NZ Defence Force joins Kiwis at Menin Gate

New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel joined hundreds of Kiwis at the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate in Belgium yesterday.

The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at Ypres is the representative focal point for remembering those who died in Flanders during World War One. The names of 54,896 soldiers of Britain and the Commonwealth who have no known grave are engraved on Portland stone panels in a massive arched memorial.

Since 1928 a local organisation, the Last Post Association, has, with the exception of a few months at the beginning and several years during World War Two, provided a daily Last Post ceremony as a tribute to those British and Commonwealth soldiers who lost their lives in Flanders.

Shortly before 8 pm each evening the road through the Menin Gate Memorial is closed to traffic and a short, moving service led by the buglers of the city's volunteer fire brigade takes place, generally with large numbers of visitors in attendance.

At the ceremony New Zealand Army Chaplain Don Parker said the prayer and the Chief of Army Major General Lou Gardiner, New Zealand Ambassador to Belgium His Excellency Mr Peter Kennedy and RNZRSA representative John Campbell were among the many New Zealanders to lay wreaths to honour those soldiers killed at Flanders.

Major General Gardiner said, “It is reassuring to see the numbers of people attending here tonight. This and the services tomorrow will give us a chance to reflect on the sacrifices the New Zealand soldiers made during World War One.”

The NZDF personnel are taking part in three ceremonies on October 12 (Belgium time) to mark the 90th anniversary of the battle of Passchendaele when more than 2800 New Zealand soldiers were killed, wounded or listed as missing in action in just two hours. These will include a dawn service at Tyne Cot Cemetery, a small ceremony at Nine Elms cemetery where ex-All Black captain Dave Gallaher is buried, and a service at the New Zealand memorial at ‘s Graventafel.

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Background

The Menin Gate Memorial records the names of the missing in Flanders until August 16, 1917. From that date on the missing are recorded on the Tyne Cot Memorial where a further 35,000 names, including those of 1,166 New Zealanders, are inscribed. Eighty-six New Zealanders with no known grave are recorded on the Menin Gate, with a further 839 on the New Zealand Memorial to the Missing at Messines and 378 at Buttes New British Cemetery near Zonnebeke.

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.

The New Zealanders and Australians traditionally hold a combined Anzac service at the Menin Gate on Anzac Day following the national services for the New Zealanders at Messines and the Australians at Tyne Cot.

The Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele, was one of the major battles of World War I, fought by British, ANZAC and Canadian soldiers against the German Army in 1917. 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.