Western Front
The Battle of the Somme
They entered a place of bloody nightmare. Of the 15,000 New Zealand troops who came to the Somme in 1916, 2000 died and close to 6000 were wounded.
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1917: Arras, Messines and Passchendaele
In terms of lives lost, 1917 was the mostly costly of the NZEF’s three years on the Western Front.
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1918: spring offensive and advance to victory
In 1918, a series of major German and Allied offensives broke the stalemate of trench warfare on the Western Front, resulting in the collapse of the German Army and the end of the war within the year.
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New Zealand and Le Quesnoy
A week before the First World War ended, New Zealand troops captured Le Quesnoy in their last major action. The French town continues to mark the event.
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Life in the trenches
The daily tasks of life went on despite the hellish conditions of the Western Front trenches.
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