served throughout the Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine campaigns, finally returning to New Zealand in 1919 when it was demobilised. For this service the following battle honours were awarded to WMR: Anzac, Defence of Anzac, Hill 60 (Anzac), Sari Bair, Gallipoli 1915, Rumani, Magdaba-Rafah, Egypt 1915–17, Gaza-Beersheba, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Jericho, Jordan (Amman), Megiddo, Nablus and Palestine 1917–18. The role played by the NZMR Brigade fighting dismounted alongside the infantry against the Turks during the Gallipoli campaign of 1915 has been well recorded; less well known are the Brigade's operations in Egypt, Palestine and Syria. Arguably the finest hours of AMR's 4th Waikato Squadron on Gallipoli occurred during the 8 and 9 August 1915 during the assault on Chunuk Bair, the summit of the dominant Sari Bair Ridge. After a most hazardous approach under continuous fire, AMR succeeding in reaching the sorely pressed Wellington Infantry Battalion that had earlier seized the peak. Together the survivors held out against repeated Turkish assaults, suffering appalling casualties. When eventually relieved, AMR had virtually ceased to exist. Of the 288 that had advanced on the summit, only 22 were able to walk off the hill unaided. All the officers in the 4th Waikato Squadron were dead. Ultimately Chunuk Bair was lost, and Hamilton's August offensive failed. The Gallipoli campaign decimated the original NZMR Brigade. When the peninsula finally came to be evacuated in December, almost half of the 4000 mounted riflemen who had served there since May had been killed or wounded. Once reunited with their horses in Egypt, the Brigade formed part of what later became known as the Desert Mounted Corps, eventually consisting of 20,000 horsemen drawn from Australian, Indian, British Yeomanry and New Zealand units, and the largest tactical force of cavalry ever to operate under one command. The campaign under General Allenby concluded with the fall of Damascus and the complete defeat of the Turkish Army in 1918. It is instructive to read extracts from the tributes paid afterwards to the NZMR Brigade by successive British Commanders in Chief: "New Zealand has every reason to be proud of what her sons have done for the Empire, and in no theatre have they more reason to be so than the glorious and bewilderingly successful campaign in Palestine." (General Sir John Maxwell, GCB, KCMG, CVO, DSO.) "Fortunate indeed is a commander in the field who has at his disposal New Zealand mounted troops, for