Tomorrow is ANZAC Day, a day when New Zealanders and Australians remember soldiers who died in Gallipoli on 25th April 1915. See April 25th 2008 . 1915 was during the First World War. ANZAC Day, however, is a day to remember all New Zealand soldiers who lost their lives in war. Gallipoli was especially tragic for New Zealand and Australia because they were small countries and so many soldiers were killed or injured. 8450 New Zealand men fought at Gallipoli, 2723 were killed and 4752 injured – that is 88% of those soldiers. About 8,000 Australian soldiers were killed and 19,000 injured. New Zealand sent 20% of all their young men to fight in World War I and more than 50% of those were killed or injured.
In spite of this terrible tragedy, New Zealand also sent soldiers to fight in the Second World War. Nearly 12,000 New Zealand men died in that war. New Zealand’s population was only 1.6 million at that time.
New Zealand soldiers now help with peace keeping in countries like East Timor or they help to re-build countries destroyed by war, like Afghanistan. These can be dangerous jobs and some soldiers have been killed.