THE first operation of the War in which New Zealand troops were engaged was the occupation of Western Samoa on 29^th August 1914, partly to obtain possession of the important wireless station on the islands.

In February 1915 the New Zealand forces in Egypt took part in frustrating the Turkish attempt to capture the Suez Canal. They were soon to take the field in a much sterner conflict, when on 25^th April 1915 they landed at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli. Although the Peninsula had to be evacuated in December, no episode gained greater glory for New Zealand arms. On 8^th August New Zealand troops had fought their way to the summit of Chunuk Bair, the hilltop that commands the whole Gallipoli Peninsula. The men in the forward trench held their position until annihilated by superior forces. The main position had later to be abandoned. It was on Gallipoli that our troops decisively proved their quality and capacity for fighting against heavy odds.

In December 1915 and January 1916 the New Zealand Rifle Brigade was engaged in the success­ful operations against the Senussi tribe on the western Egyptian border. In March 1916 the New Zealand Division of about 20,000 men was formed to serve in France, while the Mounted Rifles Brigade of about 2,000 men was kept in Egypt to take part later in Allenby’s great drive through Palestine.

In May 1916 the New Zealand Division reached the Flanders front, and in September played a brilliant part in the Battle of the Somme. During the whole of 1917 New Zealand troops were active on the Western Front, at Messines, Broodseinde and Paschendaele, suffering the heavy casualties shared by the rest of the Allied army. During the German offensive of March and April 1918 the Anzacs proved that their qualities of initiative and self-confidence could thwart the heaviest enemy thrust of the whole war. At Bapaume in August when the tide was turning in favour of the Allies, the New Zealanders took the fullest part in the hardly fought advance, their final exploit being the capture of Le Quesnoy on 4^th November, a week before the Armistice.

Meanwhile the New Zealand Mounted Rifles had been joining in the attack on the Turks in Sinai and then Palestine with the same dash and brilliance that had been shown at Gallipoli and in France. Cavalry were very important in a campaign fundamentally different from the trench warfare of the Western Front and much more like the South African War. During 1917 one after the other the towns of the Holy Land fell to the advancing troops. In March 1918 Amman was raided, and in September it was captured, con­summating the collapse of the Turkish army.

This is plainly a very inadequate sketch of the many actions in which the New Zealand troops were engaged and in which they won lasting renown for their country. Space alone makes this compression necessary. The full story is told in the Official Histories published after the War.