About Some New Zealanders on the Somme

In early autumn 1916, the New Zealand Division joined the Somme Offensive. Arriving on 8 September at their camp near Fricourt Wood, a few miles behind the front line, the troops began preparing for their first major assault, scheduled for the 15th. The Division’s sector stretched from Longueval west toward the already infamous High Wood.

On 12 September, the Division moved up to the front line via Caterpillar Valley and Carlton Trench, which ran along the ridge immediately behind the present-day Caterpillar Valley Cemetery. Over the next few days, the men prepared the line and dug new trenches, including Otago Trench, positioned 100 yards forward of the main front.

At 6:20 a.m. on the 15th, following a creeping artillery barrage laid down by the divisional guns, the 2nd Brigade’s Auckland and Otago Battalions advanced on their first objective—the Switch Trench line—and seized it within an hour.

The Division remained at the front for 22 consecutive days, longer than any other division in the battle. By the time they were withdrawn on 4 October, they had captured all their assigned objectives, achieving hard-won success at a devastating cost. The Division suffered more than 7,000 casualties, including 2,000 killed—their heaviest loss in any single battle of the First World War. Of those killed, 1,205 have no known grave and are commemorated on the New Zealand Memorial Wall at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery.

In 2004, one of these unknown soldiers was exhumed, returned to New Zealand, and interred in the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior at the National War Memorial in Wellington, standing as a symbol for the more than 18,000 New Zealanders who lost their lives during the war.