This film shows action at the Battle of the Somme in September 1916 and the Battle of Messines in June 1917. It includes scenes of tanks being used and descriptions of what the battles were like from New Zealand troops who were there.
Although the narration implies the film shows New Zealand troops, it is likely that they are in fact British.
Transcript
Narrator: Trained and equipped, the division reached France in April 1916. And after a quiet initiation to trench warfare, they were committed to the artillery duels of the Somme.
Soldier 1: They concentrated every artillery weapon that they had. They were just wheel to wheel. And I think zero hour was at breaking dawn, and the whole place blew up you see, just like a volcano erupting. The whole of the artillery all opened up and away she went.
*sound of explosions*
Narrator: 03:10 hours, the 7th of June.
Soldier 2: The first tanks came over at Messines, cos they were only 5 miles an hour but they put the fear of him up and you thought ‘what in blazes is coming over me?’ Sod knows, neither did we! But anyway, they were ferocious looking things.
Soldier 3: You just imagine having a weapon of that sort, having a steel monster coming at you, you can imagine how demoralizing it was.
Soldier 4: When the whistle blew you just got up and took your… There was flashing and noise going, shells dropping, you’d keep up as close as possible to your own barrage, and while the Jerry was dazed you’d hop in.
*explosions*
Film extract from The years back episode 1: the twentieth century, produced by the New Zealand Film Unit, 1973
Video supplied courtesy of Archives New Zealand. Not to be reproduced without permission of the chief archivist.
