This is the story of the LRDG, an elite NZ unit in WWII. For more, listen to the podcast series 'Desert Pirates'. Short film by Bird of Paradise Productions for NZ Herald.
The partial remains of two New Zealand soldiers who perished in World War I have been reburied in France after they were stored at a Pennsylvania museum for more than 100 years.
Lance Corporal Patrick Duffy and Rifleman George James Tombs were both serving on the Western Front with theNew Zealand Expeditionary Force when they were killed.
The men’s partial remains were buried in their existing graves by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) earlier this month after their remains were identified as World War I soldiers.
In September last year, Mütter Museum and Historical Medical Library contacted the CWGC about 113 partial remains in their possession of soldiers they believed had been killed in action.
The remains of two Kiwi World War I soldiers have been reburied after spending a century in an American museum. Photo / NZDF
The Philadelphia medical museum had acquired the collection from the French military hospital Le Tréport at the end of World War I.
Through research the CWGC identified the partial remains as belonging to two soldiers, who were already buried in the Mont Huon Military Cemetery in France.
The remains had been collected from a military hospital in Le Tréport, France and were transferred to the US for medical study in 1919, which was an accepted practice at the time.
The partial remains of Duffy and Tombs were both identified alongside other remains belonging to fallen Australian, British and Canadian soldiers.
Lance Corporal Patrick Duffy died in 1918 after sustaining injuries in France. Photo / NZDF
Tapanui-born Duffy arrived in Europe in 1915, leaving his parents, Michael and Lilly Duffy, and 10 siblings behind in Otago.
After being shot in the head and left hand in France just over a week earlier, Duffy died on 24 October 1918, aged 37. The war would end less than three weeks later.
Tombs suffered a gunshot wound and fractured his arm at the Battle of Passchendaele in October 1917, less than six months after he had first landed.
The rifleman died of his injuries on December 6 that year, aged just 24.
George James Tombs was just 24 when he died in Belgium. Photo / NZDF
He was one of the more than 843 Kiwis killed in the battle that has become known as New Zealand’s “blackest day”.
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has been in contact with the families and sent a Belgium Defence Attaché to the private interment of the partial remains, which were buried in their existing graves in France.
The NZDF is currently working alongside the families and other CWGC member governments to decide whether to hold a public ceremony for all 113 men.
