If you were watching the early morning TV programs on Maori TV on Anzac Day, you will have learned something about the Italian Campaign fought by the New Zealanders alongside the other allied nations as they drove the Germans North out of the country.
And you will have had an insight into the feelings of the soldiers who survived and revisited Cassino for the anniversary celebrations.
When I was a schoolboy during the war, we knew all the war songs. One of the most popular was "Maori Batallion". We could belt it out, knew the words by heart and felt it a symbol of NZ national pride.
As a result of the Italian Campaign, dozens of New Zealanders found Italian girlfriends. Many wanted to marry them and bring them home. The army tried to block their plans, but the flood of testosterone and war-fuelled young men was too strong, and many Italian girls left home either married or engaged to young kiwis.
Some knew no English, few knew much about NZ, some had difficulty recognising their men in civvy clothes when they walked off the ship.
Their story is told in a fascinating book by Susan Jacobs called In Love And War.
The question of just who steers the ship of state is an interesting one which has exercised better minds than mine for centuries.
Does any one person, by their choices, or by their personality, actually change the country's direction?
Do even prime ministers have that much influence?
Winston Churchill is often credited with such power in the case of the UK, and FD Rosevelt in the US. Have we had any such people in NZ?
Some people would instance Robert Muldoon, but his direction was changed again soon after he left office, so that is a doubtful proposition.
Who actually steered us out of the Anzus Alliance and into the independent foreign policy of the 80s and 90s? Was it Lange who actually moved the tiller, or had it been shifted a few years before by Kirk?
David Grant has written a life of Norman Kirk that is well worth a read. It is a no-nonsense account of the man's life and thought, and the effect of his work on our history.
The book is called "The Mighty Totara"' published just this year.
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