UP IN THE SADDLE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 240, 4 July 1919, Page 8

UP IN THE SADDLE

MOUNTED WARFARE IN PALESTINE

THE SPIRIT'OF NEW ZEALAND

(By "Ake Ake.")

Before beginning a description in detail of the notable achievements ot the New Zealand Mounted Brigade, it seems well tp endeavour to give the home-folk a clear impression of the fighting spirit of their mounted men, whose destiny it was to form such a valuable unit in tho Army of the Tenth Crusade, and thereby to f'aru such, great renown for their native land.

Men who do big things ao not readily talk about them; when they do them better than other people they talk still less, but facts tell in the long run, and . the New Zealand public will readily understand and heartily appreciate the wurk of the mounted brigade when they learn that' it was held good and moro than good by those quiet efficient people, both in the Army and out of it, who themselves do big things for the nation and hate the making of songs about it. This might be considered ,as imposing to some extent an onibar.V upon the detailed recital of the doings of tne ETipuo. for whom the fact of work well done suffices, but their lite in Egypt and Palestine was so essentially the prouuet, spiritually and materially, of the best features of life in New 'Zealand, modified, of course, by their surrounding and by the job in hand, as to make the story 'of it one ot the proudest possessions of every true New Zealander, to bo handed down as a splendid heritage, an inspiration for generations yet to cuim-. The brigade was very much a part of New Zealand, of some of the very best of New Zealand's manhood, put with our neighbours, the Australii-'", *•< pioneer a difficult task. The colonialß were set to blaze a track and to ease tiw *path of fighting, working, and living for their less-experienced kinsmen from tho Homeland, to set a standard to which those kinsmen made valiant efforts to attain, and ultimately to lead the van of a gallant and successful army, whoso units were then ever ready to acknow ? ledge'their debt, incurred in the days of their desert apprenticeship, to their cousins from the Antipodes. It was early recognised by the Aew Zealandere in Sinai, as on other fronts, that the war was to be won as much by ondurano? as by fighting, by endurance, ol the conditions of life itself for man and beast: endurance of such hi»li standard as to enable full use to bn made of the mobility of the brigade afforded by its good New Zealand .wrseo. Endue, endure, endure-to make the long marches possible and then to figlu with every ounce of hitting power as the reward thereof; there you have the spirit of the mounted bngafc, the bedrock underlying the work of every arm of tlie service; of the regiments, the machinegun squadron, the A.S.C., the. field troop, and the mounted field .ambulance. The ojneriences of fiallipoli, of-siern and bitter but ever-glorious, memory mads a fine stock-in-trade witJi which to start the business of expelling the Turk from Sinai, and reinforcements very craicMy acquired- something.,of the spirit of tli* Main Body men. of' all that was meant br the word "soldier." "Ascan means soldier-let the infantryman be ger »_the mounted men rarely iougnt 111 trenches, and ascari is tho word for him. In writing of the ascari, it is difficult to describe his'achievements in Jhe terms that the* deserve, for he is like he "digger." a modest, matter-oMact chap who hates superlatives, particularly when applied to himself. The methods of manoeuvre of the brigade are typical of the individual men who composed vt-a signal by hand from the CO. "f a regiment repetition by each troop leader, a linking swirl of cantering hones, ?nd column of route is changed m •> f<w fronds to the less vulnerable artillery formattion, the various, troops in oide©spacing, with never a word spoken frw start to finish. Seen for the first tip.: • the thing looks almost uncanny, but tqf the wisdom of it and the vivid linprMeion of restrained, completely co-ordino « «1 power that it conveys, reveal in a ■flash to the newcomer tho secret ol tlia brigade's success. They were indeed a well-trained band of brothers, from OX. to the last-joined .trooper, each 0110 right , up to his job and doing it .without fuss, horses and men acting swiftly Iwether , to make a fighting whole of such letting power as, for its size, could scarcely be equalled on any field, and certainly stood supremo on its own. The Australian bn- . gade that could "do «s we 1 as Hie New Zealandera" was we 1 content with Us - day's work. When the Wellington Mounted Rifles began their assault on Mount Royston, which turned the scale at the battle of Bomani. the Australian* mid: "There go those sanguinary New Zealanders and we'll have to follow them " W.M.E, wore brigaded with Australians at the time, and thereafter their C 0., Lieut-Colonel (now Bngadier-ben-eral) Meldrum, was known to tho "Aussies" as "Fix-Bayonets Bill. Soundly trounced at Eoinani and losing over two thousand prisoners to us, the lurkwithdrew from the pursuing Anzacs oaitt brought down a strong fresh rearguard, to be roughly handled at Bir-el-Abd by tho N.Z.M/K., whom ever after he held iu most wholesome respect and a fear which-subsequent events were amply to iustifv. The Turk is known tne world over as a stubborn filter, particularly on tho defensive. Under German Jeadci\ ship tho positions he held in Ins long resistance wero well entrenched and particularly hard nuts to crack. How they were carried and New Zealand s prominent share in their capture will be told in due course, and the talo will be rore readily understood if tho render has gained some conception of the spirit ot the brigade. / Compounded of stern valour 11 nd great patience its intelligent discipline gave to the colonial virtues of self-reliance, initiaWve, and resource n tine edge which enabled tho N.Z.M.R. Brigade to carve no , small niche for its country 111 Jim halls of fame and to shine with a lustre of steady brilliance in the military annals of the. British Empire.