Pages tagged with: commonwealth war graves commission

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

Unknown warriors The Unknown New Zealand Warrior interred at the National War Memorial in Wellington lost his life in France some time between April 1916 and November 1918. War graves One of the countless victims of the 'war to end all wars', he died on the Western Front, a vast arena of misery and suffering in which New Zealanders were slaughtered in unprecedented numbers. We will never know the circumstances of his death. Did he fall advancing towards the enemy after going over the top in one of the periodic big pushes or in the darkness and confusion of a minor trench raid? Did some random shell burst instantly snuff out his life or did he lie in agony for hours, even days, before his shattered body gave up the struggle to survive?

It was on the Somme that the majority of New Zealanders were killed or wounded during the First World War, and it was here that New Zealand experienced its worst days in military history in terms of loss of life.

This list of 147 fatalities of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) was collated from Commonwealth War Graves Commission records. The exact date of death cannot be verified for 23 of those listed.