WAR CASUALTIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 June 1941, Page 6

WAR CASUALTIES

NEW ZEALAND'S LOSSES IN 1914-18. OPERATIONS AT GALLIPOLI AND IN FRANCE. According to the British War Office’s bulletin of statistics covering the whole of the operations of the World War of 1914-18, the first New Zealand Expeditionary Force sustained 58,501 casualties (killed and wounded). Its first major operation was the Gallipoli campaign. Of the 8.566 of all ranks who were landed on the peninsula. 7.447 became casualties. After the withdrawal, the bulk of the New Zealand forces was transferred to France. The losses in killed and wounded in France and Belgium between 1916 and the armistice totalled 48.848. In France, the New Zealanders' first large scale action was in the first battle of the Somme, where during the month of September their casualties were 7.408. The New Zealand Division in the second battle of-dhe Somme fought for twenty-three days and its losses were 6,745. At Massines its casualties were 3,633, and at Passchendaele, 5.087. The N.Z.E.F. casualties in Palestine were 1,613. 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 6,000 women and children.

Major T. Farr. D. 5.0.. M.C., whose death recently has recalled his distinguished services, was one of the small band of New Zealanders who went through every major engagement in which the Dominion’s troops participated during the World War. from the first Gallipoli landing to the final advance in 1918. His battery, the 13th, was in action almost continuously from its formation at Ismailia in January, 1916, to the famous eleventh day of November, when the armistice stopped the fighting. He saw the long months of trench warfare and the heavy fighting in which the New Zealand Division earned fame al a cost in casualties now often only dimly remembered.

Each of the major engagements in the war of 1914-11! meant a list of about 5.000 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. 7,447 killed and wounded, only 1,120 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. In the present war the late Major Farr's experience was invaluable during the training period of the 2nd N.Z.E.F.. and before his death ho had read witli pride of the prowess of the “Sons of the Anzacs."