CASUALTIES, THEN AND NOW!

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 116, 11 June 1941, Page 4

CASUALTIES, THEN AND NOW!

THE arrival of the. first New Zealand, casualty lists of any size has served to bring the realities of war closer to the Dominion than any other major event hitherto experienced in this most amazing of conflicts. Casualty lists are the tests of civilian morale and while we are considering the effects of the first series of losses sustained by this country it is interesting to cast the mind back twenty-five years and compare the public re-action to a similar series during the initial years of the first Great War. To date our casualties exclusive of the Cretan campaign amount to approximately 4000 since the commencement of the present war. The war of 1914-18 cost New Zealand 55|501 casualties (killed and- wounded). The first major operation in which the original New Zealand Expeditionary Fores were engaged was the Gallipoli campaign. Of the 8566 of all ranks who were landed on the peninsula, 7447 became casualties. After the withdrawal, the bulk of the New Zealand Forces was transferred to France. Each of the major engagements in the war of 1914-18 meant a list of about 5000 casualties, and between the battles there was a steady wastage of men. Sir lan Hamilton, referring to the work of the New Zealanders in the Gallipoli campaign in a stirring tribute, drew attention to their losses, 7447 killed and wounded,, only 1120 of those who landed coming through unscathed. By the end of the first year of the campaign in France the Dominion's casualties had-totalled over 14,000, and by the end of the war they had' risen to 58,501. The losses in killed and wounded in France and Belgium between 1916 and the. armistice totalled 48,848. In France, the New Zealanc\ers' first large scale action was in the first battle of the Somme, where during the month of September their casualties were 7408. The New Zealand Division in the second battle: of the Somme fought for 23 days and its losses were 6745. At Messmes its casualties were 3633, and at Passchendaele 5087. The N.Z.E.F. casualties in Palestine were 1613. The civilian losses in this war so far have been heavier than those sustained by the armed forces. Up to the end of March 29,856 civilians in Britain had- been killed, and 40,987 wounded in air raids. In April, according to recent cables, the civilian casualties in Britain included over 6000 women and children.