The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11 month of 1917

November 11th is Armistice Day here in New Zealand and Remembrance Day in Australia. It was once Armistice Day in the U.S but the name was changed there in 1954 to Veterans Day. On November 11, 1917 Germany signed an armistice that ended World War I. Veteran’s Day in the U.S. is a legal government and bank holiday but it is not an occasion in most of the private sector there for a day off from work. Memorial Day is the more important of the two U.S. holidays that commemorate the sacrifices of fallen American servicemen in all wars. It grew out of a tradition started by southern woman after the American Civil War of placing flowers on the graves of Confederate War dead. The Civil War and the 2nd World War have always over shadowed the 1st World War in the consciousness of the American public. In WWI our entry was in the final year of that conflict and far more of the American Expeditionary Forces died from the influenza epidemic of 1918 than from combat. This is in stark contrast to the losses suffered by Australian and New Zealand soldiers in what was called in the 20’s and 30’s, the “war to end all wars”. Over 16,000 Kiwis died in that conflict and on a per capita basis NZ suffered some of the highest casualties of the war. And this was when the population of New Zealand was less than a quarter of a million. That is why the November 11th observance means so much more here then in the U.S. Though it is now more than 90 years since they occurred the names of the WWI battles at Gallipoli and Passendale resonate here in the hearts and minds of Kiwis with the intensity that Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima does for Americans.