Passchendaele

The officers of the Canterbury Mounted Regiment, Addington, Christchurch [1914]

Interested in further research? Christchurch City Libraries has an extensive guide called Wars and Conflicts. This has a section on World War I which includes New Zealanders in World War I - a guide to information about the men and women who served in the New Zealand armed forces during World War I. There are also links to collections of war photos.

Search our catalogue for items about Passchendaele.

In October 1917 New Zealand soldiers took part in a number of deadly attacks in the Battle of Passchendaele with horrific loss of life for a small country.

In July 1917 the Battle of Passchendaele began on the Western Front. The deadly trench warfare dragged on for months and on October 4 New Zealand troops entered the fray with a successful attack on the Gravenstafel Spur. Encouraged by this success and believing that German resistance was weakened the British High Command ordered further attacks on October 9 and finally and disastrously on October 12 at Bellevue Spur.

The attack failed with terrible consequences with more than 2700 New Zealand casualties, including 845 killed – the biggest number of New Zealand lives lost in one day. On 18 October II Anzac Corps was relieved by the Canadians.

As the casualties emerged the impact on New Zealand was immense with families and communities across the land hit hard by the losses. The impact of Passchendaele and other World War I battles on the Papanui area has been researched by local historian Paul O’Connor, on his website From Papanui to Passchendaele. He describes the community as it was then and records the histories of the men who appear on the various First World War I memorials in district.

New Zealand History Online also has a detailed backgrounder to the Passchendaele conflict.