Prince William remembers NZ soldiers

Prince William has praised the resilience and strength of character displayed by the New Zealanders who fought in the Battle of Passchendaele, recognising that the world continues to admire those qualities of New Zealanders today.

On Thursday night Prince William spoke at the commemorations in Belguim, marking 100 years since the darkest day in World War I for the division of New Zealand when about 960 soldiers were killed or wounded.

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"All too often the newsreels speak of 'ordinary' men and women. There was nothing ordinary about their service or their sacrifice," the Duke of Cambridge said of the New Zealand soldiers during his address at Tyne Cot Cemetery.

"Half a world away, news of the losses was felt like a shockwave. Every death here left a shattered family there. Entire communities were robbed of their young people. No part of New Zealand was untouched by loss."

New Zealand resulted in losses on October 12th in 1917 as a result of an attempt to take a German position at Bellevue Spur. The soldiers who died on that day and those who died from their wounds in the following days accounted for 6% of the country's total casualties during WWI.

Following his visit in 2014, the British royal said he was struck by the impact of the battle. He and the Duchess of Cambridge laid wreaths at the war memorials in Blenheim and Cambridge during this trip.

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He also shared a hongi with Willie Apiata, New Zealand's only living Victoria Cross recipient and even used a Māori phrase in closing his address. "Kia mau mahara tonu tātou ki a rātou. We will remember them."

"In 1922, my great-great-grandfather, George V, visited the newly created Tyne Cot Cemetery," he said. "Since then, four more generations of my own family have been drawn repeatedly to this place to honour those who fought and those who died."

Tyne Cot Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth burial ground in the world, with more than 11,000 servicemen buried there and tens of thousands more Allied fighters commemorated at the site.