Solemn remembrance for fallen

CRAIG SIMCOX/Dominion Post

ARMISTICE DAY: Outgoing Prime Minister Helen Clark lays a wreath as fallen soldiers were honoured at a ceremony at Wellington's War Memorial today.

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Dignitaries, war veterans, serving soldiers and school children turned out at Wellington's War Memorial today to mark the anniversary of the end of World War One.

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year, two minutes silence was observed and the Peace Bell Rangimarie tolled eleven times, adding to the solemn atmosphere.

The soldiers of the Army, Navy and Air Force stood resplendent in their military garb as the sound of the Central Band of the Royal New Zealand Air Force rang out.
 
Today was the ninetieth anniversary of the signing of the Armistice, the agreement that brought the fighting on the Western Front to an end, though it continued in other areas.
 
More New Zealanders died fighting on the Western Front than in the entire Second World War.
 
Vietnam War veteran Fraser Mitchell said he had never missed an Armistice anniversary and said today's service was "lovely".
 
"Its very important to me because I think a lot of people live their lives and they don't remember the sacrifices [others have made]," he said.
 
"I find it quite distressing and I make a point of coming to these."
 
It was important to mark occasions like this so we could learn from past mistakes, he said.
 
School children from nearby Mt Cook School also observed the ceremony.

Eleven-year-old Jessica Godwin said it was "really interesting" however she did not know much about the conflict that raged from 1914 to 1918.
 
Fellow pupil Tom Maker, also 11, said the ceremony was "a little bit boring" but he had some knowledge of the war.
 
"I've got a whole book but I don’t remember it off by heart."
 
Dignitaries at the ceremony included outgoing Prime Minister Helen Clark and her likely replacement Phil Goff, as well as Governor-General Anand Satyanand and the British High Commissioner George Fergusson.
 
Other parts of the ceremony included a wreath laying ceremony, the playing of the Reveille and a series of readings in the Hall of Memories.
 
Soldiers are currently on a dawn to dusk vigil at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.
 
A planned fly-over by vintage planes had to be cancelled due to bad weather.
 
New Zealand sent around 100,000 men and women abroad from a population of 1.1 million at the time.
 
Around 18,000 died and over 40,000 were wounded - a higher per capita casualty rate than any other country involved.
 
Total casualty estimates from the war vary but around 10 million soldiers and five million civilians were killed and millions more were wounded.

- © Fairfax NZ News