*  Above images are public domain pictures. A plan of the attack, and the attack.

Gate Pa, was a hillfort or Pa, in New Zealand fought over during the New Zealand Wars between the Maoris and the incoming British. 

There had been many older forts, that were like British forts, simply fortified villages. These were so as to protect not just from the British, but from other communities in New Zealand, as they ahd been for well over couple of centuries. 

Anyhow here is my bullet point list on this Pa, Gate Pa, possibly the least Maori sounding name in some ways, but maybe it is based on a Maori word. 

* In the mid 19th Century Britain had been colonising New Zealand, for a number of decades, and by now, the amount of settlers was so large, and support from the British Empire so immense, that huge armies were being sent to suppress remaining Maori chiefs, kings,  and people, mostly in the name of land and power. 

* The Tauranga campaign was a six month conflict in the Bay of Plenty in early 1864.

* A Maori tactic had been to use these hillforts, adapted to more modern warfare. 

* A new Pa was built around this time by chiefs here, at Gate Pa. 

* British forces suffered a loss in the Battle of Gate Pā on 29 April 1864, suffering 31 killed and 80 wounded despite vastly outnumbering their Māori foe, but 7 weeks later routed the Maoris at the Battle of Te Ranga, when 80 Māori were killed, including commander Rawiri Puhirake. 

* Some prediections ay 745 British were killed in the New Zealand wars, 1845 to 1872, and 2500, Maori, but to me this sound slike a underestimate, as what about affects of war on civilians. 

* Anyway focussing on Gate pa. 

* January 1864 British General Duncan Cameron—at the time still facing an intimidating Paterangi line of Māori defences in Waikato campaign—despatched by sea a expedition to take Tauranga, as he believed his opponents were moving men and supplies from the East Coast to there. 

* The Ngāi Te Rangi Māori here, opposed the government, a major gunpowder store was known to be inland of Tauranga and the district was an important source of food for Māori fighting British forces in the Waikato.

* Knowing of the coming of his enemies, Ngāi Te Rangi warriors came back from Waikato battlefields and designed a hillfort, or pā, on high ground at Te Waoku near the Waimapu Stream overlooking the Bay of Plenty, where they established a garrison of around 100 troops. 

* The Ngāi Te Rangi chief Rawiri Puhirake challengws the British leader to a fight, then in April 1864 moved near the British base to occupy to a new ridge position at Pukehinahina, known to Europeans as, The Gate, as of the post-and-rail fence and gateway used by Māori to block European  trespassers. 
* The fortification, became known as "Gate Pā", it built 5 km from imperial troops, who were banned from intervening.

* Puhirake, tried to goad the British, to a fight, as to keep his men, in camp, but to no avail. 

* Meanwhile some East Coast Māori had a battle with British aligned Maori over some issues, not that far in territory from here. 

* Hoping for a battle, 250 Ngāi Te Rangi warriors at Pukehinahina expanded the current trench and banks, making Gate pā into a dynamic of a couple of redoubts, with a honeycomb of rua, or anti-artillery bunkers. Like how the Vietnamese had all those tunnels to avoid US bombing in their wars. 

* Ngāi Te Rangi manned the main redoubt, and 30 Ngāti Koheriki hapu and another 10 from the Piri-Rikau group and other hapu manned that smaller redoubt. As timber was lacking in closeby swamps, palisading was flimsy, but the strategic location of the redoubt on hill summitl, and span of the palisading gave their enemy the impression of greater strength than they possessed. There were now 230 men on Gate Pa. 

* On 28 April, Cameron launched an attack on the front of Gate, (Sounds like front gate)  with four batteries of artillery placed 350 metres away and further Which could include a 110-pounder Armstrong gun, and howitzers and mortars. 

* On  a rainy night the British moved 700 men over swamps east of Gate Pā, to cut off a Māori retreat. Added to over the night.  By morning of 29 April he had 1650 men surrounding the pā. 

* On the 29th April, they opened fire, killing in a long process 15 Maori, with 15 tonnes of shell, destroying the pallisade. 

* In the afternoon, as the Pa looked deadand buried, the Union Jacks forces sent 300 men, up with bayonets, on their guns. 300 were following on behind. 

*  Tragically for the attackers, many British were shot as they entered the main part, brutal hand to hand combat ensued, Maori with short clubs and shot guns, Brits with fixed baonets, you can imagine the thin fred line, and maybe not want to imagine the brutal carnage. Just as tragically many Maori fell in this as well. 

* The British then saw what seemed a lull, and for some reason some of their leaders left, reporting to Cameron the fort had been taken. 

* Just moment following, while the back of the fort seemed to have been stormed lightly by a other of the British forces, vicious battling shook the scene. Like a medieval melee, as of suffering badly, the panicked British forces fled. 

* This saw the British lose a large amount of their casualties, with victims strewn like a movie battle across the pa, horrible sight I am sure. 

* Some wonder if the fleeing was as of, British forces mistaking other British forces for Maori reinforcements. 

* It seems likely that the Maori had stayed amazingly hidden, before unleashing fire on the British, just as they etered the fort. 

* It seems  Rawiri Puhirake ordered his men to "not utter a word or fire a shot till the proper time came for the order".

* A little like many great victories of a smaller side over a invader, a plan, and the plan being properly and fluidly enacted on, by people who knew how to enact it. 

* At night, the Maori left the fort, believing it was likely to be stormed. 

* Today Maori and European New Zealanders are very much united in peace and democracy, as eual citizens but what a story and what a battle. 

* Could this be the last hurrah, or horror of the hillfort, yes you could say it was partly a modern way of fighting, but surely a little hillforty.

A amazing tale, a amazing story of a amazing system, where New Zealand Maori fought so hard against a huge empire. Happily they are part of NZ democracy. 

The End.  Were their Iron Age battles fought like this. 

P.S  you may say Iron Age hillforts had no relation, but look, each side had slingshots, which can be just as brutal as guns, and swords, and such just as brutal as bayonets and the Romans of course had their artillery.