Glyn Harper and Colin Richardson. In The Face of the Enemy: The Complete History of the Victoria Cross and New Zealand.

Glyn Harper and Colin Richardson. In the face of the Enemy: The complete history of the Victoria Cross and New Zealand, HarperCollins Publishers, 2006, paperback, ISBN 1869505220, 272 pages.

It is nearly 40 years since the Military Historical Society of Australia published Max Chamberlain's Victoria Cross winners of New Zealand and nearly 35 years since Collins published G. Bryant's Where the prize is highest; so it is appropriate in this 150th anniversary year of the Victoria Cross that a new book on New Zealand's Victoria Cross recipients appears.

New Zealand has some significant firsts when it comes to the Victoria Cross. The Royal Warrant need to be amended before a colonial soldier could be awarded the Victoria Cross and first Colonial soldier so honoured was New Zealand Major Charles Heaphy. And the third double recipient and only combat soldier was New Zealand Charles Upham. Twenty one members of the New Zealand armed forces have been awarded the Victoria Cross as well as a similar number of men .with strong New Zealand associations. The stories of all these recipients from the New Zealand Wars to the World War Two is told with much new information.

As well as those who received the award the stories of some of the unsuccessful recommendations is told. I fully agree with the authors that all military awards are an unfair lottery and many deserving recommendations failed to receive for the Victoria Cross. However no Victoria Cross has ever been awarded more then six years after the action been commended and I hope the Victoria Cross never goes down the belated Medal of Honor path.

As well as the Victoria Cross, the stories of the awards of the New Zealand Cross, the George Cross and the Albert Medal are also included.

Glyn Harper is Associate Professor of Military Studies at the Army's Military Studies Institute and is Acting Director of Massey University's Centre for Defence Studies. A former teacher, he joined the Australian Army in 1988 and after eight years transferred to the New Zealand Army, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was the army's official historian of the deployment to East Timor, and is the author of several books, including Kippenberger: an inspired New Zealand commander, Letters from the Battlefield: New Zealand soldiers write home 1914-18 and the best-selling Massacre at Passchendaele: the New Zealand story.

Colin Richardson currently serves at the Headquarters of the New Zealand Defence Force and has taught military history and strategy at the Australian Army Command and Staff College. He has a long interest in the history of the Victoria Cross.

This is the comprehensive story of New Zealand and the Victoria Cross. There is much new information on both the award and the recipients. It includes full citations, many fottnotes and a comprehensive bibliography. The authors have done a surperb job.