A Lively Bit of the Front: A Tale of the New Zealand Rifles on the Western Front

Seventeen‑year‑old Malcolm Carr has spent his youth roaming the verdant valleys of New Zealand, his lanky frame and keen eyes a picture of the country’s rugged spirit. When the call to serve arrives, he and his close friend Dick Selwyn trade their surveying tools for a rifle, bound for the distant battlefields of Europe. Their departure marks a sudden plunge from sunlit high country into the grim reality of the Western Front, where the New Zealand Rifles must forge a place among seasoned troops.

Through vivid sketches of mud‑caked trenches, rattling artillery and the uneasy humor of soldiers on night watches, the story captures the raw bravery and youthful uncertainty of those first weeks in combat. Listeners will feel the clash of loyalty, the strain of survival, and the camaraderie that steadies the men as they confront a war unlike anything they imagined back home.