Battle of Ohaeawai
Coordinates: 35 ° 22 ′ 39.4 ″ S , 173 ° 51 ′ 16.3 ″ E
The Battle of Ohaeawai was a military conflict between local Māori on the one hand and an alliance of British troops and Māori on the other. She is an example of the fact that in the New Zealand Wars it was not only Europeans who fought against Māori.
history
The battle took place on July 1, 1845 at Ohaeawai in the Far North District on the North Island of New Zealand . It is noteworthy because a superior British force was defeated by the Māori.
The battle took place during the flagpole war . After the British had already achieved some success in restoring their power in the Bay of Islands since March 1845 , the new British commander, Colonel Despard, urged the campaign to continue, even though it was in the middle of the southern winter.
With troops and artillery they sailed across the bay to the mouth of the Kerikeri River and began to march inland towards Ohaeawai , where Hone Heke had built extensive fortifications around the existing Pā of Pene Taui. The weather conditions were very bad: constant rain and wind and a wet, sticky mud floor. It took several days for the entire force to be assembled at the Te Waimate mission . At that time Despard was furious, so much so that when Tāmati Wāka Nene arrived as an ally with 250 Māori, he said, "If he had wanted the help of savages, he would have asked for it." The translator, however, transmitted one in full different message.
The British arrived outside the Pā of Ohaeawai on June 23 and set up camp about 500 meters away. A battery of four cannons was erected on the top of a nearby hill. The next day the fire opened and continued until dusk, but could do little damage to the palisades . The next day the cannons were brought within 200 m of the fortification. The bombardment continued for two more days without causing much damage. Flax padding on the palisade contributed to this, but mainly the fact that the fire was not concentrated in one place of the fortifications.
When there was still no breach, Despard ordered a frontal attack. With much difficulty he could be persuaded to wait until the arrival of a 32-pound cannon, which arrived on July 1st. An unexpected failure of the Māori caused a great stir and made Despard even more angry. He ordered an attack that same day. This caused some consternation among the Māori allies, even among the defenders of the Pā, who tried to persuade the British to retreat rather than launch a suicidal attack.
The British tried to storm the stockade and a few minutes later they had 33 dead and 66 injured, more than a third of their troops. Shaken by these losses, Despard wanted to break off the siege. His Māori allies, however, opposed it. Waka convinced Despard to wait a few more days while more ammunition and equipment were brought in and the bombardment continued. On the morning of July 8th, the Pā was found abandoned; the defenders had left that night. The British inspected the abandoned fortification and found it even stronger than feared. It was destroyed and the British withdrew to the Bay of Islands. Kawiti and his warriors escaped, Heke recovered from previous wounds and a new, even stronger Pā was built.
After the battle, two models of the Pā's ingenious structure were made. One was gathering dust in a British museum. The other traveled among the Māori tribes and was studied with interest. It became the model for the so-called "Modern Pā", which enabled an offensive defense against which the British Army never found an effective antidote.
The Ngāpuhi later built a church at the site of the Pā as a symbol of peace, which was consecrated in 1871.
Photo gallery
The "Saint Michael's" church was built on the site of the Pā built
Church shield with reference to the battle
Gravestone for two soldiers of the battle in the Te Waimate mission
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.dayout.co.nz/attraction-subject-results.asp?subject=battle Day Out New Zealand
literature
- James Belich : The New Zealand wars. Penguin 1988.