Haane Te Rauawa Manahi, DCM (28 September 1913 – 29 March 1986) was a New Zealand Māori soldier during the Second World War whose gallantry during the Tunisian campaign resulted in a recommendation that he be awarded the Victoria Cross (VC).

The subsequent award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) disappointed his fellow soldiers who, after his death, advocated greater recognition of his valour.

This eventually resulted in a special award in 2007 of an altar cloth for use in a local church, ceremonial sword and a personal letter from Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his gallantry.

Born in Ohinemutu, New Zealand, Manahi worked as a labourer when, in November 1939, he volunteered to join the Māori Battalion, newly raised for service in the Second World War.

After recovering from his wounds, he returned to his unit and fought through the Western Desert and Tunisian campaigns, during which he was recommended for a VC for his actions at Takrouna over the period 19–21 April 1943.

After his death in a car crash in 1986, a committee was established to urge the New Zealand Government to make representations to Buckingham Palace for a posthumous award of the VC to Manahi.

He also spent time in the timber and building industries alongside his paternal uncle, Matiu Te Rauawa, who had served in the New Zealand Pioneer Battalion that had been raised for military duty during the First World War.

[5] Shortly before he departed his home for Trentham, Manahi married Rangiawatea née Te Kiri, the mother of his son, born in 1936.

[6] In early May 1940, after Manahi and the rest of his fellow soldiers had two weeks of home leave prior to departing the country,[7] the battalion embarked for the Middle East as part of the second echelon of the division.

After a short period of leave in London, the New Zealanders were engaged in further training and defensive duties, with the Māori Battalion based in Kent and then, once the threat of invasion had receded, in Aldershot.

[8][9][10] On 27 March 1941, Manahi's battalion, having spent two months in Egypt, arrived in Greece to assist in its defence against an anticipated German invasion.

B Company was the last of the battalion's units to abandon its positions, and together with the rest of the Allies, withdrew over the following days to Porto Rafti, where it boarded a transport ship for the island of Crete.

[17] By mid-June 1941, after a period of recuperation and leave, Manahi had returned to the Māori Battalion,[18] which had undergone a reorganisation following the campaign in Greece and Crete.

After crossing the Egyptian border into Libya, this involved near-constant fighting for well over a month, during which Manahi, with two others, captured and commandeered a German tank which had become stuck in B Company's trenches.

Encircled by the Germans during the Battle of Mersa Matruh, the division was forced to break out from Minqar Qaim on 26 June and withdrew to positions around El Alamein in Egypt.

During the fourth stage of the battle, in what was codenamed Operation Supercharge, Manahi and his company were involved in a successful bayonet charge against well dug-in Germans that had resisted a previous attack by another battalion.

After a battle at Tebaga Gap, during which Second Lieutenant Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu of the Māori Battalion's C Company won the Victoria Cross (VC),[27] planning began for a push into Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia.

At dawn, they began their attack up a steep and at times near sheer slope and were successfully able to overwhelm the Italians defending the ledge, capturing 60 prisoners.

Later in the afternoon of 21 April, Manahi led an attacking party of seven soldiers which, working with a group from 21st Battalion, captured the village and took 300 prisoners.

[36][37] The citation for the DCM read: On the night of 19–20 April 1943 during the attack upon the Takrouna feature, Tunisia, Lance Sergeant Manahi was in command of a section.

The area was subjected to intense mortar fire from a considerable enemy force still holding Takrouna Village and the northern and western slopes of the feature and later to heavy and continuous shelling.

Lance Sergeant Manahi himself returned to his Battalion at the foot of the feature and brought back supplies and reinforcements, the whole time being under fire.

On the night of 21–22 April, Lance Sergeant Manahi remained on the feature assisting in the evacuation of the dead and wounded and refused to return to his Battalion until this task was completed.

[39] Even outside of the division there was some surprise; the British Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks, who was present during the fighting at Takrouna and visited the site of the action afterwards, expressed his dismay at the downgrade of Manahi's award in his postwar memoirs.

His tangi (funeral) was held at the marae (tribal meeting area) in his home village of Ohinemutu, and was attended by former soldiers of the Māori Battalion.

[49] The committee, which felt the downgrade of Manahi's proposed VC award to a DCM was due to him being a Māori, lobbied the New Zealand Government to make representations to Buckingham Palace.

It favoured a more gradual and casual method to better assess the likely receptiveness of the Palace to the issue and so supported two informal applications made to the Queen in the early 1990s through former Governors-General of New Zealand; these were unsuccessful, with the passage of time since the events of Takrouna cited as a factor.

[50] The campaign to seek redress for Manahi continued and in 2000, his iwi, Te Arawa, lodged a claim with the Waitangi Tribunal[54] and was supported in doing so by the New Zealand RSA.

[55] In October 2006, after further dialogue with Buckingham Palace, the New Zealand Minister of Defence, Phil Goff, announced that Manahi's bravery at Takrouna would be recognised by the presentation of an altar cloth for use at St.

[56][57] The sword was later presented to the Chief of the New Zealand Defence Force, Lieutenant General Jerry Mateparae, along with a patu (war club) in memory of Haane Manahi.