The Maori All Blacks that played against the Springboks in 1921. Winiata Rewi Tapsell (back row, fourth from left). PHOTOS/SUPPLIED
The bloodied battlefields of World War I were dramatic and life-changing for Private Winiata Rewi Tapsell who had left for war from the simplicity and peace of his Maketu home.
The only battles the 22-year-old was used to fighting were those on his beloved rugby field.
But the tactics and strategy of that game were to serve him well in the trenches of Turkey and against the Germans on the Western Front.
Winiata is one of five Western Bay of Plenty heroes honoured in a travelling multi-sensory exhibition that officially opens in Katikati at the Old Fire Station on November 11.
Unexpected Heroes, presented by Western Bay of Plenty District Council, invites visitors into a virtual war setting to meet Winiata and four other individuals whose service to their country is being honoured in a very personal way.
Their first task was to dig trenches, build field fortifications and other construction to prepare the battlefield at Anzac Cove.
On August 6, 1915, Winiata and his company were ordered to attack the Turkish trench.
Fighting side-by-side with his Uncle Ropiha, Winiata watched as his uncle was killed by an exploding shell.
In a letter to his sister Ira Tapsell in 1915 while convalescing in London with wounds sustained at Gallipoli, Winiata wrote: "I must start from the time we went into the real game. The men of war were firing their big guns into the enemy's trenches and when they ceased firing, the word was passed along the lines that the Te Arawa and East Coast Maori with a company of pakeha were to charge.
"I got the same feeling as I always got on the football field at Te Puke - with the fate of the game depending on the way I played..."
Winiata's moment of greatest courage - although never formally honoured - was on November 4, 1918 when he helped his comrades of the New Zealand Division over the border of Belgium to capture the French town of Le Quesnoy, virtually under the Germans' noses.
In the dead of the previous night Winiata had gone out to filch food to take back to his hungry comrades. While sneaking about he discovered a way over the ancient walls of the town of Le Quesnoy.
He also observed several German soldiers on guard.
Winiata returned to tell his comrades where the Germans were positioned and where it was safe to get over the wall.
They climbed on to a rampart and began making as much noise as they could by stamping their boots and hammering with their rifles.
They filled the night air with the sound of the haka - giving the impression they were not just a few but many. The Germans didn't know what to think - many retreated.
The New Zealanders scaled a ladder they had set against the walls of the town and took the remaining Germans as prisoners.
By so doing they liberated the town that had been held by the Germans since August 1914 - almost the entire war.
The liberation of Le Quesnoy was the New Zealanders' last major action in the war. To this day, the town continues to mark the important role that New Zealand played in its history.
Although one of his British comrades gained the credit for the town's liberation - Winiata's role is of huge pride to his family and will be recounted for generations to come.
A very close family friend, Maree Lewis, is one of the few people Winiata talked to about the war in his later years. He never spoke of it to his children - all 21 of them.
Maree says when he talked to her about the liberation of Le Quesnoy he took great delight in recounting the way they deceived the Germans into thinking there were hundreds of men.
He told her of the hospitality of the French on the day and night of the liberation.
"He said to me - that was a wonderful day. It was a wonderful night - I slept in beautiful white sheets," says Maree.
"He always told me how much he loved the French people because they were so kind to the Maori boys. He loved their food, their wine and their music - the love and the friendship made him feel homesick."
One of Winiata's sons, Petera Tapsell, says the family is sad his dad didn't receive the acknowledgment he deserved for Le Quesnoy's liberation.
"We are saddened that the honour was given to a British officer - not dad - for being the first over that wall. We all grew up as kids knowing that Dad didn't get a medal because he was stealing food that night."
Petera says the Unexpected Heroes exhibit is a wonderful opportunity for his dad to get recognition for his part in WW1.
"We feel great that now there is some acknowledgement that Dad went over the wall and saved his fellow men.
"Le Quesnoy celebrates the Kiwis today because of Dad's heroic act. He saved his men - and he sussed out the position of the Germans."
Petera, the youngest of Winiata's 21 children, says his dad was a kind, great and gentle man - fit as a fiddle well into his older years and a great hunter/gatherer with immense knowledge of nature, the sea, the bush and medicinal plants.
"To me, everyone who served in the war was a hero - without exception. For those men to go that far away from their homeland and to fight for their country made them all heroes."
He returned home to Maketu at the end of the war and in 1921, he was selected into the Maori All Blacks - another feat for which his family takes great pride.
He died June 17, 1974.
Unexpected Heroes is free to view and is part of the official WW1 Centenary celebrations around New Zealand.
Visitors can expect to gain a real feeling for the cramped and muddy quarters of trench life, as well as an appreciation of what local people went through during World War One both at home and on the front.
It officially opens on Armistice Day and will remain in Katikati for about three months before travelling around the District.