OUR ARMY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 9, 11 January 1940, Page 5

OUR ARMY.

WHY 2ND N.Z.E.F. ?

FOURTH FORCE RAISED.

battalion number mystery

All maimer of terms are being used to describe 'the troops going overseas from New Zealand. When the formation of the force was announced by the acting-Prime Minister, the Hon. P. Fraser, he was careful to style it "a special force." For a period it was the fashion to refer to it as "the" special force whose mission, stated In carefully <?hosen official words, was "for service at home or abroad, as and when required." A little later the units of this special force began to be called "the Second New Zealand Division," the First Division, of course, being the now nonexistent bodies of troops which covered themselves with glory on Gallipoli, in France and in Palestine in 1914-18. In recent weeks some writers, and even some military documents, have used the words "Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force" in reference to our troops going forward. Now, whatever this force may be, it certainly is not the second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, as a moment's reflection will show. The force which New Zealand sent to the Boer War (1890-1901) in ten contingents totalling 6500 men. was nothing if it was not an expeditionary force. Again, on the outbreak of war in Europe in 1014 another expeditionary force was sent from New Zealand te Sninoa, and some of the members oi this force on their return to New Zealand some months later were required to re-enlist in the m«in body N.Z.E.F for service on the European and Nortli African fronts. Old Tie Gone. Thus the first New "Zealand expedi tionary force was that sent tp Soutl Africa, the second was that which wenl N to Samoa, and the third the one whicl

went to Gallipoli, Europe and Palestine. The present force, strictly speaking, is the fourth New Zealand expeditionary force. It may be that the best term to use in speaking of the present force is Second New Zealand Division, and that the force that went to the last war is most accurately described as N.Z.E.F. 1914-18. Not the British Way.

One will recall that there is such a thing as the British Expeditionary Force, and that actually there have been | such forces connected with the British Army away back to the days of the Black Prince, or thereabouts. But they do not attempt in Britain to number their expeditionary forces away back in the , dark ages. If they did the force now * in France might be No. 99 or some such : figure! One would expect New Zealand ito follow the British precedent. But I that has not been done. i The force will comprise three brigades I —Auckland, Wellington and CanterburyOtago battalions —and starts with the I 18th (Auckland) Battalion, 19th (WelI lington) Battalion, and 20th (Cantert bury-Otago) Battalion. In this rotation * the 21st Battalion becomes the Auck--1 land, the 22nd Wellington, and the 23rd i[Canterbury-Otago, and so on. The old I regimental numbers and associations I with the last war's force have been dis--1 carded, and the men do not wear the - regimental badge, but have a universal s .badge associating them with their battalion. t Old Tie Gone. * Who and what are the seventeen bat- * talions which have gone before? This question was put to persons in 4 local military circles to-day, when the n inquirer found that the point was one 8 on which no official information had come from headquarters. There are two theories in existence locally; one n that the four provincial brijrades of four battalions each in the N.Z.E.F. 1914-18 f accounted for 16 of them, and that the Maori Pioneer Battalion was the sevenl ~ teenth. The other theory, which is more ? widely held, is that the numbers apply 1' to the old territorial force, which comI prised seventeen battalions, and finished | with the 17th Kuahines.

The impression was gained that there [are many interested in the Army who sincerely regret the destruction of the old tie associated with the regimental badges. The substitution .of "echelon".

for "reinforcement" is generally approved in clerical quarters; it's shorter jto write and say. But the fact remains that the reconstructed ' Army nomenclature entirely ignores the fact that there was any euch thing a« a New Zealand force engaged in the Boer War.