passchendaele offensive

Life in the trenches

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

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• Page 1 - Life in the trenchesThe daily tasks of life went on despite the hellish conditions of the Western Front

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 – 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 7 – Further information

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

1917: Arras, Messines and Passchendaele

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  During 1917, Allied hopes of a decisive breakthrough on the Western Front were repeatedly raised, then dashed.

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• Page 1 - 1917: Arras, Messines and PasschendaeleDuring 1917, Allied hopes of a decisive breakthrough on the Western Front were repeatedly raised, then

Passchendaele activities

• 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 calendar?

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• Page 2 – 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 3 – Turning boys into men

  What role did schools play in turning boys into soldiers?

• Page 4 – Examining primary sources activity, Passchendaele

  Activities using images to discuss the role of schools in war

• Page 6 – 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.

Anzac Day and remembrance

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• Page 4 - Passchendaele activities

First World War memorials

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  The New Zealand war memorials of the First World War have become part of the common fabric of our lives, like stop signs or lamp-posts. Virtually every township in the country has one, usually in the main street.

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• Page 2 - Remembering the dead430 war cemeteries in Northern France, Belgium and the UK and more than 500 public memorials in New Zealand serve as permanent reminders of the terrible toll of the First World