New Zealand - World War I
- New Zealand soldiers queuing up with their mess tins for a meal break in camp near Louvencourt, France
- A soldier ladles food out of three large pots
- 30 April 1918
- Henry Armytage Sanders Photo
Quick facts and figures about World War 1
- The total population of New Zealand in 1914 was approximately 1.1 million
- Almost 100,000 New Zealanders served overseas in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF)
- More than 2200 Māori and around 500 Pacific Islanders served overseas with the New Zealand forces
- 11 Victoria Crosses were awarded to soldiers serving with New Zealand forces
- Several thousand New Zealanders served in the Australian or British imperial forces, being awarded a further five Victoria Crosses
- In all, 550 nurses served overseas with the New Zealand Army Nursing Service, while others enlisted in the United Kingdom
- Around 18,000 New Zealanders died in or because of the war, and there were 41,000 instances of wounding or illness; 2779 died at Gallipoli and more than 12,000 on the Western Front
- The names of those who died are recorded on approximately 500 civic war memorials throughout New Zealand
(https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/first-world-war-overview/introduction)
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Image source: Meal time for New Zealand troops, Louvencourt. Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association :New Zealand official negatives, World War 1914-1918. Ref: 1/2-013162-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. natlib.govt.nz/records/23076048
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/21307028935/