passchendaele offensive

Passchendaele: fighting for Belgium

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  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.

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• Page 2 – The battle for Messines

  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.

• Page 3 – The Passchendaele offensive

  The failed attempt to capture the town of Passchendaele saw more New Zealanders killed in one day than in any other military campaign since 1840.

• Page 4 – After Passchendaele

  Military events in Belgium after the Passchendaele offensive of October 1917, including the failed attack at Polderhoek

• Page 6 – Life in the trenches

  The daily tasks of life went on despite the hellish conditions of the Western Front trenches.

• Page 7 – Helping the wounded

  More than 14,000 New Zealanders were wounded between June and December 1917 in Belgium, and medical staff, orderlies, chaplains and stretcher-bearers worked round the clock to

• Page 8 – Remembering the dead

  Just under 100 war cemeteries in Belgium and around 500 memorials in New Zealand serve as permanent reminders of the terrible toll of 1917.

• Page 9 – Further information

  Links and publications relating to New Zealand's involvement in Belgium during the First World War

Passchendaele activities

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  NCEA2 activities relating to New Zealand's role in the fight for Belgium during the First World War

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• Page 2 – Why not Passchendaele Day?

  Why do the events at Passchendaele in October 1917 go largely unnoticed in the New Zealand calendar? Can a case be made for reconsidering the place of Anzac Day in our national

• Page 3 – Remembering the dead

  Acknowledging the sacrifices of those who served or died was an important way for communities, including schools,  to make sense of the human cost of war.

• Page 4 – Turning boys into men

  What role did schools play in turning boys into soldiers?

• Page 5 – Examining primary sources activity, Passchendaele

  Activities using images to discuss the role of schools in war

• Page 7 – Passchendale creative writing exercise

  Put yourself in the shoes of a student in the class of 1909 who had to fight in the First World War.