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Shellfire during Battle of the Somme
Shellfire blighted everything it touched. H. Stewart, The New Zealand Division 1916–1919: a popular history based on official records, Whitcombe & Tombs, Auckland, 1921
Section post on the Somme
New Zealand machine gun post on the Somme in 1918
French artillery at the Somme
French soldiers handling the new 145mm naval gun at Ravin d'Hardecourt aux Bois on the Somme, 1916.
Decorations and medals of Lieutenant-General Alexander Godley
Victorian and World War One orders, decorations and medals of Lieutenant-General Alexander Godley on display at the National Army Museum in Waiouru.
Soldier's identity disc returned after 92 years
More than 90 years after the Battle of the Somme it is still possible to find the physical traces of the hundreds of thousands of men who fought and died there in 1916. In 2007 a French family unearthed the identity disc of New Zealand soldier Richard Kemp, and in 2008 the disc was returned home.
Letter from the Western Front
Alex McColl had been a key member of the Wellington College First XV in 1909 and was a talented all-round sportsman. Like many of his school mates he was quick to enlist when the war broke out. He led a platoon at a landing in Gallipoli in 1915, participating in much of the heavy fighting there. He was wounded but returned to active service and was present at the evacuation in December 1915.
Film: fighting at the Somme and Messines
This film shows action at the Battle of the Somme in September 1916 and the Battle of Messines in June 1917.
Funeral of Henry Nicholas
Following his death, Henry Nicholas was buried in the French cemetery at Beaudignies. However, as the battalion wished to show greater respect, his body was exhumed and reinterred, with full military honours, in the Vertigneul churchyard in northern France.
Henry Nicholas VC
Henry Nicholas earned a Victoria Cross when he single-handedly rushed the enemy, shot the officer and charged the remaining Germans with his bayonet.
On the Western Front - Maori and the First World War
The New Zealand Pioneer Battalion arrived in France in April 1916. It was the first unit of the New Zealand Division to move on to the bloody battlefield of the Somme.
Sergeant Donald Forrester Brown (VC)
Sergeant Donald Forrester Brown (1880–1916) was the first member of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to win a VC on the Western Front.
Sound: sunken roads and the Battle of the Somme
This is a description and image of sunken roads in the Battle of the Somme.
Sound: nearly getting killed at Battle of the Somme
A veteran describes nearly getting killed during the Battle of the Somme.
Sound: veteran describes trench warfare
A veteran of the Battle of the Somme describes trench warfare.
Troops in trench during the Battle of the Somme
Infantry troops preparing to move forward to the front line during the Battle of the Somme
In the trenches during Battle of the Somme
Trench scene from the Battle of the Somme in 1916
Map showing daily gains during Battle of the Somme
Each great attack on the Somme brought gains of only a mile or two, and these were at enormous human cost. Wikimedia Commons
Aerial image of Battle of the Somme
Intensive shelling produced a lunar-like landscape, especially in the No Man's Land between the Allied and German front lines. HQ New Zealand Defence Force, Library
Tanks at the Battle of the Somme
Tanks were used in battle for the first time, by the British, on 15 September. Still mechanically unreliable, the tanks were rushed into action in small groups. Many broke down, and the Germans soon devised ways to stop them.
The ruins of Verdun, 1916
The Somme attack eased the pressure on the beleaguered French defenders of the ruined medieval city of Verdun. Wikimedia Commons

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