Ever since 1917 Passchendaele has been a byword for the horror of the First World War. The assault on this tiny Belgian village cost the lives of thousands of New Zealand soldiers. But its impact reached far beyond the battlefield, leaving deep scars on many New Zealand communities and families.
The assault on Passchendaele was part of a vast Allied offensive launched in mid-1917, which, for New Zealanders, started with the Battle for Messines.
A rifleman in the 3rd Battalion of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, Samuel Frickleton won his Victoria Cross during the attack at Messines on 7 June 1917.
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.
Most memorials to New zealand's war dead were ornamental, but in the 1920s utilitarian memorials, such as community halls, libraries and bridges were built.
The Battle of Messines was a prelude to the much larger Third Battle of Ypres, better known as Passchendaele. New Zealanders played a prominent role in this successful action but paid a heavy price: 3700 casualties, including 700 dead.
