Bravo New Zealand!

[BeppoSapone]

I have just been reading the second WW1 Service Record that I obtained from New Zealand. It arrived this morning.

The man in question was a Scots born Carpenter who was serving with 4th New Zealand Rifle Brigade

I read:

"A shell landed within a few yards of him, the explosion blowing him into a shell hole (occ. 13th 8 1917) in reserve trenches between Messines and Warneton [whilst] fetching rations from the sap."

On 14th September 1917 he was diagnosed with "Shell Shock W" and the process that lead to his return to New Zealand started. He was discharged in New Zealand on April 3rd 1918.

This man, born in June 1888 lived intil November 1980.

I can't help wondering what sort of treatment this man would have had if he had not emigrated, and had served in the British Army?

Would he have escaped 3rd Ypres? Would he have been discharged so soon after the start of the German "Big Push"?

I have read of British soldiers being shot by a firing squad following a close call with a shell that left them shell shocked!

[Captain Dave]

NZ still executed it's soldiers, but reading through Christopher Pugsleys "On the Fringe of Hell, NZ'rs and military discipline in WW1" I have come to the conclusion that those that were executed (and suffering from shell shock) were amongst the 1% of hard cases, or ongoing disciplinary problem men of the Division.

Put simply, if you did your job well, and got burnt out, you were more likely to be sent home by a sympathetic administration.

[BeppoSapone]

NZ still executed it's soldiers, but reading through Christopher Pugsleys "On the Fringe of Hell, NZ'rs and military discipline in WW1" I have come to the conclusion that those that were executed (and suffering from shell shock) were amongst the 1% of hard cases, or ongoing disciplinary problem men of the Division.

Put simply, if you did your job well, and got burnt out, you were more likely to be sent home by a sympathetic administration.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dave

All to the credit of New Zealand.

In the case of the British Army some of the men who did their job well, and got burnt out, were shot at dawn. I am not thinking of the drunks and malingerers, but men trembling with shell shock.

In WW2 these men were more sympathetically treated by the British Army, but in WW1 some were shot.

I suppose it is just that New Zealand was more progressive in a lot of ways. When did New Zealand women get the vote? etc etc