Source: Radio New Zealand
One week before the end of World War I, New Zealand soldiers fought their last battle to restore Le Quesnoy to the French. RNZ / Sharon Brettkelly
The French town of Le Quesnoy marks Anzac Day with us, thanks to the New Zealand soldiers who saved them over a century ago
In a medieval town 20,000 kilometres away there’s an inscription on a war memorial that says New Zealanders restored Le Quesnoy to France.
They did not conquer the town, they did not invade it. They made it French once again.
New Zealand’s last battle took place a week before the end of World War I, on 4 November, 1918. Not one civilian died but nearly 200 Kiwi soldiers lost their lives, a sacrifice the people of Le Quesnoy have never forgotten.
Central to this heroic story is a wooden ladder that was used by the soldiers to scale the high ramparts and free the town from four years of German occupation.
This Anazc Day The Detail talks to a series of people who have made it their business to make sure New Zealand’s connections with the town stay strong, including the marketing and operations manager of the New Zealand Liberation Museum, Te Arawhata, which has been described as New Zealand’s home on the Western Front.
The Le Quesnoy stained glass window is one of three in St Andrews Church in Cambridge depicting battles from World War I. RNZ / Sharon Brettkelly
Jacob Siermans said the story of the liberation of Le Quesnoy was one of New Zealand’s finest moments.
The town had been occupied for four years and the population had halved to 1500 people, many of them starving, by the time the New Zealand Rifle Brigade arrived at its 20 metre high walls.
“The New Zealanders know that if they launch their shells into the town they will kill all of the civilians. So they have to develop another way of getting in … and in the kind of typical number eight wire New Zealand way they decide to not bombard the town, they encircle the town and they find a way in – by ladder. They literally climb ladders into this town.
“And by doing so, they manage to liberate the town, they push the Germans out … 193 New Zealanders will die during that action but not a single civilian is killed.”
Siermans said it was a real symbol of a developing national identity for the New Zealanders, and the French held onto this memory of them.
One of the battalion was Reverend Clive Mortimer-Jones who left his parish of Cambridge to look after the men in France.
Heather Wellington of the Cambridge-Le Quesnoy Friendship Association give The Detail a tour of the memorials in the Waikato town. RNZ / Sharon Brettkelly
His church, St Andrews, now had three stained glass windows depicting the war, one of Gallipoli, representing truth; one of Ypres representing freedom; and another of Le Quesnoy, representing justice. The towns were now twinned.
Heather Wellington of the Cambridge-Le Quesnoy Friendship Association gave The Detail a tour of the memorials in the Waikato town, and the museum there which held the wooden writing case of Reverand Mortimer-Jones.
The museum is also where author Tania Roberts launched the first of three planned books inspired by the events in the French village. In the podcast, she explains how she became interested in the story.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
