Dr Claasen with Squadron Leader Mike Ward.
Friends, relatives and military historians gathered this week to launch Massey University history lecturer Dr Adam Claasen’s new book.
Fearless: The extraordinary untold story of New Zealand’s Great War airmen, published by Massey University Press, draws on archival material from New Zealand, Australia and Britain to explore New Zealand’s reluctance to embrace military aviation, the challenges facing the establishment of local flying schools and the journey undertaken by New Zealanders from their antipodean farms and towns to the battlefields of the Great War.
The book is the latest volume in the First World War Centenary Programme series of books about the Great War. It was launched on Tuesday afternoon at the Royal New Zealand Air Force Base Ohakea by Air Marshal (retired) Sir Bruce Ferguson. The event was held inside the Biggin Hill Hangar, the home of a range of heritage aircraft, including a World War Two Spitfire and an Aermacchi.
Dr Claasen says the book shines a light on the many Kiwis who deserve a more prominent place in New Zealand’s First World War history.
“Although a lot had been written about the New Zealand soldiers at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, virtually nothing had appeared in print on the airmen in the First World War,” he says. “As I got into my research and writing I was surprised by the fact that New Zealanders could be found across the entire conflict, from Britain to Mesopotamia, and were involved in such a vast variety of roles.”
Fearless hit bookstore shelves this month and is available for purchase online.
Fearless book cover.