Sealark Exploration Scouring the Pacific
“The nature of [World War Two], scattered as it was across thousands of miles of sea and sand, meant that many people, ships, and aircraft disappeared without a trace,” BC Cook writes for Marianas…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Surgeon Harold Gillies Worked Wonders in WWI
Lindsey Fitzharris’ new book The Facemaker recounts the life and work of the pioneering reconstructive surgeon New Zealander Harold Gillies, a specialist in mending those who survived the mechanised slaughter of World War I…
Retracing the Last Sailing of Kerry Hamill
Kerry Hamill was a great letter-writer, so his family knew something was wrong when his carefully penned correspondence stopped in 1978. The young New Zealander accidentally sailed into Cambodian waters and was then captured,…
How the Soldiers Who Met Harold Gillies Recovered
A history of pioneering first world war plastic surgeon Harold Gillies gives due weight to the stories of the men he treated, The Guardian’s Wendy Moore writes in a review of a new book…
In WWII on Crete Ned Nathan Fell in Love
Eighty years ago, soldiers from New Zealand and Australia were in Greece fighting the Nazis during the Battle of Crete. It would lead to New Zealander Evan Nathan’s parents meeting and starting a relationship…
New Zealand Renews Laos UXO Response Funding
New Zealand will provide an additional four years of funding for the UXO sector in Laos through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 2021 to 2024. New Zealand will continue its support to UXO…
SAS One of Top Special Ops Forces in the World
Special operations forces have become some of the most prominent and active military units in the world, Stavros Atlamazogkou writes for Business Insider. US units like Delta Force and the Navy SEALs are well-known…
New Zealand’s Role in Canada’s Pacific Shift
“A contract for Canada to upgrade two New Zealand frigates illustrates a budding, mutually-beneficial, Pacific-focused relationship,” according to Melbourne-based political analyst Grant Wyeth reporting for Washington D.C.-based online international news magazine, The Diplomat. “Last …
Military Braces for Climate Change Battle
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has identified climate change as one of its biggest security challenges, warning that responding to global warming will increasingly stretch its resources. The NZDF said the impact of climate…
NZ’s First Permanent War Museum to Open in Europe
New Zealand’s first permanent war memorial museum in Europe is being unveiled in the medieval fortified French town of Le Quesnoy, which was liberated by New Zealand soldiers a century ago in the final…
Korean War Vet Returns to Battlefield
Snapshots of the 1950s are seared into veterans’ memories: South Korea then was an economic basket case, a devastated land of burned-down villages, desperate poverty and denuded hills. Andrew Salmon from the Asia Times…
Burial at Last for WWI Soldier Killed at Ypres
First World War soldier, New Zealander Captain Henry John Innes Walker, 25, whose remains lay undiscovered for more than 100 years has been given a full military burial after gas engineers uncovered his final…
National Serviceman Ross Cameron’s Close Call
Ross Cameron never saw the bloody conflicts of Vietnam but he almost got the call. The New Zealand-born National Serviceman, who lives in Townsville, Australia, had his birthday come up in his country’s compulsory…
Peter Jackson Brings WWI to Life With New 3D Film
“A new 3D film by director Peter Jackson is set to bring the First World War to life in a way never seen before,” writes Laura Lambert in an article in
Courageous Soldier Melanie Childs Awarded
Lieutenant Colonel Melanie Childs, who took charge of soldiers and police to lead refugees to safety through a battle zone in South Sudan, has been named the New Zealand Defence Force Person of the…
LeRoy Transfield’s Design Makes Commemorative Coin
New Zealand-born sculptor LeRoy Transfield’s winning design for a collectible silver dollar commemorating all Americans who served in the First World War has been unveiled. Available to buy from January 2018, sales of the centennial…
US Sailor Amazed Onboard NZ Navy Frigate
American mass communication specialist Cole Schroeder of the supercarrier USS Nimitz was recently granted the opportunity “to view life on the ocean from a New Zealander’s perspective,” boarding the Royal New Zealand Anzac-class frigate…
Irish Auxiliary Hori Morse’s Front Page Story
Wanganui-born Hori Morse served as an auxiliary in Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland during the War of Independence, when the town was international news. In 1921, he began an affair with a married woman and…
NZ Soldiers Remembered at Messines Anniversary
Commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Mines began last week in Messines with a tribute to the New Zealand soldiers in the presence of numerous Belgian and foreign personalities, Christopher…
Reuniting the Family of WW2 Pilot Roy Hodge
Canadian Gerry Hodge had already received the dreaded telegram once, the one that regretted to inform her that her husband, New Zealander Roy, had been shot down over Europe and was presumed dead, Jack…
Scottish ANZAC Ceremony Remembers Fallen NZ Airmen
A quiet corner of a Scottish cemetery was the sombre setting for remembering the darkest day in New Zealand’s military history. Figures from Angus and across the Commonwealth gathered at the graveside of four…
MI5 File Lays Bare Case of KGB Spy Paddy Costello
A controversy that has spanned more than seven decades over whether Auckland-born Paddy Costello, a Cambridge-educated diplomat and academic, was a top Soviet spy has been fuelled by the release of his MI5 file. Desmond…
NZ Soldier at Heart of Bloody Struggle Against Isis
In the heart of Baghdad, a formerly unnamed New Zealander living in a shipping container in a military compound is involved in the campaign against Isis at the highest levels, New Zealand Herald political…
New Book Questions SAS Raids in Afghanistan
A new book by journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson claims the SAS killing of civilians in raids on two villages amounts to a “dark and guilty secret of New Zealand’s recent history.” A botched…
Leonard Kaminski Clearing Laos’ Deadly Legacy
Per capita, Laos boasts the inglorious distinction of being the most heavily bombed nation in the world. Between 1964 and 1973, more than two million tonnes of ordnance was dropped on the country in…
Marian Fountain’s Sculpture Honours NZ Tunnellers
Hundreds of New Zealand soldiers who dug a network of tunnels beneath Arras in the run-up to the Allies’ spring 1917 offensive in Northern France are to be honoured with the unveiling of a…
Sir James Carroll the Voice of the People
The little known story of the charismatic Irish-Maori politician and New Zealand Wars volunteer, Sir James Carroll’s visit to the Somme in 1916 is retold in the New Zealand Listener. Carroll, born to a Maori…
Don’t Mess with Mary Quin
After narrowly surviving being held hostage, former-Xerox executive, New Zealander Mary Quin tells 60 Minutes how she brought a radical British cleric to justice for his role in the kidnapping. A dual citizen of New…
Archibald McIndoe Patients Pay Tribute
Surviving members of New Zealand-born plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe’s Guinea Pig Club, which was formed in 1941 to cope with the ever-rising number of young pilots left with life-changing injuries, talk with the Telegraph…
Celebrating French Legion Hero James Waddell
A new exhibition marking the Somme Centenary called “Médaillé Extraordinaire” aims to raise awareness of James Waddell, a much decorated New Zealander who served in the French Foreign Legion during the First World War. Lieutenant-Colonel…
Cecil Low’s Churchill Cartoon Rallied a Nation
Renowned political cartoonist and caricaturist New Zealander David Alexander Cecil Low, who worked for the Evening Standard from 1927 to 1950, rallied Britain behind the new leader Winston Churchill producing “an inspiring exhortation to…
After WWII NZ Navy Rocked With Peaceful Mutinies
As far as navies go, the Royal New Zealand Navy is a relatively young one. For most of New Zealand’s time as a British colony, the country was protected by the British Navy. It…
Kiwi in Syria War Zones Raising Relief Funds
New Zealander Michael Seawright, founder of international humanitarian organisation ReliefAid is raising emergency relief funds to provide shelter support to families in Syria War Zones. ReliefAid is one of only a handful of…
Measuring the Anzacs for Online Database
Researchers at Waikato University are calling on the public to help create an online database of all the New Zealanders who served during World War One for a project called Measuring the Anzacs. Volunteers are…
Fighting the IS Publicity War
New Zealander Janna Hamilton, who has worked for Oxfam in the Middle East and Africa, largely with Syrian refugees on the Jordanian and Lebanese borders, argues in an opinion piece for the New Zealand…
When Dorothy Morris Went off to War
Wellington historian Mark Derby first heard of Dorothy Morris while editing the 2009 book, Kiwi Companeros: New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War. As Derby began asking Spanish Civil War historians worldwide if they…
Memorial to Battle of Britain Hero Unveiled
A memorial to a Battle of Britain hero, New Zealand-born Cecil Henry Hight has been placed at the location he was shot down when his Spitfire squadron was scrambled to intercept German bombers on…
New Zealand Explains Haka to Turkey in Gesture of Goodwill at Chunuk Bair
“A haka has been performed at a Gallipoli commemoration service for the first time in years after Turkish concerns about “offensive” gestures were resolved”, writes Lloyd Jones for The Sydney Morning Herald. Before the New Zealand…
Prince Charles Made Honorary Head of NZ Defence
Prince Charles has been appointed Admiral of the Fleet of the Royal New Zealand Navy, Field Marshal of the Army and Marshal of the Air Force. “These appointments recognise the consistent and strong support Prince…
Chunuk Bair Battle Remembered
A battlefield centenary service has been held on a hill where nearly 850 New Zealanders were killed in two days of intense fighting during the Gallipoli campaign. Governor-General Jerry Mateparae was joined by hundreds…
New Book Spotlights Home of the British Army-Kiwi WWI Connection
Aldershot in the Great War: The Home of the British Army, part of the Your Towns & Cities in the Great War series published by Pen and Sword Military, is the first…
Alan Larsen Is the Duke of Wellington at Re-enactment
The most important man in the Allied camp at the re-enactment of Napolean’s defeat at Waterloo was 55-year-old New Zealander Alan Larsen, known as the Duke of Wellington. Larsen, a historical events coordinator, can be…
New Zealand Opens Doors for More Support in Baghdad
New Zealand will open an embassy in Iraq’s capital city of Baghdad, to be located within the embassy of Australia. New Zealand’s ambassador to Iraq, James Munro, is an Arabic speaker and former military officer…
New Zealand Listed As One Of The Hardest Countries to Invade
New Zealand, alongside Switzerland and Russia, has been listed as one of the hardest countries in the world to invade. The humorous article in The Independent cited New Zealand’s geographic inaccessibility as the…
Keeping the Anzac Memory Alive
Tableau vivant installation The Unforgotten Soldiers has toured New Zealand as a tribute to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) soldiers, who fought 100 years ago in the Gallipoli campaign during World…
Rugby Remembers Anzacs in the True Spirit of Their Sacrifice
The rugby community paid tributes to the Anzacs, who had lost their lives during World War One over the course of the Anzac weekend. On Friday, April 24 at Waikato Stadium, the Ode was read, The…
The Legend of the Anzac Biscuit
The first published record of the Anzac biscuit, whose origin is “shrouded in myth” was in a New Zealand St Andrew’s Cookery Book published around 1922. The legend of the biscuit is commonly associated with…
Peter Jackson Helps History Come Alive in New Zealand
Peter Jackson has helped to create an exhibition to mark the Centenary of the First World War at New Zealand’s Te Papa museum with the support of the country’s government, philanthropists, and…
New Zealand Brothers in Arms to Be Remembered in Australia
A greater New Zealand focus will be introduced at this week’s Anzac Day services in Mount Gambier. “I don’t know why this hasn’t been done before (…). We really have got to put the ‘NZ’…
Australia and New Zealand to Mark ANZAC Day in Manila
Australia and New Zealand will jointly commemorate the centenary of the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign in Manila in the Philippines at a dawn service, which will be held in Fort Bonifacio at 5:30 a.m. on…
New Zealand and Australian Leaders Commemorate World War I Centenary in New Zealand
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key have dedicated a new memorial to commemorate the centenary of the two countries’ joint involvement in the World War I Gallipoli campaign…
New Zealanders in Gallipoli 100 Surf Boat Marathon
More than 30 surf boat crews from around the world will pay tribute to the sacrifices of young soldiers 100 years ago as they take part in a marathon rowing race off the Turkish…
Sam Neill Remembers Fallen Family in Why Anzac
In one pivotal scene from Sam Neill’s thoughtful and moving examination of the Anzac legend, the ABC documentary Why Anzac, he approaches his grandfather’s grave in Lijssenthoek Cemetery, Belgium for the first time. “This is…
Bruce Neal’s Anzac Tattoo an Internet Hit
Lower Hutt army veteran Bruce Neal’s Anzac tattoo – a 19cm design of World War I soldiers marching into the distance in a shape of a fern with the words “Lest We Forget” written…
Revised Views of World War One’s Bloodiest Conflict
As the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign approaches, the Smithsonian Magazine looks back at one of the bloodiest conflicts of World War I, which claimed the lives of 2721 New Zealand soldiers –…
Peter Jackson Embarking on WWI Museum Project
Peter Jackson is leaving the battle for Middle Earth behind to dive into some real-world war history curating a collection of artifacts at a new museum in Wellington. The temporary museum will open in…
