Awesome, let's go.
Today on KEA Kids News, we uncover the story of the World War 2 ace pilot who chose humanity
over glory.
Pretty scary.
The importance of learning our history, how important is it?
We visit a school that already knows.
Waitara Central School has been learning history for ages.
Yay!
[Music plays]
Hi, my name is Leon and I'm from KEA Kids News.
Today we are looking at the new exhibition called Dangerous Skies at the Omaka Aviation
Heritage Centre in Blenheim.
This is George.
I heard he's the person to talk to, is it because you're plane crazy like me?
Yes.
Awesome, let's go.
Gear up.
May day, may day.
Emergency.
So George knows a lot about planes, I mean a lot.
So what's cool about this Spitfire?
It used to fly in the World War 2 and it's a two-seater cockpit.
And it's from our side when we were flighting in the world.
That's the dive bomber.
And this plane is a two seater, two blader prop, 4 exhaust and the wings are fabric.
Cool.
You can see on the show up there, some planes coming over to bomb.
Pretty scary.
So what can you tell us about this?
This plane here had crash landed during World War 2 and it has crash landed in the jungle
and been abandoned by its crew.
There is quite a lot of scary animals.
So shall we move on now?
No I think I'll stay here for a little bit longer.
Okay, I'll leave you to it then.
Hi, it's Leon, isn't it?
Yeah.
I'm Graham.
Nice to meet you.
Welcome to the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre.
Thanks.
I see you're reading a little bit about the Messerschmitt BF 108.
Yeah.
Let's go and have a look.
I'm lucky enough to be a little bit involved here so I'm allowed to move around here a
little bit.
So there's a few things I really like about the Messerschmitt 108, one of them was it
was an aeroplane that was ahead of its time when it was first created.
But what I really like about this aeroplane is its story.
Franz Stigler was a German Luftwaffe pilot in the second World War, and all he had to
do was shoot down 1 more plane and he'd be awarded the highest military honour of Nazi
Germany, the Knight's Cross.
One day when he was refuelling his plane, an American B17 Bomber flew past, low flying,
an easy target, Franz jumped in his plane and it wasn't long before he had the B17 in
his sights and was ready to pull the trigger.
That's when he noticed his prey was badly wounded.
So damaged he could see the crew inside all injured.
This was his chance to become a hero but he just couldn't pull the trigger, it wouldn't
be right to shoot these defenseless people.
So instead, he flew alongside theB17 and escorted it all the way back to the English channel
where he gave the pilot a waving salute, turned back to Germany where he never spoke of the
incident again.
Until 1990, 45 years after the war ended, Franz found out that B17 landed safely and
the pilot was living close by.
They met up and they became close friends for the rest of their lives.
It's pretty weird how they were fighting and now they're friends.
Yeah.
Trying to kill each other to going on holidays with each other.
I think the word that sums it up is humanity.
One man can feel compassion for the other men and his actions saved their lives, so
it's a pretty special story.
Yeah.
This is Leon from KEA Kids News.
[music plays]
Kia ora, I'm Aurora Stanford reporting for KEA Kids News.
It's been announced that in 2022, that all schools will be taught New Zealand history.
Here at Waitara Central School, we've been learning that stuff for ages.
This is the entrance to my school.
This is a boy and this is a girl.
Nau mai haere mai, welcome to Waitara Central School.
Waitara Central School has been learning history for ages.
yeah!
[singing] We're going to get my classmates to tell you
about all the history.
Some of them are real smart.
So war broke out in 1860.
Wiremu Kīngi built a path, guess what it was shaed like an L.
An L-shape meant the Māori warriors couldn't be surrounded.
And he set up anti-artillery bunkers.
That was smart, that was super smart.
Not even the guns could beat the L-shaped path.
or 24 pounder howitzers.
Kingi had just built it too well.
The next morning the British moved in, but discovered that Kingi and his warriors had
left.
Sucked in, British.
The Māori outwitted the Brits' mighty gun power.
With cunning intervention.
This is all part of a psychological plan to frustrate the enemy and beat them.
The Taranaki wars lasted for 22 years, woo that's a long time.
[kids do a pukana]
Do you know when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed?
No sorry.
It was like the late 1800s.
I think it was like in the 1800s at some point.
I think it was the 1900s.
I'm not sure.
It was like 1886 or something I think.
Are you from around here?
Yes, I was born in Taranaki under the mountain.
What history were you taught at school?
We were taught about Waitangi Day and a lot of the World War 2.
Well when I took history in year 11 we were learning about the Russian Szars.
Well I learned basically about New Zealand and overseas as well.
I learned about the history of my people and the history of New Zealand.
Do you think it's important that New Zealand history should be taught in schools?
Definitely, yes.
We learn about other country's histories more than we learn about our own.
Yeah.
Why do you think it's important to learn about the past?
Because it makes you realise how lucky we are to live now because you learn from mistakes,
if there are many mistakes being done in the history, we don't want to repeat those things.
There you go New Zealand, we've been doing history for ages.
This has been Aurara Stanford for KEA Kids News.
[music plays]