Talk:Tauranga campaign

message: This article desperately needs sources and the writing in its body is largely conjectural, unencyclopaedic and just plain bad. Since it includes bizarre sentences like "What happened?" I would surmise that it was copied from some other website or book and therefore might be a copyright violation, but I have no evidence to back that claim up. I've edited parts of the Gate Pa section, but since most of that section contains conjecture about who thought what and where the British likely dropped their bombs, the entire thing would need a rewrite or otherwise very careful editing. I'll try to salvage what I can in that section, but I would encourage others to check my work and rewrite the other sections. Cumulus Clouds 21:50, 21 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Grammar and sources

message: In a 19th century European army it was military doctrine that attackers needed at least a  3:1 numerical advantage to dislodge a well dug in, determined enemy. The British army had the advantage of many superior weapons and a strong logistics train - was one of General Cameron's strengths,following the horrors of Crimea. He was always able to resupply his large armies with supplies by a well organized shipping organization. This was helped by the installing of the new telegraph system back to Auckland. They also the use of local guides both European and Maori. The mounted troops could move more swiftly on horseback than the rebel Maori warriors who always walked. Maori always lost when attacked in open country. European troops were always able to eject rebel Maori from an entrenched dug in position-sometimes with few casualties sometimes not. Some of the Maori wounded casualty figures are probably inaccurate as rebels tried to conceal their dead and wounded. 
In nearly all battles the ratio of dead to wounded is 1:3 in other words when 68 are dead it is likely the real number of wounded was about 210. In the Napoleonic Wars the ratio was 2:1 as medical treatment was very poor. In the NZ wars the wounded that were captured were often the severely wounded. Many of these rebels survived thanks to advanced medical treatment, good food and care-something that Cameron insisted on after Crimea. He had numerous doctors with his entourage. Rebel walking wounded no doubt escaped in the heat of the battle and were uncounted whereas the British counted all their wounded, often leading to the wrong impression in some accounts. Chris Pugsly, a retired Lt Colonel in the NZ Defence force is the only modern military expert to examine the wars from a military point of view in a series of articles in NZ Defence Quarterly (no longer produced.) His investigation and findings are sometimes at odds with general historians over military matters. The tendency over time has been for the number of dead to get lower as troops wear more protective gear and immediate advanced medical treatment is available.   Claudia  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.62.226.243 (talk) 04:52, 5 May 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Military Statistics 

message: An IP editor has changed the Maori number of casualties from 108 killed or fatally wounded and 10 captured to 108 killed and 44 wounded.  I'm curious about the source for this info, but looking at this again, I can see the infobox does contain some errors with the casualties.
The NZ History Online articles on Gate Pa and Te Ranga give these figures for the Maori toll: 
*Gate Pa: 15 killed by shellfire.
*Te Ranga: 108 found dead, 43 taken prisoner. Among the prisoners, 32 were wounded and 15 later died of their wounds.
*Total for the Tauranga campaign: 123 killed, plus 15 mortally wounded (total deaths: 138); 17 wounded.
Belich (who disputes the figures broadly accepted by other historians) concludes that the toll at Te Ranga was 68 dead in the trenches, 15 fatally wounded and 12 injured, plus 10 taken prisoner, uninjured. His death toll then for that battle is 83 dead and 12 injured. Adding his total to the 15 Gate Pa casualties equals 98 Maori killed in the Tauranga campaign plus 12 injured.
The infobox should then show Maori casualties for the entire Tauranga campaign as 98 to 123 killed or fatally wounded, 12 to 17 wounded. BlackCab (talk) 02:50, 3 June 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Casualties toll