WOUNDED CORPORAL MAKES AMAZING RECOVERY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 121, 24 May 1944, Page 4

WOUNDED CORPORAL MAKES AMAZING RECOVERY

A STORY worthy of his ancestry— for his family history goes back to the arrival of the canoe Tainui—is told by Corporal Harry P. Taituha, of Auckla'nd.

A member of the Native Department staff, he joined the Maori Battalion and went overseas with the Second Echelon, becoming battalion orderly rcom sergeant. He wanted to fight, and asked to be sent out to one of the companies, volunteering to revert to the rank of corporal to make this possible.

In the shadow of Mount Olympus Corporal Taituha had his first, and last, taste of battle. He was in charge of a small section of "ordinary Maori pig-hunters" facing men of the crack German Alpine troops, who outnumbered them by forty to

one. Hour after hour the fight went on, hour after hour the enemy was repelled, but finally, by sheer weight of weapons, ammunition and numbers, the enemy advanced. They over-ran 'the New Zealanders' trenches. Fire was point-blank.

Corporal Taltulia continued to pump lead—even after the wocd of his rifle had been shot away. Then he was surrounded. A sub-machine-gun shot hit him and he went down. When he regained consciousness his right jaw hung down his face. For some days he struggled on through the mountains alone before he was taken prisoner and treated by a German first aid post in Larissa. This was in April, 1941, and he was the only prisoner for some weeks, his fellow patients being sick and wounded Germans.

The bullet had gone through his top jaw, knocking out several teeth, grazing his tongue, smashing through the lower jaw and lodging in his neck. In order to stop his lower jaw from dropping ana becoming set in a wrong position, wires were attached to his upper and lower teeth and joined, thus preventing any movement. He had to live on liquid diet, feeding himself by spoon through the gap made by his teeth being torn out. The following month, May, 1941, he was removed to a German hospital at Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where an attempt was made to extract the bullet. He was then sent to Jumaya, on the Bulgarian-Serbian border, where further attempts to extract the bullet were made, but without success. In June he was removed to Nish, in Yugoslavia, and here the bullet was I finally extracted. j

He was impressed as he entered Yugoslavia by the number of Germans to be seen, for they stood guard everywhere, not trusting the defiant Yugoslavs, who had learnt to use that subtle weapon, sabotage. One little Yugoslav boy, whose mother sold foodstuffs, was a favourite of the corporal. The boy would sneak him in cakes while he was lying in hospital, and on one occasion tyis mother missed him and came inquiring at the hospital. He was found asleep on the Maori's bed. It was in this hospital that a piece of broken bone, about two inches long and half an inch wide at the widest point, became dislodged and extracted from Taituha's mouth.

From here he was sent to Stalag VIII.B, Germany, in February, 1942, the largest prisoner of war camp in Germany. About this time the wires were removed and replaced by special frames "soldered" to the teeth in each jaw and connected with rubber. This connection had to be adjusted continually while he was eating. Series of Operations In April he was removed by order of the Repatriation Commission to Breslau for a bone grafting operation to his jaw. Although carried out by one of the best surgeons in the district —for the Germans were anxious to show their skill—this was not successful, and he went back to Stalag VIII.B. Twice after this the operation had to be postponed, first because he contracted malaria, for which he was treated in a specialist sanatorium in Glatz, and again because of a blood disorder. On December 2, 1942, the much delayed operation was performed, a piece of bone from his hip being grafted to his jaw. In April of last year he returned to Stalag VIIIB. and he there was attended by English doctors who had been taken prisoner. The success of the operation could not be fully ascertained, but he was able to remove the wire frame and was fitted for dentures. At the camp he joined a class in journalism conducted by lan Sabey, a member of the Australian Journalists' Association.

At this time Taltulia was in communication with Dr. A. J. Harrop, then agent in London.for the Universityiof New Zealand, who considered the soldier stood a good chance of getting a position with the 8.8.C. translating Maori mythology, folklore and music for broadcasting. Dr. Harrop offered to help him all he could should the wounded man be repatriated through England. However, it was not to be. When Corporal Taituha finally left Stalag VIII.B on his way home, he went via France, Spain and the Middle East, finally arriving in New Zealand in December, 1943.

As he recounted his experiences, Corporal Taituha produced some hundreds of sketches he had made. He had thought that a diary would probably be confiscated by the Germans, whereas sketches, which would remind him just as well of his experiences, would be less likely to be seized. The drawings give a graphic impresson of all manner of persons and things, from pretty German nurses to ablution benches.

Corporal Taituha's speech, appearance and cheerfulness give little indications of the trying years through which he had passed, but his troubles are, unfortunately, not yet over.. In April of this year he was given a thorough specialist examination, as a result of which it was found that the bone graft had not been a complete success, one end having failed to knit, and he awaits a further operation.