“With the Girls Overseas” - the voices of World War II New Zealand nurses

About the event

Join us for a special Anzac Day talk with Sarah Johnston, where she will shed light on the voices of New Zealand nurses from the Second World War.

Sound historian Sarah Johnston is researching recordings made between 1940-1945 by New Zealand’s mobile broadcasting units, which travelled overseas with our forces. The units reported on the fighting and recorded the voices of New Zealanders at war. These recordings were sent home to be played on a popular radio programme, “With the Boys Overseas”, which aired several times a week during the war.

In this Anzac Day talk Sarah will shed light on recordings the broadcasters made of New Zealand nurses. Courtesy of RNZ and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision she will play some of these 80-year-old recordings and talk about the men and women who we hear in them.

Image: Nurses of the 3rd Echelon, New Zealand Army Nursing Service, departing from Wellington during World War 2. Photograph taken by Charles P S Boyer, 28 August, 1940. Ref: DA-07102-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.