'Something new' from the cauldron of war

Pukenui school pupils at Houhora's service.

The horrific, doomed campaign at Gallipoli did more than forge a bond between the New Zealanders and Australians who fought, were wounded and died there, Lieutenant Colonel Julian Sewell told Kaitaia's civic Anzac Day service on Friday.

Ninety-nine years to the day since Anzac troops landed at Gallipoli, that campaign, and battles that followed on the Western Front and in Palestine, clearly created something new.

"On the day in August 1914 that the British Empire entered the First World War, New Zealand's government sent King George V a message saying that 'come good or ill, New Zealand is prepared to make any sacrifice to maintain her heritage and her birthright'. Over the next four years New Zealand would amply fulfil this pledge. More than 100,000 New Zealanders, about 10 per cent of New Zealand's total population, would serve overseas during the war, which claimed the lives of more than 18,000 of them," Lt Col Sewell said.

"In 1914, a fifth of New Zealanders had been born overseas, mainly in the United Kingdom, and for the vast majority of European New Zealanders the British Empire was central to their conception of who they were and their place in the world. At Gallipoli New Zealanders discovered something important about their identity, and began to think much more clearly of themselves as part of a separate nation.

"Since 1915 New Zealanders, whatever their background, have developed unique bonds through shared adversity at Gallipoli, El Alamein, Vung Tau, Bamian, and a thousand points in between.

"One hundred years later the percentage of New Zealanders born overseas is not dissimilar to that in 1914. Obviously they have come from a much more diverse range of countries, and are contributing to the reshaping of our identity as New Zealanders. Most of these immigrants come without the background or understanding of the service and sacrifice of our servicemen and women over the last century. Yet many come with their own memories, direct and indirect, of war or conflict in their own birth countries.

"If, over succeeding generations, we are to strengthen the relevance of our remembrance of service and sacrifice, as well as the horrors of war, we need to blend their experiences and knowledge with that of those of us who have been brought up with the Anzac remembrance.

"We are proud in the New Zealand Defence Force to continue to serve our country in New Zealand and overseas," he continued.

"We are indelibly linked to all those who have gone before by our core shared values - courage, comradeship, commitment and integrity. We are proud today to carry their battle honours and their traditions as well as those Kiwi traits of mateship, professionalism, respecting others and getting the job done ...

"More than 30,000 New Zealanders died during two world wars and the conflicts that followed. The vast majority lie in foreign fields and cemeteries, and are commemorated on monuments in more than 30 countries around the world ... More than a quarter of all our dead in all wars lie in France, and another 4700 in Belgium, highlighting the grievous toll of the battles on the Western Front. Another 2300 are buried or commemorated on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Thousands of our dead have no known grave.

"In August 1915, when the first terrible casualty lists were released in New Zealand showing the extent of the losses suffered by our forces in the August offensive at Gallipoli, Prime Minister William Massey said that New Zealand 'mourns for its dead, for those who have given their lives on behalf of their fellow citizens, and the honour of the Nation, and our hearts go out in sympathy to the relatives and friends of those who have fallen ... whose remains lie today in graves of their comrades' making on the bleak hillsides of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Far from home and friends it may be, but never to be forgotten by the people of this country'."

New Zealanders' commitment to upholding the promise given by Prime Minister Massey in 1915 had perhaps waxed and waned over the years, but no one who was present when, on November 11, 2004, the Unknown Warrior was interred at the National War Memorial in Wellington, or who had visited the tomb subsequently, would doubt that most New Zealanders remained committed to remembering those who had served their nation in war.

"Every cenotaph and war memorial in New Zealand lists the names of local men and women who served and sacrificed their lives. While a few of these names are famous, and many are well remembered by descendants or relatives, there are thousands who because their lives were cut short by war have already or are slipping from the memory of their fellow New Zealanders," he said.

"The centenary of the outbreak of the First World War will soon be upon us, and it provides an ideal opportunity for us as individuals and communities to ensure that these men and women do not become merely names inscribed on cenotaphs and rolls of honour.

"Whether they ultimately came home on the tide or lie beneath the soil on the other side of the world, they are and always will be sons and daughters of New Zealand. We will remember them."