An obsession with Gallipoli led Major Pugsley to write the full N.Z. story

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 19

An obsession with Gallipoli led Major Pugsley to write the full N.Z. story

By

LINDA HARRISON

If ever there was a day in the history of New Zealand’s involvement in war when this country had a chance to dramatically influence the course of history, then that day was August 8, 1915, according to Major Christopher Pugsley. Major Pugsley, author of the newly published book “Gallipoli: The New Zealand Story,” tells the story from a New Zealand perspective for the first time. His obsession with Gallipoli had its roots at a military staff college in Britain which he attended in 1980. One of the officers in his 10man syndicate was Turkish and the two frequently discussed the involvment of their countries in the First World War. “He said, ‘why don’t you go and have a look’,” Major Pugsley recalls. Making a private trip at the end of his course, he was met at the airport by the parents of the Turkish officer. They guided him to a bus bound for the Gallipoli Peninsula and on arrival he checked into a hotel. There he was adopted by the locals and met a Turk who spoke English. This man was to accompany him on his visits during the week Major Pugsley spent in the area. His first visit made a significant impact. “You think you have a reasonable knowledge of something and you go and see it and it is nothing like what you expected.” Most particularly the size of the area impressed Major Pugsley. It was about 400 acres of rough country which he likens to the approaches to Arthurs Pass — tussocky with scree slopes. “When I saw Quinn’s Post and the Apex I realised they were talking about a piece of ground the size of a tennis court.” He found trench lines still evident and reminders of their inhabitants, like broken rum jars. “It was almost as if someone had said ‘the war is over — everyone off’ and they had just walked away. “It was a sense of finding an old photograph album full of pictures of relations and finding there were a lot more than you thought there were. Just like you find old pieces of embroidery in a family Bible, there were old rum jars and water bottles. “There would be old bones, like a

length of thigh bone. I would look at them and by the length would know that they were more likely from an A.N.Z.A.C. than a Turk. “There was that sense of being catapulted back into the past that you know nothing about.” On his return to New Zealand, Major Pugsley began research into Gallipoli in preparation for writing a defence journal article. “When I got to 20,000 words I realised I wasn’t writing an article. Before I knew it I couldn’t stop.” By 1983 most of the research was completed. While researching part-time and living at Waiouru, in 1981 Major Pugsley met the author, Maurice Shadbolt, at a book launching. Mr Shadbolt shared Major Pugsley’s interest in Gallipoli — he, too, had

visited the area to write an article for the Readers’ Digest. “He was working on a fictional article on Gallipoli and realised I knew as much, if not more, than him about Gallipoli. I helped him put a draft of that through a workshop at the Mercury Theatre in Auckland, explaining to the actors how they would have felt as soldiers there.” At the same time Television New Zealand had started researching the whereabouts of Gallipoli veterans in preparation for making a documentary. They approached Maurice Shadbolt and asked him to write the script. He agreed, on condition that Major Pugsley was used as a researcher and historical consultant. The Army agreed to the request to have Major Pugsley

work on the programme for a year. "It was inevitable that someone would put something together and I didn’t want it to be anyone but me,” he says. The interviews with veterans began, although for some the programme had come too late to record their memories. “Their wives and daughters and grand-daughters would sit in on the interviews and they were shocked. They would see their husbands or grandfathers start to cry about something they hadn’t talked about in 69 years. “They spoke of being shot, of having lice and dysentery, and being dropped back in New Zealand after nine months experience of war.” Major Pugsley is certain that for some it was the first time they had spoken of the events at great length and it appeared to be as vivid as the days they had happened. “They endured it and then they had to forget about it because of what the press wrote about it. The press said it was a glorious adventure — not something dirty, stinking, and terrible. They had to live a public lie.” About 20 of the veterans were chosen to be shown on screen in the documentary. According to Major Pugsley they were chosen not least because they could tell their story with dignity. Some veterans were eliminated because their memories had dimmed or become influenced by books they had read at a later date. New information emerged from the interviews to challenge. Major

Pugsley’s research — one such concerned Chunuk Bair. In his book he deals at length with the day “we had the power to influence world’s history.” During filming at Gallipoli, Major Pugsley said the crew felt a sense of being directed. “If we found a water bottle or something we would say ‘the boys are telling us that this is the spot.” Summer was approaching as the filming was done and the crew would often come across camper vans of Australians and New Zealanders who said they had been drawn by the signs to visit the spot. The crew would offer to show the tourists around at the end of each day’s work. The documentary was shown on television at Easter, timed to coincide with the launching of Major Pugsley’s book and the opening of a display on Gallipoli at the Army museum at Waiouru. Since its showing, Major Pugsley says he has been contacted by people anxious to pass on photographs and diaries from Gallipoli — both of which were forbidden souvenirs. “Photographs and diaries were not allowed but New Zealanders and Australians being what they were. Fortunately, many of them took cameras and diaries on what was for many their first overseas journey. Their efforts are now helping to preserve New Zealand’s role in that war. With Gallipoli now behind him, Major Pugsley is working on research of New Zealanders in France and Flanders in the First World War.