New Zealand's darkest day on the battlefield will be commemorated today with the centenary of the Passchendaele offensive on the Western Front in the First World War. Services will be held in New Zealand and in Belgium. Officially 843 New Zealanders died and over 1700 were wounded in just the first few hours of October 12, 1917, as allied troops tried and failed to take the village of Passchendaele. The battle, which was also known as the Third Battle of Ypres eventually claimed the lives of nearly 2,000 New Zealand soldiers.
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