Rediscover New Zealand’s hidden First World War history through the places where it happened. No battles were fought here, yet the First World War intruded into the daily life of every New Zealander who remained at home. This ground-breaking book provides vivid new insights into their experiences through exploring the places where they lived, worked, coped and mourned: army camps, fortifications, soldier-settler farms, town halls, wharves, convalescent homes and hospitals, cemeteries and war memorials, dairy factories and woollen mills. From Northland to Stewart Island, our landscape is signposted with thousands of poignant memorials, and behind the façades of old buildings, beneath scrub and behind farm fences lies a less visible landscape of war and hundreds of hidden stories waiting to be told: a soldier’s name carved on a remote railway station, a once bustling uniform factory in the heart of a city, a long abandoned gun battery … This unique book will be a revelation to all New Zealanders. Extensively illustrated with new and period photographs and fascinating maps, it contains original research and information that will open the eyes of every reader to places and stories in their community hidden in plain sight. The impact of the First World War on New Zealanders was immense; its legacy can be seen all around us today.

For the British Empire and its allies of the Great War, 1917 was a year marked by one crisis after another. There was also social and political upheaval on the home front, including labour unrest and opposition to conscription in the dominions. But here and there glimmers of light pierced the gloom. The armies of the empire began to solve the puzzle of trench warfare. The dominions asserted themselves more in the councils of imperial power. And the United States finally entered the war. Turning Point 1917 examines the British imperial war effort during the most pivotal and dynamic twelve months of the Great War. Written by internationally recognized historians, its chapters explore military, diplomatic, and domestic aspects of how the empire prosecuted the war. Their rich, nuanced analysis transcends narrow, national viewpoints of the conflict to view the British Empire as a coalition rather than individual states engaged in their own distinctive struggles. In drawing attention to the developments that made 1917 a turning point, this book provides a unique perspective of the war.

A study of the role of the RNZCT and its predecssors, the NZASC and the RNZASC. It examines the roles of those organisations within the army - transport, supply and catering - and tells the stories of the many thousands of New Zealanders who worked in them. Illustrated with black and white photographs. The author has written many books, including a biography of Ronald Hugh Morrieson.

They left their Southern Lands, They sailed across the sea; They fought the Hun, they fought the Turk For truth and liberty. Now Anzac Day has come to stay, And bring us sacred joy; Though wooden crosses be swept away – We'll never forget our boys. – Jane Morison, ‘We'll never forget our boys', 1917 Be it ‘Tipperary' or ‘Pokarekare', the morning reveille or the bugle's last post, concert parties at the front or patriotic songs at home, music was central to New Zealand's experience of the First World War. In Good-Bye Maoriland, the acclaimed author of Blue Smoke: The Lost Dawn of New Zealand Popular Music introduces us the songs and sounds of World War I in order to take us deep inside the human experience of war.

The New Zealand soldiers who left these shores to fight in the First World War represented one of the greatest collective endeavours in the nation’s history. Over 100,000 men and women would embark for overseas service and almost 60,000 of them became casualties. For a small nation like New Zealand this was a tragedy on an unimagined scale. Using their personal testimony, this book reveals what these men experienced – the truth of their lives in battle, at rest, at their best and their worst. Through a comprehensive and sympathetic scrutiny of New Zealand soldiers’ correspondence, diaries and memoirs, a compelling picture of the New Zealand soldier’s war from general to private is revealed. This is not a campaign history of dry facts and detail. Rather, it examines minutely the everyday experience of trench life in all its shapes and forms. Diverse topics such as barbed wire, the use of the bayonet, gas attacks, rats, horses, food, communal singing, infectious diseases and much more feature in this riveting account of the New Zealand soldier in the First World War. It is the story of ordinary men thrust into the most extraordinary circumstances imaginable. Written in an accessible style aimed at the interested general reader, the book is the product of a substantial amount of research. The text is complemented by a range of maps, illustrations, graphs and diagrams.