Museum Notebook: The War to End All Wars

Troop ship carrying New Zealand soldiers to the front. This is one of the many troop ships carrying newly trained New Zealand recruits to the battles being fought in Europe.

Museums and heavy metal music may not be obviously linked in the public perception, but the Whanganui Regional Museum will be combining the two on Armistice Day, November 11.

We are taking part in the History Rocks project launched by Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton. The band have worked with Yarnhub Animation Studios to create an animated movie accompanying their latest album The War to End All Wars, and we are delighted to host the film here.

The five-member band have been making music for over 20 years and are known for their passion for history, particularly military history. Sabaton has made their name researching real-life stories of war and putting them to music.

As stated on their website, the band “sings of real-life wars and the people who played a part in them – of gruelling campaigns and dazzling acts of bravery, of magnificent victories and touching personal struggles – true stories more fantastic than any fiction”.

New Zealand military issue helmet. This helmet was the standard head protection issued to New Zealand soldiers during the First World War. Photo / Kathy Greensides

The War to End All Wars is the title of Sabaton’s 10th studio album released in 2022 and focuses solely on stories of the horrors, bravery, and events of the First World War.

The songs include Sarajevo, outlining the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which initiated the war; Dreadnought paying homage to the infamous battleship that terrified its enemies with its size and firepower; The Unkillable Soldier tells the tale of Adrian Carton De Wiart, who survived multiple serious injuries and was known as ‘the man who could not be killed’; Lady of the Dark discusses Milunka Savić, who dressed as a man and took her brother’s place in the war; and The Christmas Truce immortalises the British and German soldiers who celebrated Christmas together before resuming their battles a day later.

Sabaton is passionate about telling the tales of history and wants to give back to society by promoting education and history. They created the History Rocks campaign to encourage people to visit their local museums and learn something new about the past. Together with Yarnhub, they have made a 67-minute-long animated film that follows the stories on the album and have orchestrated a global premiere event around Armistice Day – the day the First World War officially ended in 1918.

The Whanganui Regional Museum is also, of course, passionate about telling the stories of the past. We hold a significant amount of material relating to World War I including the personal experiences of soldiers from the rohe, and items that tell of the national and international incidents of the global conflict.

We are very proud to host the film and are sure it will be of interest not just to Sabaton and music fans, but to historians, animators, military specialists, and anyone with an interest in the past.

The History Rocks project is an unprecedented global movie premiere event where museums around the world will be showing the film, and to date, the Whanganui Regional Museum is the only museum in Aotearoa New Zealand taking part. We are hosting two screenings on Saturday, November 11, at 11am and 5.30pm. Call us or visit our Facebook page for more information.

■ Sandi Black is the Kaihāpai Kōrero|Archivist at Whanganui Regional Museum.