The New Zealand Story.
The military diaster of Passchendaele in World War One is a pivotal event in the history of New Zealand, yet the full story has never been told. On one fateful morning on 12 October 1917, 1,000 New Zealanders were killed and more than 2,000 wounded. Glyn Harper has rectified this glaring omission in New Zealand military history with this sober yet readable account of the background to the operation, the near-perfect attack made by the New Zealanders on the 4th October, the disaster of the 12th, and the aftermath.
Using (as far as possible) the words of those who were there Harper shows what happened and why, and also offers intriguing reasons for the collective amnesia about Passchendaele in New Zealand, and how the event has influenced our attitude to war throughout the twentieth century. The book concludes with a full roll-call of all the soldiers who lost their lives at Passchendaele.
