Battle of Puketutu

Battle of Puketutu
Part of the Flagstaff War
A landscape showing a battle mounted by soldiers in red coats against a fort in mid-distance, with further fighting in the far distance; the shores of a lake is on the left
A print of the Battle of Puketutu; Heke's is at left centre, while the British assault parties are battling Kawiti's warriors in the distance to the right
Date8 May 1845
Location
Puketutu, Bay of Islands, New Zealand
35°20′21″S 173°49′03″E / 35.33917°S 173.81750°E / -35.33917; 173.81750
Result Māori victory
Belligerents

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Māori
Commanders and leaders
William Hulme
George Johnson
Tāmati Wāka Nene
Hōne Heke
Te Ruki Kawiti
Units involved

British Army

Royal Navy

Allied Māori

  • Nene's war party

Māori

  • Heke's war party
  • Kawiti's war party
Strength

British Army

  • 320 soldiers
  • 40 militia

Royal Navy

  • 87 sailors & marines

Allied Māori

  • 300 warriors (Nene's war party)

Māori

  • 200 warriors (Heke's war party)
  • 140 warriors (Kawiti's war party)
Casualties and losses
13 killed
30–40 wounded
30 killed
50 wounded
Battle of Puketutu is located in Northland Region
Battle of Puketutu
Site of the Battle of Puketutu

The Battle of Puketutu (Māori: Puketutu) was an engagement that took place on 8 May 1845 between British forces, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel William Hulme, and Māori warriors, led by Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti, during the Flagstaff War in the Bay of Islands region of New Zealand.

After Heke and Kawiti's sacking of the Bay of Islands town of Kororāreka in March 1845, the opening act of the Flagstaff War, the British retaliated with a punitive expedition to the area. After destroying the (hillfort) of a local chief at nearby Otuihu on 30 April, the British moved inland, led by a Māori ally, Tāmati Wāka Nene. They planned to attack Heke's at Puketutu, reaching the area on 7 May after a difficult march through dense bush. The battle commenced on the morning of 8 May, with three parties of British soldiers and sailors advancing to an area behind the whereupon they were ambushed by Kawiti's warriors. For the next few hours, there were repeated sallies back and forth until the British retreated, leaving Heke in command of the battlefield. He subsequently abandoned the . The Battle of Puketutu, the first attack mounted by the British on an inland , is regarded as a victory for Heke and Kawiti although at the time the British declared that the Māori had been defeated by virtue of exaggerated claims of the number of their warriors that had been killed in the engagement.