After the evacuation from Gallipoli in December 1915, New Zealand troops returned to Egypt to recover and regroup. In February 1916, it was decided that Australian and New Zealand infantry divisions would be sent to the Western Front. On 1 March, the New Zealand Division was formed.
Battle Of The Somme
Events In History
Articles
1916: Armentières and the Battle of the Somme
Following the Gallipoli withdrawal, the newly formed New Zealand Division left for France in early April 1916. Sent to the Flanders region to gain front-line experience, they spent the next three months guarding a ‘quiet’ or ‘nursery’ sector of the line at Armentières before moving south to the Somme battlefields and their first large-scale action on the Western Front. Read the full article
Page 1 - The Battle of the Somme
Following the Gallipoli withdrawal, the newly formed New Zealand Division left for France in early April 1916. Sent to the Flanders region to gain front-line experience, they
British Empire
Key information and statistics about countries who fought as part of the British Empire during the First World War Read the full article
Page 6 - Dominion of Newfoundland
Key information and statistics about the Dominion of Newfoundland during the First World
Māori in the NZEF
More than 2000 Maori served in the Māori Contingent and Pioneer Battalion during the First World War Read the full article
Page 4 - On the Western Front
The New Zealand Pioneer Battalion arrived in France in April 1916. It was the first unit of the New Zealand Division to move onto the bloody battlefield of the
NZ's First World War horses
Between 1914 and 1916 the New Zealand government acquired more than 10,000 horses to equip the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. They served in German Samoa, Gallipoli, the Middle East and on the Western Front. Of those that survived the war, only four returned home. Read the full article
Page 7 - Western Front
More than 3000 horses and mules went from Egypt to France with the New Zealand Division in April 1916. Most of these horses had probably come from New Zealand
Hospital ships
The Maheno and Marama were the poster ships of New Zealand's First World War effort. Until 1915 these steamers had carried passengers on the Tasman route. But as casualties mounted at Gallipoli, the government - helped by a massive public fundraising campaign - converted them into state-of-the-art floating hospitals. Read the full article
Page 6 - Later service and legacies
The Marama missed Gallipoli, reaching the Mediterranean a few weeks after the Allies abandoned the peninsula. The ships’ service pattern would now be dominated by long voyages
