NZ History Online - The Gallipoli campaign Each year on Anzac Day, New Zealanders (and Australians) mark the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings of 25 April 1915. On that day, thousands of young men, far from their homes, stormed the beaches on the Gallipoli Peninsula in what is now Turkey. For eight long months, New Zealand troops, alongside those from Australia, Great Britain and Ireland, France, India, and Newfoundland battled harsh conditions and Ottoman forces desperately fighting to protect their homeland. By the time the campaign ended, more than 130,000 men had died: at least 87,000 Ottoman soldiers and 44,000 Allied soldiers, including more than 8700 Australians. Among the dead were 2779 New Zealanders, about a fifth of all those who had landed on the peninsula. In the wider story of the First World War, the Gallipoli campaign made no large mark.
WWI Battlefields Te Ara - New Zealand Origins The First World War was caused by the destabilisation of the balance of power in Europe due to the rise of Germany. The war began in 1914 when Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia because of the assassination of an archduke. Countries had made alliances with each other, and soon most of Europe was at war. New Zealand was part of the British Empire, and when Britain declared war on Germany, in August 1914, that meant New Zealand was at war too. The two sides were called the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary) and the Allies, which included the British Empire, Russia and France. New Zealand enters the war New Zealand decided to send soldiers to fight in the war for a number of reasons, including New Zealand’s strong ties to Britain and its concern with keeping trade routes open so it could continue to export to Britain. Within a month New Zealand troops had occupied Western Samoa, which was a German territory. Gallipoli Turkey had entered the war on the Central Powers side.
Sites & sources | WW100 New Zealand A selection of sites and sources for learning about the history of the First World War from a New Zealand perspective, and the role your family members might have played in it. Soldiers inside the YMCA library in Beauvois, France. Ref: 1/2-013635-G. Courtesy of Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. Starting Places Use these websites to start your learning journey. New Zealand and the First World War history Get an overview of the history of New Zealand and the First World War. Researching First World War soldiers Read a guide to researching New Zealand soldiers and related service personnel. Cenotaph database & personnel files Discover whether someone in your family served. Use personnel files to get more detail about First World War soldiers, from Archives New Zealand. A guide to understanding personnel files is available. Digital New Zealand search Filter by ‘usage rights’ to see how you can use the material you find. Further sites and sources Guides to specific collections
Returned and Services' Association (RSA) Anzac Day 1916-22: The making of a holy day 25 April 1922 was a day of mourning throughout New Zealand. In cities and towns a sombre and almost surreal stillness reigned unlike any other day of the year. Government offices and banks, shops and factories, theatres and hotels were closed. 25 April 1916: The first Anzac Day For the very first Anzac Day in 1916 the NZRSA had not yet been formed and only a few local returned soldiers’ organisations existed. Anzac Day, 1916 The government suggested church services together with recruiting meetings as an appropriate means of commemoration. 1916-20: The RSA’s emergence as guardian Three days after the first Anzac Day observance, the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association was founded in Wellington. In 1917, however, 25 April had already been set aside for municipal elections in many parts of the country. It is from 1917, in fact, that the RSA began actively to secure control of the public observance. The “Boxer Service” 1921: A “muddled holiday”
National Library resources: Gallipoli Campaign Image: Anzac Cove, Gallipoli by State Library of South Australia on Flickr This year, 2015, is the 100 year anniversary since the landing of ANZAC troops on the beaches of Gallipoli, Turkey. Discover the history and what happened with the landing of the New Zealand and Australian troops. These resources have been selected to support this popular topic – Gallipoli SCIS 1674365 Digital NZThis site provides access to thousands of pictures, video, sounds and objects from New Zealand museums, libraries, galleries, archives and private institutions. Suggested level: primary, intermediate, sec All About Turkey Covers the history of Gallipoli and the campaign, World War I from the Turkish perspective, including naval battles, and land battles. Suggested level: intermediate, secondarywww.allaboutturkey.com/gelibolu.htm BBC History World War 1 The battle for Gallipoli February 1915 - January 1916. Eyewitness to History: Battle at Gallipoli 1915 The Gallipoli Campaign Books
untitled Trench Foot Many soldiers fighting in the First World War suffered from trench foot. This was an infection of the feet caused by cold, wet and insanitary conditions. In the trenches men stood for hours on end in waterlogged trenches without being able to remove wet socks or boots. Arthur Savage pointed out that trench foot had serious consequences: "My memories are of sheer terror and the horror of seeing men sobbing because they had trench foot that had turned gangrenous. The only remedy for trench foot was for the soldiers to dry their feet and change their socks several times a day.
BBC Schools - Life in the trenches 31 October 2014Last updated at 15:07 Two British soldiers standing in a flooded communication trench during World War One On the Western Front, the war was fought in trenches. Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived all day and night. There were many lines of German trenches on one side and many lines of Allied trenches on the other. In the middle, was no man's land, so-called because it did not belong to either army. Rest Soldiers in the trenches did not get much sleep. Dirty trenches The trenches could be very muddy and smelly.
Anzac History World War I Letters from the trenches of WWI Gallipoli France Letters written by Bert Smythe and published in the Jerilderie Herald and Urana Advertiser on 30 June and 7 July 1916. Corporal Bert Smythe, an old Jerilderie boy, writes an interesting narrative concerning trench warfare in Gallipoli in which campaign he participated. At time of writing the soldier was an inmate of a London Hospital. He says:- “It is about 6 o’clock in the morning, and we are in the rest trenches due to go into the firing line for four hours (approx.) sometime during the morning. There is a splutter of rifle fire and a machine gun spits out about 20 rounds viciously. “What the __ __ is the __ __ matter?” Jones sits up and considers things, and finally Smith and he go grumblingly to the cook house under the shelter (?) It’s your platoon’s turn for cookhouse fatigue so you again refer to your roster. Word is received that we relieve the 5th at 9.30 a.m. and in the meantime the trench must be tidied up. “Stop shovin', you __ __.” “Where’d she settle?”
In the trenches of 1914-1918 What were the trenches? Although most of us think primarily of the Great War in terms of life and death in the trenches, only a relatively small proportion of the army actually served there. The trenches were the front lines, the most dangerous places. But behind them was a mass of supply lines, training establishments, stores, workshops, headquarters and all the other elements of the 1914-1918 system of war, in which the majority of troops were employed. Why were the trenches there? The idea of digging into the ground to give some protection from powerful enemy artillery and small arms fire was not a new idea or unique to the Great War. What were the trenches like? The type and nature of the trench positions varied a lot, depending on the local conditions. The bird's-eye view (below, from an official infantry training manual of March 1916) shows a typical but very stylised trench layout. Behind it is another line, similarly made, called a support line. Keep your head down!
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