After being found guilty of desertion, 28-year-old Private Frank Hughes was killed by a firing squad in Hallencourt, northern France. He was the first New Zealand soldier executed during the First World War.
Armentieres Sector
Events In History
11 April 1916
The Minnewaska, a troopship carrying the headquarters of the recently formed New Zealand Division, arrived in Marseilles, France
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
Main image: Robert George Auty
The story of Private Robert George Auty, NZ's first Western Front combat casualty
