NZMR BRIGADE - DISPOSAL OF HORSES

[TerryK]

I am trying to establish the fate of the horses belonging to the NZMR Brigade of the Anzac Mounted Division after the war. So far I have found that 389 Canterbury regiment horses were handed in on 13 November 1918, before that unit went back to Gallipoli. A week later, 7-800 horses were destroyed on the beach near Jaffa. The Anzac division moved south to Rafah in mid-December 1918. I believe that a number of Australian D-class horses (unfit for work) were destroyed there, along with some C-class horses (over 12 years of age, or unsound but fit for work). I am not yet aware of any New Zealand C- or D-class horses being destroyed at Rafah. Finally, in February 1919, 1,680 New Zealand horses (A- and B-class, presumably) were railed to the Remount Depot in Moascar, where 1,623 were held 'for War Department use', 32 were sold and 25 were destroyed.

I have some questions:

a. Does this sound like the correct chain of events?

b. Were the horses destroyed on November 1918 the CMR horses plus those handed in by the 7th ALH Regiment, which also went to Gallipoli?

c. How many C- and D-class ALH (and NZMR) horses were destroyed at Rafah?

d. How many ALH horses from the Anzac Mounted Division were sent back to the Remount Depots on the Suez Canal for disposal?

e. What happened to the horses in the Australian Mounted Division?

Any help that readers can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[Coldstreamer]

Hello

I know that the 4th Dragoon Guards gave some horses to some local french soldiers - who promptly killed and cooked them - even offering some "meat" back to the Dragoons...

Ian

[Christina]

I find it totally disgusting that such noble animals should be treated so, even if it was wartime.

sadly, man has little respect for man or beast.

Regards

Christina

[stevenbecker]

Mate,

See my answer on the other site but it appears the 7th LHR History of whom with the CMR were sent to Gallipoli in Nov 1918 have a mention of this.

They give 720 horses were shot at the Remounts depot there.

Were all these horses from the two regts I can only say that to kill 720 horses from a two regts of about plus 800 horses not counting thoses animals that embarked for Turkey the number appears very high for just this.

I can surpose that many of the horses may be part of the large numbers of Turkish animals captured during the last few months that were handed over to the Remount depots.

But untill these numbers are confirmed with the Remount unit records, we cannot say for sure what the true number was.

Cheers

S.B