Kōrero: Second World War

Peter McIntyre's watercolour shows a scene a day or so after the German landing on Crete. There was fierce fighting around the Maleme airfield, but on 21 May some poor decisions by New Zealand officers led to its capture by the Germans. Once they could land additional support by plane, the Germans were in a stronger position and Allied defeat was almost inevitable. As suggested in this painting, casualties were quite heavy among the New Zealanders –  671 were killed and 1,455 wounded. In addition 2,180 were taken prisoner.