Te Rau Aroha – The Mobile Canteen During and After the War

In 1941 a dedicated fundraising appeal from the Native Schools raised over £900 to purchase and equip a mobile canteen for the Māori Battalion. (You can read more about the fundraising effort here). Arriving on the front lines in North Africa in November 1941 the canteen became a tangible symbol to the Battalion of the support of their whānau back home. The canteen was cherished because tamariki had scrimped, saved and found novel ways of fundraising in order to provide hospitality for the Battalion’s men in the desert of North Africa.

Throughout the war Māori communities fundraised to stock and then resupply the canteen. Following the fundraising success of the school children, Paraire Karaka Paikea, MP for Northern Māori, requested and collected funds in 1941 for the initial stocking of the canteen. Again communities responded with generosity: £5 from Te Ropu Māori Girls Club of Petone, £10 from the Taranaki Māori Trust Board of Hāwera, £5 from the Ngāti Pōneke Patriotic Committee, £20 from the Tūwharetoa Trust Board, £20 from the Māori Committees of Auckland and £20 forwarded by Princess Te Puea on behalf of King Korokī.[1] The Department of Education continued to receive donations from various Native Schools and in August 1944 the Department turned over £20.10.4d to the National Patriotic Fund Board for the restocking of the canteen. [2] The return of soldiers from the Māori Battalion increased interest in raising funds for the canteen as stories about its impact were shared. The Rangitukia Women’s War Service Auxillary held two dances and raised £20 towards supplies for the canteen after Captain Pine Taiapa spoke at an Auxilliary function. ‘The feelings of our Maori elders were really touched,’ wrote the Auxilliary’s Dominion Secretary when the Captain ‘explained to them what this Mobile Canteen was, and how much it meant to our boys.’[3]

The story of its origins imbued this vehicle with special meaning. Its mana was further enhanced by the exploits of the canteen, and its drivers, during the Māori Battalion’s campaigns. As a result of these events the canteen was bestowed with the title ‘Te Rau Aroha’ – a term of respect for those that have shown courage and service to others.

The Canteen at War

The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) were responsible for operating the army’s mobile canteens. Te Rau Aroha was driven by Charles Basil Bennet, who came to be affectionately called Charlie YM to distinguish him from Charles Moihi Te Arawaka Bennett, one of the commanding officers of the Battalion. After Charlie YM was wounded at Cassino, Norm Perry took over the operation of the canteen.[iv]   

New Zealand’s YMCA canteens developed a reputation for providing welfare services closest to the front-lines and, as the Auckland Star described in 1943, Te Rau Aroha was ‘perhaps the most famous of all front-line canteens in the Middle East,’ following ‘the Maori Battalion into the most dangerous places.’[v] The canteen accompanied the Battalion across Northern Africa, into Syria and through Italy. In a report to the National Patriotic Fund Board in November 1942, Lieutenant-Colonel Waite, commissioner for the board in the Middle East, described how the shelling of Te Rau Aroha illustrated ‘the close contact made by the welfare services with the troops in battle.’[vi] This was not the only battle scars that the canteen received. Te Rau Aroha was ‘carved into [the] memory’ of Harry Lambert on the day they were bombed by the Luftwaffe during the desert campaign:

And there amidst the horror and stench, black acrid smoke and churned up sand stood 'Te Rau Aroha', all four tyres flattened, half-a-dozen gaping wounds in her side, but the wireless still broadcasting a popular song and fruit syrup and milk, dripping from Charlie Y.M.'s recently replenished stocks of tinned goods.[vii]

Te Rau Aroha was damaged on four separate occasions by enemy fire, damaging the vehicle so badly that a replacement was considered. Yet, each time it was repaired and returned to the Battalion.[viii] The Bay of Plenty Beacon reported that the canteen was ‘so precious’ to the men of the Battalion that ‘on several occasions when it seemed beyond repair and had been ordered to the wreaking heap by higher authorities, they took it upon themselves to tow the bus wherever they went.’[ix]

Te Rau Aroha was an integral feature of Battalion life, acquiring meaning beyond its role as a mobile shop or dispenser of refreshments. It was renowned for its manaakitanga. Charlie Bennet would distribute packets of cigarettes and bars of chocolate to all who stopped at the canteen, irrespective of unit. He ‘provided a constant supply of little luxuries, which he often risked his life to obtain and distribute.’[x] With the ‘acquisition’ of a radio from the Italians in Libya, the canteen became a gathering site for soldiers to listen to BBC broadcasts and Lili Marlene songs in the long hours troops spent simply waiting around.[xi] During Christmas celebrations the canteen was a distribution point for the delicacies sent from New Zealand of ‘tuna, paka tahu, mutton bird, karengo, kahawai, pipi.’ [xii] Canteen staff helped arrange concerts, sing-a-longs and film nights, marking it as a hub for social and cultural activities. In Italy the canteen acquired a companion - a grand piano ‘liberated’ from the mansion of one of Mussolini’s associates. It was mounted on a trailer and trundled along with Te Rau Aroha to further enhance the Battalion’s concert repertoire. On occasion the canteen was also used as an ambulance for wounded Māori soldiers and the YMCA staff helped out with duties such as sewing shrouds for the dead and escorting enemy prisoners back behind the lines.[xiii]

It was these meanings, connections and memories that explain why members of the Māori Battalion campaigned for the canteen to be returned to New Zealand at the end of the war. This was an honour bestowed solely upon Te Rau Aroha, the only vehicle from the Second Division of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to be repatriated.[xiv] In one retelling of the story it was claimed that there ‘would have been a full scale rebellion by the troops if the vehicle had not been loaded onto the ship home.’[xv]

Post-war Tour

On returning to Aotearoa at the end of the war Te Rau Aroha was handed over to the Department of Education with the intention that it tour the Native Schools in the North Island to show the children the results of their fundraising. First the truck needed to be made road worthy. On arrival in Wellington aboard the Dominion Monarch in January 1946 a tow truck was required to take the canteen off the wharf. With a grant of £40 from the National Patriotic Fund Board towards the repairs the army mechanics got to work to ready the vehicle for the proposed start of the tour in September.[xvi]

It is unclear where exactly the tour started but by the beginning of October it was visiting schools on the East Coast before moving on to Whakatāne and Tauranga. The name of each school visited was painted onto the side of the truck in commemoration, and by the 21^st of October the vehicle already recorded visits to 56 schools. Following the Bay of Plenty,  Te Rau Aroha was reunited with its driver Charles Bennet (Charlie YM), and then headed for Whangarei and Northland, including stops at Whatuwhiwhi, Te Hāpua, Te Kao and a number of schools around Kaitaia before touring the Hokianga and making its way down to Rotorua.

Te Rau Aroha, as the children saw it rumbling up the roads to their schools, still retained its distinctive battle scars. There were holes and patches ‘where shrapnel and machine-gun bullets have pierced her sides,’ and the vehicle was on its fifth engine and a full set of new tyres for the trip. The doors of the cab had been painted with service chevrons and battle honours and the names of the campaigns that Te Rau Aroha had participated in.[xvii]

Despite the dilapidated look of the canteen itself, these visits were occasions of excitement for the school children. One recollection of the Te Hāpua visit recalled the squeals of children as the van ‘came grinding up the school drive, right across the playground and into the shade of the trees,’ nearly taking out several large branches in the process.[xviii] The curiosity and imagination of the Te Hāpua tamariki about the van’s exploits led to the stationing of a ‘guard’ by senior students during playtime breaks in case the war-games that the visit inspired ‘became too realistic.’ [xix] As well as the satisfaction of seeing the physical results of their fundraising these visits were unique and novel occasions where children got to listen to Charlie Bennet’s tales of overseas adventure and watch the lantern show ‘depicting war events in North Africa, Italy and Palestine,’ with the possibly of spotting a few familiar faces amongst the troops.[xx]

The official reason given for the tour was to thank the tamariki for their contribution to the war effort. The tour however also enabled communities to return the favour and thank those responsible for providing welfare for their men. These were occasions of honour and pride, and schools such as Pamapuria took great effort with their preparations. As one student recalled ‘I was twelve at the time, and we were proud of our appearance and our performance on that momentous occasion.’[xxi] The school children, dressed in piu piu made by their parents, the girls with ‘neat white blouses’ and ‘heads swathed in weeping willow as a sign of mourning for those soldiers who were killed in action’, the boys with taiaha, some of which they had carved themselves, welcomed the manuhiri. After speeches by the headmaster, Mr J. Blackman and kaumātua were replied to by Charlie Bennet and Major Kahi Takimoana Harawira, a chaplain of the Māori Battalion who accompanied Charlie Bennet and Te Rau Aroha on tour. Following entertainment by the children with ‘polished poi dances’ and Mr Bennet’s lantern show, the ‘afternoon programme was completed with a hangi.’[xxii]  

The tour was reflective of a wider appetite in the immediate aftermath of the war for commemoration of the conflict and thanksgiving for the newly established peace.[xxiii] The tour is an example of the way in which people used community events as acts of remembrance and also of collective grief and storytelling about the war. The visits of Te Rau Aroha were occasions where returned servicemen could reminisce, renew their acquaintances with Charlie Bennet, Major Harawira and the indomitable canteen, as well as a time for remembrance for those that had not returned home. ‘To those families bereaved by casualties  - and there are many on the East Coast,’ the Gisborne Herald reminded its readers, the visit of the canteen bought with it a ‘special message of remembrance.’[xxiv] For some returned servicemen the canteen was a physical memorial of what they had been through in their overseas service. In an interview thirty-five years after the end of the war one veteran could still identify the bullet hole in the canteen’s side that had taken the life of his friend,

That was about 1942. I was standing here with a chocolate in me hand, and my mate was over there, and he [shooter] blew the chocolate out of my hand and of course it killed him, and that was that hole there.[xxv] 

For others the connection between the battered canteen and the men was more metaphorical. ‘Those [bullet holes]’ one veteran recalled, ‘are an emblem of the scars members have got to carry through to their dying days’.[xxvi]

The tour also provided an opportunity for vocational guidance information to be presented to remote school communities. Kahi Takimoana Harawira had been a chaplain with the Māori Battalion for three years and following his return to New Zealand had been appointed as the first Māori vocational guidance officer, based at the Auckland Vocational Guidance Centre. He accompanied the canteen tour, at least for the Northland leg, presenting talks at the schools they visited about employment opportunities. In Whatuwhiwhi he showed slides of Auckland’s Māori hostels and discussed the ‘good work for Maori youth’ they were doing there.[xxvii] Government educational and labour policies were focused on reducing Māori youth unemployment and Mr Harawira saw the importance of working with whānau and communities to find work that allowed young Māori to fulfil their potential (For more information on K. T. Harawira and Vocational Guidance see here.)

Te Rau Aroha’s tour ended in December 1946 at Rotorua where the canteen came to rest at the marae and native school at Whakarewarewa awaiting a more permanent home. ‘I would like to say in conclusion,’ Charlie Bennet said in his final address, ‘that had you not bought this truck in the first place it would never have performed its errand of mercy and been the comfort it was. It was your present to your men overseas, and it is only right that its final resting place should be here among you.’[xxviii]

Bennet’s prediction of the final resting place for Te Rau Aroha did not eventuate. By 1948, and without a formal home and a place to be kept out of the weather, the canteen was languishing on the Rotorua Aerodrome and had started to fall into disrepair, its canvas starting to rot and rust setting in.[xxix] But in 1949 the canteen had another characteristic change of fortune. It had been moved to Waitangi and was included in a guide to the treasures of the Waitangi Treaty Grounds.[xxx]   

A New Lease of Life

The fate of Te Rau Aroha from the 1950s to the 1970s mirrored the trajectory of remembrance of the war it had been part of. Public interest in war-commemorations had reduced significantly by the early 1950s as veterans, and the wider community, focused on building new lives and other priorities took precedence.[xxxi] Te Rau Aroha received little attention until its cause was again taken up by the Battalion in 1976. At the Battalion’s AGM it was decided to donate Te Rau Aroha to the Museum of Transport and Technology at Western Springs, Auckland (MOTAT). Before this transfer was finalised the National Army Museum was established and the Battalion transferred the donation to the new museum. A dilapidated Te Rau Aroha was discovered by the Army at a vehicle supply depot in Auckland and transferred to Waiouru Camp’s School for Mechanical Engineering. After an assessment of the level of work required and a lack of funding the restoration project stalled.

Major Bruce Poananga saw the possibility however that Te Rau Aroha’s reclamation could provide a ‘spiritual and emotional focus for former Battalion members’ and negotiated the transferral of the canteen to Linton Army Camp.[xxxii] Major Poananga recalled his first glimpse of Te Rau Aroha after thirty-five years as it arrived at the camp on the back of a transporter: ‘I must say,’ he recalled ‘that my heart fell somewhat when I saw the condition it was in. It was a sorry derelict and in marked contrast to when I last saw it in Italy.’[xxxiii]

During the war the canteen had proved a connection point between generations. Its restoration was to prove the same. Rangatahi at the Manawatu Youth Institute worked with army engineers and Battalion veterans to completely overall Te Rau Aroha, stripping it down to the chassis, installing a new bonnet and canteen tray, and eventually getting the engine to ‘splutter’ into life.[xxxiv] Major Poananga remembered the ‘sensitivity and affection with which the Institute staff and the Maori remand youths carried out their task of restoration. It was a task that had meaning for them and their dedication was something to wonder at.’[xxxv] Painted and polished Te Rau Aroha was ready to be rededicated  in a ceremony at Linton Camp before heading to its new home at the National Army Museum in Waiouru in April 1980 where it resides as a treasured taonga today.

On 5 February 2020 a museum was opened at Waitangi dedicated to Māori service in the Armed Forces and in particular A Company of the 28^th Māori Battalion – named Te Rau Aroha, inspired by the spirit of the canteen’s story.[xxxvi] Throughout its history this simple army canteen truck has been the impetus for many acts of service and aroha. From the fundraising of children in 1940-41 to the efforts of restoration by rangatahi in 1979-80, from the work of Charlie YM and Norm Perry through the war years to the hospitality communities showed to the canteen’s crew on its return to New Zealand. Te Rau Aroha now stands in the National Army Museum as a tribute to the courage of the Māori Battalion, but it also a symbol of connection and support between home communities and those fighting abroad, between younger and older generations, both during and after the war.  

Image: ‘Maori School, Near Kaikohe,’ Archives New Zealand, AAQT 6539 W3537 Box34/A1731.

[1] Letters to the Secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board, from P. K. Paikea, 3-16 September 1941, Patriotic Funds-Mobile Canteen for Maori Battalion, Archives New Zealand.

[2] Letter to the Secretary of the National Patriotic Fund Board, from C. Beeby, 29 August 1944, Patriotic Funds-Mobile Canteen for Maori Battalion, Archives New Zealand.

[3] Letter to G. A. Hayden, from Dominion Secretary of Women’s War Service Auxiliary, 1 August 1944. Patriotic Funds-Mobile Canteen for Maori Battalion, Archives New Zealand.

[iv] ‘”Te Rau Aroha” – The Mobile Canteen,’ 28^th Māori Battalion, https://www.28maoribattalion.org.nz/memory/te-rau-aroha-the-mobile-canteen/ from article in The Battalion Remembers booklet, 1984, ‘Te Rau Aroha – The Mobile Canteen. The YM Truck.’ Accessed September 28, 2021; ‘TRA Rebuild,’ correspondence from National Army Museum Te Mata Toa.   

[v] ‘N.Z. Mobile Canteens,’ Auckland Star, 5 June 1943, 4.

[vi] ‘Battle Scars,’ Evening Post, 24 December 1942, 4.

[vii] ‘”Te Rau Aroha” – The Mobile Canteen,’ 28^th Māori Battalionhttps://www.28maoribattalion.org.nz/memory/te-rau-aroha-the-mobile-canteen/ from article in The Battalion Remembers booklet, 1984, ‘Te Rau Aroha: In the Thick of It’ by Harry Lambert, accessed September 28, 2021.

[viii] ‘Sole Survivor,’ Gisborne Herald, 4 October 1946, 4 and Letter, R.M. Brasted to H.J. Steptoe, 1 May 1943, Patriotic Funds-Mobile Canteen for Maori Battalion, Archives New Zealand.

[ix] ‘Mobile Canteen Visit to District,’ Bay of Plenty Beacon, 21 October 1946, 5.

[x] ‘”Te Rau Aroha” – The Mobile Canteen,’ 28^th Māori Battalionhttps://www.28maoribattalion.org.nz/memory/te-rau-aroha-the-mobile-canteen/ from article in The Battalion Remembers booklet, 1984, ‘Te Rau Aroha: In the Thick of It’ by Harry Lambert, accessed September 28, 2021.

[xi] ‘”Te Rau Aroha” – The Mobile Canteen,’ 28^th Māori Battalionhttps://www.28maoribattalion.org.nz/memory/te-rau-aroha-the-mobile-canteen/ from article in The Battalion Remembers booklet, 1984, ‘Te Rau Aroha – The Mobile Canteen. The YM Truck.’ Accessed September 28, 2021. 

[xii] ‘”Te Rau Aroha” – The Mobile Canteen,’ 28^th Māori Battalion, https://www.28maoribattalion.org.nz/memory/te-rau-aroha-the-mobile-canteen/ from article in The Battalion Remembers booklet, 1984, Te Rau Aroha in Italy – by Norm Perry, accessed September 28, 2021.

[xiii] ‘Maori Canteen Ends Long Career,’ Northern Advocate, 11 December 1946, 4; ‘“Te Rau Aroha” – The Mobile Canteen,’ 28^th Māori Battalionhttps://www.28maoribattalion.org.nz/memory/te-rau-aroha-the-mobile-canteen/ from article in The Battalion Remembers booklet, 1984, Te Rau Aroha in Italy – by Norm Perry, accessed September 28, 2021.

[xiv] ‘Sole Survivor,’ Gisborne Herald, 4 October 1946, 4.

[xv] Te Roopu Rua Tekau-ma-waru a Tu: 28 Māori Battalion, documentary, broadcast 25 April 1980, Radio NZ, produced Stephen Riley and Whai Ngata. Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision.

[xvi] ‘Report re Maori Battalion Mobile Canteen,’ 25 January 1946; Letter, A.H. Gibson to C. Beeby, 13 August 1946, Patriotic Funds-Mobile Canteen for Maori Battalion, Archives New Zealand.

[xvii] ‘Battle-scarred Veteran On Tour,’ Northern Advocate, 4 November 1946, 4.

[xviii] ‘”Te Rau Aroha” – The Mobile Canteen,’ 28^th Māori Battalion, https://www.28maoribattalion.org.nz/memory/te-rau-aroha-the-mobile-canteen/ from article in The Battalion Remembers booklet, 1984, Te Hapua Māori School Log, J Wordsworth, accessed September 28, 2021.

[xix] ‘”Te Rau Aroha” – The Mobile Canteen,’ 28^th Māori Battalion, https://www.28maoribattalion.org.nz/memory/te-rau-aroha-the-mobile-canteen/ from article in The Battalion Remembers booklet, 1984, Te Hapua Māori School Log, J Wordsworth, accessed September 28, 2021.

[xx] ‘Maori Mobile Canteen Visits Whatuwhiwhi,’ Northland Age, 22 November 1946, 1.

[xxi] Violet Walters/Popata, ed. Pamapuria School Centennial 1884-1984 (Pamapuria School Centennial Committee, Kaitaia, NZ). [no date] 32-33

[xxii] ‘Tattooed Children Greet Canteen’, Northern Advocate, 27 November 1946, 3.

[xxiii] Helen Robinson, ‘Lest We Forget? The Fading of New Zealand War Commemorations,’ New Zealand Journal of History 44, no.1 (2010), 77.

[xxiv] ‘Sole Survivor,’ Gisborne Herald, 4 October 1946, 4.

[xxv] Te Roopu Rua Tekau-ma-waru a Tu: 28 Māori Battalion, documentary, broadcast 25 April 1980, Radio NZ, produced Stephen Riley and Whai Ngata. Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision, https:ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catague-item?record_id=238442 accessed on September 28, 2021.

[xxvi] Te Roopu Rua Tekau-ma-waru a Tu: 28 Māori Battalion, documentary, broadcast 25 April 1980, Radio NZ, produced Stephen Riley and Whai Ngata. Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision, https:ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catague-item?record_id=238442 accessed on September 28, 2021.

[xxvii] ‘Maori Mobile Canteen Visits Whatuwhiwhi,’ Northland Age, 22 November 1946, 1.

[xxviii] ‘Maori Canteen Ends Long Career,’ Northern Advocate, 11 December 1946, 4.

[xxix] ‘Maori Mobile Canteen,’ Bay of Plenty Times, 17 August 1948, 6.

[xxx] ‘News of the Day,’ Northern Advocate, 3 December 1949, 4.

[xxxi] Robinson, ‘Lest We Forget?’, 76-78, 87.

[xxxii] Bruce Poananga, ‘Veterans At the Rededication Linton Camp – Te Rau Aroha,’ The Maori Battalion Remembers III, ed. Harry Lambert (28 NZ (Maori) Battalion Association, 1988), 58.

[xxxiii] Bruce Poananga, ‘Veterans At the Rededication Linton Camp – Te Rau Aroha,’ The Maori Battalion Remembers III, ed. Harry Lambert (28 NZ (Maori) Battalion Association, 1988), 58.

[xxxiv] Bruce Poananga, ‘Veterans At the Rededication Linton Camp – Te Rau Aroha,’ The Maori Battalion Remembers III, ed. Harry Lambert (28 NZ (Maori) Battalion Association, 1988), 58-59.

[xxxv] Bruce Poananga, ‘Veterans At the Rededication Linton Camp – Te Rau Aroha,’ The Maori Battalion Remembers III, ed. Harry Lambert (28 NZ (Maori) Battalion Association, 1988), 59

[xxxvi] ‘Te Rau Aroha Museum,’ Waitangi - Waitangi Treaty Grounds, https://www.waitangi.org.nz/new-museum-te-rau-aroha/ accessed October 7 2021.