This gripping book captures the evolution by trial and error of the New Zealand army, alongside those of Australia and Canada, from the Boer War in South Africa to the involvement in the First World War. It tells the story of citizen soldiers becoming professional as they learned the lessons of the Gallipoli landings and applied these to the Western Front in France and Flanders. By trial and error these colonial forces became the fighting elite in the British Armies in France. Richly illustrated with historical photographs and plentiful maps, The Anzac Experience blends social analysis and military history. In its research and writing, Christopher Pugsley walked every New Zealand battlefield on Gallipoli and the Western Front.