The diary entries capture the daily realities of a soldier’s life, including the hardships of trench warfare, the camaraderie among fellow soldiers, and the challenges of constructing essential infrastructure under fire. The sapper's role was crucial in building and repairing roads, bridges, and other military installations, and the author documents the technical challenges and dangers inherent in these tasks. The extracts reflect a blend of bravery, humor, and the grim realities of war, o...

In "On the Anzac Trail: Being Extracts from the Diary of a New Zealand Sapper," Anzac presents a poignant collection of diary entries that capture the raw, unfiltered experiences of a New Zealand sapper during World War I. Through a vivid narrative style characterized by meticulous detail and deep introspection, the book intertwines personal anecdotes with broader historical contexts, offering readers a glimpse into the daily life and psychological toll of soldiers. The diary format enhanc...

The August Offensive was born out of the failures of the Gallipoli landings and the subsequent battles of late spring and early summer 1915. General Sir Ian Hamilton, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, chose to play all his remaining cards in this daring and ingenious gamble that he hoped would finally turn the tide in the allies favour and bring his army up onto the heights overlooking the elusive Dardanelles. However the plan's same ingenuity became its eventual...

The 'War to end all Wars', as seen through the eyes of three young womenWar is being fought on a horrific scale in the trenches of France, but it might as well be a world away from sixteen-year-old New Zealander Midge Macpherson, at school in England learning to be a young lady. But the war is coming closer: Midge's brothers are in the army, and her twin, Tim, is listed as 'missing' in the devastating defeat of the Anzac forces at Gallipoli .Desperate to do...

The harrowing, dramatic and profoundly moving story of the Australian and New Zealand nurses who served in the Great War. Now a major six-part television series.By the end of the Great War, forty-five Australian and New Zealand nurses had died on overseas service and over two hundred had been decorated. These were the women who left for war looking for adventure and romance but were soon confronted with challenges for which their civilian lives could never have pre...

Anzac Ted is the powerful, poignant story of a little boy’s teddy bear that was passed down to him from his grandfather. Battered, torn, missing an eye and an ear, he might look scary but he’s got a great story to tell. For Anzac Ted went to war, keeping soldiers company and giving them comfort. And while he never won a medal, and now doesn’t even attract a single vote at classroom Toy Shows, if only everyone looked a little deeper: ‘They’d see a hero, plain as day Who sits upon my bed. A ...

The job of a sapper in war-time is never a sinecure, much less in the conditions of the First World War. This anonymous New Zealand author gives a full and frank account of the fighting with the "Anzac" forces in Gallipoli. The sapper enlisted during the early months of the war and by December 1914 was off to the Middle East. After much training and many adventures in and around Cairo, the sapper was posted to the Anzac forces at Gallipoli, where his sojourn in the crucible of fire, suffer...

One of the greatest tragedies in Australian military history occurred at Gallipoli on 7 August 1915, when hundreds of Australian light horsemen were repeatedly ordered to charge the massed rifles and machine-guns of the Turkish enemy. It was a hopeless endeavour, and the resulting bloodbath has horrified every generation since and been the subject of considerable scrutiny by historians. The charge at The Nek, so vividly realised in Peter Weirs famous film Gallipoli, came to epitomise both ...

A tender, moving story of a child waiting at home for the return of his father from serving in WWI.During World War I, Australian and New Zealand soldiers on the front were sent Christmas care packages in a tin billy. The Anzac Billy is the heartwarming story of a little boy packing a billy with all his father’s favourite things – added to by mum and grandma – even though he realises there is no way that the billy can actually go to a particular soldier.

This book tells the story of Australians and New Zealanders in one of the Second World War’s defining and most memorable campaigns. From July until October 1940, the German air force (the Luftwaffe) sought aerial supremacy in skies over England as a prerequisite for an invasion of Britain (Operation Sealion). The ensuing conflict of Luftwaffe and RAF aircraft in the long summer of 1940 became forever known as the Battle of Britain. Of the 574 overseas pilots in the campaign, the New Zealan...

A picture book series about the extraordinary men and women who have shaped Australia's history, including our brave Anzac soldiers.Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. It is the name given to the Australian and New Zealand troops who landed at Gallipoli in World War I. The name is now a symbol of bravery and mateship.From Ned Kelly to Saint Mary MacKillop; Captain Cook to Douglas Mawson, the Meet ... series of picture books tell...

The true story of the courageous and loyal horses of World War One.The jet-black mare galloped wildly across the scorching white sands, the guns and shells exploding around her with a deafening roar. Her master spurred her on, his legs tightly gripping her heaving sides. With foam-flecked lips and ears laid flat, she thundered on through the flying bullets and choking dust . . .Every ANZAC Day we celebrate the brave soldiers who fought and died in World War One, bu...