NZHistory, New Zealand history online - passchendaele offensive

Nelson Park memorial gates

The gates at the Jull Street entrance to Nelson Park in Napier are a memorial to Private Arthur Coker, 4th Brigade NZEF who was killed at Passchendaele during the First World War.

Credit:

Images: Grant Ancell, 2014

Reddit Twitter Facebook Google StumbleUpon

Map filter:

World Wars

tags:

napier

passchendaele offensive

Alexander Godley

In 1910 Field Marshal Lord Kitchener visited New Zealand to advise on its military requirements. He recommended the creation of a staff corps and, in response to a request by the New Zealand government for a suitable commandant of the New Zealand Defence Forces, the Sandhurst-educated Alexander Godley was appointed for five years.

It was Godley’s job to set up a modern territorial force able to integrate with other British forces and based on the system of compulsory military training introduced in 1909. Godley had considerable talent for organisation, and in just three years he did a remarkable job laying the basis for a well-trained Territorial Force and supplying it with up-to-date equipment.

On the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, as a consequence of the measures Godley had taken, a suitable force was available to occupy German Samoa and, within six weeks of the declaration of war, the Main Body was ready to sail for Egypt and the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. Here Godley and his troops were harshly tested, and further trials were to come following the transfer of the New Zealand Division to the Western Front in 1916.

Godley bears much of the responsibility for the heavy loss of life at the Battle of Passchendaele (Passendale). Despite warnings that it should not be persevered with, an attack was delivered as Godley had planned on 12 October 1917. It had been raining heavily for days, and the mud, deep enough to drown in, prevented accurate artillery fire and the bringing up of reinforcements. 2,735 New Zealanders were killed, wounded or reported missing that day; the German network of barbed wire, well covered by machine-guns, was almost as intact at dusk as it had been at dawn.

Godley remained responsible for the overall command of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force until November 1919. In 1920, after heading the occupation of the Rhine, he returned to England.

By Ray Grover; adapted by Matthew Tonks

Read full biography of Alexander Godley (DNZB)

Reddit Twitter Facebook Google StumbleUpon

Battles of Broodseinde and Passchendaele map

See enlarged version of this map here. You can also download a hi-res copy as a pdf (1.5 mbs).

The New Zealand Division won a comprehensive victory and then suffered its single costliest assault in two successive battles in early October 1917.

In late August 1917 General Herbert Plumer was given command of an offensive to capture high ground east of the Belgian town of Ypres using his Second Army (positioned south of the red broken line on the map). Under the command of the Army’s II ANZAC Corps was the New Zealand Division (just above the centre of the map).

The New Zealand Division took part in the Battle of Broodseinde on 4 October 1917, tasked with seizing part of the Broodseinde Ridge called Gravenstafel Spur. On that day the New Zealand soldiers overwhelmed German forward positions, captured 1100 prisoners and helped to extend the front line eastwards, as indicated by the thick purple broken line. This was achieved at a cost of 1700 casualties, including 350 deaths.

The British high command mistakenly concluded that the relative ease with which the Broodseinde Ridge had been won meant enemy resistance was faltering. It resolved to make a further push for Passchendaele Ridge on 12 October. However, by this time heavy rain had turned the terrain of Flanders into a muddy bog, rendering artillery support ineffective.

New Zealand soldiers advanced up the ridge only to find the enemy’s concrete pillboxes and lines of barbed wire still largely intact. 845 New Zealanders lost their lives in the Battle of Passchendaele, and another 2700 were wounded. This futile attack was the New Zealand Division’s greatest disaster.

The survivors of the New Zealand Division were withdrawn over the following weeks and replaced by members of the Canadian Corps. At a cost of 16,000 casualties, the Canadians managed to capture Passchendaele Ridge on 10 November, extending the front line to the thin purple broken line on the map.

Credit:

Map produced by Geographx with research assistance from Damien Fenton and Caroline Lord.

It originally appeared in Damien Fenton, New Zealand and the First World War (Penguin, 2013)

BY-SA

Reddit Twitter Facebook Google StumbleUpon

tags:

ww1

western front

passchendaele offensive

ypres

maps

ww1 maps

The Western Front 1916-1917 map

See enlarged version of this map here. You can also download a hi-res copy as a pdf (2 mbs).

This map shows the northern part of the Western Front in 1916 and 1917, as well as some of the major battles that took place there in these years.

After the initial German invasion and retreat of 1914, the two opposing forces had settled into a network of trenches and defensive systems that stretched from English Channel to the Swiss border. By the time the New Zealand Division was transferred to the Western Front in April 1916, the front line ran along the solid purple line on the map above. The shaded areas represent foreign territory occupied by Germany.

The battles on the Western Front in this period were some of the deadliest in modern history. Both attackers and defenders suffered huge casualties from quick-firing artillery, modern machine guns and rifles, and miles of barbed-wire defences. After gaining some experience in this environment on a ‘quiet’ sector around Armentières, the New Zealand Division took part in the nightmarish Battle of the Somme in September 1916.

Facing manpower shortages and pressure on the Eastern Front, the German army withdrew from the Noyon Salient in March-April 1917 to prepared positions along the strongly defended Hindenburg Line, part of which is indicated above by the broken purple line.

A detachment of New Zealand pioneers and the New Zealand Tunnelling Company took part in the operations at Arras in April-May 1917. After recovering from the Battle of the Somme, and bolstered by new recruits, the New Zealand Division was heavily involved in both the relatively successful Battle of Messines and the carnage of the Third Battle of Ypres.

Credit:

Map produced by Geographx with research assistance from Damien Fenton and Caroline Lord. It originally appeared in Damien Fenton, New Zealand and the First World War (Penguin, Auckland, 2013)

It originally appeared in Damien Fenton, New Zealand and the First World War (Penguin, 2013)

BY-SA

Reddit Twitter Facebook Google StumbleUpon

tags:

passchendaele offensive

ww1 maps

Alfred Booker

Alfred Booker died of wounds at No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital in Brockenhurst, Hampshire, England on 31 October 1917. He is one of 93 New Zealanders who succumbed to wounds or sickness at the hospital and are buried nearby in Brockenhurst (St Nicholas) Churchyard.

Born at Mangatoki, near Eltham, Taranaki, in 1895, Alfred was the eldest child of dairy farmers Benjamin and Caroline Booker. Educated at Mangatoki School, he worked on a local farm prior to enlisting in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in May 1915. He departed for Egypt four months later, and served with the 1st Battalion, 3rd New Zealand (Rifle) Brigade during the Senussi campaign in western Egypt before sailing for France in April 1916.

The rigours of the Western Front soon took their toll on Alfred’s health. Wounded during the Battle of the Somme in September 1916, he was back in hospital in April 1917, suffering from mumps. After several months in reinforcement and rest camps, Alfred rejoined his battalion in time to take part in the attack at Bellevue Spur, Passchendaele ridge, on 12 October 1917. The attack, carried out in appalling conditions, was a complete failure. More then 2700 men of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade became casualties, including Alfred, who was seriously wounded on 14 October while working as a stretcher-bearer.

Evacuated to England, Alfred arrived at No. 1 New Zealand General Hospital, Brockenhurst, on 28 October. He died three days later and was buried in St Nicholas Church cemetery. On 21 November, Alfred was posthumously awarded the Military Medal:

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty as a stretcher bearer during the operations against Passchendaele Ridge on 12th and 13th October 1917. This Rifleman tended and carried in wounded day and night without rest and with utter disregard for the enemy snipers, machine gun fire, and shelling. With the utmost bravery and cheerfulness he went again and again into the fire-swept zone, thereby saving many lives. He was eventually severely wounded.

Further information

Credit:

Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19180117-40-10

Reddit Twitter Facebook Google StumbleUpon

tags:

ww1 stories

alfred booker

passchendaele offensive

mangatoki

George Chaney

George Chaney was born in Christchurch in 1886. The son of Randolph and Sarah Chaney, he grew up in the Christchurch suburb of Riccarton, where his father worked at the local freezing works.

The Chaneys had strong ties with the Canterbury region. George’s grandfather, a stonemason, had been recruited to work on the proposed Christchurch cathedral. He arrived from England in 1850 aboard the Randolph – the second of four ships that brought settlers to the province for the Canterbury Association. George’s father, named after the ship, was born during the voyage to New Zealand.

George was working at the Canterbury By-Product Company in Sockburn when he enlisted in the army in August 1916. After completing his training at Featherston Military Camp in Wairarapa, he embarked on the Port Lyttelton on 7 December 1916 and arrived in Plymouth, England, nine weeks later.

Posted to the 3rd Battalion, Canterbury Regiment, George participated in fighting around the Belgian town of Ypres (Ieper) in 1917, some of the heaviest experienced by New Zealand troops on the Western Front. This included the bloody attacks at Passchendaele in October, during which 845 New Zealanders were killed on a single day. Having survived the carnage, George was sent for further training at the School of Instruction in early November. He rejoined his unit on 20 November but was killed nine days later. George is one of 378 men of the New Zealand Division with no known graves who are remembered at the Buttes New British Cemetery (NZ) Memorial at Polygon Wood, near the town of Zonnebeke, north-east of Ieper.

Further information

Credit:

Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19180228-40-19

Reddit Twitter Facebook Google StumbleUpon

Map filter:

Western Front cemeteries

tags:

ww1 stories

george chaney

passchendaele offensive

christchurch

Gun crew at Passchendaele

A gun crew struggles in the mud at Passchendaele, October 1917. In the regimental history, New Zealand artillery in the field (p. 197), Lieutenant J.R. Byrne gives an evocative description of the conditions encountered during this battle:

The whole countryside was one vast quagmire, and the roads were little better. The employment of horses was out of the question, as they sank up to their bellies at almost the first step, and some even were submerged and lost in the seemingly bottomless mire. … The Pioneers, two hundred strong, and the gunners devoted their whole strength to each gun in turn, and it required the united effort of this powerful team to drag the gun along foot by foot.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference no: PAColl-2667-014
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image

Reddit Twitter Facebook Google StumbleUpon

tags:

ww1

horses

passchendaele offensive

Andrew Hamilton Russell

Andrew Russell was a New Zealand military leader in the First World War, known for his meticulous planning.

Born in Napier, Andrew Russell was educated in England, first at Harrow School and then at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, as was family tradition. After serving for five years in India and Burma, Russell left the 1st Border Regiment to return to New Zealand and farm sheep with his uncle, William Russell.

In 1900, whilst still farming, he formed and commanded the Hawke's Bay Mounted Rifle Volunteers. In 1911 Russell was appointed commander of the Wellington Mounted Rifles Brigade.

In 1914, upon the formation of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Russell was given command of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade and sailed to Egypt. Six months later the brigade landed at Gallipoli, without their horses, as infantrymen. Russell’s men were instrumental in the seizure of Chunuk Bair, clearing Ottoman outposts and opening the way for an infantry advance. For his efforts at Gallipoli, Russell was knighted in 1915.

In 1916 Russell took control of the New Zealand Division in France. He was a front-line general, seen to take personal risks. The New Zealand Division became one of the best fighting divisions in France, due largely to Russell’s insistence upon daily inspections, zealous discipline and efficient administration.

The New Zealand Division were involved in the third battle of the Somme in 1916, and, in June 1917, they were tasked with capturing the town of Messines (Mesen) in Flanders. Russell’s aggressive strategy resulted in the seizure of the town, but their concentration in ‘an awkward salient’ led to nearly 3700 New Zealand casualties, including 700 deaths.

The New Zealand Division again suffered severe casualties in October 1917, during the attack on Passchendaele. With artillery hampered by rain and mud, an attack on Bellevue Spur faltered, leaving more than 800 New Zealanders killed and almost 2000 wounded or missing. This represents the highest recorded loss of New Zealand lives in a single day,

After the war, Russell was president of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association for more than a decade. He lived on his sheep station at Tunanui until his death at the age of 92.

Russell's military achievements were recognised with a CB in 1916 and, in 1917, a KCB. He was awarded the French Légion d'honneur (croix d'officier) and Croix de guerre (avec palme), the Belgian Ordre de Léopold (commander) and Croix de guerre, the Serbian Order of the White Eagle (first class) and the Montenegrin Order of Danilo.

By Chris Pugsley, adapted by Patrick Whatman

Read full biography of Andrew Russell (DNZB)

Reddit Twitter Facebook Google StumbleUpon

Passchendaele in memoriam notice

Extract from a full-page ‘in memoriam’ page published in the Auckland Star on 4 October 1918, three days after news arrived of the surrender of Bulgaria.

The notice marks the first anniversary of the attack on Gravenstafel Spur, the opening attack of the disastrous Passchendaele offensive.

More than usual numbers of ‘in memoriam’ notices appeared in the newspapers in the days after Bulgaria’s surrender as people remembered the devastating losses at Gravenstafel Spur and Bellevue Spur.

Credit:

Auckland Star, 4 October 1918, p. 2 (PapersPast)

Reddit Twitter Facebook Google StumbleUpon

tags:

armistice

passchendaele offensive