Western Front

As the golden summer of 1914 gave way to a bitter autumn, men of the British Expeditionary Force reached Ypres. Both sides were exhausted by the fastest-moving war the world had seen. Posted to France in 1916 after the failed effort to break into Turkey from Gallipoli, Kiwi soldiers of the New Zealand Division fought in the deadly battles of the Somme, Passchendaele, and the Second Battle of Ypres - where more New Zealanders were killed than at Gallipoli. These soldiers' experiences helped define twentieth century New Zealand.