As early as 1915, it was recognised by the New Zealand Government that an official history would be produced to document the contributions of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) to the First World War. The official war correspondent, Malcolm Ross, was tasked with collecting the historical material that would be required. Ross, a trained journalist who had reported on the seizure of Samoa earlier in the war, had been on Gallipoli alongside Charles Bean, the Australian official war correspondent, and would also observe the New Zealand Division during the fighting on the Western Front.