Brothers in Arms is an extraordinary account of two brothers who fought side-by-side at Gallipoli and then in the Sinai Desert as machine gunners with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles.
The book climaxes with the tragic account of Gordon Harper’s death in the Sinai in August 1916.
It brings together:
- Beautifully-written letters by Gordon Harper mostly to his mother
- Stunning photographs of the war experience largely shot by Robin Harper
- Images of extraordinary artefacts brought back from the war and held ever since by the family including the Maxim machine gun used by Gordon and Robin, a German-made machine gun captured from the Turks at Gallipoli, a prayer book marked by bullet tracks which was in Robin’s chest pocket, the bivvy bag used by Gordon in the desert, the last orders issued to the ‘C’ party who were the very last New Zealanders to leave Gallipoli in December 1915.
- Background on the war experiences of the Harper Brothers written by award-winning historian Jock Phillips.
No other account of New Zealand soldiers in the Great War brings the experience of that war to life in such a powerful and moving way. It will be a of great value to a new generation of New Zealanders wanting to relive and understand, a century later, the tragedy of Gallipoli and the Sinai Desert in the Great War.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 180