern for his mother and the hard life she has, while looking after her sick husband. Pita begins to take on the ‘little father’ role as he helps his mother and aunty to cope with father on his the bad days. Thirteen years later father dies and ‘their father freed them all’. After trying to rebuild the life of the family Ma writes to an uncle who works in parliament to see if he could have them to stay in Wellington, so that ‘Tuboy could go to a good college, have a good job,…’
Chapter 8: rain
Tu’s story. Back in Italy. The Maori Battalion are on the move to join the Eighth Army. The wet conditions and ravaged settlements are described. They camp on the southern slopes overlooking the Sangro River, where they are preparing for an assault on the Germans. The chapter ends with morning and the start of the strike on Sangro.
Chapter 9: angel
Pita’s story. The family arrive in Wellington, by steam train. Everything is unfamiliar. Uncle takes them to their lodgings, which he had arranged. He reminds Ma that times will be difficult, as ‘I know a Maori woman whose man has died gets only half the pension of a Pakeha widow… ’. Rangi and Pita begin working at the meat works the next day. This is all before the start of the war.
Chapter 10: road
Italy and battle. The Maori Battalion takes a road through the mountains to Orsogna which is occupied by the Germans. They lose their first two mates and sustain many casualties. The battalion is holed up in a walled cemetery. Support does not arrive and German tanks are everywhere and they are hemmed in on three sides. By the end of battle many soldiers are dead. Tu feel proud, not because he has killed but because ‘I was able to do what I was meant to do. [He] had passed the test, and become a true soldier justified in his existence at the front.’
Chapter 11: mea culpa (through my own fault)
Wellington. The Ngate Poneke Club. We learn how ‘the club was like an end to starvation,’ for Pita and how out of place he feels in the city. Ani-Rose comes to live with the family. Talk begins, about the formation of a Maori Infantry and soon Rangi joins up. Pita is worried about Rangi ‘heading for trouble’ in Wellington as he is often gone all weekend and out during the week, drinking.
Chapter 12: snow
Christmas on Cemetery Ridge. It is still wet and cold, but parcels come by mule train, from home. Tu remembers being at home in Wellington and receiving news from the front, and how ‘death in far-off lands, death without a body, is a death not fully believed.’ Tu’s battalion is relieved for two days, so that they can enjoy Christmas.
Chapter 13: manpower
Wellington. Sophie and Moana go to work at the woolen mills, now that Rangi is not there to help Pita support the family. Pita looks out for the girl at the cake shop, Jess. She asks Sophie and Moana his name.
Chapter 14: ol’man
The battalion pulls out as they cannot make it to Rome via Orsogna. They begin to move to the south-west, to a rest area called San Servo. Tu describes Monte Cassino as the battalion moves round Monte Trocchio on their way to free the way to Rome.
Chapter 15: Omnipotentem
15th February, 1944. The bombing of the Benedictine Abbey.
Chapter 16: Lines
Wellington. Pita is working at the railway station and he and Jess meet every night after work at the tram stop. They discuss marriage, knowing that this would not happen between them. Jess told Pita, “When you do get married it will be to a Maori girl, .. . a good catholic Maori girl.”
Chapter 17: Corps
Italy. The failure to take Cassino by the Americans and the call for the Maori Battalion to leave Orsogna, means that many thought that they should give up on Cassino. The N.Z. Army Corps is formed and they are to become an assault force used to play a leading part in getting tanks across the Rapido River and opening up a new way to Rome. The Maori Battalion are to be foot soldiers, leading the way along the railway embankment, clearing the way of enemy as the engineers make bridges, fill gaps and remove obstructions. The intention is to go around the mountain and through the Liri valley to Rome.
Chapter 18: Smoke
Italy. The boys move forward in appalling conditions and through landmines and under mortar and machine gun fire from Monte Cassino. The Maori battalion storms the railway station and kills or drives out the Germans. While attempting to hold the passage open until the tanks arrived, many lives are lost. A plan is hatched for the gunners to make a smoke wall, for a whole day, behind which the roadmakers will continue their work. Unfortunately the smoke wall also hides enemy activities; bringing forward more tanks and machine guns. Caught at point blank range the Maori Battalion have to run for their lives. Tu’s mate, Matey is killed, and left lying on top of Tu, until he can drag him out after dark. Around two thirds of the battalion who went out, were killed.
Chapter 19: turf
Wellington. The Club is preparing for the 100th Anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. An exhibition building is to be built for the celebrations. On the opening day the Club is going to perform.
Chapter 20: words
Italy. The battalion is slowly being rebuilt after many losses. Cousin Johnny arrives and asks permission to marry their sister, Sophie. There is a new plan for an attack on Cassino where tanks will take the town and an air raid will follow. At this point the Maori Battalion will go back in and take the railway station.
Chapter 21: light
Wellington. The Exhibition. Pita decides not to see Jess any more. The family have found their ‘better life’. We learn of Pita’s inability to fit in where his mother and brother have adapted to city life. It is at the exhibition that the newly formed Maori Battalion march to form a guard of honour. Pita escorts Jess home after the show.
Chapter 22: deluge
The bombing of Cassino. After the bombing it is discovered that the Germans are still in Cassino and that tanks can make little headway into the town. Orders change and the 28th instead of holding the railway station, are told to go into battle and take two hotels in the centre of the town.
Chapter 23: monkey
The Exhibition continues and Pita begins to question why he is there as he feels ‘more like a showpiece or a clown act.’ Rangi goes off to the war. Their uncle expresses that, ‘Maybe fighting in their war will make the brown man equal to the white man.’ Pita stays with the club but avoids going to concerts. Rangi writes letters home to the family and one to Pita, telling him that he should sleep with Jess and that he won’t go to hell because of it. Pita is angry because he wants Jess to remain a dream girl. He knows, ‘she wasn’t for him, not even when the world was free.’ Pita leaves his railway job and goes to work at the Ford factory. Tu is at school and Pita is proud because it ‘showed people’.
Chapter 24: roses
Cassino. The boys set off in single file on the road to Cassino town. In the south-west corner of the town Jerry is putting up strong resistance and the Maori Battalion try to find their way through the rubble and the decaying bodies of German soldiers from the bombing and the newly dead Jerries and Kiwis.
Chapter 25: yellow
Wellington. Jess invites Pita to the movies. He is not impressed with her bright red lipstick and painted nails. He tries to talk to Jess about Rangi’s letter. Pita goes to church, to repent.
Chapter 26: chatanooga
Tu is surprised to find himself alive. He tells about learning the skill of using the taiaha with Uncle Ju and what Rangi meant when he said, ‘You don’t risk your life.’ He mean’t ‘I only do what I know I can do.’ Tu offers to act as scout, and in it, ‘felt a sense of joy and freedom.’ Soon he is scooping up blood to smear his face and he pretends to be dead. Tu notes how they have all changed. ‘Now we are pale ghosts of men..’
Chapter 27: shadows
Wellington: Pita finds that Jess has been manpowered into essential industry for the war effort. Pita knows he should marry Ani Rose, not his dream girls. Pita starts to think about enlisting, when Tu says he wants to sign up at the end of the year and when he knows Rangi is coming home on furlough.
Chapter 28: chiefs
Italy: To fill in time the boys carve their rifle butts and begin drawing mokos on each other. Bootleg loses his legs and Hemi kills a German prisoner.
Chapter 29: pennies
Wellington. Pita meets Jess at a dance. Pita walks Jess home and tells her he’s getting married and he’s going to war.
Chapter 30: awol
Rangi finds Tu amongst the ruins of Cassino. Pita is dead. In his dying breath he told Rangi that he had sent a Hun kid home to his mother, but wounding him rather than killing him. Tu and his cousins bury Pita. Rangi cries.
Chapter 31: manners
Rangi shares the ‘story of Rangi and Jess, a story of love, a story that could only be told because Big Brother was dead.’ This happened when Rangi was on furlough and after Pita had gone to war. Rangi comes across Jess when she is getting glass out of her feet after a street brawl. After that he stayed with her for six weeks and never told anyone, then back to war. Rangi wants Tu to know that she is ‘the loveliest girl’.
Chapter 32: bony
After retreat, 20 miles from Cassino, Tu describes them as looking like ‘a pack of skeletons.’ A day’s leave in Pompeii. Recovery. The Eighth Army have taken over from the Kiwis at Cassino. Colle Belvedere, overlooking Monte Cassino. Rangi has taken to heavier drinking.
Chapter 33: buono
Gerry has left, retreating from the Polish who had taken Monte Cassino. The 28th battalion march to their ‘pick-up’ place practically unopposed. On the way they find the bodies of Gurkha soldiers (with their boots on and protruding from the graves, for the living to claim.), trucks of the Polish army ‘heaped high with bodies. Rangi is in a better mood as they head for Florence, where they are warmly welcomed.
Chapter 34: tigers
Waiting to face the Tigers, Rangi has been drinking too much. He is a ‘lone ghost soldier..’ who is always in dispatches because of his ‘extraordinary soldiering.’ Rangi refuses to have his name in the ballot to go home and is taking Pita’s death hard.
Tu tells his own boy’s love story, and that he was the first to love Jess, a year before Pita met her.
Today I’ll Write…
Chapter 35: bleed
Tu is in hospital in Senigellia, three or four months after the last entry, and trying to make sense of what happened to him. He remembers a ‘Tiger’ (German Tank) and Rangi running off and destroying it with a grenade . He has memories of brother telling brother, ‘We do it but not tonight,’ and then Rangi calling his name. He says ‘My brother did this to me.’ He was shot, while running towards Rangi’s call, and injured sufficiently to ensure that he would have to leave the war. He feels he cannot forgive his brothers.
Chapter 36: Skin
Months later, Tu is still in hospital and brooding.
Chapter 37: Spirito
The war ends (April 1945) and Tu is in a convalescent home in San Spirito. After meeting a girl called Lila, he feels he is ready to join his battalion. Rangi has been found dead on the road to Rimini.
Chapter 38: over
A year since Tu’s injury he is able to rejoin his battalion. Despite homesickness he is not ready to go home and face the home people. August 16th 1945 the war ends, one year and eight months since Tu left Wellington.
Chapter 38: mosaic
Tu has rejoined his battalion in Florence while they wait for a ship to send them home. Tu meets a girl call Maddelina, falls in love with her family, and considers staying in Florence. Tu and Anzac are the only ones left of the backhome brothers and cousins. Tu is unfaithful to Maddelina and cannot think of a life beyond his battalion, ‘a life without men who know what it’s been like.’
Chapter 39: artery
January 1946 and Tu is arriving in Wellington. Tu writes, to keep fear and madness out of [his] heart.’ He tells of why Maori men and boys went to war, ‘for the honour of the people.’ Tu wonders who he will be when his Battalion breaks up, as he has no wish to be a hero.
Chapter 41: remnants
This chapter describes the disembarkation of the Maori Battalion in Aotea Quay, Wellington. With the karanga ( ), but Tu felt guilt and would have preferred to have been in the place of one of his brothers rather than the returning on. Tu sees the two children, but doesn’t know who they are, and they are introduced as Pita’s children. Tu knows that some of the answers would be in the letters he had not read, while he was away. We learn of Ani Rose’s death from tuberculosis.
Anzac and Tu returned for two months to, ‘our everlasting mountain’. Tu finishes his last notebook on 13th March 1946.
Dear Benedict and Rimini
Tu tries to help his nephew and niece to understand why they didn’t find they were cousins earlier… that Ma probably didn’t know that they were not both Pita’s children, and Jess never told, even though her baby (Rimini) was only 3 weeks older than Ani Rose’s. He explains that he could not come home to Ma’s ‘house of heroes, with its photographs and its medals.’
Tu tells how he drifted, wanted to be dead and finally admitted himself to a lunatic asylum. It was after a visit from Ma, Rimini and Benedict that Tu decided to get out and return to his ‘backhome place under the mountain.’ He describes himself living the life of an old man, at only 38 years old (20 years after he went to war)
Tu speaks of the futility of war, and how the Maori Battalion’s efforts were expected to bring true citizenship, but that that although they took a full part in the war, they ‘had not yet been able to take a full part in peace.’
Tu says that he ha forgive his brothers, because they had no choice in what they did. They had to return Tu to Ma, just as Pita had returned a German soldier boy to his mother.
Included in the letter, is a note from Rangi to Tu, which had been returned to Ma with Rangi’s belongings, telling Tu that he and Pita think Tu is ‘a number one soldier’ and that they are proud that he is their brother.
Tu pleads with R and B ‘not to follow in our footsteps, your fathers’ and mine,’ and that if they agree, he will have had a reason for living , and that he may not be ‘an entirely useless piece of rubbish taking up space on the planet.’ He tells R and B that he will sell the family herd and use the money to travel to Italy with them, to visit their fathers’ graves. On their return he will begin a new dream, to rebuild the herd and house and ‘keep it warm for the family.’
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