The Western Front, 1916
But all that my mind sees
Is a quaking bog in a mist — stark, snapped trees,
And the dark Somme flowing.Vance Palmer (1885–1959), ‘The farmer remembers the Somme’
The Battles and their Locations
The grey shaded areas on the map illustrate the main areas on the Western Front where the 1914-1918 battles took place. The battlefields ranged from the northern end of this battle front on the Belgian coast to the village of Pfetterhouse on the Swiss frontier at its southern end. The map shows the Franco-German border as it was in 1914 when the war broke out. An overview of the major battles that shaped the formation of the Western Front is given below the map.

A truly nightmarish world greeted the New Zealand Division when it joined the Battle of the Somme in mid-September 1916. The division…
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