he can depend on them at all times to display energy, resource and endurance. All these three qualities were time after time exemplified by the New Zealanders in the waterless desert country of Sinai... Not only is the brigade equal to any troops in energy, resource and endurance, but in addition it is second to none in determination and dash... The Empire is proud of the New Zealand Mounted Brigade and I personally owe it a debt of lasting gratitude." (General Sir Archibald Murray, CCMG, KCB, CVO, DSO.) "When the autumn campaign was in progress, the New Zealanders took a leading part in defeating the Turkish IV Army. In the Jordan Valley, and thence eastward, over their old battlefield of Shunet Nimrin, Es Salt and Amman, to the Hedjaz railway, the men of New Zealand fought and marched to final and complete victory. Nothing daunted these intrepid fighters; to them nothing was impossible." (Field Marshall Sir Edmund Allenby, GCB, GCMG). Field Marshall Lord Wavell summarised the part played by the Desert Mounted Corps in the campaign like this: "The greatest exploit in history of horsed cavalry, and possibly their last success on a large scale, had ended within a short distance of the battlefield of Issus (333 B.C.), where Alexander the Great first showed how battles could be won by bold and well-handled horsemen." The campaign in Egypt, Palestine and Syria was to be the heyday of New Zealand's mounted rifles regiments. 1918–1939 After the First World War the TF continued much in its previous form, although in 1921 the 12 mounted rifles regiments were reduced to nine. Horses were maintained in all the regiments. In the same year, the title of the 4th (Waikato) Mounted Rifles was altered first to the 4th New Zealand Mounted Rifles (Waikato), and then on 6 September 1927 to the Waikato Mounted Rifles. In 1927 the New Zealand mounted rifles regiments received permission from King George V to carry Guidons. Although some mounted rifles regiments were later presented with Guidons, there is no record of WMR ever having received this honour, and that position continues to this day. 1927 was also the year in which two British cavalry regiments, the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) and the 12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales's), were converted to armoured cars, becoming the first regular cavalry in the world to be fully mechanised. The era of the