Story: Rural mythologies

In 1941 the National Film Unit made a film of the departure of New Zealand soldiers to fight in the Second World War. Adolf Hitler had called the Kiwi soldiers ‘poor deluded country lads’; but the film made a virtue of this description. 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.