New Zealand's First World War Heritage
Publisher: Exisle Publishing Pty Limited
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9781775591290
Subjects: Military and warfare; New zealand studies
Description: Throughout New Zealand you can see the First World War. This book, which can be enjoyed by armchair readers and as an active travel guide for all the family, gives the home story of New Zealand at war. The living history of the NZ home front in World War I is brought alive here with vivid text, words, photographs and maps showing military bases, internment camps, railway lines, brothels, uniform factories, docks, soldier settler farms, and much more including memorial buildings and trees. New Zealand forts and defensive works are revealed and much can be seen and visited today. This book shows the enormous and continuing impact of the war from its beginning to beyond the armistice. Laid out thematically, the book follows the soldiers through their recruitment, training and departure. It explores the way New Zealand was protected from external and internal attack through manning forts and other defensive works, censorship and control of the press. The authors trace the struggles of ordinary people at home, trying to survive wartime inflation and shortages while also contributing to the war effort, and bearing the loss of loved ones at the front. It also tells the story of the armistice, the influenza pandemic which coincided with the war's end, and the return home of the soldiers. Finally, it delves into the many and varied efforts to memorialise those who served their country.