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  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty

    Audio

    This song, in which a series of soldiers yearn to return to ‘Blighty’, or Britain, was hugely popular in 1917.

  • Carving Anzac Day

    Video

    An Anzac Day cinema advertisement encouraging Australians to not only mark Anzac Day as a day of significance but to 'carve’ its meaning into the nation’s psyche.

  • Anzac football in London

    Video

    During their war service, Australian troops organised Australian Rules football matches across Europe. The highest profile matches were played in the United Kingdom but one-off matches were also played in other countries, including Belgium and France in 1919.

  • Mimic Warfare

    Video

    Troops needed to practice warfare before experiencing the real thing. But they probably didn’t expect to have children walking around the ‘battlefield’ watching them!

  • Ask Your Tailor for Anzac Tweed

    Video

    The factory weaving Anzac Tweed was on the brink of closure when it was taken over by the Returned Soldiers and Sailors Imperial League. It then employed only returned servicemen and their families.

  • The Choice is Yours

    Video

    A government film gives hope of rehabilitation to the returning war veteran.

  • Learning to farm

    Video

    After surviving the bloody battles on the Western Front and elsewhere, able-bodied returning soldiers were offered opportunities to become farmers.

  • 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’.

  • Spruiking the pics

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    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.

  • The campaign that failed

    Video

    Conscription was introduced by law in New Zealand. However, Australians were able to vote on introducing conscription in a referendum in October 1916. This film was made as part of the “Vote Yes’ campaign. It shows PM William Hughes presenting the pro-conscription case, followed by messages to vote 'Yes' from well known figures such as the martyred Nurse Cavell, King George V and France’s General Joffre. Despite these efforts, however, the campaign for conscription was narrowly defeated.

  • “The Hero of the Dardanelles”

    Video

    “Produced with the wholehearted co-operation of the military and naval authorities,” The Hero of the Dardanelles, was a feature-length narrative film made to encourage men to enlist. It premiered at Melbourne’s Majestic Theatre on 17 July 1915, unfortunately, only the first 11 minutes of the 40-minute film survive.

  • Caring for our Wounded

    Video

    Over 3,000 Australian nurses volunteered during the First World War, working in hospitals, including hospital ships and trains, and in field stations closer to the front line.  This film shows scenes of Allied forces medical staff and stations taken throughout the Western Front, 1916-1918: “No words can describe the awfulness of the wounds. Bullets are nothing. It is the shrapnel that tears through the flesh and cuts off limbs”

  • 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.

  • Direct to Aussie

    Video

    This footage shows Australian troops boarding a train in France after the battle of the Somme and some of the worst fighting of World War One. One carriage has ‘Direct to Aussie’ on the side, suggesting the troops are returning home – or perhaps just wishing they were!

  • "Advance, Australia Fair"

    Audio

    Written by Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick and first performed in1878, Advance Australia Fair was officially declared the national anthem by the Governor-General, Sir Ninian Stephen, on 19 April 1984. This version is one of the earliest recordings, thought to be made in 1915, when Australian troops were landing in Egypt.

    Despite it’s status as the official national anthem, Waltzing Matilda (1895), a more uplifting tune with lyrics by Banjo Paterson telling the story of a criminal stealing a sheep, is still widely regarded as Australia’s ‘unofficial’ national anthem.

  • 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.

  • ‘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.

  • The first ‘War Year’ Melbourne Cup - 1915

    Video

    The Great War did not succeed in killing interest in horseracing in Australia. The 1915 Melbourne Cup was filmed and screened less than 24 hours after the race. 

    Since 1896 the Melbourne Cup was filmed annually and screened shortly afterwards. In 1915 the tradition continued with the filming of the same scenes Marius Sestier had originally filmed in 1896. This Australasian Films newsreel reveals how far filmmaking had come in just those nine years. Camera techniques had become more dynamic and creative, and the film industry was a crucial element in the circulation of news.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • ‘Heroes of the Dardanelles’

    Audio

    The Gallipoli campaign inspired a number of patriotic songs like this one, that helped to build the Anzac legend back home and give Australia an independent identity from Britain.

  • 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’.

  • Even Major-Generals die in battle

    Video

    The sombre 1915 funeral procession of Major-General Sir William Bridges, killed in action at the Dardenelles. Filmed in Melbourne after Bridges’ body arrived home months after his death.

  • 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.)

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Australia will be there

    Audio

    Of all the patriotic songs of WW1, 'Australia Will Be There' is probably the one best known to Australians. It became the marching song of the Australian Expeditionary Forces and was used to rally the troops as they marched away from home. 'Australia Will Be There' was written in 1915 by Walter ‘Skipper’ Francis. The song quotes from ‘ Auld Lang Syne’ in its chorus and is often given its longer title, 'For Auld Land Syne - Australia Will Be There '.

  • 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.

  • ‘Australia Prepared’- the Royal Australian Navy

    Video

    “Since Captain Cook’s arrival, no more memorable event has happened than the advent of the Australian Fleet”, claimed Australian Defence Minister Edward Millen. The Australian Fleet Unit - eight cruisers and destroyers headed by HMAS Australia - assembled in Sydney Harbour for the first time on 4 October 1913. This extract from a 1916 documentary shows that event, plus later scenes of the light cruiser Sydney, probably taken in Albany WA in 1914. Captain Glossop is seen taking command of the Sydney, and RAN sailors board small boats, probably at Man-o-War steps, to go on board her.

  • 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.”

  • Soldier’s souvenir view of Egypt

    Image

    This image (B&W glass slide) was probably taken by an Australian soldier during a break from a route (training) march. Australian troops relax under the shade of trees in Egypt. Many images taken by soldiers serving overseas in the war show more famous tourist scenes such as men seated on camels, the pyramids, the Sphinx, or in a building or busy city street. Yet this shot still gives a feel of the tourist abroad, in the relaxed lounging poses struck by many of the subjects.

  • 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.