When the United Kingdom declared war on Germany at the start of the First World War, the New Zealand government followed without hesitation, despite its geographic isolation and small population. It was believed at the time that any declaration of war by the United Kingdom automatically included New Zealand. The total number of New Zealand troops and nurses to serve overseas in 1914-1918, excluding those in British and other Dominion forces, was 103,000, from a population of just over a million. Forty-two percent of men of military age served in the NZEF. 16,697 New Zealanders were killed and 41,317 were wounded during the war - a 58 percent casualty rate. Approximately a further thousand men died within five years of the war's end, as a result of injuries sustained, and 507 died whilst training in New Zealand between 1914 and 1918. New Zealand had one of the highest casualty and death rate per capita of any country involved in the war (Serbia suffered even higher per capita losses). The First World War saw Maori soldiers serve for the first time in a major conflict with the New Zealand Army (although a number had fought in the Second Boer War when New Zealand recruiters chose to ignore British military policy of the time of disallowing 'native' soldiers). A contingent took part in the Gallipoli Campaign, and later served with distinction on the Western Front as part of the New Zealand (Maori) Pioneer Battalion. 2688 Maori and 346 Pacific islanders -including 150 Niueans - served with New Zealand forces in total. http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-nz/nz-ww1-history.htm http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/ww1-overview
