Allan Mayfield Pre-WWII Territorial Photos

[Dave Homewood]

Peter Wheeler emailed these photos to me to post. He says,
"Hi Dave , happy New Year. Over Xmas I called on the daughter of Allan Mayfield DFC (75 sq Stirlings and 128sq Mossies). He lived in Oamaru pre-war and had joined the North Otago territorials. His album held these shots of a pre-war camp which I thought may be of interest to our Khaki followers. If you post them just acknowledge Kristin Post (his daughter ) for making them available .
Cheers
Peter"

[Mustang51]

What a wonderful record

[davidd]

These exercises must have been covered fairly well in the newspapers of the time, but unlikely to establish the date of the above camp due to lack of any hard clues in photos. However if they held exercises in different areas each time it might be easier, but I imagine they would have had a few favourite locations that suited them for most purposes.

David D

[tbf2504]

The photos do show the perilous state of our Territorial and indeed permanent Army prior to WWII. Noting the use of horses, the Boer War 180lb bell tents and use of civilian vehicles

[Dave Homewood]

They also had a massive recruitment problem into the Army Territorials in the late 1930's. The government were running a massive recruitment campaign to try desperately to build up numbers. It was only when the war came along that numbers swelled.

[davidd]

Horses were still in use with majority of World's armies in the 1930s, but mechanisation was slowly taking over (although not so much in NZ!) The German armies also used vast numbers of horses and other beasts of burden during WW2, as did Russians, Japanese, Italians, etc, but these were often to supplement MT when conditions got too tough for the latter. The vast mass production of reasonably reliable motor trucks, etc. in the USA, and the various Lend-Lease agreements enabled many Allied armies to mechanize much faster than would otherwise have been the case. The NZ Army used its Mounted Rifles for home defence well into WW2, as they were probably cheaper and more capable for certain tasks than wheeled or even tracked vehicles. The army of Poland was held up to some ridicule in 1939 as they insisted on using cavalry against invading German AFVs, but I don't know if that was in desperation, or some sort of outmoded courage and belief - somebody will soon enlighten us.

[madmac]

Off the top of my head, the pole's use of Calvary appears to be due in part to its successes against the soviets relatively more mechanized forces in 1920. They also maintained one of the largest standing armys in Europe over much of the interwar period, so likely also a cost issue.

[Dave Homewood]

I read not too long ago that the fabled Polish cavalry charge against the invading Germans never actually happened, and was just propaganda (I assume from the Germans to prove how backwards the Poles were?). Strange as a lot of Poles seem to have claimed they were in that charge.

The 2NZEF were what was known as mechanised infantry in the desert war and as they travelled into battle by truck, rather than on foot like a lot of the other divisions, they were always part of the vanguard in a battle as they had the elements of speed and surprise, leading to their successes so often.

But as David says, horses still played a big part in home defence. The NZ Home Guard had some big mounted units too, particularly in rural coastal regions like Hawkes Bay and Canterbury.

[pepe]

Jan 9, 2022 10:19:26 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

I read not too long ago that the fabled Polish cavalry charge against the invading Germans never actually happened, and was just propaganda (I assume from the Germans to prove how backwards the Poles were?). Strange as a lot of Poles seem to have claimed they were in that charge.

The 2NZEF were what was known as mechanised infantry in the desert war and as they travelled into battle by truck, rather than on foot like a lot of the other divisions, they were always part of the vanguard in a battle as they had the elements of speed and surprise, leading to their successes so often.

But as David says, horses still played a big part in home defence. The NZ Home Guard had some big mounted units too, particularly in rural coastal regions like Hawkes Bay and Canterbury.

Oddly the German Army actually had many cavalry units of it's own including units comprising of the famous Cossack horsemen.
These units were in action right up to the end of the war.

www.axishistory.com/list-all-categories/150-germany-heer/heer-divisionen/3903-1-kosaken-kavallerie-division

[30sqnatc]

I suggest the later group of photos were taken at Burnham Camp due to the windbreaks that appear to be eulyptus and the small buildings which i believe are ablution blocks.