The Battle of Passchendaele, 12th October 1917, was the darkest day in New Zealand’s military history. In a few short hours New Zealand sustained 2,735 casualties and 845 dead, or mortally wounded.
Photo: Supplied / The Great War Exhibition
Sergeant Major Dwayne Bloomfield’s composition graphically describes the battle that day. The opening depicts the failed allied artillery barrage, with shells falling on New Zealand soldiers instead of the barbed wire, and the carnage this created in the trenches. A sad reflective moment from the solo cornet occurs just before the New Zealand troops go over the top as they realise the hopelessness of their situation. Whistles sound up and down the trench line ordering the charge over the top followed by the murderous machine gun barrages. Then follows a mournful section where you can hear the moans of the mortally wounded on the barbed wire before the work closes with a haunting requiem to the dead. The last sound is the sound that every family in New Zealand dreaded – the knock at the door from the telegram delivery boy – heard on 845 doors throughout the country after 12th October 1917 - the worst day in New Zealand’s military history.
The present day sunset ceremony of Beating Retreat involves parading and mounting the guard, drums beating retreat, rifle volleys and the playing of sacred music as the New Zealand Ensign is lowered.
The New Zealand Army Band ends this Anzac tribute with the March of the Coldstream Guards, Glorious Victory by Walter Kendall.
Recorded 23 April 2017, Opera House, Wellington by RNZ Concert
Producers: David McCaw, Adrienne Baron
Engineer: Darryl Stack
Crosses at Auckland's War Memorial Museum commemorate soldiers who died at Passchendaele. Photo: RNZ / Laura Tupou
