Memorial Forest for those who gave their lives WWI Sinai Palestine - photo courtesy Chris Ball April 2022
At Tangiteroria Lane, Pauanui, 640 trees were planted - the
number of NZ soldiers who lost their lives in the Sinai-Palestine campaign - one of eight World War I memorial forests planted on Te Tara-O-Te-Ika-A-Māui - Coromandel Peninsula. The
Pauanui-Tairua cycle trail passes the site, allowing walkers and joggers a place to
pause and reflect.
The eight WWI Memorial Forest sites ,part of a NZ first
world war centenary project, pay tribute to the NZ soldiers who fell in a
particular battle. Also to the men from a particular Coromandel Peninsula town
who were killed by planting an equal number of trees to men who never came back
from the Great War. It is said that there was 18,500 plus who never returned home because they fell.
At Tangiteroria Lane the 640
trees were planted on Council and WRC land. The Council - TCDC coordinating the planting project - one nz native tree honouring each soldier who fell. The soldiers came from all over New Zealand and were from the mounted rifle brigades, Imperial camel corp, NZ Medical Corp, mounted field ambulance, New Zealand Veterinary Corps, the Mounted Machine Gun Squadron and the Maori ( Pioneer ) Battalion ( several also from Rarotonga)
 |
Soldiers
emptying water into canvas-lined tank, Gaza. Buckland, Alfred Francis,
1882-1971 :Photographs taken during World War I of the New Zealand Expeditionary
Forces in Jerusalem, and the Auckland Mounted Rifles in Egypt, Sinai and
Palestine. Ref: 1/2-066836-F. Alexander
Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22339514 DO NOT COPY -ASK SOURCE FOR USE Conditions for those New Zealanders in the Sinai Palestine campaign were harsh and hard, dealing with not only fighting but the desert conditions. Even for rugged farmers bought up in rural New Zealand, in the winter snow of the South Island and the heat of Rarotonga.
Temperature in the Sinai Palestine Desert went from searing hot temperatures in the day time to freezing at night. One account written by Captain
F. E. Wynne to the
"Manchester Guardian" which was reported in the Sun:-
" After
nine months, and shiver about in "British warms" when at
home, two years ago, we would have been thinking about turning out our old
flannel suit. But then we don't live in houses, and, whatever the thermometer
chooses to register, it really is cold with three blankets on a camp bed." ( Sun 21 June 1917 Pg 6 )
Added to the temperature extremes were the sandstorms and sand that got in to everything. Corporal H Holst writing to Mrs
H. A. Brunette, of Hawera, thanking for a 2016 christmas parcel received, wrote:-
" I
was on Gallipoli for six weeks, and have been on the Sinai or Canal zone ever
since, and I can assure you that after fifteen months of endless desert, with
its heat, sand, and flies, one longs for a sight of dear old New Zealand again.
.Poets write of the desert; I am sure it "charms me not," and it will
never lure me again— that is, of course, unless there was another war, and then I suppose I should enlist again. " ( Hawera & Normanby Star
2 June 1917 Pg 7 )
Corporal Henry Holst died of wounds in that "endless desert" after the battle of Ayan Kara on 15 November 1917. One of the 640 soldiers fallen and honoured and commemorated in the Sinai Palestine memorial forest at Pauanui with a NZ native tree.
The sand, dust and sandstorms affected both men and horses. It got into the food and was competition if the flies did not get the food first. Water was the other essential for both men and horse. A constant foraging and obtaining for both. February 2016 saw construction of a railway and water pipeline which would eventually stretch across the countryside. The Sinai Palestine campaign was not all about tourism and archaeology of ancient spots. The campaign was also of fighting, constructing railways and water pipelines - hard work in the heat but necessary for provisions which included food and water.
Camels were very useful in Sinai and Palestine. Said to be able to withstand five days without water and the ability to transport weighty supplies, equipment and wounded on ‘cacolet’ stretchers.
New Zealand troops and the ANZACS in Sinai Palestine campaign tended to eat the same food or “rations” as the British. For the most part this consisted of staples: “bully” or tinned corn beef, tinned meat & vegetable stew, army biscuits, jam, sugar and tea. Occasionally the troops would receive a treat - such items as butter, fruit, chocolate, fresh/dried vegetables, cheese & fresh meat along with best of all - fruit cake.
 |
| preparing army rations for a meal |
The beginning of 1916 on the home front saw an all out campaign for two funds - one the Red Cross Fund for wounded soldiers and hospital supplies and the Countess of Liverpool raising funds for soldiers' christmas dinner fund.
(SUN
6 JANUARY 1916, PG 2) The funds and goods kept coming in from rural groups and towns - socks, balaclava, scarves, and monetary funds
(Lyttelton
Times21
August 1916 Pg
2 )
Lieutenant Jack Braithwaite received his 1916 christmas box 15 January 1917, having spent Christmas " on a stint" at El
Arish. Braithwaite to his parents, wrote:-
LUXURIES FROM NEW ZEALAND. January 15th, 1917. “You will be
pleased to hear that I have just received the Christmas box. It came with a lot
of gifts for the N.Z. Brigade and I sent over for it last night. It was
splendidly packed and all the good things inside were in splendid condition. My
bivvy is simply full up. What beautiful cakes— Mater’s is enormous. The tongues
are untold luxuries. 1 am keeping them for “stunts” when we usually live on
“bully.” I think I have been wonderfully lucky with my cases, parcels, etc.
Nothing seems to have gone astray since 1 left. I also got a mail yesterday." ( Hawke's Bay Tribune 7
March 1917 Pg 3 )
 |
Various artists :[Five canned meat labels. ca 1890-1920].. Gear Meat Company :Scrapbook of labels. 1890s-1920s].. Ref: Eph-F-MEAT-Gear-054. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23135716 DO NOT COPY
Christmas box 2016 |
Acknowledgements:
The Sinai Palestine Memorial Forest has been planted six years now and the 640 trees are growing well. Thanks to Kim Coppersmith and the Pauanui Tairua cycleway, TCDC ( Thames Coromandel District Council ) and WRC ( Waikato Regional Council) for the planting and ongoing maintenance of the 640 NZ native trees planted honouring those fallen. A big thank you to the Tairua Pauanui RSA for the maintenance and upgrade of the two signs for the two memorial forests in the beautiful Tairua Valley - honouring those fallen in one Sinai Palestine Campaign and the other those from the Tairua Valley. ( places to reflect on your family member who went overseas to war and remember them ).
Reference Source:
Memorial Forest for those who gave their lives WWI Sinai Palestine - photo courtesy Chris Ball April 2022
