Put down your guns and read

“New Zealanders seated upon a captured anti-tank gun.” A New Zealand War Records official photographic postcard. 

This image was taken at ‘Clapham Junction’ in Belgium on 20 November 1917 by the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Official Photographer Henry Armytage Sanders. It was referenced in Sanders work as photograph H343. Another two of his photographs, H341 and H342 also show New Zealand troops holding a copy of the same publication.

Newspapers, magazines, books, letters and postcards were all welcome as reading material used by troops during recreational time away from the front lines.

The group of men pictured, dressed in battle uniform shows soldiers from the 3rd Battalion New Zealand Rifle Brigade enjoying a leisurely read of the publication “New Zealand at the Front”.


Left: The cover page of the publicaton "New Zealand at the Front" written and illustrated by New Zealand soldiers during the First World War.

Private Norman Shore

A real photographic postcard portrait of Private Norman Shore taken at Deighton Studio in Napier before his departure for military service overseas. Prior to enlistment, he was employed as a shepherd. His mother Sarah Jane lived at 4 Brewster Street in Napier, located between Marine Parade and Napier Girls High School.

Shore was posted to 3rd Battalion Canterbury Infantry when he was killed in action near Passchendaele on 12 October 1917. He was only 21 years of age. His name is recorded on the Tyne Cot Memorial at Zonnebeke, West Flanders in Belgium.

"Private Norman Shore, son of Mrs H. Shore, of Napier, who was reported missing on October 12th 1917, is now set down by the Court of Inquiry as "killed in action." "
Source: Hastings Standard, 24 April 1918.

The town of Passchendaele

Two German soldiers stop for a photograph against the backdrop remnants of a building in the Belgian town of Passchendaele. The town was the target of much shelling and was eventually reduced to rubble. The surrounding fields were pounded into a quagmire and became the scene of New Zealand's blackest days in October 1917. Over 3,700 New Zealand soldiers became casualties at Passchendaele.