Nirai Apatu
Private 39584 · D Company, 28th (Māori) Battalion · Killed in action, Crete, 23 May 1941
Early life
Nirai Nepe Apatu was born in 1911 at Takapau, in Central Hawke’s Bay, the son of Hori Reremoana Nepe-Apatu and Pae Te Popo Winiata. He was single and working as a labourer, and his aunt, Mrs Ngaroma Nepe of Waipawa, was his next of kin. In March 1940 he and Iriwhata (Ponchey) Hunter were farewelled on final leave with parcels from the local Patriotic Council.
War
Nirai sailed with the Second Echelon in 1940 and is in the third row of the 1940 D Company group photograph. He fought in Greece and on Crete. On the night of 22–23 May 1941 the battalion counter-attacked towards Maleme airfield, and D Company fought from cover to cover into the village of Pirgos under mortar fire until it was halted at an irrigation canal. Nirai was killed in this attack on 23 May 1941, aged 30. Mat Bailey of D Company was killed the same day.
Remembered
Nirai has no known grave and is commemorated on the Athens Memorial. The Central Hawke’s Bay Press reported his death in June 1941.
Sources
Online Cenotaph C20436; Commonwealth War Graves Commission; J. F. Cody, 28 (Maori) Battalion (1956); Hawke’s Bay Herald-Tribune, 20 March 1940; Central Hawke’s Bay Press, 12 June 1941; Te Papa PA.000038.
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