New Zealand was helpless against an imminent Japanese invasion. Only the ultimate secret weapon could save the country.
During World War II, New Zealand was helpless against the threat of a Japanese invasion. Defense Minister Bob Semple, devised a naive but ambitious program to design a secret weapon, a tank that could be easily built over the chassis of a tractor-excavator, of which there were thousands throughout the country. The massive arrival of North American troops settling in New Zealand as their base of operations in the Pacific relegated the failed project to oblivion, but not before the ill-fated tank incited worldwide ridicule and laughter (something that has lasted to this day).
In 2023, two officers tracking soldiers missing in action in the Pacific during World War II make an unbelievable discovery.
Tank designed by Robert Semple. New Zealand. Department of Internal Affairs. War History Branch: Photographs relating to World War 1914-1918, World War 1939-1945, occupation of Japan, Korean War, and Malayan Emergency. Ref: PAColl-5547-009. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand
During the bloodiest part of the conflict, a small group of soldiers from the legendary 28th Maori Battalion, along with Americans and Australians, were recruited for an almost suicidal mission, to infiltrate Japanese territory to destroy a strategic telecommunications facility on a group of islands near Japan that hid a concentration camp that did not appear on the maps. Abandoned by their superiors and ignored by the world, their mission and sacrifice changed the course of world history as we know it.
THEIR ANONYMOUS SACRIFICE CHANGED THE COURSE OF WORLD HISTORY
THE COUNTRY NEEDED HEROES. THEY GAVE THEM BACK HOPE.
A secret hidden during more than 70 years; one that forever changed history.
BRIEF NOTES ABOUT
"THE B.S. CREW"
The simple lives and the future of several generations of New Zealand families will be tragically altered by their active participation in the two World Wars.
The novel is a labor of love to New Zealand, its people, its rich history, and the crucial role the country played during both World Wars.
Many of the episodes described in the novel are real and little known events that took place during Second World War in the Pacific theater, one of the bloodiest and more dramatic of the whole war.
The so-called "Bob Semple tank", acquired worldwide fame as the ugliest tank ever built (a quick internet search will show it in all its glory).
"Before proceeding, he stopped and retraced his steps for one last glance at what had been his world for so many years. He would never see it the same way anymore. Now it felt like a cemetery. Exhausted as he was, he knew he would have plenty of time to rest in the afterlife.
He still had a lot of work to do in this one."
Xavier Vidal
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