Kōrero: Brass and pipe bands

A brass band plays at the New Zealand Rifle Brigade camp near Ypres, Belgium, on 19 September 1917. In the early years of the First World War bandsmen also acted as stretcher bearers. High stretcher-bearer casualties and the difficulty of replacing musicians meant that bandsmen were later withdrawn from the front line. Military authorities considered that the morale-boosting effect of music was the bandsmen's greatest contribution to the war effort.