MOUNTED BATTLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22402, 24 April 1936, Page 16

MOUNTED BATTLE

TROOPS AT ROTORUA FINE HORSEMANSHIP SHOWN THAMES SQUADRON'S VICTORY VERY REALISTIC EXERCISES [by telegraph— special reporter] ROTORUA, Thursday Tho Thames and Coromandel Squadron of the Auckland (East Coast) Mounted Rifles is feeling very cock-a-hoop to-day, for yesterday it won the Battle of Atiamuri. This squadron, commanded by Major Wilson, represented a force of 250 "Fuzzies" of the warlike country of "Utopia." It was presumed that the Fuzzies were good horsemen, but that they were armed only with rifles and a few machine-guns. They had been harassing the lines of communication with some success, and a regimfent of Mounted Rifles was to be sent to deal with them. Because of bad weather the Fuzzies force did hot bivouac for the night on its position, but moved off early, and in a wide area of fenceless scrub and fern with swampy hollows rather pinching left flank movements by the oncoming force, prepared » flanking scheme of attack. Contact With the "Enemy"

At an engineers' bridge on the Maori i road through the valley contact was , first made, the vanguard of the advancing force being held up for a brief period by a troop whose dut> was not to obstruct but rather to lure the enemy on toward the point of its intended destruction. No general purpose can be served by describing tho details of the operation, which resulted in the Fuzzies' attack from the flank under Table Top catching the led horses of the enemy about one minute before the "dismounted troopers could reach the same ridge. Seen from Table Top, the whole action was thrilling, even to old cam-, paigners, and afterward Major-General Sir William Sinclair-Burgess, who was present with Colonel J. E. Duigan, O.C. Northern Command, other staff officers, and Colonel C. Spragg, brigadier of the Auckland Mounted Rifles Brigade, said that it was one of the most realistic exercises he had seen this year. . Tho general lesson emphasised by the result was the necessity for adequate flank protection, even if for such a mobile unit as a Mounted Rifles regiment it meant leaving the road and taking a high and more difficult rout©. Reminders ol Gallipoli The military nomenclature of this splendid training area along the Atiamuri Road has extraordinary interest on an Anzac Day. There is Plugge s Plateau, the Pimple, Battleship Hill, Lone Pine, Russell's Top, Walker's Ridge, Quinn's Post, Shrapnel Gully, Chunuk Bair, and Rhododendron Spur. Through this territory so significantly named the mounted riflemen fought with vigour and elation. Across the ridges and down the valleys they moved and often, when they had a chance, rode after the manner Of the man from Snowy River. A fair proportion of their horses were accustomed to rough country, and thus these fine young horsemen displayed on the steep slopes a degree of confidence which would not have disgraced regular cavalry roughriders. It was a beautiful day, and the exercise was one of the kind to mak«' many a young man envious. Air Observer's Difficulties An interesting feature of the operation was the co-operation of the Air Force. Flying-Officer C. E. Kay, flying solo, was employed to reconnoitre for the advancing regiment. The air was "bumpy," but he circled many times over the area of the Fuzzies, and although he came fairly low he was unable to discover the main force. It was proved that if a column of horsemen halts when an aeroplane is overhead and'faces are not turned upward, the colour of uniforms and of horses blends so well with that of scrub and fern and clay that it is not readily picked up by an air observer. Major-General Sir William SinclairBurgess mentioned in an address to the regiment that it had been found elsewhere that even on a clearly-defined road a body of horsemen could often escape detection from the air if it split and proceeded in two lines, one on either side of the roadway. Several times during the exercise a troop halted by the side of a clay road was missed by the air observer, although everyone believed that it would be as plainly seen as a line of redcoats. The camp breaks up to-morow morning, some of the men route-marching to the Bay of Plenty. The weather for the most part has been unsatisfactory, but the troops have worked on in a splendid spirit