Battle display

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 548, 9 August 1994, Page 16 (Supplement)

Battle display

Feelings of soldiers who fought at the Battle of Monte Cassino are a part of what the exhibitors wanted to get across when Waiouru Army Museum' slatest exhibition opened recently. The exhibition was initially designed by two Central Institute of Technology Design students. Andy Wood, the museum's new exhibition officer, is responsible for its final format. "We wanted visitors to feel the disruption, the depression and the hopelessness that the soldiers who were there felt," CIT student Ruth Parnell said. "We designed it so that you walk into this exhibition and the first impression you get is that of coming up against a huge image of an impossible barrier. For the soldiers, there was also sometimes a psychological conflict. Many believed that the Germans were looking down on them from above. This affected morale." At the offlcial opening historian John Tonken-Covell, the Dean of Strategic Studies at the Militiary Studies Institute, spoke to the visitors about the battle itself. He said that the New Zealand soldiers had suffered eight long weeks of devastation, cold, wet conditions, continual hostile shelling, mortaring and small arm fire. During all this observation advantage and were at times in close proximity, giving unceasing feelings of apprehension.