The Western Front 
From Egypt the New Zealand Division was ordered to France
where it arrived in April 1916. Both sides were stalemated and the New Zealanders quickly became accustomed to the rigors of
European trench warfare.
Their first major action was in the closing stages of the Somme offensive in September 1916: in 23 days of fighting 1,560 New Zealanders were killed and 5,440 were wounded.
During 1917 the Division took art in the battles for Messines and Passchendaele, again taking
heavy casualties. The winter of 1917-18 was spent in the Polygon Wood sector - these "quiet" winter months alone coast nearly 3,000 casualties.
With a steady stream of reinforcements arriving from New Zealand, the Division was able to maintain its four-battalion brigades (other allied divisions having three-battalion brigades) and it became the strongest division on the Western Front.
In
March 1918, the Germans launched an offensive which created a dangerous gap between the British IV and V Corps and the capture of Amiens seemed certain. The New Zealanders
were rushed to fill this gap and, in confused fighting with an enemy flushed with victory, gradually managed to gain the upper hand and the British front line was stabilised. For the next four months the Division held part of the line defending Amiens. 
The Battle of Bapaume, the final British offensive, started in August 1918. One of the Division's finest actions was on 4 November 1918 when the 3rd (Rifles) Brigade stormed and captured
the medieval fortress town of Le Quesnoy, using scaling ladders to climb the 60-foot ramparts - a success which, according to Lieutenant General Harper, Commander of IV Corps, "did much to decide the finish of the war" on 11 November 1918.
After the war Field Marshal Earl Haig who commanded the British Armies, wrote of the New Zealanders:
"...no division in France built up for itself a finer reputation, whether for gallantry of its conduct in battle or for excellence of its behaviour out of the line".
On armistice day 1918, New Zealand had 58,129 troops in the field, while an additional 10,000 were under training in New Zealand. In total, the troops provided for foreign service by New Zealand during the War represented 10 percent of its 1914
population and 41 percent of the 1914 male population between the ages of 20 and 45.
Casualties
During the First World War, 100,444 troops left New Zealand for service with the expeditionary forces: of these, 16,697 lost
their lives and 41,317 were wounded - a 58 percent casualty rate.
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