Great warrior leader fought in two world wars
Captain Harding Waipuke Leaf, a Māori soldier who served in both World Wars, is considered by many to be one of our greatest warrior leaders. Yet among his admirers, he is as famous for his out-of-line exploits – like starting fist fights with soldiers from other countries – as much as for his bravery at the frontlines. Making a television documentary – Kia Mate a Ururoa: the Shark of War – the incredible life of Harding Leaf – has been a privilege for both myself as co-producer and director Trevor Conn.
Leaf (of Ngāpuhi, Te Hikutu, Te Roroa, Ngāti Kairewa, and English stock), was born in Whirinaki in Northland, a short drive inland from the beautiful village of Opononi. Before the war, he worked in a timber mill, played rugby, fished and was an amateur boxer. Whirinaki was a close community, people worked the land and kai moana was plentiful. Leaf was notorious for his gall. His great-granddaughter Nicole Anderson, describes him jumping on the bar in the local pub, to lead a haka.
It is hardly surprising that
Leaf was keen to serve in World War I and signed up in 1914, with A (Ngapuhi) company of the Māori Contingent. He was soon promoted to sergeant, in charge of one of the contingent’s machinegun sections.
Because of its small size (just 500 men) the contingent was attached to the Mounted Rifles regiment at Gallipoli. Some senior officers had a racist belief that Māori were inexperienced in fighting – offensive to people with warrior ancestors – and one that natural leaders like Leaf would soon prove was wrong. The contingent’s first action was during the August Offensive in 1915.
The way to the top of the Sari Bair range, where the Chunuk Bair battle was fought, was very difficult. It was unmapped, very steep at points, and the attack was at night with bayonets. After a time, the sound of haka could be heard across the battlefield as they cleared the Turkish trenches.
Leaf’s machinegun section had been left to guard an area called Number One Outpost. Historian and former Army Officer Monty Soutar, ONZM, (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Awa) believes Leaf, being the kind to fight –found a way to join the fray.
Here, Leaf also uttered his own battle cry ‘‘Kia mate a Ururoa, kaua hei mate a tarakihi’’. It means ‘‘Fight bravely to the death like the white pointer shark, not die quietly like the tarakihi’’ to motivate his section and others.
Over a few bloody days, the New Zealanders took the key high ground. They were withdrawn, and replaced by an inexperienced British unit, which was overwhelmed by a Turkish attack.
After Gallipoli, Leaf was promoted to second lieutenant.
Because of the Anzac’s high casualty rates, the Māori Contingent was combined with the nearly-devastated Otago Mounted Rifles, to form a Pioneer Battalion, to perform dangerous semi-combatant roles – digging trenches and erecting barbed wire after the Division was moved to France and Belgium.
It was dangerous work. The Pioneers carried rifles for selfdefence, and Soutar says there were several occasions where the Māori attacked the enemy – including attempts to attack the Germans with mere, to bringing back prisoners to interrogate.
In 1917, in Belgium, Leaf’s wiring party was caught by machinegun fire while in the middle of its mission. The commanding officer and several others were killed, so Leaf stepped into the breach. Soutar says Leaf and his men had to take out the machinegun post and complete laying the barbed wire, before returning to their lines, without further loss of life. Leaf was awarded the Military Cross for his leadership during this action and was soon promoted to captain.
A book written by a senior officer, Major Humphrey Dyer, Ma Te Reinga, the way of the Maori soldier, says after the King awarded Leaf the cross in London, in 1917, Leaf and a friend called Kingi called into an officers’ mess in Park Lane to celebrate. Their meal was interrupted by a loud racist remark by an English officer to his friend. Leaf and Kingi punched both men, then returned to their table to complete their meal, before departing. Leaf’s military record shows no charges were laid, and Soutar says the English officers probably realised the error of the remark.
Also while in Britain, Leaf married his Scottish war bride, Helene, bringing her back to live in Whirinaki. The couple’s only child, Jock, had three girls and a boy.
Jock’s wife, Joan, a teacher and author, wrote a book, Sons of Te Ramaroa, about Ngāpuhi warriors of both wars. Today the family, including granddaughter Helene, keep the stories about Leaf alive, as do many others, including the 28 Māori Battalion website and Te Rau Aroha Museum at Waitangi.
After the war, Leaf used his army career to get management roles with the Department of Native Affairs and the Department of Health. He also coached Northland rugby teams, managed the first Māori team to tour Fiji – and kept up boxing. But after Germany invaded Poland, and New Zealand subsequently declared war on Germany in 1939, he took up a recruitment role, with 28 Māori Battalion.
‘‘He would say, if you can beat me in a race or in a fight, you don’t have to go,’’ to the younger men, says granddaughter Helene Leaf. Dyer wrote that Leaf appeared at Palmerston North’s army base with more than 200 young Ngāpuhi men and a great dane dog called Tiger. Dyer says the top brass felt a Leaf-Tiger duo would be too much. Tiger was sent home. Leaf stayed, even though he was quite old for a frontline officer by then.
Life on the troopship proved a time for hijinks. On the way to Maadi camp, Cairo, Captain Leaf and a mate supplemented the troopship’s Aquitania’s haute cuisine with crayfish they had bought in Cape Town. They kept them alive in their ensuite bath, fed on bread.
‘‘Eat one a day, and they might breed,’’ Leaf told Dyer.
Leaf, now nearly 50, but fit from regular exercise, would soon be in action in the challenging World War II battles of Greece and Crete. He was set to face battles just as challenging as in World War I. The fighting spirit of his ancestors would be with him. But how would he cope with the faster pace of World War II?