Glyn Harper - Dark Journey: Three Key New Zealand Battles of the Western Front

Between mid-1916 and the end of the First World War in November 1918 the New Zealand Expeditionary Force served in a series of great battles on the Western Front. In Dark Journey Dr Glyn Harper examines the New Zealanders part in three of these actions: the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), the Second Battle of the Somme in the spring of 1918 and, finally, the Battle of Bapaume in August 1918.

Glyn Harper brings a knowledgeable fluency to the book. For the section on Passchendaele, he uses his earlier published Massacre at Passchendaele: The New Zealand Story (2000), and for that part dealing with the defeat of the German offensive in 1918 Spring Offensive: New Zealand and the Second Battle of the Somme (2003). Moreover, by republishing this earlier work and combining it with his new study of the Battle of Bapaume, Glyn Harper gives us unparalleled insights into the highs and lows of the New Zealand Divisions experiences during 1917 and 1918. From the meticulously planned and well-conducted assault on Gravenstafel Spur on 4 October 1917 and the bloody fiasco that was the attack on Bellevue Spur eight days later, through to the hard-fought victories of 1918, Glyn Harper gives a special account of the intensely emotional and bitter experience for those who survived and the legacy of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to our national consciousness.

Dark Journey is the product of a great deal of careful research. Among the sources used are official histories, unit war diaries and the letters and diaries of many men, from generals to privates. These sources are brought together expertly by Glyn Harper to produce a highly readable and coherent narrative. The first-hand accounts of the dramatic and extraordinary events which involved ordinary New Zealanders are fascinating and bring home to the reader just what an ordeal service on the Western Front was.

The pages of Dark Journey are full of examples of New Zealand soldiers demonstrating to the highest degree qualities such as courage, comradeship and commitment to the greater good, values that remain of paramount importance within the modern New Zealand Defence Force. One exceptional example is Sergeant Reginald Judson VC, DCM, MM who, before enlisting in the NZEF, had been an engineer and boilermaker in Auckland. During July and August 1918 Judson displayed a combination of extreme bravery, outstanding leadership and a high level of military skill in a remarkable series of actions for which he received three gallantry decorations.

It is most appropriate that Dark Journey should appear in 2007, when New Zealand and the other nations involved in the terrible struggle that was the Battle of Passchendaele are commemorating its 90th anniversary, and shortly before we mark the 90th anniversary of the great battles of 1918 and finally the armistice that ended the First World War on 11 November 1918.

During its two and a half years on the Western Front, the NZEF suffered nearly 12,500 fatal casualties and thousands more were maimed, both physically and mentally. For the men and women of the NZEF, service on the Western Front was a cruel odyssey that changed them and our country for ever. Glyn Harper is to be congratulated on writing Dark Journey , an outstanding book, which will help ensure that the experiences and achievements of New Zealanders in the First World War are never forgotten.

J. Mateparae

Lieutenant General

Chief of Defence Force

2 August 2007