The Waikato Mounted Rifles (WMR) is the New Zealand Army's only Territorial Force (Army Reserve) squadron of the Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps (RNZAC). The Squadron's origins can be traced back to 1869 when the first mounted unit was raised in the Waikato. Today the Squadron is part of 1st Battalion Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment where it forms the regiment's reserve squadron. The WMR's role is mounted reconnaissance and surveillance.
History 1869–1914 WMR's lineage extends back to the New Zealand Wars (1843–72) and the formation of the Cambridge Mounted Rangers Volunteers. This unit was accepted for service on 24 July 1869,New Zealand Gazette 47/1869, Colonial Defence Office entry (26 August 1869) on behalf of His Excellency the Governor accepting the services of the Cambridge Mounted Rangers Volunteers (date of acceptance, 24 July 1869). and today this date is recognised as WMR's 'birthday' and commemorated by the Squadron each year. Although the Cambridge Mounted Rangers Volunteers were disbanded in 1870, they were effectively re-formed shortly afterwards as the Cambridge Cavalry Volunteers.
The formation of the Cambridge Cavalry Volunteers, together with the nearby Te Awamutu Cavalry Volunteers (1871) and the Hamilton Cavalry Volunteers (1880) led directly to the creation of the Waikato Mounted Rifle Volunteers (1897), and then to the 4th (Waikato) Mounted Rifles when New Zealand's Volunteer Force was superseded by the Territorial Force (TF) in 1911.
In 1885 all of New Zealand's Volunteer Force cavalry units were turned into mounted rifles units. This was more than just a change of title, as the New Zealand Volunteer Manual makes clear: "It cannot be too frequently impressed upon all ranks of mounted rifles that they are in no sense cavalry. They are only intended to fight on foot; their horses enabling them to make longer and more rapid movements than the infantry soldier."
Mounted riflemen had the same mobility as cavalry, but because they dismounted out of direct fire range, they were much less vulnerable. New Zealand's mounted troops still required, "all the élan, dash and spirit of cavalry, but train to fight dismounted".New Zealand Volunteer Force Manual for Mounted Rifles, quoted by Kinloch in Echoes of Gallipoli, p. 18.
The historian of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles in the First World War, Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Terry Kinloch, however draws an important distinction between mounted rifles and mounted infantry. "A mounted rifleman was a horseman who was trained to fight on foot, but also to carry out some of the other cavalry functions, such as reconnaissance and screening. A mounted infantryman was no horseman. He rode a horse when he had to, but he fought on foot, and did not undertake reconnaissance or any other cavalry role. Mounted riflemen thus fitted in between cavalry and mounted infantry, performing some of the secondary roles of cavalry, but fighting on foot."Kinloch, Echoes of Gallipoli, pp. 18–19.
Another sourceNewark, pp. 247–248. The author was in fact referring to the Australian Light Horse, but this description applies equally to the New Zealand Mounted Rifles. explains that mounted infantry were foot soldiers provided with increased mobility, whilst mounted riflemen were horsemen trained to fight on foot in both offensive and defensive actions. As horsemen they were also expected to perform the duties of reconnoitring and screening troop movements as well as providing protection from surprise attacks. Mounted infantry were picked soldiers often organised in small units as adjuncts to an infantry brigade, or to an independent force of cavalry.
Each mounted rifles unit was recruited on a voluntary basis with troopers bringing their own horses to take part in military training. They were well represented when New Zealand first sent troops overseas to South Africa. On 28 September 1899, the New Zealand Government offered a contingent to serve with the British Imperial Forces in South Africa, two weeks before the war with the Boer republic began. A total of 10 contingents – the New Zealand Mounted Rifles (NZMR) – were sent between 1899 and 1902, totalling 6,495 officers and men and more than 8000 horses. (At this time New Zealand's population was only 900,000.)
The largest engagement in South Africa involving New Zealanders was at Langverwacht Hill in February 1902. Here, whilst defending a cordon enveloping between 800 and 900 Boer guerrillas under De Wet, the Seventh Contingent suffered badly: of approximately 90 men holding the New Zealand line, 24 were killed and more than 40 wounded. These losses are some of the most severe suffered by a New Zealand unit in a single short action in any war . Lord Kitchener reported that they had, "displayed great gallantry and resolution at a critical moment," and that their conduct on this occasion, "reflects the highest credit upon all ranks of the contingent, and upon the Colony to which it belongs. Nothing could have been finer than the behaviour of the men."Stowers, Waikato Troopers, p. 48.
Earlier, General Sir Ian Hamilton, had said this of the New Zealanders he had observed in the field: "I have soldiered a long time now, but I have never in my life met men I would sooner soldier with than New Zealanders. I feel the greatest affection for them and I shall never forget the work they did in South Africa"Stowers, Waikato Troopers, p. 50 Hamilton was to meet New Zealanders again in an even greater test fourteen years later at Gallipoli.
Another senior British officer, quoted in The Times History of the War in South Africa, wrote of the New Zealanders: "It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that after they had a little experience, they were, by general consent, regarded as on average the best mounted troops in South Africa." The battle honour 'South Africa 1900–02' was the first to be awarded to WMR.
When the TF was formed in 1911 (three years after the Territorial Army in Britain) and compulsory military training introduced, New Zealand could field 12 mounted rifles regiments. Today only two NZ Army units still carry the Mounted Rifles title: WMR and QAMR.
The cap badge of the 4th (Waikato) Mounted Rifles dates from shortly before the First World War: a native Kaka parrot within a wreath of kowhai leaves and blossoms. The Latin motto, "Libertas et Natale Solum" is best translated as "Liberty and Homeland".Corbett, p. 147
The Regimental March, 'D'ye ken John Peel' was also adopted. This was published in 1903 for general use as a trot by all mounted units, and in England was then used by the East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry. While this regiment has since evolved into today's Yorkshire Squadron of The Queen's Own Yeomanry, the same Regimental March has been retained.
1914–1918 On the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the 1st New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) was formed for overseas service. It included a NZMR brigade. The TF Auckland Mounted Rifles Brigade comprised three regiments. For the NZEF, each of those regiments contributed and sustained a service squadron to the Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment (AMR) of the NZMR Brigade. The squadron provided to AMR by WMR was known as the 4th (Waikato) Squadron.
Terry Kinloch has described how the New Zealand mounted rifles regiments were organised: "Each mounted rifles regiment numbered 549 men and 608 horses organised as a headquarters, three squadrons and a machine gun section.
A squadron of 158 men and 169 horses comprised a headquarters and four troops. Each troop consisted of eight four-man sections. The section was the fundamental building block of the mounted rifles regiment. In combat, one man in each section was responsible for holding the horses when the other three fought on foot. The four men lived, worked, fought and sometimes died together, and they usually became close friends."Kinloch, Echoes of Gallipoli, p. 31
As part of the NZMR Brigade, the AMR served throughout the Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine campaigns, finally returning to New Zealand in 1919 when it was demobilised. For this service the following battle honours were awarded to WMR: Anzac, Defence of Anzac, Hill 60 (Anzac), Sari Bair, Gallipoli 1915, Rumani, Magdaba-Rafah, Egypt 1915–17, Gaza-Beersheba, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Jericho, Jordan (Amman), Megiddo, Nablus and Palestine 1917–18.
The role played by the NZMR Brigade fighting dismounted alongside the infantry against the Turks during the Gallipoli campaign of 1915 has been well recorded; less well known are the Brigade's operations in Egypt, Palestine and Syria.
Arguably the finest hours of AMR's 4th Waikato Squadron on Gallipoli occurred during the 8 and 9 August 1915 during the assault on Chunuk Bair, the summit of the dominant Sari Bair Ridge. After a most hazardous approach under continuous fire, AMR succeeding in reaching the sorely pressed Wellington Infantry Battalion that had earlier seized the peak. Together the survivors held out against repeated Turkish assaults, suffering appalling casualties. When eventually relieved, AMR had virtually ceased to exist. Of the 288 that had advanced on the summit, only 22 were able to walk off the hill unaided. All the officers in the 4th Waikato Squadron were dead. Ultimately Chunuk Bair was lost, and Hamilton's August offensive failed.
The Gallipoli campaign decimated the original NZMR Brigade. When the peninsula finally came to be evacuated in December, almost half of the 4000 mounted riflemen who had served there since May had been killed or wounded.
Once reunited with their horses in Egypt, the Brigade formed part of what later became known as the Desert Mounted Corps, eventually consisting of 20,000 horsemen drawn from Australian, Indian, British Yeomanry and New Zealand units, and the largest tactical force of cavalry ever to operate under one command.Warner, p. 181. It is of interest that no regular British cavalry regiments took part in the campaign. The campaign under General Allenby concluded with the fall of Damascus and the complete defeat of the Turkish Army in 1918.
It is instructive to read extracts from the tributes paid afterwards to the NZMR Brigade by successive British Commanders in Chief: "New Zealand has every reason to be proud of what her sons have done for the Empire, and in no theatre have they more reason to be so than the glorious and bewilderingly successful campaign in Palestine." (General Sir John Maxwell, GCB, KCMG, CVO, DSO.) "Fortunate indeed is a commander in the field who has at his disposal New Zealand mounted troops, for he can depend on them at all times to display energy, resource and endurance. All these three qualities were time after time exemplified by the New Zealanders in the waterless desert country of Sinai... Not only is the brigade equal to any troops in energy, resource and endurance, but in addition it is second to none in determination and dash... The Empire is proud of the New Zealand Mounted Brigade and I personally owe it a debt of lasting gratitude." (General Sir Archibald Murray, CCMG, KCB, CVO, DSO.) "When the autumn campaign was in progress, the New Zealanders took a leading part in defeating the Turkish IV Army. In the Jordan Valley, and thence eastward, over their old battlefield of Shunet Nimrin, Es Salt and Amman, to the Hedjaz railway, the men of New Zealand fought and marched to final and complete victory. Nothing daunted these intrepid fighters; to them nothing was impossible." (Field Marshall Sir Edmund Allenby, GCB, GCMG).All three tributes, along with that of Lieutenant General Sir H.Chauvel, appear in the opening pages of Powles, New Zealanders in Sinai and Palestine.
Field Marshall Lord Wavell summarised the part played by the Desert Mounted Corps in the campaign like this: