First World War

Private Frank Hughes was one of the 28 members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force who were sentenced to death, and the first of the five who had their sentence confirmed and were “shot at dawn”.

He was found guilty of deserting and “evading duty in the trenches” by a Field General Court Martial held on 12 August 1916. The sentence was confirmed on 21 August, 1916 by the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig.

The long planned main British offensive for 1917, of which Messines was a preliminary step, began on 31 July with Passchendaele as its initial objective. It was planned to break through the strongly fortified German defences enclosing the Ypres salient using the Fifth Army.

“The battlefield of Ypres! It is a dreadful place, hideously bare of all comfort, with no beautiful, or decent, or pleasant thing anywhere to be seen. It is a field of agony and death. No place on earth has been so desecrated by slaughter, no place, save Calvary, so consecrated by sacrifice.”

The Germans launched a renewed effort to push through to Amiens on 5 April, two armies attacking across the front of the British Third Army.

“A very prominent feature of the landscape, this hedge ran for 1000 yards from the Serre Road in a north-westerly direction on our side of La Signy Farm to the Hébuterne Road just short of the Red Hut. Behind it lay a small system of dugouts. From the trench alongside it snipers and machine guns maintained an active fire on our lines and inflicted casualties.”

“[O]n the 29th and had suggested to Divisional Headquarters the capture of the crest south and west of the Farm.”

“With dawn on the 27th the enemy endeavoured to resume his advance and extend the Serre gap southwards. After the rude checks of the previous evening, infiltration methods were abandoned in favour of violent assaults. His artillery was moved up and was to be consistently active throughout the day on Mailly-Maillet Courcelles Hédauville and Colincamps. For all their recent marching and fighting the Germans were not yet exhausted. Attack followed attack, for beaten back at one point the enemy's infantry was remorselessly launched at another.”

On 21 March, the Germans launched their Spring Offensive. By the end of the first day, the British had lost nearly 20,000 dead and 35,000 wounded and the Germans had broken through at several points on the front of the British Fifth Army.

At the time the NZ Division was out of the line. After moving rapidly to the front, it was positioned at Hamel by 26 March and from there linked up with the 4th Australian Division.