Living with High Explosives : The 1st New Zealand Light Trench Mortar Battery 1916-1918 by Sloane, Keith

$40.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Reading Level: very good

The history of the 1st NZ Light Trench Mortar Battery, 1916-1918 on the Western Front. Daily, weekly record of 232 soldiers of the 1/NZ Light Trench Mortar Battery. Battle stories, deaths, wounded soldiers, honours awarded, sports played, individual soldier stories, good and bad. Ex Royal Navy absconder s, school boy death, deserter never found. ...Show more

News From the Front: War Correspondents on the Western front 1914-18 by Martin J Farrar

$15.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: good-very good

Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History by Jay Winter

$16.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Series: Canto Classics | Reading Level: very good

Jay Winter's powerful study of the 'collective remembrance' of the Great War offers a major reassessment of one of the critical episodes in the cultural history of the twentieth century. Dr Winter looks anew at the culture of commemoration and the ways in which communities endeavoured to find collective solace after 1918. Taking issue with the prevailing 'modernist' interpretation of the European reaction to the appalling events of 1914-18, Dr Winter instead argues that what characterised that reaction was, rather, the attempt to interpret the Great War within traditional frames of reference. Tensions arose inevitably. Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning is a profound and moving book of seminal importance for the attempt to understand the course of European history during the first half of the twentieth century. ...Show more

Gallipoli: A Guide to New Zealand Battlefields and Memorials by Ian McGibbon

$14.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Reading Level: very good

Gallipoli is one of the most significant sites in the story of New Zealand's First World War - a symbol of great sacrifice and camaraderie, and the heart of ongoing Anzac commemorations. Gallipoli- A Guide to New Zealand Battlefields and Memorialsis the indispensable handbook to the history and geograph ic features of the campaign for a modern, general readership. Easy-to-follow and highly illustrated, it introduces the battlefields, cemeteries and memorials, detailing the stories behind each and offering historical overviews of New Zealand's involvement more generally. The perfect introduction to New Zealand's Gallipoli. ...Show more

Reconsidering Gallipoli by Jenny Macleod

$15.00 NZD

Category: Australia | Reading Level: very good

In Australia, Anzac Day, the anniversary of the first landings at Gallipoli, is one of the most important dates in the national calendar. Yet in Britain, the campaign is largely forgotten. The key to this contrast lies in the way in which the campaign's history has been recorded. To many Australians, th e Anzac legend is a romantic war myth that proclaims the prowess of Australian participants in the campaign. It is an exercise in nation-building. In Britain, the campaign is also remembered in romantic terms, but the purpose here is to assuage the pain of defeat. Reconsidering Gallipoli broadens the debate over the cultural history of the First World War beyond the Western Front. The final chapter traces the influence of the early accounts on subsequent portrayals including Alan Moorehead's 1956 book, Bean's post 1965 rehabilitation, Peter Weir's 1981 film, and revisionist attacks on the legend. ...Show more

Gallipoli: Untold Stories from War Correspondent Charles Bean and Front-line ANZACS by Jonathan King and Michael Bowers

$35.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good

Superb photographic book brings to life the untold stories of front-line Anzacs and the war Correspondent Charles Bean (Sydney Morning Herald) with photographs from Phillip Schuler (The Age). Although Australian originated, this book has significant NZ content.Gallipoli was a tragic campaign: 2000 Anzac s slaughtered in first 24 hours; 11,410 Anzacs in the nine months (of which 2700 were New Zealanders).This unique book combines for the first time the official recordings of Bean and Schuler: many of the photos never published before. extracts from Bean's private diaries in which he recorded the realities he was not allowed to print in his newspaper stories because of wartime censorship.Another unique element are the personal stories of more than 100 Australians and NZers who served at Gallipoli. Following an appeal to readers, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Dominion Post were inundated with memorabilia, diaries and photos from families to include in this book. ...Show more

Defeat at Gallipoli by N. Steel

$14.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good

The participants in the battle of Gallipoli tell the story of the failed offensive through contemporary accounts and memories recorded later in life. The bitter campaign against the Turks from April 1915 to January 1916 was ill-conceived, inadequately equipped and never likely to succeed.

Battle for Empire - The Very First World War 1756-63 by Tom Pocock

$8.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: good

The first world war was notthat which began in 1914, but the co-called Seven Years War which, in 1756, brought into being global conflict. The new factor which dramatically altered the course of history was British sea power. With the support of the navy, a few thousand men dispossessed the French of th eir fledgling North American empire and saw them, and the Dutch, utterly vanquished in India. Attacks on Cuba and the Philippines crippled the Spanish Empire. Through feats of extraordinary courage and endurance, fighting merchant adventurers such as Robert Clive laid the foundations of an Indian empire. In North America, soldiers such as the Virginia militia officer, George Washington, the future first President of the United States, and James Wolfe, who died in the battle for Quebec, determined that Canada would be British - not French. In this vivid account of this first 'modern' war, Tom Pocock uses the testimony of eye-eitnesses to dramatic effect. Nigel Nicolson, The Spectator "Pocock's book makes enthralling reading... his prose is excellent." Admiral Sir Jock Slater, First Sea Lord, in The Times "Tom Pocock has written another stirring popular history... Pocock vividly brings his work to life. The lessons of history are brought to life by Tom Pocock and his latest book is a thoroughly good read." Lawrence James, Evening Standard "Tom Pocock has caught the flavour of this age. He is a first-rate story-teller, writing with an appropriate gusto about his robust heroes." ...Show more

King and Country Call:New Zealanders, Conscription and the Great War by Paul Baker

$25.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Reading Level: very good

Letters from the Battlefield - New Zealand Soldiers Write Home 1914-18 by Glyn Harper (ed.)

$15.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Reading Level: very good

The Great War of 1914-18 saw over 100,000 young New Zealanders embark for overseas service, to fight a war on foreign soil, amidst comrades they had never met. The conditions that greeted these men are, today, hard to imagine - fields of mud, swarms of insects, swirling sandstorms, the boom of artillery , the stench of death. Letters from the Battlefield is a remarkable collection of correspondence from some thirty five young New Zealand soldiers. Notes hastily scribbled in the trenches, thoughts penned while recuperating in hospital, letters written to the loved ones of fallen friends. The words of these men take you closer to the reality of war than any official history can. They tell of survival at sea, two men clinging to a piece of wood for hours in freezing cold water until mercifully rescued; of the sickening realisation that you have been gassed, knowing that it could mean the loss of your sight - or your life; of the utter exhaustion of men forced to march, dig trenches, fight, then dig in again. Above all, the letters reflect the humour and courage of the New Zealand soldier. Together with Glyn Harper's insightful commentary on the battles and military action of the period, they offer a unique perspective on the First World War. ...Show more

No Better Death: The Great War Diaries and Letters of William G Malone by William G Malone (ed John Crawford)

$25.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand | Reading Level: very good

Lieutenant-Colonel W.G. Malone was the Commanding Officer of the Wellington Battalion of the NZ Expeditionary Force at Gallipoli. He is probably the best-known individual from that ill-fated campaign, a result both of his humanity and his superb leadership, which culminated in the successful assault on Chunuk Bair on 8 August 1915. He was killed by friendly fire while defending the crest.Malone ...Show more

Gallipoli by Peter Hart

$30.00 NZD

Category: World War I | Reading Level: very good

This is a gripping, revisionist account of an epic tragedy. One of the most famous battles in history, Gallipoli forced Churchill from office, established Turkey's iconic founder Mustafa Kemal ('Ataturk') and marked Australia's emergence as a nation in its own right. It had begun as a bold move led by t he British to ultimately capture Constantinople, but this definitive new history explains that from the initial landings - which ended with so much blood in the sea it could be seen from aircraft overhead - to the desperate attacks of early summer and the battle of attrition that followed, it was a lunacy that was never going to succeed. Drawing on unpublished personal accounts by individuals at all levels and from all sides - not only from Britain, Australia and New Zealand, but unusually from Turkey and France too - Peter Hart combines his trademark eye for vivid personal stories with a strong narrative to bring a modern view of this military disaster to a popular audience. ...Show more