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Journey to Arras
Television (Full Length) – 1997
This documentary unearths the story of the soldiers in the New Zealand Tunneling Company, whose daring World War I raids involved digging tunnels through chalk rock, laying explosives underneath enemy lines, and countermining German tunneling efforts. The story is told through the eyes of a New Zealand woman who retraces her grandfather’s war story to Arras, France, and sees the Kiwi-tagged cavern 'city' nearly 80 years later. The company played a key role on the Western Front, and was especially recruited in NZ, made up of miners, bushmen and labourers.
Men were used to hard work and long hours of back-breaking toil. Coal mines powered the railways and fueled the cities. The men working in these essential industries had just the experience the tunneling company was looking for.– From the narration, on the suitability of colonial workers for tunnneling
Key Cast & Crew
See all 11 credits
Acknowledgements
Made with funding from NZ On Air
Music
Original music by Stephen McCurdy
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