Pages tagged with: messines

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.

This interactive map illustrates New Zealand's involvement in the battles for Messines, Polderhoek and Passchendaele during 1917.

This film shows action at the Battle of the Somme in September 1916 and the Battle of Messines in June 1917.

Prime Minister William Massey and Joseph Ward inspect the New Zealand Cyclist Corps.

This graph shows how many boys from one school died on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918.

The memorial honouring Samuel Frickleton

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.

One of the German machine-guns captured by Leslie Andrew on 31 July 1917

Henry Nicholas earned a Victoria Cross when he single-handedly rushed the enemy, shot the officer and charged the remaining Germans with his bayonet.

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.

During the war 1643 of Wellington College's former pupils served overseas.

Leslie Andrew gained a Victoria Cross for his 'cool daring, initiative and fine leadership'.