The 28th (Maori) Battalion, with battle honours spanning multiple theatres in World War II, is to formally disband this weekend.
Conscription didn't apply to Maori; the battalion was formed entirely of volunteers, grouping tribes together.
The B Company boys are at Rotorua's RSA. At 94, Arthur Midwood is the oldest of them. He is the last remaining 39er, men who joined the battalion in the same year World War II was declared. He fought in Greece and Crete, and will show you the deep scar on his forearm from being shot.
His chest and buttock also got torn up; the latter wound, he smiles and shakes his head about.
Robert Gillies, the baby of the group at 87, reckons it was the uniform that caught his wife's eye more than 60 years ago. It could have been his crooning, too, that helped catch Rotorua nurse Rae Ratima. He softly sings one of his favourite tunes learned from the Italians. In it, a son speaks of his mother being close to his heart.