In Defence of Our Land
In Defence of our Land: A Tour of New Zealand's Historic Harbour Forts
Russell Glackin, 2009, Penguin NZ
ISBN 9780143011866
The blurb:
"The harbour forts of New Zealand occupy some of the grandest real estate in the country, yet little is known of the blood, sweat and tears that went into their construction.
Highly illustrated with archival photos, maps and site plans, this easy-to-follow book is full of fascinating stories about New Zealand's wartime fort construction, of relics that now help form the character of many of our major harbour settlements, and of a time when the possibility of enemy warships in our waters was real."
Mini Review:
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It represents a Personal OPinion.
That opinion is the sole responsiblity of the author and not the website!
Russell Glackin's book is strong on the international context, local politics, what was built and how long it was used for. There are some great archival photographs of the various forts and batteries throughout the nation. There is however very little on the men who manned them and not a lot about their construction. There are a few diagrams of the individual facilities. To an archaeologist more on how archaeology has contributed to the known history of the forts would have been welcome. There are notes on some places as to what has survived to the present but the possibility of visiting them is noted for only a few. There is not a lot on the technology - more on how gun direction changed over the time would have been welcome and the way in which the controlled mines were related to guns and searchlights would have helped.
A production grizzle - too many of the captions are printed over the photographs in areas that conflict with the print and are very hard to read. Overall it is more of a contribution to history than archaeology - but still welcome as that.
