Weekend Rewind: Lest we forget

Gallipoli - The New Zealand Story interviewed every surviving Gallipoli veteran at the time. Photo / NZ On Screen

This week we commemorated one of the most significant dates in the New Zealand calendar. For over a hundred years, 25 April has marked the day the ill-fated decision was taken to land New Zealand and Australian servicemen on a remote piece of Turkish coastline, called Gallipoli, during World War I.

The mission would claim the lives of more than 2,700 Kiwis with scores more injured. It's sobering to think, as one commentator remarked, that in the first half of the 20th century, the big OE for most New Zealanders was going to war.

This intense newsreel reports from the war in the Pacific in Easter 1944, as American, Fijian, and New Zealand soldiers battle the Japanese in the Bougainville jungle. Cameraman Stan Wemyss (The grandfather of actor Russell Crowe) captured the reality on the ground for the troops as they came under fire from constant 'Jap attacks'.

Watch Weekly Review – Easter Action on Bougainville here:

Māori Battalion - March to Victory tells the story of the New Zealand Army's (28th) Māori Battalion, which fought in campaigns during World War ll. Director and writer Tainui Stephens sets out in the feature-length documentary to tell the stories of five men who served with the unit, and also "capture how they felt about it".

Watch March to Victory here:

The war in Europe is over and New Zealanders take to the streets to celebrate in this NFU newsreel. The relief and excitement at the end of hostilities against Germany is clearly visible on the faces of the thousands who flood into New Zealand's towns and cities. This clip takes a tiki tour through the nation's cities and ends in Wellington with Deputy Prime Minister Walter Nash reminding the crowd the war is not quite over: Japan has yet to surrender.

Watch New Zealand Celebrates VE Day here:

As the narration in this documentary begins, "few troops in history could ever have travelled so far to fight a war". Ahead of them was a catastrophic battle without precedent in New Zealand's young history. Gallipoli – The New Zealand Story was filmed in the early 1980s and every surviving Gallipoli veteran was interviewed for the documentary. Eventually, 26 were filmed and became part of this very important screen history of one of our nation's darkest days.

Watch the first episode of Gallipoli – The New Zealand Story here:

The so-called 'Angel of the Anzacs' – Nola Luxford features in this episode of This is Your Life. Mrs Luxford ran a legendary New York organisation for Anzac servicemen and some of those whom she looked after during World War II pay tribute to her in this special television event.

See Nola Luxford here:

See more in NZ On Screen's Anzac Day Collection here: https://www.nzonscreen.com/collection/anzac-day