''At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.''
The words from the Ode of Remembrance, taken from Robert Laurence Binyon's 1914 poem For the Fallen, are widely spoken at Anzac Day ceremonies and similar ceremonies worldwide as a tribute to all casualties of war.
This year the words will have added poignancy as the world begins the four-year commemorations of the centenary of World War 1.
The so-called ''war to end all wars'' from August 4, 1914, to November 11, 1918, saw 65 million troops in the field, and resulted in the estimated deaths of 37 million military personnel and civilians.
And though the war was fought on the other side of the world, a 10th of the New Zealand population served overseas - just over 100,000 from a then population of barely one million.
The significant ratio of servicemen meant the country also had one of the highest casualty and death rates per capita - more than 18,000 New Zealanders were killed and more than 40,000 wounded.
Few New Zealand families and communities were not affected in some way.
While various events will be held later this year to mark the departure dates of New Zealand troops, many of our most significant centenary commemorations will come during the next four years, as we remember some of the most significant campaigns, and some of our biggest losses.
The disastrous 1915 Gallipoli campaign left more than 2700 New Zealanders dead and 7500 injured.
The 1916 Somme offensive was responsible for the deaths of more than 1500 New Zealanders and more than 7000 casualties.
The June 1917 Battle of Messines - deemed a success as the New Zealand Division took all its objectives including the town - cost 700 New Zealanders their lives, and injured another 3700.
But it was the 1917 battle for the Belgian town of Passchendaele, which epitomised for many the horror and futility of the Great War, with trench warfare in a sea of mud.
British, Anzac, Canadian and South African troops fought the German army. In the failed attempt to capture the town, more New Zealanders were killed in one day, October 12, than in any military campaign since 1840.
About 845 were killed and 3700 injured in what is referred to as New Zealand's blackest day.
The numbers are staggering, the loss of life and potential heartbreaking, the legacy for families and subsequent generations sobering. It is important we remember the sacrifices made, to honour those who fought, died or were injured for the freedoms we enjoy today.
But, as Prof Tom Brooking, who teaches a WW1 history course at the University of Otago, says, while the commemorations are important, the experience of those at war was ''horrific'' and ''there is nothing to celebrate''.
He is right. The commemorations should, and surely will, be appropriate, inclusive, educational and focus on honouring the fallen, not celebrating what WW1 poet Wilfred Owen called ''The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori'' (it is sweet and right to die for one's country).
But while not celebrating war, we must acknowledge those New Zealanders who continue to put their lives on the line to fight for our freedoms and values, and to protect vulnerable civilians in the world's hotspots and conflict zones from terrorism, from genocide, and from government, police and armed forces' brutality and oppression.
We certainly must be able to question our role in any conflicts or intervention, and press for peace and harmony, support and understanding above all things.
And in terms of the WW1 commemorations, we must also remember, as conscription was not adopted in New Zealand until 1916, most of those serving were volunteers - everyday citizens, who left their school, their jobs, their homes, their families to fight to defend a free and open society.
We should ask ourselves whether we would be prepared to make that same sacrifice in those numbers if required now?
And we must hope - and strive to ensure - we never have to answer that question.
Only by remembering the past can we work to ensure such widespread and futile loss of life does not happen again.
