Warrant Officer 2nd Class Terry Moloney, the founding bandmaster of the 1st Infantry Regiment Band, conducted the Band of the Royal New Zealand Air Force at the Auckland War Memorial Museum ceremony yesterday. Photo/ Richard Robinson
Once a year Belgian Lode Notredame returns to Flanders fields and his home in Passchendaele around Armistice Day.
Born and raised at the scene of New Zealand's greatest war time disaster, which saw 2735 casualties in one day of fighting on October 12, 1917, Mr Notredame, who lives
in Auckland, said the place was an indelible part of who he was.
"I am drawn to it, I must go back and smell the area - it's in my being," he said.
The 46-year-old was among the dignitaries, who included Prime Minister Helen Clark and Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard, who laid a wreath during commemorations of the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
"It really is a great honour for me to be here. I feel I owe it to the many soldiers who fought and died there," Mr Notredame said.
The First Battle of Passchendaele was meant to create a corridor and ease pressure on French forces, but instead hundreds of New Zealanders were among the 13,000 casualties as heavy rain and mud, which was deep enough to drown in, prevented accurate artillery fire and the bringing up of reinforcements.
The national president of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association, Robin Klitscher, said October 12 was the single worst day in New Zealand's military history.
"Most New Zealanders would say instinctively our worst military experience was at Gallipoli. It seems immersed in our belief but historically it's not accurate."
