Although terms of the Defence Act 1909 specified that only
volunteers could serve abroad, men offered themselves in sufficient numbers to fill the 'Main Body" and to supply reinforcements for the next two years. During the war the Territorial
system continued to function and each military district contributed troops.
Samoa
New Zealand's initial response at the outbreak of the war was rapid: at the request of the Imperial Government a force of 1413
men left New Zealand to occupy German Samoa. This was accomplished in an unopposed landing on 29 August 1914.
The Main Body
Meanwhile another expeditionary force, intended for France, was soon recruited. Drawn from the 25,000 members of the
recently raised Territorial Force these volunteers came to be known as the Main Body. This expeditionary force combined
battalions of infantry, four mounted rifle regiments, a field artillery brigade with ammunition column and other ancillary
Arms.
It left New Zealand on 14 October 1914 under the command Major General Godley. Sailing with him were 8,427 officers
& men and 3,815 horses, the largest single body of troops ever to leave New Zealand.
The New Zealand contingent linked up with an even larger Australian force to travel to Europe. While their convoy was at sea, they were redirected to Egypt, where
they arrived on 3 December 1915.
In Egypt the first combat engagement of the War for New Zealanders was to take place. They engaged the Turkish enemy in defence of the Suez Canal on 2 February 1915.
Gallipoli
On 25 April 1915 the New Zealanders (who, initially less the Mounted Rifle Brigades, had been combined as the Australian
and New Zealand Army Corps- ANZAC) landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula, where for the next 8 months they fought alongside the Australians
in a desperate campaign against the Turks. Elsewhere on the Peninsula, British and French forces were also storming Turkish positions.
Notwithstanding the fine effort on the part of the ANZACs, a stalemate was quickly reached. For the soldiers, trench warfare in conditions of physical hardship and extremes of climate became the norm. Worse, they found themselves confined to an extremely small area. Few of the ANZAC trench systems ever penetrated further than 2,000 metres from the shoreline.
One of the most inspiring actions ever performed by New Zealand soldiers took place on
Gallipoli when they stormed the heights overlooking the ANZAC lines. On 8 August 1915, New Zealanders attacked a feature called Chunuk Bair, the strategic
key
to the Peninsula . The crest was gained but strong Turkish counter attacks led to three days of bitter fighting with the New Zealanders taking heavy casualties, causing their relief late on the 9th by troops of the British New Army, who in turn were forced to withdraw on the 10th.
An example of the heavy fighting that took place on the slopes of Chunuk Bair is to be found in the Wellington Battalion which
led the assault at 4.30 a.m. on the morning of 8 August. They were relieved at about midnight by comparatively fresh units - the Otago Battalion and the Wellington Mounted rifles. To quote C. E. W. Bean, the official Australian War Historian:
"Of the 760 of the Wellington Battalion who had captured the height that morning, there came out
only 70 unwounded or slightly wounded men. Through out the day not one had dreamt of leaving his post. Their uniforms were torn, their knees broken. They had had no water since the morning: they could talk only in whispers: their eves were sunken: their knees trembled: some broke down and cried like children".
The New Zealand Infantry and Mounted Rifle Brigades started the battle with 4,549 men. After two days of heavy fighting they were reduced to a strength of 2,678. The Official New Zealand War History records:
- "August 8 was a day of tragedy for New Zealand, but no day in our calendar shines with greater glory".
After eight months of this trench stalemate, the ANZACs
were withdrawn from the Peninsula. A withdrawal when in contact with the enemy is one of the most difficult of all tactical
manoeuvres, if it is to be achieved without sustaining heavy casualties. By the use of ruse and excellent planning 3,491 men c4f the Australian and New Zealand Division were withdrawn
off the beaches on the night of 18/19 December 1915 and the remaining 3,000 on the following night.
The ruse worked and the entrenched Turks, in places as close as 10 metres away, had no inkling of the massive ANZAC
withdrawal taking place to their front. It was a tribute to the planning staffs and the soldiers who had to execute this difficult
maneuver that no casualties were suffered by the New Zealanders during the evacuation.
Following the return of the New Zealanders from Gallipoli to Egypt, they were reorganised into an infantry division and a mounted rifle brigade.
The New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade, comprised of 147 officers and 2,897 other ranks, served as part of the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division and was deployed
in April 1916 to the Sinai Peninsula. The Brigade took part in the battles leading up to the fall of Jerusalem and onward to Amman and
the surrender of the Turkish 4th Army in September 1918. 
Turkish resistance collapsed and an armistice was effected on 31
October 1918.
This comparatively small force showed great resource and endurance. In 1919 Field Marshall Sir Edmund
Allenby wrote of the New Zealanders:
"nothing daunted these intrepid fighters: to them nothing was impossible".
During the long campaign 17,723 New Zealanders served in Palestine: 640 died on active service and
1,146 were wounded. |
