ANZAC on Alamar

08/10/2026

29/09/2026

Remembering Lance Corporal Leon Smith, New Zealand Special Air Service, who died of wounds received during an operation in Wardak Province, Afghanistan on 28 September 2011. He was later awarded the New Zealand Gallantry Decoration and the Charles Upham VC & Bar Bravery Award for his actions attempting to resuscitate the mortally wounded Dougie Grant under fire, during their unit's response to an insurgent attack on the British Council Offices in Kabul a month earlier. He had previously served as an Ensign in the Royal New Zealand Navy. Lest we forget.

He is buried at Whenua Tapu Porirua and commerated on the Porirua Peace Memorial.

29/09/2026

29/09/2026

🇳🇿 TODAY WE REMEMBER — THE 28th (MĀORI) BATTALION IN ENGLAND, 1940

What an extraordinary photograph.

It is indeed men of the 28th (Māori) Battalion marching past British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in England in 1940.

Standing alongside Churchill is the Battalion’s commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel George Dittmer. The men pictured are identified as D Company, with official records specifically identifying 16 Platoon in this scene.

They weren't originally supposed to be in Britain.

The Māori Battalion had sailed from New Zealand in May 1940 with the Second Echelon of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force, bound for the Middle East.

But while they were at sea, France fell and Britain suddenly faced the very real possibility of German invasion.

Their convoy was diverted.
The Battalion arrived at Gourock, Scotland, on 16 June 1940, before moving south to help defend England during one of the most dangerous periods of the war.

And somewhere during those remarkable months, this photograph was taken.
Churchill stands quietly at the roadside as the Māori soldiers march past him — ri**es shouldered, bayonets fixed and D Company stretching back along the road.

Beside him stands Dittmer.

Even the dog wandering down the centre of the road somehow makes this remarkable photograph feel very human.

The Battalion would spend around six months in Britain before finally departing for the Middle East, reaching Egypt in March 1941. Ahead of them lay Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy — and a fighting reputation that would become legendary.

For a few seconds in England in 1940, however, the Prime Minister who would become one of the defining figures of the Second World War watched as a column of young Māori soldiers from New Zealand marched past.

28th (Māori) Battalion.
A long way from home — standing ready to defend Britain.

🌿 We will remember them.
📷 Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, Ref: DA-13115-F.
National Library of New Zealand

25/08/2026

Great watch.

Award-winning and critically acclaimed documentary, The Battle of L...

25/08/2026

This week in 1945, a platoon of Royal Marines and a group of sailors from HMNZS Gambia under the command of Lieutenant-Commander G.R. Davis-Goff DSC, RNZN landed and took the surrender of the Japanese Naval Base at Yokosuka. Five days earlier, Imperial Japan had surrendered to the Allies, signalling the end of the Second World War. The formal surrender was signed on USS Missouri on 2nd September.
Image: OC 1123 HMNZS Gambia crew hoisting the White Ensign at the Yokosuka Naval Base.

18/08/2026

Least we forget our ANZAC brothers!
And go the mighty 161 who helped them out of a tight jam!

18/08/2026

Something a bit different!

18/08/2026

Today is Vietnam Veterans’ Day. More than 3500 New Zealand military and civilian personnel served in Vietnam between 1963 and 1975.

To also marks the 60th Anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan.

Thirty-seven men died while on active service and 187 were wounded. Two civilians serving with the surgical and Red Cross teams also lost their lives.

Although most New Zealand personnel withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, the Civilian Surgical Team and RNZAF 41 Squadron served in Vietnam until 1975.

The Civilian Surgical Team were the first New Zealand personnel to arrive in Vietnam in 1963. They were followed by engineers serving with the New Zealand Army Detachment Vietnam (NEWZAD) in 1964.

📷 Victor 1 Company soldiers Brian Wilson, Richie Taaffe and W***y Driver patrol along the perimeter of a minefield, near the Horseshoe in Phuoc Tuy province, 1967.