Poor old soldiers, both two-legged and four-legged
Horses were among the unsung heroes of the NZEF during World War One. Ten thousand horses were sent overseas over the course of the war. They were used by mounted troops and officers, and for transporting equipment and artillery. The life of a horse in the army was a tough one. They endured brutal conditions travelling to the front and at the battlefield, and only a handful returned back to New Zealand, as Percy Lowndes recalled in 1969.
Year:1914-1918 (Recorded in 1969)
Poor old soldiers, both two-legged and four-legged
Horses were among the unsung heroes of the NZEF during World War One. Ten thousand horses were sent overseas over the course of the war. They were used by mounted troops and officers, and for transporting equipment and artillery. The life of a horse in the army was a tough one. They endured brutal conditions travelling to the front and at the battlefield, and only a handful returned back to New Zealand, as Percy Lowndes recalled in 1969.
Year: 1914-1918 (Recorded in 1969)
Length: 04:57
Source: Radio New Zealand Collection, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Catalogue Reference: 247660 [Horses used and transported in the Great War]
People: Percy Lowndes
Image Title: New Zealand Field Artillery horses being fed at horse lines
Image Source: Framegrab from The New Zealand Field Artillery in France. New Zealand Rifle Brigade on the March, 1918 [F4340 Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision]
One of the few New Zealand horses that did return from the war, Bess, is remembered at a memorial in the small town of Bulls in Rangitikei. A ceremony is held for Bess and the other war horses there every Anzac Day.