How the battle affected NZ society
Stastics and Facts
The total population of New Zealand in 1914 was just over one million. In all, 120,000 New Zealanders enlisted, of whom 103,000 served overseas. A total of 2227 Maori and around 460 Pacific Islanders served overseas with the New Zealand forces. At least 3370 New Zealanders served in the Australian or imperial forces, winning four Victoria Crosses. In all, 550 nurses served with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and many others enlisted in the United Kingdom. A total of 18,500 New Zealanders died in or because of the war, and around 41,000 were wounded. More than 2700 died at Gallipoli and 12,500 on the Western Front. Book: Gallipoli The final battles and Evacuation of Anzac Page 1, Page 2 Despite the failure of the August offensive at Gallipoli the senior commander’s still believed victory was possible. To help prepare for a new offensive sometime in the first half of 1916 that allied forces attempted to straighten out the line between the Suvla bay and Anzac sectors at a small hillock called hill 60. This tactically meaningless piece of Gallipoli real estate would cost the lives of thousands of men from both sides. The end result was a huge causality cost for gaining just a few hundred meters of the ground. With this, the Gallipoli Campaign ground to a halt. At 3pm the battalions shoved off 700 strong. The furthest anyone got was 500 yards and none came back from there. They all got mown down by machine gun fire. We lost 9 officers and nearly 400 men. The Turks shelled us very heavily and the whole country, which is covered with gorse, caught fire. This split up the attack and parties got cut up. Many of our wounded were burnt alive and it was as nasty a sight as I ever want to see. In this book it tells us that the New Zealand soldiers could not even imagine the war would turn out this way. The battle of Gallipoli shook the whole of New Zealand because they never experienced such a high percentage of causality rates in New Zealand’s history and no other campaign had ever had such an impact on the New Zealand society. This tells us the effect was huge and 9 officers were lost and nearly 900 men. The effect of this was very bad. Most importantly it says that the Gallipoli battle will always live in military history for its heroism. Which means the soldiers fought like heroes and were determined that they would definitely protect their country. It shows that the causality rate was high and thousands of lives were gone. |
Diary Entry:‘Anyday.
It’s just hell here now no water or tucker only 7 out of 33 in no 1 troop on duty not either dead or wound. Dam the place no good writing any more This is the last page from Alfred Cameron’s Gallipoli was diary. This source shows the impact of the war (battle of Gallipoli) and how it affected New Zealand soldiers as it tells us the war was hell and no water and that only 7 out of 33 soldiers survived. This is a reliable and useful source as it is a primary source and it is written by a New Zealand soldier during the battle. |