18 July 2007
Soldiers from Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other Commonwealth countries killed 90 years ago in one of the First World War’s bloodiest battles were honoured on 12 July at a special ceremony at Tyne Cot Cemetery near Passchendaele in Belgium.
The ceremony, one of a number of remembrance activities being held in Belgium in 2007, commemorated the 90th anniversary of the start of the Third Battle of Ypres which culminated in the assault on Passchendaele.
Despite wet and windy conditions, around 4000 locals and visitors as well as dignitaries including her Majesty the Queen, Queen Paola of Belgium, the Governor-General of New Zealand, Governor-General of Australia and ministers from Canada attended the ceremony.
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) was represented by the VCDF Air Vice Marshal David Bamfield and NZDF personnel from London.
An ecumenical service was held amongst the headstones and wreaths were laid at the foot of a large white cross cenotaph that dominates the vast gravesite. A vintage biplane flew overhead and spread red poppy petals over Tyne Cot in tribute to the dead.
Air Vice Marshal Bamfield said, “The struggle for Passchendaele in 1917 was one of the bloodiest of World War I. October 12 1917 was the most disastrous day in New Zealand’s history. In just two hours more than 800 men were killed and over 2000 wounded in this horrendous frontal assault. The cost to New Zealand over the entire battle was over 5000 casualties.”
The aim of the battle was to break through the German defences and capture Passchendaele Ridge then drive north to the Belgian coast and capture the German submarine bases there. After three months of fierce fighting the town was finally taken by the Canadian forces, but the allies suffered almost half a million casualties, and the Germans almost a quarter of a million.
Allied soldiers who lost their lives at Passchendaele are commemorated at the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing and at the Tyne Cot and neighbouring Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries.
Tyne Cot is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the world with nearly 12,000 graves, including 519 New Zealanders, 322 of them unidentified. Also commemorated are over 35,000 soldiers who have no known grave, including 1,179 New Zealanders.
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