Great Guns
Great guns : the artillery heritage of New Zealand
ISBN 9780473255558
Blurb:
With a BA(Hons) in history, Peter Cooke started thinking about this issue when he was contacted in the mid-2000s by staff from the government department which administers the Protected Objects Act. They were trying to see if a trophy cannon from WWI was of cultural significance for NZ. Could they legally deem it a ‘protected object’ and withhold permission for its export? Export was not halted in this case but it got Cooke thinking that the heritage significance of trophy cannon could be determined if their story was better known. Ian Maxwell held similar curiosities and in March 2010, while on a DONZ field trip to Northland, they agreed to collaborate on a book that documented why NZ brought trophy guns back from foreign wars, and where these and other pieces of ordnance were displayed in parks and other public places. The result includes over 1000 images of current and historical examples of large tools of war on display. While each photo is indeed worth 1000 words, the authors confined themselves to around 200. A calibre of 20mm was determined as the lower cut-off, therefore excluding small arms. An inclusive policy was adopted on other large munitions - mines, bombs and related technology such as armoured turrets. Warbirds and tanks are included in relation to their main guns. An introductory essay discusses the nature and practise of taking war trophy guns, especially from the South African and First World Wars. This section includes many quotes from New Zealanders on capturing trophies on the battlefield and how they were received back home. The abhorrence felt by some at displaying weapons of war is contrasted with those for whom the trophy represented a fitting commemoration of sacrifice or an unalloyed celebration of victory. From page 107 the country is divided into 18 regions, from Northland to Southland, Eastland to Westland, in which all known incidents of cannon on display are documented. The research is fully footnoted, referenced and indexed. Many stories of how the weapon was acquired, presented, used and discarded are related. These include humorous accounts of authorised and unauthorised firings of the guns, and their unwitting inclusion in wider debates on war and peace. At the end appendices list all known WWI trophy guns and the shipments on which they arrived.
Review
This is a POP page.
|
A large and comprehensive book this starts with a good introduction to the reasons behind the many different guns that have ended up as memorials, display objects, gate guardians and simply curiosities. A brief but insightful introduction to the technology follows then a geographically based listing of the many guns covered. The authors debunk many of the myths and inventions associated with older guns but still there is an impressive list of guns which are reliably associated with events from our history or from famous ships and wrecks. The book is a valuable guide to this part of our heritage. The coastal fortifications are covered, sadly now with only a few of the guns still in place.
The greater part of the entries is of first world war trophies. Very few of these were actually associated with actions by New Zealand troops. Why were they so popular then? The book provides some of the answers – many were sought for a proposed War Museum that never eventuated – only very few of these ended up in the Auckland War Memorial Museum – and secondly there seemed to be a competition to receive trophies by local governments – if ‘A ‘has one then we ‘B’, deserve a better one. As memorials most of these were quickly supplanted by the now more familiar war memorials with their long lists of names. Few guns were maintained. Many were sent to scrap when beyond simple help. Others along with defunct coastal defence guns were deemed inappropriate reminders of militarism and a good few had excursions into the ground in a 1942 panic over being targeted by the Japanese. Their historical interest was certainly little appreciated until recently.
New Zealand received a vast amount of materiel for it armed forced during and after WW2 and the decisions over de-stocking this excess are interesting – many of the RSA guardians result from this.
The book cries out for some editing – the listing of apocryphal guns surely was better elsewhere and the seemingly random inclusions of torpedoes, mines, even an aerial bomb just detracts. Some of the pictures are repetitive. Some better attempt at internal referencing could have helped. And oh for some better design, one where the captions can be simply related to the pictures. There is a great informative glossary.
This is a reference book military historians will want to own.
