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Originally Posted by mmarsh As for the Haka, that story is actually true. It was done on the 2 day of the battle before dawn in EARSHOT (not EYESHOT, obviously  ) of the German Positions. This is mentioned from Beavor himself, I can provide the page if you want.
Remember this was 1941, most Germans had never even seen a Moari, so hearing a screaming and yelping coming from the British Lines just before a battle must have been extremely nerve wracking. |
I take it you have never experienced a Haka?
I have no doubt they performed one but I suspect more for internal use than to scare the Germans because without the visual aspect all the Germans would have heard was incomprehensible gibberish somewhere in the distance which is hardly frightening.
My brother in laws father served with the Maori Battalion in Greece, Crete, North Africa and Italy, they were good soldiers but to be honest a lot of the stories you hear about them are urban legend type stories and every countries forces have them, the only stories I have heard about them actually scaring the bejesus out of anyone was due to their tendency to use German weaponry which scared the crap out of the rest of 2nd Division when when an MG-42 opened up within their own positions.