New Zealand WW1 Centenary Trails

I’m feeling a little pleased with myself after a WW1 Centenary Project Team working for the New Zealand Government saw one of my images and asked for my permission to use it in their project materials.

It is displayed on their website and on printed banners (to be placed in libraries and schools around the country) to publicise one of the projects of New Zealand’s First World War Centenary Program. The New Zealand Government have developed a website and free iPhone and Android apps to guide people around many of the places where Kiwis fought in France and Belgium. It helps New Zealanders to see the actual locations where their soldiers fought and to learn the stories behind these places. Their website is Ngā Tapuwae New Zealand First World War Trails, I think that ‘Ngā Tapuwae’ is a Maori term meaning something like ‘In The Footsteps’. I have already downloaded their iPhone app and it is excellent.

I shot this image in 2004 at the Australian Corps Memorial at Le Hamel. For Australians, this is the place where the Australian General Monash was first able to combine aircraft, tanks, artillery and infantry into a mobile force that changed the course of the war. For years, the allied and enemy lines had hardly moved, yet in the Battle of Amiens which was conducted shortly after the successful engagements at Le Hamel, the Australians and Canadians were able to advance over 17 miles in just one morning. This was the turning point of WW1.

This place is not exactly where the New Zealanders fought, but it’s quite representative of the countryside along much of the Western Front. We were taken there by a wonderful tour guide, Annette Linthout who runs Camalou Battlefield Tours out of Ypres in Belgium. We had a superb day exploring the history of WW1with her, and her husband Christian. i can confidently recommend her services to anyone who is visiting the area and would like to see places where their relatives fought..