Have a question?

Search results

Seeing the Sights in Paris

Video

A party of young women show a group of smartly dressed British, Australian, American and New Zealand soldiers the sights of Paris. Insignia on the women’s clothing suggests they are from the Red Cross. In this excerpt, the group walk along a concourse toward the Eiffel Tower. A pan around the party of sightseers shows a smiling, cheerful group. Later on, the group is in front of the Hôtel de Ville, before all climbing into a truck.
When the Armistice was signed in November 1918, there were 56,000 New Zealanders overseas or at sea. Demobilisation was a carefully planned manoeuvre with most troops and nurses returning home during 1919 – though the last New Zealanders did not return home until 1921. Troops were anxious to leave and so, to counter rising tension as soldiers waited to hear when they could go home, activities such as the Inter-Allied Games and sightseeing parties were designed to keep the men occupied.
Hospital Blues

Video

This brief clip shows soldiers feeding hens and gathering eggs in an unidentified New Zealand hospital in 1918 in the United Kingdom. Their lemon squeezer hats identify them as New Zealanders and their uniforms further identify them as hospital patients. Known as the “hospital blues” (also as convalescent blues, or hospital undress) the single-breasted suit and trousers uniform was made out of flannel material of an Oxford-Blue colour, with a white shirt and red tie.
The hospital blues served a number of functions and were important within the hospital environment. In the first instance, they were a replacement for dirty and often infested uniforms and therefore helped to improve hygiene and cleanliness. They were also a way to distinguish the patients from doctors, nurses and visitors and enabled the administration to maintain discipline and rank. The hospital blues also worked as a form of social control, as publicans were not allowed to sell liquor to men in the blues.
Presenting Flags

Video

A large crowd of hospital staff and interested public gather outside the Town Hall in Lymington in Hampshire, England on 5 March 1919 to watch the principal matron present the New Zealand flag to the Mayor.
After the flag presentation the scene shifts to the graveyard at nearby St Nicholas’s Church, Brockenhurst – where 93 New Zealanders who died in the The No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital are buried. The No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital at Brockenhurst opened in June 1916 after being moved there from Abasseyeh in Egypt. By 1919, when it closed, 21,000 patients had been treated in the hospital.
The final scenes show Lieutenant-Colonel Percival Fenwick and his staff walking among the graves as the camera pans across the graves and the church.
Goodbye to Blighty

Video

The evocative title for Pathé Gazette No. 535 says it all – Liverpool Good-bye to ‘Blighty’ – (New Zealand Soldiers Leave England with their Wives).
This short, 23-second clip, shows a passenger ship lined with New Zealand soldiers and their wives, waving goodbye. Quay-side friends and family members wave farewell – among those on shore are several New Zealanders identifiable in their lemon squeezer hats.
For New Zealand servicemen who had married ‘war brides’ – predominantly women from Britain and Europe – where possible the Defence Department arranged for the passage of both wives and children so that they could go to their new home on the demobilisation ships with their Kiwi husbands.
Memorial to the Gallant New Zealanders

Video

Crowds gather to watch the unveiling of the memorial to the “gallant New Zealanders” at Messines Ridge in Belgium on 1 August 1924.
A panning shot reveals a World War One cemetery and rows of graves (presumably of New Zealand soldiers). Soldiers and war veterans walk up a path between the graves. The King of Belgium, Albert I accompanied by the New Zealand High Commissioner, Sir James Allen and General Sir Andrew Russell and other dignitaries gather on the dais for the unveiling of the memorial which is draped with a New Zealand flag.
Three cheers for the Prince!

Video

A camera positioned opposite Australia House on The Strand in London, captures Australian troops on parade for Anzac Day, 1919. The vast number of Australian troops is some indication of the scale of Australia's contribution to the war effort.
The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) stands on the raised platform, taking the salute. With him are Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig to the right and HRH Prince Albert (later King George VI) further back, next to Lieutenant General Sir William R Birdwood (left). Also featured on the stand are Billy Hughes (Prime Minister of Australia); Andrew Fisher (Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom); Sir Thomas McKenzie (New Zealand High Commissioner to the United Kingdom); Sir Joseph Cook and Senator Pearce (the Australian Minister for Defence).
The parade ends with Australian and New Zealand troops and British citizens pushing forward and mobbing the Prince of Wales with three cheers!
Military Olympics

Video

This film shows the opening march-past of athletes in the Inter-Allied Games held on the outskirts of Paris from 22 June to 6 July 1919. Watch for the cameramen on the left of the frame.
Competitive events were put on in 22 sports, with 1,500 men from 19 countries competing. Look out for the New Zealanders with their distinctive silver fern – and team coach Sergeant EJ Benjamin carries the New Zealand flag.
With a team of 300 competitors, the United States dominated and placed first in 19 of the 22 events. The French, Australians and Canadians all entered sizeable teams. New Zealand contributed five athletes in track and field and an eight, four and single sculler in the rowing. One athlete represented for Guatemala.
New Zealand did well, coming third in the overall rankings in the track and field (United States 92 points, France 12 points, New Zealand 6 points, Australia 5 points). The New Zealand rowing team also did exceptionally well with Darcy Hadfield winning the international single sculls and the fours and eights both gaining third place.
Te Hokinga Mai Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū

Video

Look at the smiling soldiers, jam-packed along the ship’s rail, the Māori Pioneer Battalion is home at last.

After a 36-day journey from Liverpool, the SS Westmoreland arrived in Auckland harbour on the evening of Saturday 5 April 1919. It berthed the following morning and 1,033 personnel disembarked to great fanfare – guns fired a salute, all the ships in the harbour sounded their sirens and horns, three bands played patriotic music and dignitaries greeted the men with brief speeches.
Renowned Te Arawa leader Mita Taupopoki can be seen with his distinctive tāniko bonnet towards the end of the film clip. One of the haka being performed is the Ngāpuhi war cry “Ka eke te wīwī, ka eke te wāwā” – complete with the leaping in unison and brandishing of taiaha and tewhatewha fighting staffs.
Following the reception at the wharf the Battalion marched to a pōwhiri at Auckland Domain. Tribes from all over the country gathered to welcome the men home, along with thousands of spectators.
Of the 43,572 servicemen and nurses who returned home in 63 demobilisation sailings, only the Māori Pioneer Battalion returned together, as a complete unit.
In Memory of the Unreturning Brave

Video

Otago Boys’ High School celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in August 1923 – the 75th anniversary was a huge celebration over several days. Activities included rugby matches, a parade, a ball and, most importantly, the dedication of the memorial gates commemorating ex-pupils who fought and died in World War One.
The Otago Daily Times reported that the “school gave freely of her best sons in that great conflict, and of these nearly 200 are numbered with ‘the unreturning brave’. It was fitting, therefore, that first of all the functions at this Diamond Jubilee should be the dedication of the beautiful memorial archway, which records in letters of brass the glorious roll call of those who thus gave their all”.
Watch as the Mayor, Mr HL Tapley and officials lead a parade of guests through the archway and into the college grounds, cadets then form a guard of honour and the flag blows patriotically! A parade of cadets march into the school.
Victoria Cross Corner

Video

Sunday 29 January 1956, when the Victoria Cross Memorial was unveiled, was a memorable day in Dunedin, New Zealand – everyone was there, dressed in their best.
The unveiling of the memorial, outside the main entrance to the Dunedin RSA on the corner of Burlington Street and Moray Place, was a grand occasion attended by the Governor-General of New Zealand Sir Willoughby Norrie and Lady Norrie.
A plaque lists the names of the 22 recipients of the Victoria Cross, nine of whom were in attendance that day, and one of them – the Reverend Keith Elliott – dedicated the memorial. Reflecting the language of the time, the plaque pays tribute to soldiers of “the Maori War 1864, South African War 1899 – 1902, The Great War 1914 – 1918 and The World War 1939 – 1945”.
Jellicoe Tours the Empire

Video

John Jellicoe was appointed commander of the British Grand Fleet the day war broke out with Germany in 1914. This clip shows him embarking on a tour of Dominion countries including India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Invested at Buckingham Palace

Video

London – 3 May 1919 – crowds gather outside Buckingham Palace in London for an investiture by his Majesty King George V. Among the nurses and soldiers receiving awards and honours is a smartly dressed New Zealand officer in his lemon squeezer hat.
On the dais are Queen Mary and members of the royal household. In front stand Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig and his Generals – Plumer and Sir William Birdwood. Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for War, stands proudly in morning suit and top hat.
After the ceremony, the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) Depot Band march past, followed by the New Zealand Parade Commander. Behind them are the New Zealand Field Artillery – note the infantry with their rifles and bayonets. Next, the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) march past. Mounted officers of the AIF and the Australian Light Horse trot by, and the crowd cheers and waves, then the AIF band march past – they are marching easy – and are followed by the Australian infantry.
The Ruins of Cambrai

Video

French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and Field Marshal Douglas Haig of the British Army inspect the ruins of the French city of Cambrai in this clip from the Australasian Gazette newsreel.
An ANZAC visit to Versailles

Video

Produced in 1918 – 1919 the film The Land We Live In was a two-hour long extravaganza. Sadly only 21 minutes of the original film survive. Aimed at an education market, the film focused on the main centres and principal towns in Aoteroa New Zealand, promoting scenic views and industry in each province.
Curiously, sandwiched between images of scenic wonder and industry is this sequence showing New Zealand soldiers sightseeing at the Palace of Versailles, near Paris, in 1919, during the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles.
The images were most likely taken by New Zealander Charlie Barton. At that time Barton was New Zealand’s only native-born official war cameraman – unfortunately this is one of the few of his films that survive.
Tonight at O’Brien’s

Video

Savvy theatre operators were quick to recognise the power of the local when it came to filling the house. Many cinemas employed cameramen to record local events, rapidly processed the films, which were then on the cinema screen within days – and people flocked to see themselves.
In this case O’Brien’s Empire Theatre, Dunedin’s De Luxe Picture House, filmed the 1921 Anzac Day Parade (25 April) and the unveiling of the North East Valley Memorial. By 28 April the Otago Daily Times carried the advertisement “Special Announcement Re Anzac Day. Pictures of the unveiling, the wreaths, the children, the parade of Anzacs, the councillors and the crowds etc would be shown that night at O’Brien’s”.
This was a remarkable achievement when you consider the necessary developing, printing, processing, editing and delivery that had to occur to make these events happen so quickly.
A Carefully Arranged Propaganda Exercise

Video

Keeping his father’s promise that his eldest son and heir would visit “when peace comes”, Edward Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), undertook a tour of the Dominions to thank them for their effort and participation in World War One.
The Prince spent a month in Aotearoa, arriving in Auckland onboard the Renown. He toured the country in a lavishly decorated train and by motor coach. In total he visited 50 towns and cities between Auckland and Invercargill. The “dashing playboy” was mobbed by enthusiastic crowds wherever he went and is said to have shaken more than 20,000 hands.
In Auckland the Prince is presented with the 'Freedom of the City' by the Mayor and is given a guard of honour by returned soldiers. In Rotorua, guided by Māui Pōmare, the Prince shakes hands with members of Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū – the Māori Pioneer Battalion. Later he attended a huge reception at the Racecourse.
World Champs

Video

It’s 11 June 1921. In Blenheim, New Zealand the anticipation mounts! Will Dick Arnst defend his world title against challenger Pat Hannan – a champion sculler for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF)?
The race was big news and had been widely reported in local papers. In response a huge crowd gathered on the banks of the Wairau River, near Blenheim to witness Hannan’s challenge. Arnst had first won the world championship in 1908, then he lost it to Ernest Barry in 1912 and retired from sculling in 1915. But he was back on the scene in 1920. The world title reverted to Arnst by forfeit in 1921 and Hannan was the first to challenge. The papers picked a close race. The excitement was building.
Sadly, though, views of much of the action in this film clip of the race have been obliterated by nitrate decomposition. However, a surprising twist at the end of the film is clear – and well worth the wait!
All Hostilities Will Cease

Audio

Shortly after 8 am on 11 November 1918, army telegraphist George Thomas was one of the first New Zealanders to learn that after four long years, the war was at an end.
An Armistice with Germany had been signed at 5.20 am that morning. Thomas took down the telegraph message, sent in Morse code, at his New Zealand Division signal station in northern France. He wrote it out in pencil, and when he was interviewed for radio some 50 years later in the 1960s, proudly showed the interviewer the original pencil and message form, which he had kept.
Supporting the men of Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū

Audio

Māori leader Sir Apirana Ngata fundraised for the men of the Māori Pioneer Battalion during the war, by establishing concert parties which toured the country performing and popularising waiata such as E pari rā and Pōkarekare āna which have remained enduring favourites today.
The money raised from these concerts was used to set up a trust for the men of Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū (the Māori name for the Pioneer Battalion.) In this radio interview, Remi Morrison of Te Arawa, a member of the committee which administered the Māori Soldier’s Trust, explains how they purchased Hereheretau sheep and cattle station, to generate an ongoing income for supporting the returned veterans and their families.
The Blue Boys

Audio

The impact of wounds, gas, disease and post-traumatic stress or shellshock, meant many returned war veterans would spend a long time in hospital for years after the war – sometimes well into the 1920s.
In the era before antibiotics, people could spend many months recovering from injuries and illness. Dedicated veterans’ hospitals were set up throughout Australia and New Zealand during the war.
In a 1957 radio interview, two New Zealanders, Frank Broad and Alan Kernohan – who were in the King George V Hospital in Rotorua – remembered the restrictions placed on the recovering soldiers.
Throughout the British Empire, men who were able to get out of bed, were known as “Blue Boys” because of their “hospital blues” – a uniform worn by the convalescing soldiers. This marked them out and was supposed to prevent the invalids sneaking off to local hotels for a drink, as civilians were prohibited from supplying alcohol to the men in blue… but there were ways around this, as the men recall.
The Aussie and the Mademoiselle from Armentières

Audio

Pat Hanna's 1930 recording of the iconic World War One song Mademoiselle from Armentières continued the tradition of adapting the words of this famous song to reflect the different experiences of soldiers during the war. Hanna himself served with the Otago Regiment from New Zealand.
Recorded in Australia on the Vocalion label, this version (with lyrics by Hanna), tells the story of an Australian “Digger” who falls for the French mademoiselle, only to leave her heartbroken when he is killed at Bullecourt (1917) in Northern France. It was a popular number performed as part of Hanna’s “Diggers” vaudeville concert party which toured Australia and New Zealand for many years after the war.
The Kiwis’ Last Action – Liberating Le Quesnoy

Audio

On 4 November 1918 the New Zealand Rifle Brigade was camped outside the walled medieval French town of Le Quesnoy, which was occupied by the Germans and had been for several years. The town had a moat and very high walls which were hundreds of years old. New Zealand artillery couldn’t be used to bomb the Germans into submission, because about 5,000 French civilians were still living in the occupied town.
The Germans refused to surrender and a party from the 4th Battalion was detailed to try and work out how to scale the 13-metre-high inner brick wall.
Intelligence Officer, Second Lieutenant Leslie Averill – a medical student from Christchurch – used a long, fairly rickety ladder and led a small party of men up the wall. He courageously chased off two German guards with his revolver, which allowed more New Zealanders to then follow him and take the town – without a single civilian casualty.
In 1958, Leslie Averill recorded a talk for radio, describing how he got into the town. (Notice that in this excerpt, in a classic piece of Kiwi understatement, he manages to completely avoid saying that he was the first man up the wall.)
A Hero’s Painful Memories

Audio

Bernard “Tiny” Freyberg VC, CMG, DSO ended World War One a highly decorated hero – celebrated in Britain as well as his homeland of New Zealand. He had served with the British forces: his Distinguished Service Order (DSO) was won at Gallipoli, his Victoria Cross (VC) on the Somme and, at the age of 27, he was made the youngest Brigadier-General in the British Army. He would go on to command the 2nd New Zealand Division in World War Two and become Governor-General of New Zealand.
Born in London, he grew up in New Zealand after his family emigrated and he attended Wellington College, in the capital city.
In 1921, still suffering from the many wounds he received during the war, he returned to New Zealand for several weeks to recuperate. He turned down all requests for public appearances and a civic reception, but he did take time to visit his old school and address an assembly of the boys.
One of those schoolboys, Max Riske, vividly recalled the event some 60 years later in a radio interview. As Max explains, the boys were expecting a stirring speech from a glorious war hero – but got something quite different from the man who had lost two brothers and many friends in the war.
No Beer for Soldiers after 6pm

Audio

Returning New Zealand soldiers found changes had been made to their homeland while they were away fighting. As a war measure, the early closing of hotels had been introduced in 1917, with all pubs forced to close at 6pm.
In a radio documentary recorded in 1977, entitled A Land Fit for Heroes, several men recalled the effect of these measures on New Zealand society and the anger they inspired in returning soldiers.
The Diggers’ March in Sydney

Audio

In April 1938, several thousand New Zealand “diggers” sailed from Wellington for Sydney, where they reunited with their Australian “cobbers” of 1914 – 1918 in a grand Anzac Day procession through the city.
The huge march from the Cenotaph to the Domain, where a commemoration service was held, was part of Australia’s 150th anniversary celebrations and some 50,000 returned servicemen took part – with an estimated half a million people lining the Sydney streets.
In this live radio broadcast from the Wellington waterfront, Station 2ZB announcers – who were veterans themselves – capture the cheering, bands and excitement on the docks. New Zealand Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage farewells the old soldiers as they board former World War One troopships – ‘the Monowai’ and ‘the Maunganui’ – for the trip across the Tasman.
Marching in Dunedin

Video

Following an ANZAC Day ceremony at the Cenotaph in Queen's Garden, Dunedin, hundreds of veterans march down Princes Street. The sheer number of marchers reflects the fact that the Otago and Southland regions provided the largest number of soldiers for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) per head of population. On parade are the 4th Otago Hussars; the 5th Otago Mounted Rifles and marines from a Royal Navy ship. The Battalion Band is followed by officers on horseback and soldiers of the Territorial Regiment. Each company is led by the company commander on horseback, all of whom wear medal ribbons indicating they are World War One veterans.
Just enough speechifying

Video

In 1912, Sir Thomas Mackenzie, former Prime Minister, was appointed as the New Zealand High Commissioner to London; a post he held until 1920. Mackenzie was particularly concerned about the treatment of New Zealand soldiers and made several visits to see the troops during the war.
In this clip, Mackenzie, with his back to the camera, talks to New Zealanders outside the 2nd New Zealand Field Ambulance station.

During his visit, Mackenzie also joined the 2nd Otago church parade, inspected the New Zealand Engineers and made an address to the 3rd Otago Battalion. At the end of Mackenzie’s visit Major General Sir Andrew Russell noted in his diary: "The whole visit has been successful, fine weather – just enough speechifying but not too much”.
Images of war

Video

A sergeant from the 1st Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade fires rifle grenades from a trench. The work is repetitious and dangerous, as rifle grenades were temperamental – sometimes landing in the trench or exploding in the barrel.
The destructive power of heavy artillery fire is seen in a pan across the pulverised remains of a village – the scene is one of complete desolation. The pan ends on a trench scene, sandbags are piled high and soldiers with their gas mask satchels on their chest descend into a dugout.

A line of soldiers stumbles through a large shell hole, knee-deep in water – it is some 20 meters in diameter and 4 to 5 metres deep. The soldiers are conscious of the camera, however the conditions are not staged – they are typical of those endured by the New Zealand Division in the low-lying trenches of Northern France during the winters of 1916 and 1917. It was not uncommon for men to spend up to eight days at a stretch in these tough conditions.
Jaffa scenes

Video

Street scenes in El Mejdel after the capture of Jaffa on 16 November 1917, by the Wellington Mounted Rifle Regiment, New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade and ANZAC Mounted Division.

A shot of the town hall clock shows that filming had occurred within half an hour of the town’s capture. Members of a New Zealand troop, with their tethered horses, relax on the outskirts of the town. They are cleaning up, smoking and enjoying a drink in the shade after a week of hard riding and heavy fighting.
March-past

Video

King George V inspects 7,000 New Zealand troops at Bulford Field on 1 May 1917. New Zealand’s high command did not miss the opportunity and also present were Generals, Brigadiers, the Prime Minister William Massey, Joseph Ward – Leader of the Opposition and their wives and daughters and other dignitaries.

The 7,000 New Zealand troops on parade included: 4,000 from 4th Brigade; 1,500 from Sling Camp; 1,000 from Codford Command along with Engineers, ASC, Cadets and a few mounted rifles. After inspecting the troops, the King took the march-past and presented medals.
Back to Blighty

Video

An ambulance arrives at a New Zealand General Hospital and medical orderlies unload wounded soldiers. Around them are wounded men in various states of recovery – note the number of walking sticks and amputees. All of the patients are dressed in “hospital blues” – a uniform worn by all hospital soldiers in the United Kingdom. Under the Defence of the Realm Act it was forbidden for Public Houses to sell liquor to a soldier in hospital blues.

Can you help us identify the hospital? We know it is a New Zealand General Hospital, so it is either Brockenhurst or Walton-on-Thames. Please contact us if can you help us.
Returning Home

Video

In this brief clip a group of New Zealand soldiers smile and wave to the camera. They have been invalided out of the war and are on their way home. The camera pans to show “trophies” of war – two soldiers wear gas masks, while a third displays an iron cross – all souvenired from the battlefields, from German soldiers.
Amusing sports events

Video

Scenes from the “Strawberry Fete” held at Torquay in Devon in the United Kingdom on Alexandra Day, Wednesday 27 June 1917. Promoted by the Four Allied Trades: Dairymen, Fruiterers, Grocers and Bakers, the fete was both a fundraiser and a morale booster.

Pictured here are New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) personnel, nurses and locals participating in games and novelty races, including blindfolded races, crawling races, wheelbarrow races and apple-eating competitions. Soldiers, too injured to participate, look on.
Journeys on a jigger

Video

Stretcher bearers evacuate a wounded soldier from the front line on a stretcher case on a ‘jigger’. The stretcher case is wheeled into the courtyard of the ADS (Advanced Dressing Station). Medicals admit the soldier and his condition is assessed and wounds dressed. More serious cases would have been evacuated by motor ambulance to the Main Dressing Station, in this case the No.3 Field Ambulance at Pont D’Achelles. Just as the ambulance drives off an orderly runs out and throws a soldier’s pack on board.

Filmed in June 1917, in Northern France when the New Zealand Division was on the front line forward of Ploegsteert Wood. It was a period of heavy activity – the buildings were under constant shellfire and were heavily sandbagged.
Trench Fever

Video

Although unconfirmed until after the war, one of the biggest enemies that soldiers faced was lice! They thrived in squalid, unhygienic trench conditions and were carriers of bacteria – causing the mysterious disease known as trench fever, along with typhus and scabies. And they made men – already suffering under appalling conditions – unbearably itchy, irritable and depressed!

To try and combat this, the work of the Medical Corps included sanitation “cleansing stations” where men were able to bathe and their uniforms and blankets were steam-cleaned. Watch as freshly bathed soldiers, wrapped in blankets, hand in their uniforms for cleansing in the Fodden Lorry Disinfector.
Training NZ’s first fighter pilots

Audio

George Bolt, Howard Coverdale and Mr Ross share their experiences as engineers, trainees and flight trainers at the Walsh brothers’ New Zealand Flying School in Auckland, 1915. The school, New Zealand’s first, graduated over 80 pilots during the war, with about one-third of them arriving overseas in time to see action in the air with the Royal Flying Corps or the Royal Naval Air Service.
Flying over Gallipoli with the RNAS

Audio

Most New Zealanders who flew as pilots in World War I went to Britain and joined the Royal Flying Corps. However, Phillip Kenning Fowler from Feilding, took a different path. Making his own way to England in 1916, he joined the Royal Navy and trained to become a pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service. This air-borne division operated under the Admiralty from 1914 to April 1918 when it merged with the R.F.C. and formed the Royal Air Force, or R.A.F.
Fowler was based initially in the Aegean Sea and eastern Mediterranean. Later in the war, he was one of the pilots tasked with trying to bring down German Zeppelin airships over the English Channel, before they could bomb British cities.
In this radio interview recorded in the 1960s, he recalls burning crops destined for Germany and early aerial bombing techniques. which amounted to simply dropping explosives over the side of the plane.
Entertaining the troops, “The Kiwis” concert party

Audio

The campaigns of the Western Front saw men serving in frontline combat positions in the trenches usually for a few days to a week at a time. In between, units were rotated back to ‘reserve’ positions several kilometres away from the Front, where boredom was yet another enemy to contend with.
In an attempt to keep the troops entertained, concert parties were formed by the men, with names such as “The Pierrots”, “The Tuis” and “The Kiwis.”
Bill McKeon, who served in the Wellington Infantry and had been in a concert party himself, had fond memories of “The Kiwis” and the high-quality shows they put on at Nieppe, near Armentieres in 1917, which he recalled in a radio interview with Neville Webber.
New Zealand Nurses at Amiens

Audio

Ida Willis’ service as a nurse during WWI saw her involved in virtually all the theatres of war in which New Zealand forces served. In these excerpts from two radio interviews recorded in the 1960s, she recalls the long hours involved in treating wounded men in northern France, especially when a battle was underway.
Flying the “Fighting Experimental Machine”

Audio

Royal Flying Corps Flight Commander Reg Kingsford of Nelson, New Zealand describes the third aircraft he learnt to fly during World War I, as the “Fighting Experimental machine.” Officially, it was the Royal Air Factory F.E.2b, the Farman Experimental 2 biplane (two-seater), in which he took a fellow Kiwi for a joyride.
A Case of shell shock

Audio

George Lee recounts a story of a Sergeant who after being caught in a salvo on patrol came back “absolutely useless” and unable to function. He talks about the men who, after realising his condition, concealed it from the commander – because even at that late stage of the war there was little sympathy for those suffering from shell shock.
Māori and Pākehā on the Western Front

Audio

George Puhi Nicholas served in World War I with the Māori Pioneer Battalion in northern France and Bob Robertson, a Pākehā, with the 6th Hauraki Regiment. In a joint radio interview recorded in 1985 they compare notes on their memories of the trenches, the bad food, the lice and the mates they lost.
The nimble “Scout Experimental”

Audio

Legendary New Zealand fighter pilot Keith “Grid” Caldwell, engaged in more fights, for his time in the air, than any other pilot in WW I. He also commanded one of the most successful fighter units, No 74 ‘Tiger’ Squadron. In this interview excerpt he describes the capabilities of the British fighter biplane, the “Scout Experimental” or formally, Royal Aircraft Factory S.E. 5.
Fighter Aviation Takes Off

Audio

In 1916, 2nd Lieutenant Keith Caldwell joined No.75 Squadron of the newly-formed Royal Flying Corps. The squadron went on to have an impressive history as part of the RAF and RNZAF, despite deficiencies in early aircraft design. In this brief interview, Caldwell describes flying BE2 and Sopwith Camel fighter planes. Captain ‘Tiny’ White, another New Zealander in No.75 Squadron recalls the lack of flight instruction available and the sportsman-like ethic between opposing front line forces at the beginning of the war.
Newcomer to the trenches

Audio

New Zealander George Lee was born in Canada and served in World War I with the British Army. He was shipped to the trenches near Antwerp in April 1918. In this excerpt from an hour-long radio programme about his war experiences, he gives a vivid account of his first experience of being under fire. He contrasts his own visceral reaction of terror with that of a hardened comrade who had already been in the trenches for four years, and for whom such events had become commonplace.
Blighty wounds and deserters

Audio

George Lee was among the later reinforcements to join the war, arriving in the trenches near Antwerp in April 1918. By this time, conditions at the front line were intolerable. There were only two ways out; death or injury. In this excerpt, Lee remembers the different methods men employed to be invalided out of the trenches.
A louse named Charlie

Audio

Many aspects of trench life were unpleasant – the mud and squalor, the monotony and drudgery, the abysmal diet, malnutrition and dysentery, the constant threat of death from enemy fire, and to top it off the discomfort – lice. The troops were crawling with them, almost to a man. In this excerpt from a 1981 radio documentary, George Lee recalls advice he got from a ‘lousy’ trench mate named Jack Saunders.
Going ‘over the top’ at Messines by John A. Lee

Audio

On 7th June 1917, New Zealand Labour politician and author John A. Lee was a 25 year old, serving with the 9th (Hawke's Bay) Company of the 1st Battalion, Wellington Infantry Regiment on the Western Front.
Some 50 years after the war, in 1968 he made this recording, still vividly recalling the experience of ‘going over the top’ behind the thundering Allied artillery barrage, which he calls “the greatest curtain of Hell in all history.”
Lest We Forget

Video

Thousands of Melburnians turn out in the pouring rain in 1925, to honour the fallen of the First World War.
France on the Firing Line

Image

France on the Firing Line was one of two propaganda films made by New York producer and theatre manager Lee Kugel and released through his company Kulee Features. The other – the now-lost Germany on the Firing Line – took the pro-Central Powers position, but reportedly contained similar footage of troops on the front line and copious dramatic explosions. When the films were released in 1916, the isolationist United States still hadn’t decided on which side they were going to enter the war – and as a clever producer, Kugel played to both sides. Though both played in the US, not surprisingly there is no evidence that Germany on the Firing Line was released in New Zealand.
Though not completely lost, only 8 of the original 85 minutes remain. The print held at Nga Taonga Sound & Vision – the only footage known to survive anywhere in the world – unfortunately suffers from nitrate decomposition. This irreversible chemical reaction causes the film stock to becomes brittle, crumbly and sticky, and the image to dissolve into an indistinct whirl. Luckily we have secondary resources such as this poster to provide additional information on the film.
Hinemoa

Image

'The first big dramatic work filmed and acted in the land of the Moa,' was Hinemoa (1914), New Zealand's first feature.
With a budget of £50, George Tarr directed Hinemoa over eight hectic days in Rotorua. Hera Tawhai and her husband Rua starred along with the Reverend Bennett's Maori Choir Party. With the film almost complete but the budget gone, George Tarr headed to Auckland to show it to his investors and distributor Mr Hayward. They loved it. Hayward wanted to show it immediately on 'the same terms as I'm paying now for Antony and Cleopatra.'
Hinemoa premiered at the Lyric Theatre, Auckland on 17 August 1914, during the first weeks of World War I. With only one print producer George Tarr travelled the film around the country for 5 months – doing good business.
Steeds and shellfire on the Western Front

Audio

The horses that were sent to the Western Front during the First World War faced many of the same difficulties as the soldiers that they served. Horses were used to transport officers, heavy artillery and other equipment to the front lines. The artillery conveyed by these horses was an essential element of the military strategies that developed on the battlefront. The Battle of the Somme in 1916 in particular saw the first widespread use of the ‘creeping barrage’, a strategy designed to provide cover for an advancing line of infantry.
Leonard Leary was a law student in Wellington who first served in Samoa after joining up in 1914 and then joined the British Royal Artillery and fought at the Battle of the Somme. In this 'Spectrum' radio documentary from 1982 he recalls both the trials of controlling horses amid the confusion of a battlefield and the use of the creeping barrage at the Somme.
A dead teenager and life on the Somme

Audio

Like many young men, New Zealander Jim Warner lied about his age to enlist in World War I and found himself going into action on the Somme with the Auckland Infantry at the age of 18.
In this excerpt from a lengthy interview he recorded with Radio New Zealand reporter Andrew McRae in 1982, he recalls the conditions, the death of his 16-year-old friend and the shattered landscape of northern France which had been shelled heavily by the time the New Zealanders arrived in September 1916.
First day on the Somme for Kiwis and tanks

Audio

On the 15th of September 1916, the New Zealand Division saw their first major action on the Western Front. In the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, they joined British forces as part of the continued effort to attack German-held territory around the river Somme in northern France.
A new element was also introduced on September 15 with the arrival of tanks in battle for the first time. British military leaders hoped that these new armoured machines, initially known as land-ships, would be able to straddle enemy trenches, break through barbed wire entanglements and end the stalemate of trench warfare.
But Lindsay Inglis, a New Zealand officer involved in action that day, recalls the tanks he saw were less-than-impressive.
Photos after the first conscription ballot

Video

Shot on 16 November 1916, the day of the first World War One conscription ballot held under the Military Service Act of 1916, this film shows the female and male staff of the Government Statisticians Office, all dressed in their Sunday best, posing for the camera on the roof of Routh’s Building in Wellington. The New Zealand Truth described the ballot as “An Epoch Making Event in New Zealand’s History” and “the first gamble in human life”. It was also pointed out that the women who are seen in the film, who drew registration cards for the ballot, could possibly “draw their sweetheart’s cards as time goes on”. (Truth, 18 November 1916, p.6)
"The first gamble in human life"

Video

In 1916 the New Zealand Government introduced conscription (compulsory enlistment for military service), to reinforce the shrinking numbers of men volunteering to serve in WW1. All men eligible for service were then required to register their names and other details, such as age and marriage status. This silent film clip, shot by the government’s own cameraman, shows the first-ever ballot at the Government Statistician’s Office, to determine which registered men would be selected for war service. The registration cards are laid out in boxes on long tables. Their numbers are transferred onto wooden balls which are placed in a rotating tumbler and randomly selected.
Conscription was politically contentious, and the film shows a party of journalists invited to view and report on the first ballot. They include Harry Holland, reporting for the labour movement paper, the Maoriland Worker. He had been imprisoned for sedition, for speaking out against conscription two years ealier in 1914.
The sound of the silents

Audio

Although there were no sound tracks recorded, or played, on films made during the First World War, audiences never watched films silently. In cinemas across Australia and New Zealand orchestras (which could mean anything from a single pianist to a full instrumental ensemble) provided music to accompany movies, and played as the audience entered and exited the cinema.
Violet Donaldson (nee Capstick) worked for many years as a pianist at three cinemas in Timaru. In this extract she recalls the “primitive conditions” in the theatres and also how she wrote and played tunes based on sheet music she listened to at the music shop she worked at, surprising returned servicemen who weren’t expecting to hear the latest in European music back home.
Short films, audiences and nitrate fires

Audio

Harry Kennedy was a long-time picture theatre manager in Timaru. In this interview, recorded on his retirement after decades working in showbiz, he recalls the types of films shown to cinema-goers, the enthusiastic applause and appreciation of the audience to films shown to them, as well as one of the hazards of film at the time: a nitrate fire in the biobox (projection booth).
Projectionists, orchestras & silent films

Audio

Harry Kennedy was a long-time picture theatre manager in Timaru. In this interview, recorded on his retirement after decades working in showbiz, he recalls some of the challenges projectionists faced as well as the sounds that accompanied “silent films”. Sound effects were supplied by staff watching the action on screen, and orchestras, made up of “tip top” musicians”, played music to bring the movies to life.
Early newsreels: A 1915 Pathé Animated Gazette

Video

People went to cinemas during the war to be entertained, but moving-pictures also played an important role in providing cinema-goers with news and information from abroad. Early newsreels, or topical films, were an important part of the typical cinema programme of the time.
This film is an example of a full-length Pathé Animated Gazette newsreel that was shown during the war. It demonstrates the contents of these types of films and how they mixed serious topics with more light-hearted footage: scenes of the Algerian Native Cavalry in Flanders, a brief glimpse of King George V and Queen Mary making their way through packed London Streets to a service at St Paul’s Cathedral, the opening of a New Zealand military hospital, and Zouaves (Algerian French Infantry).
German war films

Image

As the war raged on, all the combatant nations quickly realised the power of film. Germany used its film industry to try to sway the hearts and minds of neutral countries – particularly the United States. This image is from the American trade journal, The Moving Picture World, published in November 1915, and is part of the Henry Gore Collection. It is an example of the feature film propaganda produced by the German film industry for exhibition in the United States, which was still neutral at the time. These types of films was quickly banned from being shown in New Zealand.
The Empire’s Troops

Video

Nearly three million troops from the colonies of the British Empire served during the First World War. This film made by Pathé Freres, released in 1917 but filmed over the period 1915 to 1917, shows how broadly based the Allied forces were. We see Canadians at Salisbury Plains, Indians at Marseilles, and Australians and New Zealanders in Egypt.
Usually films of soldiers during the war are formal affairs. While the film starts off this way, with the usual scenes of training, marching and inspections, it also shows troops of all the different nationalities in a more informal mood, playing up to the camera-- including performing a Highland jig! It also shows a rare glimpse of ANZAC forces at camp relaxing in Egypt, with the spectacular backdrop of the Pyramids behind them.
The martyrs of Ripa

Audio

This 1980 ‘Spectrum’ radio documentary examines the treatment of a group of conscientious objectors who refused to take part in national military training. The 13 young men were held on Ripapa (also known as Ripa) Island, in Lyttelton Harbour near Christchurch, for some months during 1913. Their treatment was sometimes harsh, and when their case was made public they were dubbed by the press ‘The martyrs of Ripa’.
First English hospital for wounded Kiwis

Video

The New Zealand Military Hospital at Walton-on-Thames was the first English hospital to be established for Kiwi soldiers during the First World War. It was officially opened on Saturday 31 July 1915, in a ceremony attended by “one of the largest gatherings of New Zealanders that has ever assembled" in the UK. (Evening Post, 24 September 1915, p.4)
This film clip shows NZ High Commissioner Thomas Mackenzie and William Lord Plunket at the hospital’s official opening ceremony on 31 July 1915. Lord Plunket was a former Governor of New Zealand and the chair of the NZ War Contingent Association, formed on London at the outbreak of the war to support wounded NZ troops. The Association helped to select the hospital premises, and its members later visited convalescing patients.
Bringing the audience into the picture

Image

The experience of the cinema-going public remains perhaps the most challenging aspect of understanding film and audiences in New Zealand and Australia during the Great War. This image, taken circa 1910 in an unknown New Zealand cinema, is a rare glimpse back at a packed house.
Spruiking the pics

Image

Cinema managers pulled out every trick in the book to draw crowds to their theatres, from boys wearing sandwich boards to getting them dressed up in fancy costumes. This picture, which dates from around 1910, is from the E. Trevor Hill album and shows one such advertising stunt. It looks as though the young boys employed by the cinema built the horse-drawn cart which would have been led around the city streets encouraging punters to roll up to that day’s matinee show.
“The Answer to Declining Enlistment Numbers”

Video

This pro-conscription cartoon appeared shortly after August 1915. Although Australia had not long been involved in the war, it was already becoming apparent that casualty rates in Turkey were extremely high.
Australian troops at the Pyramids

Video

Australian and New Zealand troops arrived in Egypt in December 1914. They set up Mena Camp near the Great Pyramids outside Cairo and began training in preparation for the Western Front and Gallipoli. This footage sees them exploring the extraordinary landmarks - the Pyramids and the Sphinx.
While they waited in Egypt to be deployed, the Australian and New Zealand forces were formed into the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) under the command of Lieutenant General William Birdwood. The training the Anzacs received was only rudimentary, and did little to prepare them for what was to come.
Dunedin’s movie-maker: Henry Gore and his staff

Image

This photograph shows Henry Gore, a prolific Dunedin-based maker of topical (ie. current affairs) films, with the staff of the Plaza Cinema c.1918. Gore was then one of the first New Zealanders with overseas film-making experience, since he had travelled to Hollywood two years earlier.
He waiata mā te hoia kāinga ngākau koingō

Audio

I Runga o ngā Puke (From the Top of the Hills) is a waiata Māori written by Paraire Tomoana. He composed it at the request of a cousin, Ngahiwi Petiha, who wrote to Paraire while recuperating from a gunshot wound in an English hospital.
Paraire’s son, Taanga Tomoana, explains the story behind the lyrics and sings the waiata himself, in this radio interview in 1970.
A matter of principle

Audio

Duncan McCormack was a working-class socialist. At the outbreak of World War I, he determined that he would not participate in what he later called a “fight to redistribute the spoils of colonialism.” When conscription was introduced, he ignored his call-up papers and was eventually arrested by the military police. Here he describes the cycle of military camp, court martial, prison and hard labour which conscientious objectors were subjected to for the remaining duration of the war and beyond. As his second prison sentence was for two years, he was kept in prison even after the war ended.
Pacifism on the home front

Audio

In this excerpt, Millicent Baxter recalls her conversion to pacifism during World War I as a result of reading a letter written by her future husband, the pacifist objector Archibald Baxter. Millicent had not then met Archibald, but the letter to his parents, published in the newspaper Truth, moved her to investigate his pacifist viewpoint. In the face of popular patriotism, she adopted those views for herself.
Starting the New Zealand RSA

Audio

Many men who had been invalided back to New Zealand after the Gallipoli campaign found adjusting to civilian life difficult. Those without family support found themselves with little income and in some cases were virtually homeless once they were discharged from the Army. It was not long before a group formed to improve the lot of returned serviceman. In this recording from 1966, radio broadcaster Neville Webber interviews two World War I veterans, Gilbert Lawrence and Ernie Golding, who helped form the Returned Soldiers’ Association (RSA) in Wellington in early 1916.
In the Bull Ring at Sling Camp

Audio

Sling Camp on the Salisbury Plains of England was home to four or five thousand New Zealand soldiers at any one time, from 1916 until after the end of the war. It was staffed by New Zealand officers, with the exception of physical instructors whose job it was to get the ‘colonials’ into fighting shape. These men were veteran sergeant-majors of the regular British Army and their territory was the training ground known as ‘The Bull Ring.’ In a 1964 radio interview, Jack Archibald of Nelson recalled the grim conditions he faced there in the harsh winter of 1917.
Singing about Niuean soldiers who volunteered

Audio

The song ‘Lologo tau kautau Niue ne oatu he Felakutau Fakamua he Lalolagi’ was sung by the men from the Pacific island of Niue who volunteered to join New Zealand’s Māori Contingent in 1916. They served in France alongside Maori troops in the newly formed Pioneer Battalion, and suffered greatly from conditions colder than they had ever imagined.
A New Zealander at the Battle of Jutland

Audio

On 31 May 1916, Lieutenant Alexander Boyle from South Canterbury was in charge of a gun turret and two 12-inch guns on the HMS New Zealand during the Battle of Jutland, the greatest naval clash of the First World War. In this excerpt from a 1959 radio talk, he recalls seeing the British battlecruisers Indefatigable and Queen Mary destroyed with a large loss of life. Lt. Boyle also remembers his crew’s faith in a Māori mat [piupiu] and tiki given to their captain when HMS New Zealand visited New Zealand just before the war.
‘Great soldiers, good fellows’

Audio

The Victoria College Officers’ Training Corps was formed in Wellington in 1910. It was established partly by the need to train a new generation of officers to lead and fight in the New Zealand militia. Charles Treadwell was an original member of the Corps and in this talk he recalls its founding, the different forms that their training took, and the men he served with.
Marking the first Anzac Day in London

Audio

In April 1916, a year after the Anzac landings at Gallipoli, the first anniversary of the battle was observed in Australia, New Zealand and Britain. A grand memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey in London, attended by King George V and Queen Mary. Hundreds of New Zealand and Australian military personnel marched through the streets to the Abbey to attend the service.
Among them was Sydney-born Dr Agnes Bennett, who had been working in Egyptian hospitals treating the wounded from Gallipoli. Some 40 years later she recalled the experience in this excerpt from a radio ‘talk.’
“The horrible smell of burnt flesh”

Audio

Wellington-born William Fell was a 19-year-old midshipman on board the Royal Navy battleship HMS Warspite in 1916. He took part in the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the First World War. The Warspite was hit several times and 14 of her crew were killed.
In a 1961 radio programme, ‘First War Sailor’, Captain Fell (as he later became) vividly recounts his experience. He was a 'snotty', as the teenaged junior midshipmen were called in Navy slang, and his position at the transmitting station meant he was locked in the bowels of the ship as the battle raged above.
The declaration of war

Audio

Ena Ryan was born in the upper-middle class Wellington suburb of Kelburn in 1908. In this interview she recalls going with her mother to hear the declaration of war being read outside Parliament buildings on 5 August 1914 – and the ensuing patriotic fervour which swept the country.
Mutiny of the Bounty: Daybill

Image

The daybill, or poster, for the first known cinematic dramatisation of the story Mutiny of the Bounty, directed by Raymond Longford (1916).
"The most valuable shipment of films"

Video

The arrival of a shipment of US films in Sydney in 1916 confirmed that Hollywood had won Australian hearts. But some commentators were already concerned about the impact on Australian film production. On 16 March 1916, ‘Kinema’ of the Melbourne Argus asked, “Why should Australia be mainly dependent upon other countries” for its motion pictures? The article explored costs and marketplace realities that forced the closure of Australian film-producing companies, “one after the other”. In a conclusion that resonates even today, Kinema says, “whilst the successful Australian productions can be counted upon the fingers of the two hands, the number of those which have entailed serious financial loss is unfortunately considerable.”
Leaving Gallipoli

Audio

From 18 to 20 December 1915, the Allies retreated from the Gallipoli peninsula. In the days beforehand, rumours of their impending departure produced mixed feelings in the men. After months of the hardships of war, they were reluctant to leave the resting place of their fallen pals. Had it all been in vain? In this compilation, three veterans remember the evacuation of Gallipoli.
"The toughest part of the war was lack of sleep"

Audio

Coupled with the lack of shelter or water and a very poor diet, Australian and New Zealand soldiers on Gallipoli found the lack of sleep almost impossible to get used to. The cramped conditions, noise, heat and flies made a good night’s rest a rare luxury. Men often fell asleep where they were sitting – or standing, as New Zealand veteran Jerry Duffel recalls in this radio interview recorded in the 1960s.
Diggers in the tunnels of Quinn’s Post

Audio

The underground war at Gallipoli was fought from May 1915 right up until the evacuation in December that year. Because the two opposing sides were often only a few yards apart, parties of engineers from Australia and New Zealand could dig through the soil to lay explosives underneath enemy trenches. At the same time, Turkish tunnellers were doing exactly the same thing, sometimes with only a few metres of earth between them.
The men who organised the tunnelling were engineers (sometimes also called sappers). They were responsible for all the infrastructure needed to wage a war: from tunnels and trenches to buildings, roads and jetties. In this excerpt from a 1959 radio documentary, Captain Ernest Harston, who was adjutant of the Wellington Infantry Regiment, and Jim Meek, a corporal with the New Zealand Engineers at Quinn’s Post, recall the tunnels, the former miners who worked in them, and the many tasks the engineers had to carry out.
Battle in the Blizzard

Audio

In late 1915, towards the end of the Gallipoli campaign, a fierce snowstorm struck the peninsula. Allied soldiers fought the Turkish army while enduring rain, sleet and snow which caused severe frostbite and froze the trenches. In these radio interviews, three New Zealand veterans recall the living conditions and their experiences in the blizzard.
Maggots and brandy – evacuating wounded men

Audio

Facilities for evacuating and treating men wounded on Gallipoli were woefully inadequate. The British military command had not anticipated such large numbers of casualties, who often waited for days unattended on the narrow beach before they could be transported by ship to a hospital. Alexander McLachlan, a Scots officer on board the transport ship Saturnia, recalls in this 1969 interview how he and his colleagues were unable to cope with the vast numbers of sick and wounded.
“We left a lot of booby traps behind…”

Audio

From 18 to 20 December 1915, the Allies retreated from the Gallipoli peninsula. The evacuations were carried out quietly, overnight, so the Turkish troops would not suspect that their foes were leaving. Here, two veterans recall stealthily sneaking away in the dead of night, leaving booby traps behind. The first speaker is Sergeant Walter Cobb, a machine gunner with the Wellington Mounted Rifles. The second is Captain Ray Curtis of the machine gun section of the Canterbury Infantry Battalion.
Gallipoli’s wounded return to Wellington

Audio

On 15 July 1915 the transport ship Willochra brought the first group of men wounded in the Gallipoli campaign back to a civic reception in Wellington. Seeing the bandaged and traumatised men paraded in the city’s Town Hall made a big impact on young Max Riske, who was taken to the reception by his mother. Sixty years later, he vividly recalled how the experience changed opinions about the war for him and many other Wellingtonians.
The walking wounded return home

Video

New Zealand soldiers board a ship. It may be a hospital ship returning them to New Zealand, as some of the men are visibly wounded, using crutches and walking sticks. A civilian woman can be seen in the opening frames, indicating that this scene may have been shot in England.
Trentham Military Training Camp

Video

This film shows a panoramic view of Trentham Military Training Camp, north of Wellington. In the foreground, groups of men can be seen practising drills. Behind them is the camp; a few permanent structures surrounded by rows of characteristic cone-shaped tents. Trentham was where many soldiers of the Main Body completed their brief training.
Māori and Pacific Islanders march to war

Video

On Saturday 5 February 1916, the 3rd Māori Contingent of Reinforcements and others made their way from Parliament along Lambton Quay to their departure point at Wellington’s waterfront. Members of the Māori Contingent are easily identified by their uniform of pith helmet, shorts, putties (a long strip of cloth around the lower leg) and lack of ammunition pouches, which distinguished them from the ‘lemon squeezer’ hat and full uniform of the other troops. The idea of engaging in a battle in foreign lands so far from home must have raised excitement as well as doubt as the Māori Contingent headed for the challenge and conflict of World War One.
Troops from several South Pacific countries formed part of the 3rd Maori Contingent. Among them was Sergeant-Major Uea of Lalofetau, Niue. He had helped to encourage support for the war effort and was the oldest of the Niuean volunteers who sailed that day.
New Zealand soldiers recover from battle wounds

Video

After being wounded in battle, many Anzac soldiers were shipped to England to recover. Once their injuries healed, they were sent to convalescent camps around the country to restore them to fighting fitness. This short film shows New Zealanders at a convalescent camp taking part in training exercises to improve their fitness. As the film shows, training was not all hard work, and they certainly had some fun at the camps.
Training at Trentham

Video

The New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) required fit, young, trained solders, both to prepare them for the realities of marching and fighting on the Western Front, but also to reinforce those who met their deaths there. Many men who were trained during the First World War had already received compulsory drilling during junior cadet training at school. The Trentham Military Camp in the Hutt Valley was opened in 1915 to accommodate and train newly recruited soldiers before they were sent to Europe, where their training would continue.
Ex-pat Kiwis march in the London Lord Mayor’s Show

Video

In November 1914 the annual London Lord Mayor’s Show took on a very military flavour, with thousands of troops from Britain and her allies marching through the streets. They included a group of 150 New Zealanders, part of a contingent of 200 who were living in Britain when war was declared.
As this tiny fragment of film from 1914 shows, the New Zealanders were still wearing the ‘slouch’ hat with the upturned brim which New Zealanders had worn in the South African War. Later in the war this would be replaced by the peaked ‘lemon squeezer’.
Nurses remember the sinking of the Marquette

Audio

Three New Zealand nurses - Elizabeth Young, Mary Gould and Jeanne Peek (née Sinclair) - recount their experiences of the sinking of the troopship S.S. Marquette on 23 October 1915. The nurses were part of the New Zealand No. 1 Stationary Hospital unit, which was sailing on the troop transport from Alexandria, Egypt, to Salonika (Thessaloniki) in Greece, when their ship was struck by a torpedo from a German U-boat.
Who was to blame for the sinking of the Marquette?

Audio

Thirty-two New Zealand medical staff, including ten nurses, were killed when the troop transport ship SS Marquette was sunk by a torpedo from a German U-boat on 23 October 1915. The Marquette was en route from Alexandria to Salonika, carrying troops of the British 29th Division Ammunition Column, Royal Field Artillery, along with their equipment and animals. The medical personnel, equipment and stores of the New Zealand No. 1 Stationary Hospital were also on board. Questions were later asked about why a hospital unit was travelling with an ammunition column, which made the ship a legitimate military target.
In this 1965 recording two survivors, Herbert Hyde and Alexander Prentice of the New Zealand Medical Corps, recall the shipwreck and their impressions of why the disaster happened.
Machine gunners at Chunuk Bair

Audio

Leonard Leary was an ammunition handler with a Wellington Infantry Battalion machine gun team, and was wounded at Chunk Bair. The outdated Maxim machine guns used by New Zealand troops on Gallipoli were operated by a team of six men. These teams had to carry their guns up to vantage points and assemble them there in the heat of battle.
Listen to Leonard Leary reading from his memoir about the battle of Chunuk Bair.
Wounded at Chunuk Bair

Audio

The battle for Chunuk Bair was one of the bloodiest of the Gallipoli campaign for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Robert (“Bob”) Alexander Needs of the Otago Infantry Battalion, describes his experiences of the battle up Rhododendron Ridge, and the chaotic aftermath for the wounded.
“All my mates ever got were wooden crosses”

Video

Corporal Cyril Bassett was the only New Zealander to be awarded a Victoria Cross for the Gallipoli campaign. In this 1916 film clip he is congratulated by fellow Kiwi soldiers shortly after being presented with his medal. His modesty can be seen in his bearing – while smiling and shaking hands jovially, he still appears reserved. Throughout his life, Bassett had mixed feelings about his VC. “All my mates ever got,” he said, “were wooden crosses.”
“Every one of those lads was lying dead”

Audio

Dunedin-born Charles Duke was working in Australia as a journalist when World War I broke out. He signed up with the Australian Imperial Force, sailing with the 4th Battalion. By early August 1915 he had twice been wounded and evacuated from Gallipoli. Yet he returned to his unit and found himself caught up in the bloody offensive which came to be known the Battle of Lone Pine.
Duke wrote a detailed account of his war, and in this 1969 radio programme he gives a vivid description of hand-to-hand fighting in the trenches at Lone Pine.
Getting the message through at Chunuk Bair

Audio

Lance Corporal Cyril Bassett, an Auckland bank clerk serving as a signaller in the Auckland Infantry Battalion, won New Zealand’s only Victoria Cross on Gallipoli. It was awarded not for fighting but for his bravery in repeatedly going out under fire to repair telephone lines which carried the vital signals from HQ to the men fighting in the front lines.
In the Battle of Chunuk Bair in early August 1915, Bsssett and several other signallers, including his good mate Cecil Whitaker, repaired lines again and again while men fell and died around them. As Cyril recalls in this 1959 interview, one bullet shot out the pocket of his tunic and another grazed his collar, but he was otherwise unharmed. His friend Cecil was not so lucky and was badly wounded, dying a few days later.
A narrow escape at Lone Pine

Audio

This eyewitness account by a Gallipoli veteran describes how Australian officer Major Leslie Morshead was almost killed by a Turkish ‘broomstick’ bomb in the trenches at Lone Pine in early August 1915.
Morshead later became one of Australia’s best-known military leaders in the Second World War. As Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead he led the Australian 9th Division through North Africa, becoming known as the ‘defender of Tobruk’, and then went on to fight in New Guinea and Borneo.
HMS New Zealand anchored at Dunedin

Video

In 1913 the brand-new HMS New Zealand steamed around the North and South islands, docking at every harbour or anchoring offshore to receive visitors. The citizens of Dunedin were disappointed that the ship was obliged to anchor in the lower harbour, due to concerns over the depth of the inner harbour and a lack of suitable docking facilities. Nevertheless, boatloads of people made their way out for tours, as did the prolific local film-maker Henry Gore. This film, taken for exhibition in a local cinema, shows the New Zealand from the water, the forward 12-inch guns and the ship’s coat of arms. Look out for a glimpse of a man operating the ship’s flashlight. He wears a civilian suit and so is not a regular sailor, but perhaps one of Gore’s assistants taking a rare leading role.
HMS New Zealand arrives in Auckland

Video

When HMS New Zealand visited the City of Sails in late April 1913, tens of thousands of Aucklanders turned out to welcome her both on land and, as this film shows, at sea.
The film captures the size of the battleship as it steamed into Rangitoto Channel towards the port. The New Zealand Herald newspaper memorably described its “three massive funnels, then all the huge grey bulk of battle-cruiser... sullenly majestic, awful in portent, relentless as death itself.” Waitemata Harbour is shown packed with at least 200 spectator craft full of curious men and women and laden in bunting: “… ferry-boats and steamers crowded on their sterns, intrepid men and boys lugged at the oars of tiny dinghies and rowing boats, rowers in outriggers joined in the procession until so great was the traffic of the bewildering array of craft that the water was churned into white-crested waves and the smaller craft were tossed about like so many corks.”
War Fever

Audio

At the outbreak of the war, a commonly expressed concern was the need to enlist quickly in case the fighting ended before New Zealand forces could take part in what was widely imagined to be a great adventure. On August 8 1914, just four days after war was declared, the Evening Post newspaper reported that nearly 600 men in Wellington City had already volunteered for war service. George Davies was a schoolboy growing up in the working class Wellington suburb of Newtown. He recalls the enthusiasm to enlist among the men he knew.
Schoolgirl life and love during the war

Audio

There was a sharp divide between rich and poor in New Zealand at the time of the First World War. Marjorie Lees, the daughter of an upper-class Wellington family, was attending boarding school in 1914. Young women of her social status faced a restricted life, with very few options apart from marriage once they left school. But like young people from all walks of life, she was soon to experience the heartbreak of war.
No bayonet needed / E hara te pēneti i mau

Audio

Captain Pirimi Tahiwi of Te Hokowhitu a Tū, the Māori Battalion, describes how he and Captain Roger Dansey led a charge on Sari Bair, Gallipoli in 1915. Te Rauparaha’s famous war cry “Ka Mate, Ka Mate” rang out as they cleared the Turkish trenches. Tahiwi says there was no need to use the bayonet as the Turkish troops fled for their lives.He was wounded in the neck and evacuated to England to convalesce. After an outstanding military career he attended the 50th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings as the sole surviving officer to serve in Te Hokowhitu a Tū, the Māori Pioneer Battalion. Tahiwi laid a mere pounamu, a symbol of both peace and war, on the memorial at Chunuk Bair.
Good to Go / E pai ana, Ka haere

Video

The Second Māori Contingent is shown parading at Narrow Neck Training Camp in Auckland before leaving for the front on the SS Waitemata on 19 September 1915. According to the waiata “Te Ope Tuatahi”, composed by Apirana Ngata, the recruits of the Second Contingent were drawn mainly from the East Coast tribes of Ngāti Mahaki, Ngāti Hauiti and descendants of Porourangi. Among them was Second Lieutenant Hēnare Mōkena Kōhere of Ngāti Porou. Kōhere died of wounds on 16 September 1916 following the Battle of the Somme. He is mentioned in the sixth verse of “Te Ope Tuatahi” with the phrase: I haere ai Hēnare, I patu ki te pakanga, Ki Para-nihi ra ia. ("Farewell, O Hēnare,Me tō wiwi, and your 'clump of rushes' who fell while fighting in France". The ‘clump of rushes’ is thought to refer to the men under Kohere’s command who died alongside him.)
E pari ra / The tide surges

Audio

In this sound clip Tānga Tomoana describes how his father Paraire Hēnare Tomoana came to write lyrics for the well known and popular waiata E Pari Rā. He wrote the song in 1918 at the request of his friend Maku-i-te-Rangi Ellison whose son, Whakatomo Ellison, died in the war. Paraire wrote it as a memorial and lament for all fallen soldiers. Speculation is that Tomoana used the tune from a German Waltz, the Blue Eye’s Waltz to base his song on. Many other popular songs were written by Paraire including Pōkarekare ana, Hoea rā te waka nei, Tahi nei taru kino, Hoki hoki tonu mai. These are still performed by New Zealanders to this day. E Pari Rā was adopted by the New Zealand Navy as their official song.
Haka in the Sand / He Haka He Onepu

Video

The First Māori Contingent are seen in Egypt on 3 April 1915, enthusiastically performing the haka “Te Kāhu Pōkere” which was as popular then as Te Rauparaha’s famous war cry “Kā mate, Ka mate” is today. The Māori Contingent were bound for Malta before moving on to Gallipoli. Their sense of adventure is still apparent in this film as they were yet to face the heat of battle when, as many a soldier has said, “Boys became men at the burst of the first shell around them.” Performing the haka was found to be a good way to unite men under a common purpose. It provided relief from the mundane day to day existence in training camps, and was a form of entertainment for the Contingent and other troops, as well as a morale booster.
From Queen Street to the front

Video

Although the details are uncertain, this brief film clip shows the Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment marching down Queen Street on 22 September 1914, after a civic farewell at the Auckland Domain. The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported that “[f]lags were waved, and lusty cheers were given as the troops passed”. These scenes were later included in the 1928 Australian film The Exploits of the Emden. The original footage, like much film from that era, is now long lost.
King George V inspects HMS New Zealand

Video

The battleship HMS New Zealand was a gift to Britain’s navy from the people of New Zealand. The day before the ship departed on a tour of the colonies, it was visited by King George V, an old sailor himself. The King was particularly interested in the 12-inch guns, and navigation equipment. The Dominion newspaper reported that “His Majesty was greatly amused at the decorations of the gun-room, which… somewhat resembled a lady's boudoir [bedroom]." (7 February 1913, p.5). New Zealand-born officers on the ship were introduced to the King and he met the ship's mascot, Pelorus Jack, a bulldog puppy who can be briefly seen in this clip.
Dust in our ears, eyes, mouth, nose and everywhere

Video

In late 1914 the New Zealand and Australian forces were diverted from their original destination of England to Egypt. There they combined to form the ANZAC Corps that would eventually fight in the Gallipoli campaign. This film shows an activity that became a routine part of soldiers’ life - the troop inspection.
As well as the blazing Egyptian heat, the ANZAC troops had another menace to contend with – dust. Herbert Hart wrote in his diary “[t]he sand is worked into such fine dust near camp, that it now flies everywhere whenever the troops move over it. We had dust in our ears, eyes, mouth, nose and everywhere, it fell from our puggarees [cloth wrapped around the regulation sun helmets], pouches, pockets, putties [long cloth strips wrapped around the calves] or from all our clothes.”
The Anzac convoy departs from Albany

Video

The Main Body of the NZ Expeditionary Force steamed off from Wellington on 16 October 1914. The convoy consisted of 10 transport ships and four escorts, carrying 8000 soldiers and nearly 4000 horses. They arrived in Albany on 28 October to join up with 28 Australian Imperial Force troopships. The combined Anzac fleet of 38 troopships and escorts, carrying 30,000 soldiers and 7,500 horses, departed Albany on 1 November.
This film shows soldiers of the Auckland Infantry Battalion ready to embark on Albany Wharf, and the line of grey-painted New Zealand troopships waiting to follow the Australian convoy ships (which retained their civilian colours). This vast fleet took soldiers from Australia and New Zealand halfway around the world to participate in the First World War.
Wrestling on deck

Video

This film was made during the New Zealand convoy’s 1915 journey from Wellington to Egypt, via Hobart and Colombo. On long voyages like this, an especially popular way for soldiers to spend their free time was watching wrestling bouts. Here the crowd watches intently as two soldiers, possibly former professional wrestlers, come to grips on the deck of the troopship. This appears to be a “worked”, or staged, bout, rather than a genuine contest. Gambling was prohibited on board troopships, but it seems highly likely that money changed hands on this occasion.
Tea for two, and an unknown soldier

Video

In the war years, home movie-making in New Zealand was a rare event. Intimate scenes like the ones shown in this film are even rarer. We believe that this is Rob Millington, who is pictured having tea at his home in Wellington in 1916, with his fiancée Daisy and their cat. Millington was a camera operator employed by Henry Hayward. Soon after this film was made Millington signed up to serve with the merchant navy as a wireless operator; he was killed in November 1917 when the ship he was serving on, the Aparima, was sunk by a German torpedo. The name of the older soldier shown toward the end of the film is unknown. He may be a relative of the Hayward or Fuller families, who were both prominent NZ cinema-owning families.
This film is an uncommon portrait of an individual soldier at a time when only large bodies of men were usually shown on screen.
Readying the Samoan Expeditionary Force

Video

When war was declared in August 1914, New Zealand was asked by the British Government to capture German Samoa. A Samoan Expeditionary Force made up of just over 1300 soldiers, mostly from the Wellington region, departed for the Samoan capital, Apia, on 15 August. Little resistance was met when the troops landed a fortnight later, and a New Zealand military administration occupied Samoa over the course of the war.
No footage of the New Zealand occupation of Samoa exists. However, this is footage of the two troopships, S.S. Monowai and S.S. Moeraki, which transported the Samoan Expeditionary Force. While the provenance of this film is unknown, the fact that the transport ships are still in civilian colours, a "2" is evident on the side of one of them (the troopship number), the dress of the sentry and the presence of a 12 pound gun suggests that it shows a glimpse of the preparation on Wellington’s waterfront for New Zealand’s first action during the war.
A sea of faces say goodbye in Dunedin

Video

Tahuna Park in Dunedin was the initial training camp for soldiers of the Otago and Southland Section of the Main Body of the NZEF. It was also the site for this civic reception farewelling the men on 16 September 1914. The Otago Daily Times reported that “seldom, if ever, has such a large Dunedin crowd been gathered together at one time." (17 September 1914, p. 2).
The soldiers seem all smiles and expectant faces, and eager to be off to war. The film also gives rare glimpses of how Dunedin people felt as their fathers, husbands, brothers and sons headed off to the front. There is a sense of apprehension amongst this sea of faces, and it was well founded. Many of the troops shown in this film later became casualties of the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign.
The rush to enlist

Audio

Leonard Leary was a law student at Victoria College (now Victoria University) when war was declared in August 1914. Fiercely patriotic, he was among the men who rushed to sign up to fight at the earliest opportunity. In this extract from a 1982 radio documentary, Leary recalls the heady days when war broke out. He headed down to the Wellington wharves with a group of fellow pro-Empire students to express his support for the war effort, and to enlist in the NZEF.
Poor old soldiers, both two-legged and four-legged

Audio

Horses were among the unsung heroes of the NZEF during World War One. Ten thousand horses were sent overseas over the course of the war. They were used by mounted troops and officers, and for transporting equipment and artillery. The life of a horse in the army was a tough one. They endured brutal conditions travelling to the front and at the battlefield, and only a handful returned back to New Zealand, as Percy Lowndes recalled in 1969.
An army marches on its stomach

Video

Raising the main body of the NZEF was a huge logistical exercise and needed to be done quickly. By early August 1914 the first recruits arrived at training camps established in the four military regions across the country (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Otago-Southland). One of the most important tasks, beside basic training, was housing and feeding the new troops.
Tahuna Park in Dunedin was chosen as the initial training camp for the Otago-Southland region. This rare ‘behind the scenes’ footage shows the work of the tin shed cookhouse set up to feed the 1100 men camped there. The Cook Sergeant, with a bandaged arm, orders around the cookhouse fatigues (work teams). Notice how everyone is puffing away on pipes or cigarettes, adding extra fibre, flavour and aroma to the camp stew!
Auckland Cup, 1912

Video

In 1912 Ellerslie was still a young suburb of Auckland, with a population of only around a thousand. It was also the home of the racecourse, and people streamed in from all over the city to watch the Auckland Cup, then New Zealand’s richest horse race. This film shows the Australian horse Bobrikoff taking the 1912 Cup.
With few private cars, and public transport still in its infancy, most of these punters would have arrived by train. Horse-racing was for many years one of the most popular forms of entertainment in New Zealand. The First World War did not interrupt the running of the Auckland Cup, although there would have been significantly fewer men at race meetings during 1914-1918.
“Jimmys and Nellies”, 1912

Video

In the years around the First World War the midsummer picnic on the beach was a highlight of the year in the rural North Island district of Taranaki. In January 1912 the picnic was filmed by the region’s own cinema mogul and movie producer, Garnett Saunders. A week later, scenes of the pillow fights on the beam, barrel rolling and tape chewing competitions were screened to a capacity audience at Saunders’ New Theatre in New Plymouth. The local newspaper reported, “parents joyfully recognising their own particular 'Jimmys' and 'Nellies', and some groups of merrymakers gave vent to their feelings in little suppressed exclamations of satisfaction".
A year after the war ended, the picnic was held again. The games and competitions were the same, but there would have been a distinct decrease in the number of men present.
Fashion on the field, 1912

Video

“To-day is Taranaki Cup day – the sportsman’s day in Taranaki – and from near and far worshippers at the shrine of Pegasus will do pilgrimage to the local racecourse to lay their offerings on the altar of sport.” (Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1912)
By 1912 signs of militarism in New Zealand - like compulsory military training, and the commissioning of the battleship HMS New Zealand - were increasing. In the rural province of Taranaki, however, the threat of war seemed a million miles away as crowds assembled for the Taranaki Cup horse race. They are seen here dressed in their finest, parading on the lawn, meeting and greeting, seeing and being seen. These scenes were quickly processed and screened at the local Empire Picture Palace, “the home of intellectual refinement”, the very next day.
The last month I was there, I never wore trousers

Audio

The Anzac troops on Gallipoli faced many discomforts in addition to the Turkish soldiers shooting at them from over the hill. They lacked food and drinking water, suffered from sicknesses like dysentery and typhoid, and were surrounded by bodies decomposing in the heat. Life on the peninsula was all about survival, and it changed the men’s priorities. Here two New Zealand veterans talk about the highs and lows, including eating a dead sheep they found, squabbling over fresh bread and being evacuated due to dysentery.
"War is lunacy": The burial armistice

Audio

On 24 May 1915, both sides on Gallipoli agreed to a temporary armistice (ceasefire) to bury the dead, who were literally piling up between the trenches. This event was perhaps not as friendly as the famous Christmas Truce of 1914 in France, but nevertheless the men were thankful for a chance to bury the decomposing bodies. Here, three New Zealand veterans of Gallipoli, Walter Cobb, Mr Fraser and Mr Davidson, recall their experience of the armistice. Their accounts differ in their reporting of fraternisation (making friends) with the enemy Turks. This may be due to their different ranks (Cobb was a sergeant) or to the attitudes of their commanders.
“What about a drop of water, Digger?”

Audio

Water shortages were a constant problem for the thousands of men based at Gallipoli in 1915. Natural water was scarce on the peninsula and attempts to solve the problem by using water condenser units to convert sea water for drinking proved inadequate. Water supplies, often from as far away as Egypt, had to be brought in by boat and landed on the beach, sometimes under fire. Then the various containers had to be dragged over the rugged landscape to the thirsty men in their trenches.
The unidentified New Zealand veteran in this interview recalls how the mateship between Kiwis and Australians meant they sometimes gave each other preferential treatment with water rations.
The Daisy Patch

Audio

Joseph Gasparich was a gumdigger and school teacher before he joined the Auckland Infantry Battalion. In May 1915 he was serving with the combined Australian and New Zealand forces at Anzac Cove in Gallipoli. General Sir Ian Hamilton decided to try and break through to the south of the Gallipoli peninsula, and New Zealand and Australian infantrymen were sent to Cape Helles by ferry. On 8 May the New Zealanders launched a series of attacks across an open field of poppies and daisies. In 1968 Joe Gasparich recorded his memories of the unsuccessful attacks in the Daisy Patch. “It was absolute murder – or suicide, whichever way you like to look at it.”
Seasick men and horses

Audio

Twenty-three-year-old Auckland telegraphist (signaller) Cyril Bassett sailed for the war in October 1914 with the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Cyril was on board the battleship Waimana, with the rank of orderly corporal. In this 1976 interview, he recalls that during the long sea voyage. his job was to clean up after seasick men and horses. However, in August 1915 Bassett won the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery in the Allied forces, for maintaining communication lines under fire during the Battle of Chunuk Bair.
Penny trails and white feathers

Audio

During WW1, those at home were encouraged to support the men at the front by donating money or goods to the war effort. Colin Franklin-Browne recalls watching fundraising parades and penny trails (lines of coins which the public were encouraged to add to) on Wellington’s streets in 1914-15. He also remembers the dark side of this patriotic fervor. Women’s patriotic groups sent white feathers, symbols of cowardice, to men who had not enlisted. The women targeted pacifists, men not yet in uniform and even those unable to enlist for medical reasons.
The First Anzac at Gallipoli

Audio

Britain’s Royal Navy was in charge of landing the first Australians and New Zealanders at Gallipoli on April 25 1915. From their troop transport ships, the men were loaded into smaller boats which were towed as close to the beach as possible. The steam-powered ‘picket’ boats which towed them were commanded by teenage Navy midshipmen like 15-year-old Eric Bush, who was responsible for getting about 200 Anzacs ashore. Among the first Australians to land was Private James Bostock, who recalls how he jumped overboard and waded onto the beach at what would soon be known as Anzac Cove. Both men were recorded in 1955 for a BBC radio documentary marking the 40th anniversary of the landings.
Australia’s submarine at Gallipoli

Audio

In the early hours of 25 April 1915, Royal Australian Navy submarine the AE2 sailed up the narrow Dardanelles strait to disrupt Turkish supply ships. She faced strong currents, Turkish gun batteries on shore, and mines that had sunk two earlier submarines. Yet the AE2, commanded by Irish Lt. Commander Henry Stoker, successfully passed through the Narrows into the Sea of Marmara, making several attacks on Turkish shipping before she was hit by a torpedo boat. Stoker ordered his crew to evacuate and scuttled the vessel. He and his crew were taken prisoner for the rest of the war, and several died of illness in captivity. Forty years later, Henry Stoker recalled the nerve-wracking voyage.
Teenage soldiers and a boat full of blood

Audio

Seventeen-year-old Daniel Patrick (Pat) Lloyd of Christchurch was among the New Zealanders who landed at Gallipoli on April 25 1915. He witnessed the carnage when the boatloads of men came under heavy machine-gun fire as they came ashore. Pat survived and went on to serve in France where he won a Distinguished Conduct Medal for ‘gallantry in the field’. Fifty years later he took part in an anniversary ‘pilgrimage’ by New Zealand veterans, who returned to Gallipoli to retrace their footsteps and visit graves and memorials to fallen comrades.
Mrs Barnard’s gingernuts

Audio

Six of Helena Barnard’s eight sons went away to fight, and she sent them care packages that included the gingernut biscuits she used to bake for them to take on tramping trips. The gingernuts were a welcome change from the notorious Gallipoli diet of tinned bully beef and ship’s biscuits. They lasted well and quickly became favourites with the boys at the front. Many wrote to Mrs Barnard asking her to provide their own mums with her recipe. Her gingernuts became famous and are quite possibly the original ANZAC biscuit. This interview was recorded around the time of Helena Barnard’s 100th birthday.
Treating Gallipoli’s wounded – Dr Agnes Bennett

Audio

The Australian-born and New Zealand-based doctor Agnes Bennett refused to let routine sexism keep her out of the war. She offered her services to the New Zealand Army as soon as war broke out but was turned down because she was a woman. Undeterred, she paid her own passage to Europe, intending to join the French Red Cross. In May 1915 she was sailing through the Red Sea when word reached the ship of the casualties arriving in Egypt from the Gallipoli campaign. She disembarked at the next opportunity and began working in the over-stretched military hospitals of Cairo, with the status and pay of an army captain. Dr Bennett recalls her wartime experiences in this recording, made in 1959.
Swimming with Birdie at Gallipoli

Audio

As the weather warmed up on Gallipoli during the summer of 1915, new problems plagued the Australian and New Zealand forces. The increased heat worsened the men’s thirsts and a huge number of flies swarmed over the battlefield, due to the many unburied corpses and shallowly-dug latrines, or field toilets. A refreshing swim in the Mediterranean was the only relief, as New Zealander Bertie Cooksley recalls.
Verdun Buns – a Red Cross cookbook

Audio

Ena Ryan was born in the prosperous Wellington suburb of Kelburn in 1908. In this 1985 interview she leafs through a cookbook produced during the war as a fundraiser for the Red Cross. The recipes and advertisements reveal the social upheaval the war brought to communities back home, from florists advertising speedy service for last-minute weddings (before men departed overseas) to recipes for cooking for invalids. Some recipes were contributed by the public, and Ena is appalled that one woman named her recipe ‘Verdun buns’, after the horrifingly destructive 1916 Battle of Verdun.
A.I.F Parade and Departure

Video

In the first months after Australia entered the war, the public mood was wildly enthusiastic and patriotic. That mood is evident in this clip, showing cheering crowds gathered to support a military parade as AIF troops depart on the troopship A2 Geelong. The ship can be briefly glimpsed departing at the end of this film.
Expert rough-riders – Australian Light Horse

Video

By 1914 Australian horsemen had proved themselves as expert rough-riders and good shots in wartime. Untrained colonial cavalry had distinguished themselves in the Boer War, and Australia had 23 regiments of volunteer cavalry at the outbreak of WW1. Many men from these regiments joined the Light Horse Regiments of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Some are seen here in training with their horses, and in a military parade. Troops are also shown departing on the troopship A2 Geelong, farewelled by a huge crowd as the ship leaves the dock.
Flower power

Video

It was the most spectacular parade that the South Island town of Nelson had ever seen. Daffodil Week, a fundraising campaign to provide comforts to troops serving overseas, took place in September 1916, and the highlight was the grand parade and crowning of the Flower Queen. The streets were decorated with flags and from early morning children were selling buttonholes (small posies of flowers), while stallholders sold cut flowers, ferns, plants, seedlings, sweets and produce.
In this short film the impact of World War One is evident. The floats and organizations are marshalled by uniformed soldiers, and the streets are lined with members of the local Territorial infantry battalion. The Rt. Rev. William Sadlier, the Bishop of Nelson, can be seen in a frock-coat in the crowd. The annual Flower Queen, elected by popular vote, was Miss Hazel Win. Altogether £780 (or NZ$100,000 today) was raised for Christmas presents for the boys at the front.
Heroes of Gallipoli

Video

Heroes of Gallipoli contains the only known filmed scenes of the Allied involvement in the Gallipoli Campaign. It is an edited version of an earlier film, With the Dardanelles Expedition. This is amateur film, shot under the most trying conditions, yet it provides unique footage of Gallipoli and some of the most vivid frontline images of the First World War.
Heroes of Gallipoli was deliberately edited to tell a story of Australian military achievement. However, the film footage also tells a story of British and New Zealand action that the intertitles never mention.
Fundraising for the war effort, Sydney

Video

Various wartime fundraising and recruitment activities are seen in this film from about 1916, shot from outside the General Post Office in Martin Place, Sydney, after rain. In pavilion-style tent stalls, Red Cross workers sell ribbons, flowers and other produce. The top-hatted Governor of NSW, Sir Gerald Strickland, walks among the crowds. Many AIF troops are shown in this clip, their humour in evidence in a shot of a young male civilian being ‘accosted’ and compelled to enlist, while others pretend to take his measurements for a uniform.
Sailing into war, 1914

Video

For many Anzac soldiers, their outward voyage on a troopship was their first overseas experience. The excitement of departure was soon replaced by seasickness on one of the world’s roughest seas. On the long voyage to Egypt they took part in leisure activities and routine training exercises like those shown here. Officers organised physical training programmes, inoculations, lectures and target practice sessions to keep the troops occupied.
Joining the Flotilla, 1914

Video

At the outbreak of war in August 1914, dozens of vessels were hastily converted into troopships to transport military units to their destinations overseas. This film shows newly recruited AIF troops boarding troopships at Woolloomooloo (Sydney, NSW) and Port Melbourne (Melbourne, Vic.) Their ships then joined the flotilla at King George Sound (Albany, WA), the final Australian anchorage for the first convoy of almost 30,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers heading to Egypt.
Departure of Reinforcements for the Front

Video

Troops (seen from dock) wave from ship prior to departure. Numerous civilians hold streamers connected with occupants of ship, while other civilians wave handkerchiefs as the ship leaves the wharf. The HMAT A20 Hororata weighed 9,400 tons with an average cruise speed of 14 knots or 25.92 kmph. It was owned by the New Zealand Shipping Co Ltd, London, and leased by the Commonwealth until 11 September 1917.
A troopship departs for Albany, 1914

Video

When Australia entered the First World War in support of Britain, ships were urgently needed to transport troops to the distant battlefields. The hastily refitted ships also had to carry the troops’ horses and military stores, plus wool, metals, meat, flour and other foodstuffs, mainly for the armies of Britain and France. This film shows the loading and departure of troops HMAT (His Majesty’s Australian Transport) A20 Hororata from Port Melbourne, Victoria on 18 October 1914. Troops move up the gangplanks of the transport ship. A tug then tows the Hororata out of port and it joins other ships in the convoy to head out to sea.
The exploits of the Emden

Video

The German battle cruiser Emden opened fire on the Australian cruiser Sydney off the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean on November 9, 1914. The Sydney was then escorting the first convoy of Australian and New Zealand troops to the front. With her more powerful guns, the Sydney damaged the German vessel and drove ashore. This naval battle was recorded in a 1928 film, The Exploits of the Emden, based on an earlier German production. These extracts show New Zealand and Australian troops preparing to join the troop convoy in their own countries.
Dogs of war - the ‘Aucklands’ on parade

Video

After six weeks in training camp, the Auckland section of the Main Body of the NZEF was reviewed by Minister of Defence James Allen at Auckland’s Alexandra Park on 19 September 1914. This film shows the men of the Auckland Infantry Regiment, the Mounted Rifles, the Motorcycle Corps and and the Field Ambulance, in full battle equipment. Watch out for the dogs who also take starring roles, running in and out of shot. Films of this period often show dogs accompanying New Zealand troops, both at home and overseas.
Turning boys into soldiers

Video

Compulsory military training was established in New Zealand in 1909, and by 1912 all boys aged 14 and over were required to undertake military drills as Senior Cadets. From the age of 18 to 21 they were required to serve in the Territorial Forces. In the process boys were turned into soldiers, since the Territorials formed the recruiting basis of the NZ Expeditionary Force.
This film shows just how young this element of the Expeditionary Force was. Some very youthful-looking members of the Canterbury Territorials, and possibly Cadets as well, are seen marching into Christchurch around 1914.
Bright blades flickering into straw-filled sacks

Video

As part of their full 16-week training course, recruits were given four weeks of training in drill, artillery and bayonet use at Featherston Military Training Camp, in the countryside north of Wellington. This film shows Lewis gun instruction, and fixed bayonet training with straw-filled dummies. A history of the Trentham Camp recorded how: “The bright blades flickered into the straw-filled sacks, out again and in again. At each point the men made hoarse guttural noises, like football war-cries, and when the enemy was presumed to be dealt with they charged on for a line of trenches. The instructor had overtaken them... But he scarcely could be heard for the yelling of his men, mingled with the war-cries of other squads.”
A rickshaw ride in Durban

Image

Two Australian soldiers riding in a rickshaw pulled by a local man in Durban, South Africa, is taken from a B&W glass slide. Durban was an important port during WWI as troopships from Australia and New Zealand sailed around the Cape of Good Hope. From 1916 this was a safer route than the Suez Canal as there was a risk of a submarine attack in the Mediterranean. Soldiers disembarked in Durban and the troopships resupplied the journey took up to eight weeks to and from Australia.
At Anzac Cove

Image

This hand-coloured glass slide shows British soldiers near a dugout at ANZAC Cove. The scene appears calm, with the men in small, groups close to sandbagged dugouts and tents. The barges remind us that supplies were always a concern, as they had to be shipped in. Despite the superficial calmness of a blue and grey tinted sea and sky, the Allied forces had to struggle with a rough terrain, establishing shelter and supply lines on rugged cliffs and narrow unprotected beaches.
Washing the horses, Suvla Bay

Image

With the Gallipoli campaign at deadlock, a smaller Allied force, including Australians and New Zealanders, made an amphibious landing at Suvla Bay on the Aegean Sea to relieve pressure on the main force. Many horses accompanied the landing parties, providing vital transport for men and material. This photograph shows men washing their horses in advance of the Suvla attack, with mules, tents and other equipment in the background.
'Soldier sentry of the foam'

Audio

After taking part in major naval battles at Heliogland Bight, Dogger Bank and Jutland, the gifted battler cruiser HMS New Zealand returned to New Zealand after the war. This song was written in honour of her triumphant 1919 tour by Margaret Sinclair (lyrics) and Bert Rache (music).
Household pets join the forces

Audio

Ena Ryan of Wellington was a young girl when war was declared in August 1914, but she vividly recalled the excitement of those days. In this 1985 interview she describes watching the Main Body marching through the streets of Wellington to the departing ships. She noticed that one of the men had a kitten buttoned into his tunic. Once they arrived at the battlefront the men adopted other pets, including dogs, donkeys and goats found in and around battlefields. These animals helped to keep up the mens’ spirits, and some became official mascots.
Farewelling troops in Wellington

Video

This rare film records a civic ceremony for New Zealand troops departing for the front. It shows the official farewell to the Wellington Section of the NZ Expeditionary Force on 24 September 1914. The troops are inspected by a group of dignitaries, including Prime Minister William Massey, Lord Liverpool the Governor-General and Major General Sir Alexander Godley. They then march four abreast down Adelaide Road and along Lambton Quay, Wellington’s main shopping street. The men of the NZEF are then seen crammed on board the deck and high up on the rigging of a troopship. Most have happy faces as they await what they expected would be a grand adventure. Contrast this with the more subdued figures of the 6th Reinforcement who appear at the end of the film. They are seen departing for the front in August 1915, when the horrors of the Gallipoli Campaign had become widely known.

Have a question?

Search results

Seeing the Sights in Paris

Hospital Blues

Presenting Flags

Goodbye to Blighty

Memorial to the Gallant New Zealanders

Three cheers for the Prince!

Military Olympics

Te Hokinga Mai Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū

In Memory of the Unreturning Brave

Victoria Cross Corner

Jellicoe Tours the Empire

Invested at Buckingham Palace

The Ruins of Cambrai

An ANZAC visit to Versailles

Tonight at O’Brien’s

A Carefully Arranged Propaganda Exercise

World Champs

All Hostilities Will Cease

Supporting the men of Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū

The Blue Boys

The Aussie and the Mademoiselle from Armentières

The Kiwis’ Last Action – Liberating Le Quesnoy

A Hero’s Painful Memories

No Beer for Soldiers after 6pm

The Diggers’ March in Sydney

Marching in Dunedin

Just enough speechifying

Images of war

Jaffa scenes

March-past

Back to Blighty

Returning Home

Amusing sports events

Journeys on a jigger

Trench Fever

Training NZ’s first fighter pilots

Flying over Gallipoli with the RNAS

Entertaining the troops, “The Kiwis” concert party

New Zealand Nurses at Amiens

Flying the “Fighting Experimental Machine”

A Case of shell shock

Māori and Pākehā on the Western Front

The nimble “Scout Experimental”

Fighter Aviation Takes Off

Newcomer to the trenches

Blighty wounds and deserters

A louse named Charlie

Going ‘over the top’ at Messines by John A. Lee

Lest We Forget

France on the Firing Line

Hinemoa

Steeds and shellfire on the Western Front

A dead teenager and life on the Somme

First day on the Somme for Kiwis and tanks

Photos after the first conscription ballot

"The first gamble in human life"

The sound of the silents

Short films, audiences and nitrate fires

Projectionists, orchestras & silent films

Early newsreels: A 1915 Pathé Animated Gazette

German war films

The Empire’s Troops

The martyrs of Ripa

First English hospital for wounded Kiwis

Bringing the audience into the picture

Spruiking the pics

“The Answer to Declining Enlistment Numbers”

Australian troops at the Pyramids

Dunedin’s movie-maker: Henry Gore and his staff

He waiata mā te hoia kāinga ngākau koingō

A matter of principle

Pacifism on the home front

Starting the New Zealand RSA

In the Bull Ring at Sling Camp

Singing about Niuean soldiers who volunteered

A New Zealander at the Battle of Jutland

‘Great soldiers, good fellows’

Marking the first Anzac Day in London