-
ANZAC Day 2008 in Flanders
ANZAC Day services in Flanders will follow what has become the tradition, with the New Zealanders starting at Messines and the Australians at Tyne Cot, Passchendaele, before the two groups join for a service at the Menin Gate in Ypres.
The New Zealand Memorial at Messines New Zealanders attending the Messines ceremony will join wreath-laying at the municipal memorial before the service at the New Zealand Memorial. The Australians and New Zealanders will join at the Ypres Town Hall and will then march to the Menin Gate for a service which will include prayers, speeches and wreath-laying. Two New Zealand tenors, Warwick Mitchell and Don Currie, will sing a hymn and the Australian St Andrew's Choir will also perform. The Mayor of Ypres will later host a reception. ANZAC Day also sees the opening of the "Brave Little Belgium" exhibition at the Memorial Museum Passchendaele followed by a two-day programme of Museum Weekend activities. The New Zealander Heather Charlton (piano) and the Australian Wendy Quinlan (flu(...)
-
The New Zealanders at Messines and Passchendaele
The battles of Messines and Passchendaele are two of the most iconic moments in New Zealand history. Messines was a great victory - but at no small cost. Four months later, just the other side of Ypres, Passchendaele became the country's most tragic day. It remains so.
A lone bugler on the Cross of
Sacrifice at Tyne Cot for theNew
Zealand Dawn Service of October
12. It is believed to be the first Dawn
Service at the Cemetery.
Photo Di Mackey; Courtesy NZDFIn a few short hours, in driving rain, strong cold winds and deep mud, left vulnerable by an ineffective artillery barrage and blocked by 13-metres of barbed wire, New Zealand suffered a casualty toll of more than 60% of those who took part in the attack - a total of 3,296 casualties of whom 1,190 died. Even with over 3,000 extra men brought in from support battalions it took more than two days to clear the New Zealand wounded from the battlefield as the war went on.
Flanders 1917 touched virtually every family the length and breadth of the land. It left a legacy that exists to this day.
This site offers a brief outline of Flanders in 1917 - of Messines and Passchendaele, their histories and their people; of the New Zealanders, the soldiers, the four New Zealand related VCs in Flanders; and of the projects and commemorative events that began at Messines on Thursday June 7 - the day, 90 years ago, that the New Zealand Division captured the town. -
The high cost of La Basseville
Following the successful attack on Messines in June 1917, the Germans launched a number of counter-attacks only to lose more ground. They then retreated behind the river Lys. To the north of Messines, in the wider area of Ypres, full-scale preparations for the Third Battle of Ypres, including what was to become known as the First Battle of Passchendaele, were under way.
Now a private home, Le Cafe au Rooster
was the site where Leslie Andrew undertook
one of the actions for which he was
awarded the Victoria CrossOn July 27 at 2 am the New Zealand Division launched an attack on the tiny village of La Basseville, just a few kilometres down the hill to the south-west of Messines. This attack was planned as a support action for the massive attack that took place in the Ypres sector and marked the start of Third Ypres.
There were three major aims. The first was to make Germans believe that the Allied Forces were planning an attack towards Lille by establishing forward posts near the river and giving the impression they were going to build bridges. The second was to capture and(...)
-
Messines - The Town
With a population of less than 1,000 and an area of just 900 hectares, the small town of Messines in West Flanders, close to the French border, is not only the smallest council region in Belgium, it is also an "honorary city". It is twinned with Featherston, the small Wairarapa town which was home to one of New Zealand's largest World War One training camps. Messines in French and Mesen in Flemish (Dutch), the town can trace its city status back beyond the French Revolution.
The New Zealand Governor-General visits Messines
-
Place names
The place names on this site are those that have become familiar to New Zealanders and which are often seen in street names and other material in New Zealand. In Flanders, however, those names are not to be seen on signs etc. The Flemish names are applied. Messines is Mesen; Passchendaele is Passendale; Ypres is Ieper.
-
Events of Interest
Dates to note
Coming events
ANZAC Day In Flanders
More information here
Museum Weekend
More information hereAvailable throughout the year
New Zealand guided walks and tours:
Contact & Booking details here
Messines: "In the Footsteps of the New Zealanders" guided battlefield walks
Zonnebeke: Guided Passchendaele battlefield tours
Zonnebeke: Guided "Dave Gallaher" theme walk
Guided tours of the Ypres Salient -
News & Updates
-
March 21st 2008
ANZAC DAY 2008 - PROGRAMME
October 16th 2007
PM SIGNS SHARED MEMORIES ACCORD WITH FLANDERS
October 16th 2007
PM: THE DISASTER THAT WAS PASSCHENDAELE -
People
Sister Elise Margaret Kemp, born in Wellington in 1881, is believed to be the only New Zealand born nurse killed by action on the Western Front. She was killed on October 20, 1917, when an aircraft bombed the casualty clearing station in Flanders she was temporarily attached to.
Read more
Autini Pitara Kaipara was one of New Zealand rugby's most outstanding five-eighths of the 1910s and was nick-named the "india rubber man". He became a second lieutenant in the Maori (Pioneer) Battalion and was killed in action near Messines at the age of 30 on August 4, 1917.
Read more -
New Zealanders carrying a wounded soldier near Messines on June 8, 1917. With kind permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library. Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.