In an upheaval at Moascar the NZ and A Division, less the mounted rifles brigade and Australian light horse and plus new or newly arrived units, became the New Zealand Division. The Otago Mounted Rifles were reduced to a squadron, nine artillery batteries were raised, and a second infantry brigade emerged from the doubling of existing battalions, so that the infantry became established as follows:

1st Infantry Brigade (1st Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago Battalions).

2nd Infantry Brigade (2nd Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago Battalions).

3rd (Rifle) Brigade (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Battalions).

Major-General A. H. Russell became divisional commander, but Godley continued to command the NZEF.

ArmentièGres

Destined for the Western Front, the Division reached Marseilles in April 1916 and entered the line in May south-east of Armentières. The land was low lying and soggy, and trenches shallow, but living conditions were far better than at Anzac, except for the weight and vigour of artillery. It was a “quiet sector”, but trench warfare was already highly developed and there was much to learn. The Division, under I Anzac Corps (Birdwood) and then II Anzac Corps (Godley), staged 11 major raids (against four German ones) in three months and countless patrols on its 8-mile front and when relieved in mid-August had lost 2,500 men, nearly 400 of them dead.

The Somme, 1916

In September the Division was committed to the gigantic offensive on the Somme which had begun on 1 July. The 2nd Brigade attacked at dawn on the fifteenth on a 1,000-yard front behind a formidable artillery barrage to seize two trenches on the way to Flers. The Rifle Brigade passed through with two tanks – a startling novelty introduced to action that day – and helped to capture the village. The 1st Wellington went on next day to gain a trench north of Flers. Then rain set in. Fierce night fighting with bomb and bayonet by the 2nd Canterbury followed on the twentieth, a short but economical advance by the 1st Brigade on the twenty-fifth, and a partially successful one on the twenty-seventh in which the 1st Otago suffered grievous loss. On 3–4 October the Division withdrew from the muddy horrors of the Somme. It had lost in 23 days some 7,000 men, 1,560 of them killed. The gunners stayed behind, as usual, and endured three more weeks of toil and danger in worsening conditions, a nightmare of flooded gunpits in a shell-torn swamp.

Winter on the Lys

Winter of 1916–17 passed coldly but quietly at Fleurbaix, near ArmentièGres, where the 1st Brigade was reorganised to include all North Island battalions and the 2nd Brigade commanded all South Island battalions. There also the 2nd Auckland on 21 February staged with mixed success the heaviest New Zealand raid of the campaign. Next day the Division sidestepped to the left and then left again a few days later, settling for three months between Ploegsteert and Wulverghem facing the strongly fortified Messines ridge.

Messines

At 3.10 a.m. on 7 June nearly 500 tons of explosives in huge mines on both sides of the New Zealand sector blew up with a thunder heard in England. The earth was still trembling when the 2nd and 3rd Brigades scrambled over the top, in and out of shell holes, and up the battered slopes. Carrying the German front line and supports, they were soon into the ruined village. The 1st Brigade passed through, helped on the left by a solitary tank, to the final objective. With prisoners and booty including many guns it was a striking success at no great cost; but the German artillery revived and by the time the Division was relieved on 9 and 10 June it had lost 3,700 men, evenly distributed between the three brigades.

The 4th New Zealand Brigade, formed from reinforcements in England, had served in Corps reserve and on the tenth entered the line, passing to New Zealand command two days later. Back in the line the Division gained further success and worked hard to consolidate before handing over to the Australians at the end of the month. In two more attacks in this area on 27 and 31 July the Division finally gained and held La Basse Ville. Heavy artillery fire in the first fortnight of August caused the loss of nearly 1,000 men and rain made conditions miserable.

Passchendaele

Many valuable weeks of the 1917 summer were wasted and when Field-Marshal Haig started his great offensive from the Ypres Salient on 31 July autumn rains had begun. Hope of strategic objectives faded; but successes in late September and early October made him try to win the rest of the Passchendaele ridge for his winter line. The New Zealand Division had been training since the end of August to overcome the numerous concrete “pillboxes” in this sector. The first objective of the Division was the Gravenstafel Spur, attacked before dawn on 4 October, as part of a major advance. The 1st and 4th Brigades forestalled a heavy German counter-attack, and the supporting artillery barrage inflicted frightful slaughter on the waiting Germans. Crossing this scene of carnage, the 1st and 4th Brigades gained their objectives after a hard fight, inflicting exceptionally heavy loss on the enemy and capturing much equipment. For such a resounding success the 1,700 New Zealand casualties, though a sad loss, did not in current terms seem excessive. But heavy rain turned the countryside into a bog and tragedy lay ahead.

A British attack on the ninth on Bellevue Spur and part of the main Passchendaele ridge gained a little ground at prohibitive cost. Heavy swathes of barbed wire still girdled the hillside, however, and belated and meagre heavy artillery made no impression on them, nor on the many pillboxes beyond. New Zealand gunners slaved to breaking point to get only a few guns and howitzers forward, but stable platforms and accurate fire were unattainable. The 2nd and 3rd Brigades – the latter weary from heavy work in the salient – nevertheless renewed the attack early on the twelfth.

There was little to encourage the men as they waited overnight in a morass under steady rain. Shelled in their assembly area, some were shelled again by their own guns when the thin barrage opened at 5.25 a.m., and then they led off into a deluge of small-arms fire, speckled with geyser-like eruptions as shells exploded in the mud. Worst of all was the wire, covered with deadly fire, its few gaps deliberate deathtraps. Some men tried to crawl under it, some threw themselves at it, two got right through and were killed in the act of hurling grenades at the loopholes of the nearest pillbox. The left gained 500 yards of slippery slope, the centre 200 heartbreaking yards, the right nothing until the 80-odd occupants of two blockhouses and a trench used up all their ammunition. Then they were captured, blockhouses and all, by two brave and skilful men, sole survivors of two Otago platoons.

The cost of these small gains, 640 dead and 2,100 wounded, made the Passchendaele mud in New Zealand eyes rich soil indeed and what the wounded suffered in drenching rain is another chapter of horrors. For the first time the Division had failed in a major operation; but what New Zealander can look back in memory or imagination on those dogged thrusts, time and again, by the Otago and Canterbury Battalions and the Rifles across the boggy flat and up the bullet-swept slopes of Bellevue Spur, without being stirred by their resolution in the face of hopeless odds.

The steady drain of men while units only held the line was less spectacular, though it made up half the losses of the Division. Here, before withdrawing from the front, 400 more men were lost in the 4th Brigade alone.

The Ypres Salient

Winter of 1917–18 passed busily in the Polygon Wood of Becalaere sector at Ypres, a scene of utter desolation. The Germans were bound to attack in the spring with forces released from Russia, and the Division worked hard to turn the wrecked trenches into a defensible front. An attack by the 2nd Brigade on 3 December gained useful ground but failed to capture Polderhoek Chateau. When the Division was relieved, on 24 February 1918, its three “quiet” months had cost 3,000 men, more than 470 of them killed.

Before and after the relief many changes took place. II Anzac Corps (in which the Division served), now minus Australians, became XXII Corps (commanded throughout by Godley), and the New Zealand part of its corps troops included the Otago Mounted squadron and a cyclist battalion. The 2nd Field Artillery Brigade was at the disposal of the Second Army and did not return until May. The 4th Infantry Brigade, to save manpower, became the Entrenching Group, a labour and reinforcement depot (though it soon saw hard fighting). A machine-gun battalion was formed from the brigade companies and the pioneer battalion became exclusively Maori. Allied and enemy divisions were by this time reduced in strength; but the Division retained four battalion brigades and remained the strongest division on the Western Front.

The Division and the many non-divisional units of the NZEF were also strong in the knowledge that they were members of a warmly united family. Men at the front knew that behind them were reliable supply services – field bakery and butchery, motor workshops, depots, even a light railway operating company. Their medical and dental services were unsurpassed in skill and devotion. In France and in England hospitals and convalescent homes were staffed by hundreds of New Zealand nurses and aides. On leave the men had good pay, and could use if they wished comfortable establishments provided through voluntary channels by the people of New Zealand. At home needy dependants were cared for. Above all, reinforcements well trained in the six reserve depots in England were always ready.

The Somme, 1918

In the great German offensive on the Somme, in March 1918, the Division was rushed to help stem a dangerous breakthrough towards Amiens. Unit by unit, as each arrived, it hastened to fill a gap between IV and V Corps in the Ancre Valley on the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh. In confused fighting the New Zealanders gradually gained the upper hand against an enemy flushed with victory. A surprise attack on the thirtieth regained advantageous ground overlooking the valley, taking 300 prisoners and much material. With further fighting, much of it at night, a stable line emerged here and elsewhere on the Somme front, and German pressure was promptly transferred to the Lys (where non-divisional New Zealand units became engaged from April onwards). In June the Division was able to enjoy three sunny weeks in reserve.

Back in the line on 2 July, this time facing Puisieux-au-Mont, the Division gained ground against lively opposition in a series of strong thrusts, preceded by bold daylight reconnaissance and fighting patrols – though not bold enough for the more ardent spirits, who had to be restrained. First, there was Rossignol Wood, seized in hard fighting in mid-July. A few days later the whole Division mourned the death of that peerless trench fighter, Sergeant R. C. Travis, V.C., D.C.M., M.M., of the 2nd Otago. Puisieux fell on 14 August, then Grevillers, and on the twenty-ninth, Bapaume, a bigger prize. As the enemy fell back on the Hindenburg Line he showed increasing reluctance to be hurried and the last fortnight of August cost the Division 2,500 men, 411 of them killed. The morale of the New Zealanders, however, fed by success and the change to a war of movement, bounded upwards.

The Hindenburg Line

In September the tempo increased: Haplincourt, Bertincourt, Ruyaulcourt – all in ruins – and then the southern half of Havrincourt Wood, from the deep thickets of which on the ninth the Division assaulted the Trescault Spur, the last position before the Hindenburg Line. There the defence hardened. Picked German troops threw everything into the battle – flamethrowers in the front line, intense gassing of rear areas, heavy counter-battery fire – and the New Zealanders gained only a slight advantage in five days of bitter fighting, though this check cost the enemy heavy loss of first-class units. When the Division was relieved on the fourteenth the crest of the Spur remained in no-man's land.

Against the Hindenburg Line proper the 2nd Brigade gained ground on the twenty-ninth and the 1st Brigade was irresistible, sweeping past the first objective and over the Cambrai Road to pause breathlessly before the Escaut or Scheldt Canal and river below, the spires of Cambrai to the north, and the inviting land to the east, unscarred by war. After an awkward pause, the 1st Auckland and 2nd Wellington crossed the canal and river lower down in the VI Corps sector and seized CrèGvecoeur on 1 October against stiffening opposition. The Division now faced the very last of the Hindenburg defences on heights to the east. On 8 October, under a barrage, the 2nd Brigade hacked its way through wire 50 yards deep – a hopeless task had the enemy not lost heart. Linking up with the Rifles pushing on from CrèGvecoeur, the advance quickened, Lesdain and then Esnes fell, a short step next day and then a long one on the tenth to Viesly. On the eleventh the 1st Brigade crossed the River Selle south-west of Solesmes. There on the twelfth, a year to the day from the reverse at Passchendaele, the Division attacked another Belle Vue Spur and had some sharp fighting before it fell. In five days the Division had advanced 11 miles and had taken over 1,400 prisoners and much material at a cost of 536 casualties. The pace, to men used to advancing yards rather than miles, was exhilarating; but supplies now had to catch up.

Le Quesnoy

The Division gained Beaudignies after dark on 23 October and the high ground beyond next day, bringing into view the mediaeval fortress of Le Quesnoy, ringed with 60-ft ramparts and full of civilians. A barrage, of extraordinary complexity, planned so that not one round fell in the town, led the infantry round both sides on 4 November, with batteries leapfrogging forward to cover the advance nearly to the Mormal Forest. Bypassing the fortress on both sides but taking four neighbouring villages, the infantry reached the edge of the forest at 2.15 p.m. A standing barrage meanwhile played on the ramparts and with the aid of scaling ladders the Rifles carried the outlying bastions and entered Le Quesnoy soon after 4 p.m. Nearly 2,000 prisoners, 60 field guns, and hundreds of machine guns were taken in this fitting climax to two and a half years on the Western Front. The infantry were relieved on the eastern side of the forest at midnight on 5–6 November and the war ended five days later.

Germany

The Division left the Third Army on 28 November, warmly farewelled by the fine 37th Division, its companion almost throughout the long advance to victory. A memorable march through Belgium followed, to entrain at the German frontier for Cologne and take up billets in neighbouring towns as part of the army of occupation. Demobilisation soon started and at Mülheim near Cologne the Division was finally disbanded on 25 March 1919.

Casualties

The cost of maintaining the Division for two and a half years on the Western Front was appalling. Altogether some 13,250 New Zealanders died of wounds or sickness as a direct result of this campaign, including 50 as prisoners of war and more than 700 at home. Another 35,000 were wounded, and 414 prisoners of war were ultimately repatriated. The total casualties therefrom approached 50,000, well over half the number of those who served in France or Belgium.

The NZ and A Division sailed to the Aegean in April, leaving behind (to their dismay) the Mounted Rifles Brigade, the Otago Mounted Rifles, and the 1st Australian Light Horse. It was part (with the 1st Australian Division) of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (abbreviated ANZAC), itself part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force under General Sir Ian Hamilton. The MEF was to seize key points on the Gallipoli Peninsula and help the Navy through the Dardanelles – a huge amphibious operation mounted with extreme haste against the forewarned Turks.

The Australian division began landing at first light on Sunday, 25 April, 13 miles north of Cape Helles, on a rocky shore fit for mountain goats rather than laden soldiers clambering upwards under fire. Companies and battalions soon became hopelessly intermingled and, when the New Zealand Infantry Brigade began to reinforce the left at noon the situation was highly confused. The Auckland Battalion came in first, through a curtain of Turkish shrapnel, then two companies of the Canterbury Battalion, and then the Otago Battalion. All were at once dispatched to the front where they were hotly engaged. Withering shrapnel sprayed the foremost troops, the Turks counter-attacked strongly, and much valuable ground gained in the first advance had to be given up. Not until next day did the New Zealanders hear the comforting sound of their own guns, and the naval guns could do little to help. A toehold on Gallipoli 2,500 yards long by about 1,000 wide had nevertheless been won, and reinforcements – the Wellington Battalion among them – and supplies were arriving and wounded departing over two makeshift piers in what was to become known as Anzac Cove.

The British 29th Division had similarly failed to win its objectives on Cape Helles, but its small gains there seemed for the moment secure. At Anzac there was high-level talk of immediate evacuation, but Sir Ian Hamilton (like the men at the front) would not hear of it, though he continued to regard the Anzac affair as subsidiary and decided to reinforce the Helles landings with the Royal Naval Division and a French division. Off the narrow waist of the peninsula at Bulair the Royal Naval Division staged a demonstration to pin Turkish forces there. As part of this a young officer, B. C. Freyberg, swam ashore at night and lit flares, winning for himself a D.S.O. New Zealand was to hear more of him.

Sixteen Turkish battalions under Mustapha Kemal attacked Anzac on 27 April to drive the invaders into the sea; but their combination broke down, the local thrusts were all beaten back with heavy loss, and the Anzac front, a staff officer's nightmare, held firmly. Four naval battalions then landed and the units in the line were by degrees relieved and sorted out. Strenuous efforts were made to straighten the line, particularly by Canterbury and Otago, in the night 2–3 May, but they failed and the tired troops had to make do with existing positions, strengthening them by digging, mining, wiring, and roadmaking. Bit by bit all positions acquired names which became symbolic of Anzac daring, skill, and hard work. In front of Quinn's Post, scene of continual bombing, the Turkish lines were barely 30 yards off; behind it the ground fell away to form a cliff. A more vulnerable position would be hard to imagine, yet the troops hanging on there by their eyebrows knew that it must be held; for behind it was Monash Gully leading down to Shrapnel Valley, the main supply route. Tiny Plugge's Plateau (pronounced “Pluggie's”), overlooking the latter, was crowded with guns and howitzers, and below it was the beach. All saw their daily scenes of gallantry and defiance; for nowhere on Anzac was safe.

For lack of room at Anzac, one New Zealand battery went to Helles on 4 May and next day the infantry brigade followed. On the eighth the New Zealand infantry made two thrilling charges across the “Daisy Patch” towards Krithia, gaining 500 yards but losing 800 men (compared with 931 in the first three days at Anzac). An Australian brigade, charging in similar heroic fashion across the flat against countless machine guns, lost 1,000 men.

The mounted rifles and 1st Australian Light Horse (minus horses) reinforced the Anzac landing soon afterwards and on the nineteenth were severely tested. The Turks attacked repeatedly all along the line and were everywhere repulsed in a grim slaughter, more than balancing the Helles account. Next day the infantry brigade returned and found the Anzac front quiet, though gruesomely strewn with Turkish corpses. On the twenty-fourth there was an armistice to bury the dead. June started with a raid from Quinn's as part of a scheme to distract attention from a big Helles attack; both the Anzac and Helles thrusts were strongly opposed. At the end of the month the Turks made their last attempt to push the invaders off their soil, first at Helles and then before dawn on the thirtieth at Pope's and Russell's Top, where three battalions swarmed bravely across no-man's land and were cut down almost to a man.

From then onwards, apart from the daily shelling to which the Anzac guns, starved of ammunition, could seldom reply, and the ceaseless bombing at Quinn's, the front was quiet. Thirst, vermin, and flies in the fierce summer heat were enemies as relentless as the Turks. In August the MEF, strongly reinforced, staged a great offensive: heavy attacks at Helles and Anzac to pin down Turkish reserves, a tremendous and complicated assault on the commanding feature, Sari Bair, by a mixed force under Godley including the NZ and A Division (less the 1st Light Horse), and the landing of a fresh corps at Suvla Bay to extend the Anzac front northwards. All demanded immense and difficult preparation. All four mounted rifles regiments and the Maori Contingent (fresh from Malta) climbed tortuous slopes and scaled cliffs silently and irresistibly to gain the western foothills of the Sari Bair massif by 1 a.m. on the seventh. Then the New Zealand infantry passed through but failed to gain the crest at Chunuk Bair. The Wellington Battalion and the Gloucesters tried again at dawn on the eighth, reached the crest, and won a breathtaking view of the Dardanelles. All day the Turks showered them with grenades, enfiladed them with machine guns, and sprayed them with shrapnel; but they held on just below the crest, joined in the late afternoon by a gallant party of the Auckland Mounted Rifles. Malone, the inspiring colonel of the Wellingtons, was killed and only 70 of nearly 800 of his men remained in action. After dark the Otago Battalion and Wellington Mounted Rifles came up and the situation eased, though the Turks counter-attacked throughout the night. Early on the ninth Gurkhas and some South Lancashire men reached the crest higher up but were driven back. By the eleventh the Turks regained all but the foothills and the vision of victory faded. In a last effort the mounted rifles, Australians, and Indians on the twenty-first gained a toehold on Hill 60 to the north in bitter, costly fighting and enlarged it a week later; but the Suvla force failed in a parallel mission and at all points the Turks still overlooked the final line.

In mid-September the mounted rifles and infantry (less machine gunners and a few others) sailed for a rest at Lemnos. Of the mounted brigade there were only 249; of 677 Canterbury Mounted men (including reinforcements) only 28 sailed and 12 stayed behind; of the Wellington Mounted Regiment, 70 went, 14 stayed. The four infantry battalions each 1,000-strong when they landed and thrice reinforced since then, sailed in one small ship – 239 of the Canterburys, 130 of the Otagos, fewer than 100 of the Wellingtons, all looking like scarecrows. Rested, reinforced to about half strength, and smartened up, all units early in November returned to Anzac, to a snowstorm on the twenty-eighth, then winter gales with promise of more to come. But the promise was not fulfilled. Silently, skilfully, but with a sad sense of deserting their dead comrades, the men of Anzac and Suvla departed in mid-December, taking animals and guns and losing scarcely a man. As the last boats put to sea before dawn on the twentieth, mines exploded, many stores went up in flames, and the Turks fired wildly. This miracle was repeated at Helles on 9 January 1916 and the Gallipoli enterprise thus ended.

In all, 2,721 New Zealanders died, and 4,752 were wounded (some of whom later died). The British also suffered severe losses, and all who set foot on the peninsula paid in some way for the terrible hardships of that campaign. The adjective “untried” now disappeared from references to Australian and New Zealand troops and with it any doubt of their abilities. Their countries had come of age and were comrades in arms. Anzac Day in both countries commemorates the loss and also the gain.

The Senussi

The New Zealand Rifle Brigade (less two battalions) had meanwhile reached Egypt in November 1915 and was sent into the Egyptian desert to help defeat a Senussi invasion from Libya. The 1st Battalion fought two brisk but inexpensive actions south-west of Matruh as part of a mixed force (including British, Australians, and Indians), one on Christmas Day, the other on 23 January 1916. Both were successful and broke the back of the invasion. In mid-February the 1st Battalion rejoined the rest of the brigade at Moascar in the Suez Canal area.

In a rush of enthusiasm another expeditionary force intended for France was soon assembled, consisting in the end of the following:

A divisional headquarters.

The Otago Mounted Rifles Regiment (divisional cavalry).

A mounted rifles brigade (Auckland, Wellington, and Canterbury Regiments).

A field artillery brigade and brigade ammunition column.

An infantry brigade (Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago Battalions).

With supporting troops and reinforcements 8,427 men embarked, with 3,815 horses.* No nurses were included. The Main Body, as it was later called, under Major-General Godley was the largest single body of New Zealand troops ever to leave these shores. It sailed from Wellington in 10 transports on 16 October, linked with an even larger Australian contingent, and at sea was redirected to Egypt. A loss of 700–800 horses on the voyage had been predicted; but only 77 died. Early in December the NZEF settled into camp at Zeitoun, near Cairo, and was soon joined by the 1st Australian Light Horse Brigade, the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps, and 240 New Zealanders from England. All combined to form the New Zealand and Australian Division to which the 4th Australian Infantry Brigade was added at the end of January 1915. Before this, however, the New Zealand Infantry Brigade had been sent post haste to meet a daring but easily repulsed Turkish thrust across the Sinai Desert. The Canterbury Battalion saw action in support of an Indian Brigade south of Ismailia on 3 February, frustrating repeated Turkish attempts to cross the Suez Canal by boat or pontoon. In so doing, a private was killed and a sergeant wounded, the first NZEF battle casualties. (*Over 10,000 horses all told were shipped for service in the NZEF.)

No role for New Zealand had been decided beforehand, but on the night of 6 August 1914 a note arrived from London that it would be “a great and urgent Imperial service” if New Zealand forces seized Samoa. This was approved next day, and four days later a mixed force of 1,413 men plus six nursing sisters was equipped and ready. On the fifteenth it sailed, picking up 10 more infantrymen, some naval details, and guides and interpreters at Fiji, and on the twenty-ninth it landed unopposed at Apia. Thus the island of Upolu was the first German territory to be occupied in the name of King George V. After eight months a relief force of 358 men took over and by the end of the war another 298 men were supplied to maintain the garrison.

New Zealand's response to the outbreak of war on 4 August was quick and wholehearted. Compulsory military training had begun in 1912 and had already yielded 29,447 Territorials and 26,446 senior cadets; but there were only a few modern guns for them, many old-fashioned rifles, and little else. There were nearly 4,000 tents, but fewer than 20,000 groundsheets and no permanent camps. As administrative services existed mainly on paper, the staff corps of 100 officers and the permanent staff of 211 warrant and noncommissioned officers had to improvise almost miraculously to accommodate a field force and begin training. Trentham, Featherston, Narrow Neck, Avondale, Awapuni, and Papawai (Wairarapa) camps sprang up like mushrooms and were soon filled with busy recruits.

New Zealand offered troops for service in South Africa before the war began in October 1899; this action of Seddon's Government showed a new conception of imperial unity. The war fell into two stages. In the first, after initial reverses, the British Army defeated the Boer commandos as a field force and by September 1900 had occupied the main towns of the Boer republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, and their railways. The second phase of the war was the unexpectedly difficult subduing of guerilla bands. The open country (or “veldt”) was ringed with blockhouses, cleared of people, stock, and food, and combed almost yard by yard in a series of immense drives. Highly mobile and skilful in ambush, the fighting burghers at length surrendered in May 1902, largely through starvation.

New Zealand mounteds took part in both phases. Ten contingents of volunteers, totalling nearly 6,500 men with 8,000 horses, sailed for Africa (the Ninth and Tenth, over 2,000 men, arrived too late to see much service). The term of service was one year. The cost was slight, under £500,000 including money raised by public subscription, Britain bearing the rest. Seventy New Zealanders died in the war as the result of action; 25 were accidentally killed; 133 died of disease; wounded numbered 166. Doctors, nurses, and veterinary surgeons also served, and some teachers helped to educate Boer children in internment camps.

The first three contingents (737), the First and Second recruited from the peacetime Volunteers, took a full part in Lord Roberts' operations in 1900 against the main Boer armies. At Slingersfontein, in January, some First Contingent men held a hilltop salient against a determined assault by superior Boer forces whom they dispersed with a bayonet charge in one of the few hand-to-hand engagements of the war; it was named New Zealand Hill in their honour. The three contingents also distinguished themselves at Sanna's Post, Diamond Hill, and Rhenoster Kop. The Fourth Contingent (467) joined the Rhodesian Field Force in May 1900 via Portuguese East Africa. One of its men, Farrier Sergeant W. J. Hardham, in January 1901 won the V.C. for rescuing a wounded comrade under heavy fire. The Fifth Contingent (527) also joined in Rhodesia. The Sixth Contingent (579) and the Seventh (594) arrived in early 1901 to replace time-expired troops. The Eighth Contingent reached Africa in March 1902, still in time for some arduous service.

At Langverwacht (or Bothasberg) in February 1902 the Seventh Contingent was engaged in severe action. A British drive was enclosing a large force of Boers who under cover of night used a screen of cattle to approach the driving line; they struck with overwhelming force a section held by New Zealanders who suffered 65 casualties in a unit of about 80. Although some 600 burghers rode through the gap thus made, the Boers also suffered heavily and the remainder of their force surrendered shortly afterwards.

New Zealanders were well suited to service as mounted riflemen in Africa and, in common with other Commonwealth contingents, were highly valued by their British commanders. Partly because of a persistent belief in a short war, very little by modern standards was done for the welfare of the troops.

by David Oswald William Hall, M.A., Director, Adult Education, University of Otago (retired).

• “The Times” History of the War in South Africa, Amery, L. S. (ed.), (7 vols., 1900–09)
• The Great Boer War, Doyle, A. C. (1901)
• The Colonials in South Africa, 1899–1902, Stirling, John (1902)
• Diary of the Second New Zealand Mounted Rifles, Cradock, M. (n.d.)
• The New Zealanders in South Africa, 1899–1902, Hall, D. O. W. (1949).

Housing. Loans are available for the purchase of existing dwellings or the erection of new homes, always provided that the standard of construction and materials used conform to the requirements of State lending and that the home will be adequate for the permanent housing of the ex-serviceman and his family. The rate of interest up to the various limits prescribed from time to time is 3 per cent. Up to 31 March 1965, 66,107 loans have been approved involving a sum of £103,861,891.

State Rental Housing. Until 1957, 50 per cent of State rental houses available for letting were reserved for eligible ex-servicemen who could satisfy the allocation committee that their need for housing was urgent. By 31 March 1961, 18,321 ex-servicemen had been housed under this scheme (no later figures).

Furniture Loans. Loans of up to £100 free of interest are available for the provision of necessary furniture to ex-servicemen who are setting up homes for the first time.

These three forms of assistance are also available to the widows of deceased ex-servicemen who have dependent children.

Business Loans. Until 31 March 1958, loans of up to a maximum of £1,500 were available to set men up in an economic one-man type of business. Generally it was required that the applicant should be experienced or have had some background or training in that field. Interest was charged at the rate of 4 per cent. As at 31 March 1965, 11,525 loans have been approved involving a sum of £7,531,000.

Trade Training. The Board conducted several schemes of training as under:

A. Class: Full-time training in the building trades; e.g., carpentry, joinery, bricklaying, plastering, and painting and paperhanging. An initial period was spent in schools studying theory, and the men then went into the field for periods of up to two years and worked under their instructors on actual housing building. In all, 7,448 men have been trained in this manner.

B. Class: This scheme was operated by subsidising the wages of men trained in various trades by private employers who were approved by the Board. It proved of great value in the smaller towns or in trades where the demand was not large enough to warrant commencing a full-time school. In all, 4,312 men were so trained.

C. Class: This made provision for the resumption of apprenticeship with former employers for those men whose training was interrupted by mobilisation. By way of subsidy the Board ensured that all men resuming employment were given a wage they would have been receiving had their military service not intervened. Assisted in this way were 3,409 men.

D. Class: The Disabled Servicemen's Re-establishment League (Inc.) was formed in 1931 to provide sheltered employment and training for men of the First World War. The Board appointed this body its agent to provide training for men who were 40 per cent or more disabled during the Second World War and who by reason of their disabilities were unable to undertake their former employment. It also provides sheltered employment for disabled men who are unable to hold their place in industry. The wages of those being trained or employed is subsidised by the Board. To date, 533 disabled men have been taught new trades under this scheme.

E. Class: This was a scheme under which men were employed on a wage subsidy by local bodies at such tasks as gardening until their war neurosis had improved and they were able to undertake their normal employment.

F. Class: This provided for the training of blinded ex-servicemen at “St. Dunstans”, Auckland. As the bulk of the training has now been accomplished, the main work is concentrated on the after-care of some 60 men located throughout New Zealand.

Assistance in trade training has now ceased with the exception of “D” and “F” Classes, but provision exists to supplement the wages of the children of deceased ex-servicemen who are commencing apprenticeships, and to assist them in acquiring suitable tools.

Education Assistance. Provision is made by bursaries, payment of fees and book allowances, either for study overseas or for full- or part-time study in New Zealand. Such assistance is granted for career training only and not for purely cultural studies.

Children of Deceased Ex-servicemen. This form of assistance is also available not only to the children of deceased ex-servicemen whose deaths have been the result of war service but also to the children of men totally incapacitated for work. The Board's assistance is available after the children have completed secondary schooling, provided their academic ability justifies further assistance towards a worth-while qualification.

Farming Assistance. The approach to farming was to settle only those men who were fully experienced on farms that were considered economic. Applicants were initially examined by a committee of practical farmers and graded. Those who needed further training were placed with approved farmers and their wages subsidised. When a man reached “A” grade, he was issued with a Grading Certificate and was then able either to seek his own farm or to enter into a ballot for land developed and offered by the Crown for settlement. All types of farming were approved, but the main emphasis was on either sheep or dairy, with the interest rates at 3 per cent for loans up to £6,250 and 5,000 respectively.

Any additional finance necessary was provided at current civilian rates. In view of the demand, applications for this form of assistance closed on 31 March 1951. By 31 March 1965, 12,201 men had been settled on their own farms, involving loans amounting to £79,244,660.

Disabled Ex-servicemen. Although closing dates have been fixed for all forms of assistance, except housing and furniture loans, for men from the Second World War, the Board has reserved the right for men in receipt of a permanent war pension of 40 per cent or more to lodge an application for special assistance. Such cases will be sympathetically considered, having regard to the applicants' disabilities and the need for further rehabilitation.

Emergency Forces. Under the Emergency Forces Rehabilitation Act 1953, regulations have been made for the rehabilitation of ex-servicemen who served overseas in connection with any emergency under the United Nations Charter or otherwise.

The Board has fixed the minimum service qualifications and the type of assistance available in respect of the zones of service. Any Emergency Force personnel who can meet these requirements may apply and receive the assistance applicable to his particular period and zone of service.

by James Colin Dow, Director of Rehabilitation, Social Security Department, Wellington.

Within two years after the commencement of the 1939–45 War, thought was given to the re-establishment into civilian life of men who would be discharged from the services. Thus the Rehabilitation Act 1941 was passed. This Act made provision for two statutory bodies, the National Rehabilitation Council and the Rehabilitation Board. The functions of the former body were advisory only, while those of the latter were to organise the establishment in civilian life of discharged servicemen or the widows and children of deceased servicemen, and to coordinate and use the services available in Departments of State and elsewhere for the carrying out of these functions. Moreover, the Board was to determine the nature and extent of the assistance that might be granted to any class of ex-servicemen based on a minimum service qualification, and it was to approve the granting of such assistance. By amendments to the Act, in 1944 and 1947, the personnel of the Board was augmented to comprise the Minister of Rehabilitation as chairman, the Director of Rehabilitation, the Secretary to the Treasury, the Managing Director of the State Advances Corporation, the Director-General of Lands, the Secretary for Maori Affairs, the Commissioner of Works, and five other persons appointed by the Governor-General.

The forms of assistance offered were those considered necessary to start men off in civilian life, and were available to European and Maori ex-servicemen alike, eligibility for each being based on a minimum service qualification determined by the Board.

Purpose. The object of war veterans' allowances is to make provision for members of the forces who, apart from wounds or other injuries received during war service, are ageing prematurely or otherwise becoming unfit for permanent employment by reason of mental or physical incapacity.

Service – New Zealand Forces. To be accepted as a veteran, a male claimant must have served as a member of the New Zealand forces with a unit in actual engagement with the enemy or, by reason of the period of his overseas service and the arduous or dangerous nature of his service, be considered by the War Pensions Board a proper person for the grant of an allowance.

The above requirements are waived for a person who served in the South African War as a member of a New Zealand contingent, and has attained the age of 75 years.

A female member of the New Zealand forces must have served overseas in connection with a war or emergency.

Other Commonwealth Forces. Any person, male or female, who served with the forces of any Commonwealth country other than New Zealand, with a unit in actual engagement with the enemy, or who served overseas for a period, fulfilling duties of an arduous or dangerous nature, may be regarded as a proper person for the grant of an allowance.

Residential Qualifications:

1. Five years' continuous residence, immediately prior to the date of a claim is required, by a veteran who has served as a member of the New Zealand forces or who, being a bona fide resident of New Zealand at the outbreak of any war or emergency in which New Zealand forces were engaged, has served as a member of any of the forces of the Commonwealth other than New Zealand. Continuous residence is not deemed to have been interrupted by absence or absences not exceeding six months in the aggregate which is increased by one month for every year of residence in excess of five years.

2. Twenty years' continuous residence immediately prior to date of application is required in any other case. The aggregate of allowable absence within the 20 years is two years, increased by six months for every year of residence in excess of 20 years.

Income. In general, the annual rates above are reducible by £1 for every complete ££1 of the income of the veteran or, in the case of a married person, of the combined income of husband and wife in excess of £208 a year. Where allowance is payable in respect of only one of a married couple, the rates are reducible by £1 for every complete 1 in excess of 457 12s. a year. Disablement and war widows' pensions are not taken into account as income, nor is up to £78 a year of the personal earnings from domestic or nursing employment of a female war veteran or the wife of a veteran. In addition, up to 20s. a week received as sick benefit from a friendly society, or a like benefit from any other source, is disregarded.

Age Supplement. An allowance may be increased by an age supplement at a rate not exceeding £39 a year each for a veteran and his wife on attaining the age of 65 years, provided that the amount of the supplement, together with income from other sources and any war disablement pension, does not exceed £208 a year.

Children. No additional allowance is payable in respect of dependent children as these are provided for by way of family benefit under the Social Security Act.

Death of a Veteran. A war veteran's allowance ceases on the death of the veteran but, if he leaves a wife or any dependent children, the allowance may be continued for up to two years at a rate not exceeding £477 2s. a year (9 3s. 6d. a week).

General. The War Pensions Appeal Board consists of a chairman, who is usually a Judge or Stipendiary Magistrate, and two members who are medical practitioners, one being appointed as a representative of members of the forces on the nomination of the New Zealand Returned Services' Association. Appeals may be made against any decision of the War Pensions Board in respect of attributability or assessment. They may also be made by claimants of war veterans' allowances whose applications have been declined on the grounds that they are not unfit for permanent employment.

War Bursaries. Bursaries for educational purposes are available to children of war veterans of seriously and permanently disabled ex-servicemen, and of deceased ex-servicemen in respect of whose deaths war pensions are paid.

Bursaries are paid at the following rates:

The rates payable under (a) and (b) are doubled in the case of an orphan child or a child whose father or mother is in receipt of an economic pension or war veteran's allowance, or in any other case where the cost of educating the child is causing hardship to the parents or guardian.

Supplementary Assistance. Additional assistance may be granted to war pensioners and veterans who, through ill health, family circumstances, or other good cause, are unable to maintain themselves and their dependants adequately on their pensions and allowances.

Growth of Pensions Programme. The above table sets out the numbers of pensions and allowances in force at 31 March, at five-yearly intervals from 1920 and the expenditure for the years ended on those dates. Division of the total expenditure for a year by the number of pensions in force at the end of that year provides an index illustrating the increase in the monetary value of pensions. Between 1920 and 1963 this index figure rose from £52 to 240.

by George James Brocklehurst, B.COM., A.R.A.N.Z., Chairman, Social Security Commission, and Secretary for War Pensions, Wellington.

Widows: Grounds for Pension:

1. Death of husband occurred while on service as a member of Her Majesty's Forces in any war or emergency.

2. Death was attributable to service in New Zealand or overseas.

3. The condition that resulted in death was aggravated by service in New Zealand or overseas; or

4. The husband was in receipt of a permanent pension in respect of not less than 70 per cent of the rate for total disablement at the time of his death. This provision also applies where the deceased, although not in receipt of a permanent pension of not less than 70 per cent, could, in the opinion of the War Pensions Board, have been granted such a pension had he not died.

*Ranges from £3 17s. 6d. a week for all ranks up to lieutenant-colonel (Army) and equivalent in other services, and for members of mercantile marine and of Emergency Reserve corps; £3 18s. a week for colonel and equivalent to £4 a week for brigadier or upwards and equivalent in other services.

The basic widow's pension may be supplemented by an economic pension, in determining the rate of which no account is taken of up to £4 a week of the applicant's income. In the case of a widow supporting a dependent child or children, income up to £6 a week is disregarded. In addition, earnings up to 30s. a week from domestic or nursing employment in a private home, hospital, home for the care of the aged, or other approved institution may be disregarded, and no account is taken of up to 20s. a week received as sick benefit from a friendly society or as a like benefit from any other source.

Children. A child, both of whose parents are dead, or, alternatively, not under the control of its mother: £3 3s. 6d. a week.

Other Dependants. The pension payable to any other dependant cannot exceed the amount payable to a widow without children, i.e., £3 17s. 6d. a week. The income and property of the dependant are taken into account in determining the amount of pension payable. A widowed mother, wholly dependent on a deceased member or the mother of two or more sons, being deceased members of the forces, may be granted a supplementary economic pension of up to £5 6s. a week, or, if partially dependent, up to £4 3s. 6d.

Persons Other than Dependants. The guardian of a child or children of a deceased member may be granted an allowance of up to £4 16s. a week.