Two of my great-uncles, Percy, on the left, and Richard (Bob) on the right, volunteered for service when New Zealanders went to war in 1939.
They didn’t want to go, but they did — like thousands of other Kiwis — to defend our country, protect our democracy, our individual rights and all that we hold sacred.
Percy volunteered for the Ambulance Division. Bob was in the infantry, and they served in North Africa together. By 1 December 1941, fighting had ceased in the area they were in, and Percy was in the field (unarmed) retrieving the wounded when a sniper came over a hill and shot him in the neck. He was killed instantly. Bob saw it happen but was powerless to help as he was taken prisoner at the same time. After four years as a prisoner of war, Bob and many others were marched deeper into Germany. The men helped keep each other up, because if they fell they were shot dead.
Bob eventually arrived back home. The family excitedly went to meet him as he disembarked, but walked right past him. They hadn’t recognised this shadow of their beloved Bob. Nor was he able to eat the beautiful dinner they had so lovingly prepared.
Bob died about 10 years later, due to the deprivation and injuries he had suffered in the war. The family never forgot his kind and gentle nature, nor that of Percy’s, who left a wife and infant son. They always remembered two wonderful and special men, particularly on ANZAC Day.
All Kiwi families who had ancestors that served in WW1 or WW2 have similar stories.
Thousands were killed, thousands were injured, and most who returned found their experiences too painful to talk about except with each other, on rare occasions.
ANZAC Day 2022 gives pause for thought.
How well are we protecting the legacy of these New Zealanders who put their lives on the line to protect our democracy, our human rights and all of our freedoms?
How well are we protecting the right of free speech, the right to protest, to travel freely, and to always be able to come back home, unconditionally, to our country? How well are we protecting our sacrosanct right to choose what medical treatment we have, without coercion, threats or discrimination? How well are we protecting our democracy, our rights to one person, one vote, and to have representatives that genuinely represent us?
Are we standing up and speaking out?
What would our men and women, who put their lives on the line for our democracy, think of New Zealand today? Of us?
What would they think of being threatened with the loss of one’s job for exercising one of our most revered freedoms quoted in the Bill of Rights, which is the right to be able to refuse medical treatment, and the right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation? What would they think of this coerced mass medication that is in direct violation of the Nuremberg Code that was written to prevent this?
What would they think of healthy people being imprisoned in their homes for weeks and forced to close their businesses, rather than isolating the infectious, and allowing their immune system, and natural herd immunity to do what is required, while protecting the most vulnerable, based on their choice?
What would they have thought of our elderly dying alone, with relatives forbidden to visit?
What would they think of the increasing amounts of foreign ownership of our land and the increasing foreign ownership of our major companies?
What would they think of our government inviting foreign ownership of our fertile farmland, so it could be planted in pine trees with the land unable to be used for 30 years or more, and when harvested able to leave little more than an ecological acidic disaster in its wake?
What would they think of those in power taking instructions from those whose over-riding ambition appears to be that of one-world government, with no democracy?
What would they think of our increasing lack of self-sufficiency and our country importing billions of dollars of products from overseas and mothballing vital industries that help retain our independence, including the essential Marsden Point Refinery?
What would they think of our government treating New Zealand citizens differently, based on race?
What would they think of New Zealanders being subjected to mass surveillance by New Zealanders?
What would they think of an NZDF who dictated that all soldiers must have experimental gene-based therapy injections that are still on trial, or to be fired, despite a Judge ruling that it was not mandatory?
And what would they think of the NZDF being forbidden to attend ANZAC Day memorials, to avoid contracting a mild malady with an over 99% recovery rate, while tourists are free to come and go and much closer contact is permitted in nightclubs? (It appears that many soldiers are equally concerned with the above orders, too).
Those in positions of power may well be able to brush these words aside with little thought and hurry on, but they will always know that they didn’t protect our democracy and that this is a betrayal — until they speak up — for these soldiers we remember on ANZAC Day were our people who gave their lives to retain our freedoms, our individual rights, and to keep our country safe from being overtaken by foreign powers.
Their lives mattered.
They put their lives on the line. And they passed the baton to us. It is our turn to peacefully ensure that we continue to protect this precious legacy.
And in the future, if those in power, or any New Zealander, stands at dawn on ANZAC Day for that one minute of silence;
if you bow your head for The Last Post;
if you listen to the stories of valour and courage of these men and women who gave their lives to protect our sovereignty, democracy and the individual human rights of all –
perhaps you will honour them, by doing what you can to help protect what these New Zealanders, and most of us, value the most:
Our Freedom, Our Democracy, Our Sovereignty.
Lest We Forget.
We Will Remember Them.
By Mary Hobbs
Mary when you write you take us on a journey and i love that, thank you.
Yes the men and women who are our grand and great grandparents went to fight physically for our freedom and liberties, asking what they would think about where we are at today and how the tyrannical global governance dressed up as politicians and bureaucrats pretending to defend us and pretending there are still honest and fair elections built on lies, deception and murderous acts to be frank. And we must be frank since we are under attack, an attack that has never stopped since before the first world war.
The globalists have been working 24/7 to take more and more control of a group they call “the herd” and we accept it by applauding them. Think that’s not true then watch again Bill Gates giving his speech to groups on the global population, he said the good news is we can reduce the global population by 10-15% with the use of vaccines, the audience applauded him, that’s how much the herd has been hypnotised.
I believe that if these tyrants want the world to be reduced in population then they should leave themselves, why not. To say the world is overpopulated is a lie and to say resources are short is a lie. We use to have around 5 years grain supply on hand though in recent times we have let that back up reduce to less than 12 months. That means harvest to harvest we are living to close to the edge. Food stock can easily be replenished so that we had many years of food on hand in case of a major disaster, and I mean easily.
Those soldiers who came back from war said that we would have to fight for freedom again and again. The issue is the globalist/cabal fighting machine treat us like a herd of animals that they can cull when and how it suits them, the crazy thing is we do it for them, we are the soldiers, the police, the doctors and nurses, the lawyers, judges and jailers that take their orders to kill our own. We are the teaches and law makers that roll out their narrative even when we know it does not feel right. I have said since I was 14 that if there were no soldiers there would be no war and the only way to beat these pricks is to stop buying their stuff and stop[ letting them run off to a cave when they lose a fight giving them time to build their narrative and trust while in the background they are scheming to take us out again, just like now with this full assault on humanity. This is a world war and the left cabal are not going to win. We need more people to waken from the spell so please find a way to waken those around you. Remember the past today ANZAC’s and be ready at attention to continue the fight for our freedom and liberties every day.
True words brother. Bless you.
So very well said.
Very well said. Sometimes it seems even those of us who are awake keep getting sleepy. Words like yours help keep the eyes open.
Thank you David. An impassioned piece with truth, although the heartening fact is that many thousands of Kiwis are not in the collective ‘we’ described above, but are doing all they can to help make fellow Kiwis aware.
Thank you Mary for the article and David for your comments.
Beautifully said. Its shameful that the powers that be have forbidden the respectful remembrance today. Its what most returned service men and women look forward to all year. We went down to the local menorial site, my grandfathers will be turning in their graves at whats happening one returned wounded from Gallipoli and the other France. Yes it is our job to keep awakening more and where we can, speak up for our and future generations freedoms.
Yes, thank you sincerely. “To you we throw the torch” echoes today. How is it that extreme measures are taken in resthomes to ‘protect’ family of those we remember today yet the law allows their lives to be taken prematurely in the very same resthomes? By non relatives?
Is there a link between isolation from spouses, extended whanau and social networks resulting in depression and reduced will to live?
How are these situations independently assessed?
10 to 15%, how? Nevertheless, there are many compassionate carers and medical staff who work long and hard serving the vulnerable.
That is one mighty fine article Mary.
Fantastic article
Thank you Mary, I was thinking the very same thoughts this afternoon so i put a VFF “You Can’t Take it back” kids leaflet on the local cenotaph I hope it will wake a few people up.
Paul Drake, it was totally inappropriate to put such misleading propaganda on a cenotaph. Ask a war veteran what they think about it. But from a very safe distance, because presumably you’re not vaxxed.
Lefty
I’m Presuming you are somewhat retarded
Why Lulu? Are you for murdering children like the monsters in the Beehive?
Do you really think the State-bribed, State-brainwashed State Doctors of NZ are more honest than the self-sacrificing Great Doctors of the world?
Well said Mary. My uncle was killed in North Africa in the war, which meant I never got to meet him. And I believe his loss left a dark stain on my family that is still there.
I often wonder how uncle Dinky would feel about what is happening in our country now.
What a great article. And so true.
Very sad to realise so many men died for our country to end up like it is today.
Thank you so much Mary for your message and also to David Jordan for his response. My dad went to war at the age of 17 years, not much more than a boy. Being young he may have wanted to go, but I bet when he got there he would have wanted to come home. I feel grateful they are not here to experience what our government has done by stealing all that they fought for. Dad attended every ANZAC remembrance Day, thinking of the fallen ones… for what ? Our current government has in its term in office hijacked all our freedoms, our rights as citizens of a so called democratic society. I’m angry.
Inspiring message. So easy to forget how to be actively courageous in the day to day. This reminds us to be vigilant and keep fighting -whatever that might look like. Thanks.
May 15th is day of the conscientious objector- Archie Baxter is a hero saying “no” to the mandate of forcing nz men against their will to murder other men. We needed to reclaim the importance of standing up for human rights. Peace
Wonderful message Mary. My father and three uncles were sent overseas in WWII. They all came home but were never the same. One uncle was a prisoner of war in a german prisoner of war camp, one in the navy was sunk three times and had a safety pin stitched into a head gash and was a prisoner of the Italians (he had headaches and once home they found the safety pin causing it) and another had a heart attack and died on 9/11 as he was very upset because all they went through in WWII was in vain.
Mary, a moving article and a timely reminder of the ‘rabbit’ down which we have been taken in recent times.
Our forefathers put their lives on the line for our freedoms which the present government(not) are hell bent on destroying.
Excellent read and comments, how far we have slipped in to aquiescence to such open yet decieving authority is beyond imagination.
Bravo Mary. Thanku for saying what should be said everyday to remind us all to fight tooth and nail for our god given freedom and human rights! No govt gives us our freedom therefore they can never take it away. AND NEVER EVER GIVE UP … we will endure!!! Good always conquers over evil , lest we forget. Anyone who argues with that did not have a father who went to war for us!
…heart felt words that clutch at our very souls. We must never allow our freedom to dissipate… at present, that is almost tangible.
Stories of the ANZAC soldiers and their horrors brings tears to my cheeks…. my brave, strong and kind father had his war battles, and I can hear him in my ear reinforcing me to keep up the fight of these times. Apathy is a real problem today.
I, for one, will never ever give up.
Well said all, When the flak was flying at folk camping near the cenotaph (during Wellington protest), I was thinking, our forebears who fought in WW1 & WW2 did not fight for our country to become unfree, they fought tyranny in order that we could remain a free land.They endured so much, they would be proud of those who fight on for this nation’s freedom albeit in a different way in our day. Kia Maia, Kia Kaha , Fight on for Freedom. Matt.
Wonderful feedback. Thank you all for these enlightening comments.. M
[Edited] “Lest we forget” has been usurped by the far right. Steadily over the years. We no longer remember so that we do not do it again oh no. We remember it with glory and duty and trumpets. We white men who are the forthright and staunch heroes of the empire. [Edited] These days when I see the “New Zealand” flag I do not celebrate. I see just the precursor sham to the US empire we have now. When you sing praises to ANZACS you sing praise the the US military industrial complex and all their minions. [Edited]. You are either supporting the sham or you are not – you can not have it both ways. ANZAC day is now a day for [Edited] to gather so as to be ripe for leading to yet more wars. You wave a flag? You deserve the consequences. I honour the fallen by standing up against people who would follow a flag to kill. Wave a flag to incite hatred. [Edited].