ANZAC Mounted Division
The Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division was a mounted infantry division of the British Empire during the First World War. The division was raised in March 1916 and was assigned to the I ANZAC Corps. On establishment, it consisted of four brigades comprising three Australian Light Horse and one New Zealand mounted rifles, supported by British horse artillery. In 1917, one of the Australian brigades was replaced by a British yeomanry brigade. After April 1917, the standard order of battle was reduced to two Australian brigades and one New Zealand brigade, although the Imperial Camel Corps Brigade and other British mounted brigades were temporarily attached several times during operations.
Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division
16 March 1916 – 30 June 1919
British Empire
Army
ANZACS
The division had two wartime commanders; the first was the Australian Major-General Harry Chauvel, who had commanded the 1st Light Horse Brigade at Gallipoli. When Chauvel was promoted to command the Desert Column – of which the division was part – he was replaced by the New Zealander Major-General Edward Chaytor from the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, who remained in command for the rest of the war. Post-war, Brigadier-General Granville Ryrie commanded the division from December 1918 until it was disbanded in June 1919.
In December 1915, the brigades that would form the ANZAC Mounted Division were evacuated from the Gallipoli Campaign and became part of the British Empire's Egyptian Expeditionary Force. In March 1916, after raising the division served, as the mounted formation, in the I ANZAC Corps. Then subsequently served under the command of Eastern Force for most of 1916. The division served in the Desert Column from the end of 1916 until mid-1917, when the column was expanded and renamed the Desert Mounted Corps. The division fought and won almost all the major battles across the Sinai Peninsula during 1916, and the following year it fought from Gaza to Jerusalem in southern Palestine. In 1918, it took part in the Jordan Valley operations, the raid on Amman, the raid on Es Salt and the final advance to Amman and Ziza, part of the Battle of Megiddo. During which the division formed the main part of Chaytor's Force – which captured 10,300 men from the Turkish Fourth Army.[nb 1]