Battle for Cassino Railway Station remembered
Rotorua man Robert Gillies stands at the railway station in the small Italian town of Cassino and remembers.
As the last remaining member of 28 (Māori) Battalion B Company, the 94-year-old remembers the comradeship, the loss and the fear of 75 years ago during the Battles of Cassino.
He was back in Cassino this week for commemorations of the battles and was presented with the magnificent New Zealand Defence Force Ngā Tapuwae kahu huruhuru [cloak].
The 28 (Māori) Battalion played a crucial part in the Battles of Cassino during the Second World War; it was the only New Zealand battalion able to cross the flooded Rapido River and start an assault on the town’s well-defended railway station. Soldiers seized positions in and around it but were forced to withdraw when German troops counter-attacked. More than 150 28 (Māori) Battalion soldiers were killed, wounded or captured in that battle alone.
“It was such a success on the first night but the poor engineers couldn’t get the last span across the Rapido,” Mr Gillies said.
“B Company took the station, and they stuck at it all day, sent back two counterattacks, they beat them back. They knew if it got to dark the Jerries would bring their tanks out, and that’s what they did, they brought them out late afternoon.
“We couldn’t hold the station. We had to come back. If we’d have got our tanks across in support, we would have taken Cassino.”
Mr Gillies, who served for 4–1/2 years, was just a teenager when he went to Italy. The shrapnel in his arm is a lasting reminder of his time there, as are the memories of the good men and women he served with.
“It’s always there in your mind. It never leaves you,” he said.
The Hastings-born man moved to Rotorua as a youngster after the Napier earthquake and it was from there he went to war. He returned to Rotorua, where he met and married Rae Gillies in July 1948, and the couple had three sons.
Throughout the years he kept in touch with his mates from 28 (Māori) Battalion. When they disbanded seven years ago 26 members remained. Now it’s just Mr Gillies from B Company and 97-year-old Masterton man Epineha Ratapu, who was in C Company.
“It’s pretty sad, the loss of life and the world no better off today,” Mr Gillies said.
“It’s good to pay my respects to those who didn’t come home.”
