Country Lads

In 1941 the National Film Unit made a film of the departure of New Zealand soldiers to fight in the Second World War. The film records in heroic propaganda style the departure of New Zealand soldiers overseas, and plays up the fact that those who were part of the early echelons were largely civilians who had previously had little, if any, military training. Adolf Hitler had called the Kiwi soldiers ‘poor deluded country lads’; but the film made a virtue of this description and a statement of pride. A national character is expressed — pioneers who had "helped make this country what it is: happy, prosperous and free" — and is used to underpin the soldiers' mission. This extract expressed a pride that country lads had helped make the nation and were now fighting for it. Subsequently, the success of New Zealand soldiers was often explained in terms of their alleged rural upbringing.