Veterans at Paschendaele Commemorations

Article courtesy of RSA Review.

Ten Kiwi veterans of World War II, Korea, Malaya and Vietnam, attended the NZ commemorations of the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium during October.

The men, aged from 59 to 85, were selected by ballot for the trip, which was funded by Veterans’ Affairs NZ and led by Director Jessie Gunn accompanied by Paula Munro, a nurse from Christchurch.

KForce veteran Alex Reedy of Ruatoria was among the group. His father Ben Reedy and two uncles served in Flanders. “It was very sad to see familiar names from the [East] Coast in so many cemeteries.” Mr Reedy also said he would never forget The Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate, Hayley Westenra’s singing, the respect given the group by Belgian and French people and the and the care and courtesy accorded them by their VANZ escorts.

The veterans joined many other New Zealanders including Prime Minister Helen Clark, to attend services on 4 October to mark the 90th anniversary of the commencement of the Battle.

Another was a special ANZAC service at Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the world with nearly 12,000 graves.

They experienced battlefield tours of Messines and Passchendaele, and visited significant NZ gravesites and memorials. Also included was a day visit to the Somme region and to the Caterpillar Valley cemetery where the NZ Unknown Warrior was previously interred.

The group also attended a commemorative rugby match between a London NZ rugby team comprised of young Kiwis living in London and an invitation French team. The London NZ team had visited the NZ Memorial at Messines on the morning of the game and each player had picked a name from the memorial of a young soldier to play for.

The trip also provided a chance for socialising and sampling Belgian beer and chocolate and French wines.

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