Armistice 1918-2018

Armistice 1918-2018 Silver Proof Coin (reverse design)

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the guns fell silent along the Western Front and the First World War effectively ended.

Six hours earlier a German delegation had accepted harsh ceasefire terms after three days of talks in a railway carriage parked at a siding north of Paris. The fallen of the First World War are remembered on 11 November in many countries around the world.

Armistice 1918-2018 3-poppy Silver Proof Coin (reverse design)

In New Zealand and Australia, Armistice Day has always been overshadowed by Anzac Day (25 April), which was first observed in 1916 and has been a full public holiday in New Zealand since 1921. Armistice Day was nevertheless observed in New Zealand. Until the 1950s, trains would come to a halt and vehicles would pull over to the kerb just before 11am on 11 November. Drivers and passengers observed two minutes’ silence.

New Zealand Post is proud to have worked with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) to issue New Zealand’s second ever coloured commemorative circulating coin. This year’s 50 cent Armistice circulating coin follows the Spirit of Anzac 50 cent circulating coin, issued in 2015. RBNZ has minted two million coins, the majority of which were released into circulation via retailers nationwide on 1 October. In conjunction with this coin, New Zealand Post has created a stamp and coin programme to honour those who served then, and the men and women who serve today.

Navy

Armistice 1918-2018 $3.00 Navy gummed gtamp

During the First World War, the Royal Navy cruisers stationed in New Zealand waters in peacetime were sent to the Mediterranean. The battlecruiser HMS New Zealand, part of the British main fleet, had been paid for by New Zealand taxpayers but was largely manned by British sailors. A New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy established in 1921 was succeeded by the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1941. In 2018 its 2,500 personnel and 10 ships patrol New Zealand’s huge Exclusive Economic Zone and provide emergency relief at home and overseas.

Army

Armistice 1918-2018 $2.40 Army gummed stamp

The vast majority of the 100,000 New Zealanders who served overseas during the First World War were in the infantry, artillery and supporting units of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force formed in 1914. By 1918 most were serving in the New Zealand Division on the Western Front. A New Zealand Army with Regular and Territorial Force components was formally established in 1950. In 2018 its 4,500 regulars and 1,600 reservists make up more than half the strength of the New Zealand Defence Force.

Air Force

Armistice 1918-2018 $1.20 Air Force gummed stamp

New Zealand’s main contribution to the First World War in the air was the privately organised training of hundreds of pilots for service in British squadrons. A New Zealand Permanent Air Force was established within the New Zealand Military Forces in 1923, and a separate Royal New Zealand Air Force was set up in 1937. In 2018 its 2,500 regulars and several hundred reservists mainly perform surveillance and emergency relief roles, flying NH90 and Super Seasprite helicopters and long-distance Orion and cargo-carrying Hercules aircraft.

Medical Services

Armistice 1918-2018 $1.20 Medical Services gummed stamp

More than half of New Zealand’s 700 registered doctors (almost all of whom were men) served in the Medical Corps during the First World War, as did 550 nurses of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service. Advances in treatment by 1918 had significantly improved injured men’s chances of survival. Battlefield medicine has continued to evolve, aided since the Korean War by swift evacuation by helicopter. The First World War also saw the first recognition of wartime psychological injury. Then dubbed ‘shellshock’, it was more recently termed post-traumatic stress disorder.

Poppy

Armistice 1918-2018 $3.60 Poppy gummed stamp

Red poppies first evoked wartime loss following the publication of ‘In Flanders Fields’, a poem written by Canadian doctor John McCrae for a dead friend. After poppies were adopted as official symbols of remembrance in the United States and France, the practice spread across the British Empire. In 1921 the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association ordered 250,000 artificial poppies from the French Children’s League. The late arrival of the shipment forced the RSA to postpone the first Poppy Day Appeal from Armistice Day 1921 to Anzac Day 1922.

Armistice 1918-2018 presentation pack (inside)