On a cold and foggy morning VIPs from New Zealand, Australia and Belgium, New Zealand Defence Force personnel, invited guests, local residents and media gathered at a small memorial on a crossroads in ‘s Graventafel, Belgium.
The moody lighting created by the mist added to the sound of the karanga to create a very poignant feeling to ceremony held at the New Zealand memorial, ‘s Graventafel.
The ceremony, one of five attended by the Prime Minister Helen Clark today in Belgium, marked the anniversary of the Battle of Broodsiende – a small victory that sealed the fate of thousands.
Attendees at the ‘s Graventafel ceremony then moved on to an Anzac ceremony at Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest War Graves Cemetery in the World with over 12,000 graves, over 8,000 of them unidentified.
Over a thousand people attended the Anzac ceremony including Defence Force personnel from New Zealand, Australia, Belgium, VIPs, veterans from New Zealand, and a large contingent of media.
“For most, Passchendaele is a byword for disaster … it calls to mind images of our soldiers being bombarded by their own guns on the start line, of an artillery barrage that failed to provide the necessary support, of uncut wire that barred the way forward and enemy machine gunners cutting a swathe through our division’s ranks,” said Ms Clark.
“For all, Passchendaele is a byword for courage in adversity. It speaks of people bravely doing their duty as their comrades around them were being cut down, of desperate efforts to advance under a merciless hail of machine gun bullets, of stretcher bearers struggling to extricate the wounded lying in the quagmire.”
A very moving ceremony was held at Polygon Wood where the Australian Defence Force reintered five Australian soldiers whose remains were found near Westhoek in 2007. Only two of the five had been identified and family members of those two were at the ceremony today.
Two further ceremonies were held; one at the New Zealand Memorial at Messines and one at Messines Ridge British Cemetery.
New Zealand Defence Force personnel provided a catafalque guard at all New Zealand and Anzac service, wreaths were laid, the Ode to Fallen read in both Maori and English, national anthems sung, and a bugler played the Last Post and Reveille.
Two further ceremonies are planned for 12 October to mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele – the most tragic day in New Zealand’s military history; in just two hours more than 2800 men were killed, wounded or listed as missing in action.
Casualties on both sides were so bad that an informal ceasefire was granted for stretcher bearers to allow the wounded to be cleared from the battlefield. Recovering the New Zealand wounded from the battlefield took two and a half days.
Image gallery: Passchendaele commemorations