During World War 1 both Jim and Tom McCarroll served in the Auckland Mounted Rifles (AMR), a mounted infantry regiment made up of three territorial units based on the Northland, Auckland and Waikato districts. The 11th (North Auckland) Mounted Rifles were commanded by Major James Neil McCarroll, who’d been involved part time with the unit since 1900.
Tom had spent a year with the Mounted Rifles in 1900-01, but after working at Mareretu with his brothers he’d headed to Auckland to work on construction of the tramways. He’d then signed on as an engineer with the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. in Lautoka, Fiji. When war broke out he joined up as a lowly private when a New Zealand contingent passed through on its way to relieve Samoa from the Germans. From there he’d returned to Auckland and joined the Main Force of the AMR before it embarked for Egypt.
The AMR was part of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade (NZMR), which was in turn part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. The AMR was considered an elite unit and at the outbreak of war, with competition among volunteers to join its ranks, its strength was twenty-six officers, 523 other ranks and 600 horses.
The Mounted Rifles normally rode into battle on horses, but once in action dismounted and fought on foot. At Gallipoli, their first campaign, however, their horses remained in Egypt and they fought as infantry.
§
Gallipoli
The first Gallipoli landings were on 25 April 2015, but the AMR landed on the 12th of May. They were ordered to take over a section of the defensive perimeter around Anzac Cove called Walker’s Ridge. Other units of NZMR covered the front towards Quinn’s Post, which was held by Australians.
First engagements: NZ History’s detailed timeline of Auckland Mounted Rifles 1914-19 records their first significant engagement:
At midnight on the night of 18/19 May heavy rifle and machine-gun fire is directed at the AMR trenches. This firing continues until 3.30 a.m., when Ottoman troops launch an attack as part of an assault against Walker’s Ridge and Quinn’s Post. By 4.30 a.m. the attack has been repulsed, at the cost of 22 men of the AMR killed and 27 wounded. The bodies of 350 Ottoman soldiers are estimated to be left lying in no-man’s land in the aftermath of the successful defence of the Anzac’s positions.
Using personal accounts and war diaries Richard Stowers covered the entire attack in vivid, compelling detail. Next day, he says, “the New Zealand troopers did not lift their guard, fully expecting another attack, but it never came. In the entire 4 acres that contained the whole battle the defeated Turks left about 2000 dead.”
Although a follow-up attack never eventuated, according to Stowers six men from the North Auckland Squadron were wounded by shrapnel during the day, including Major Jim McCarroll. Jim cabled Sarah later to say that actually he’d been hit in the shoulder with a bullet and was recovering in hospital on Malta.
§
At 5 pm the day that Jim was wounded, the Turks were seen carrying forward white flags. The men manning the trenches were ordered not to fire. The NZ History account continues:
In the evening the Ottoman Turks try to arrange a ceasefire so the dead from the attack can be buried. The AMR fears another attack: large numbers of reinforcements can be seen moving forward in the Ottoman trenches, and the Turks are taking ammunition and rifles from the dead in no-man’s land. After giving a two minutes’ warning of their intention to resume hostilities, the AMR opens fire and forces the Ottoman soldiers back into their trenches.
Stowers says that during the late afternoon the AMR were told to prepare to attack the first Turkish trench across the Nek, a narrow, heavily defended saddle of land the size of “two tennis courts”. It was cancelled at the last minute by their Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mackesy. A similar attack the previous day had also been cancelled. Apparently Mackesy’s decision wasn’t popular with his superiors, but the men were understandably pleased that “colonial officers were more practical minded and saw past the senselessness of needless casualties on the battlefield.”
The AMR were relieved a couple of days later, but there was much more to follow. In August they took part in the biggest offensive of the campaign, the battle of Chunuk Bair in August 1915.
§
Lieutenant-Colonel McCarroll: Jim’s wounding on May 19th is the first mention of the McCarroll brothers in Stower’s book, but as Mackesy’s subordinate he’s mentioned regularly from September 1915 onwards. Jim would be temporarily elevated from Major to Lieutenant Colonel and take temporary command of AMR whenever Mackesy took over NZMR, as he did from time to time. In April 1917 Mackesy was appointed Administrator of the Khan Yunis–Deir El Belah area in what’s now southern Gaza. Jim was then promoted to permanent lieutenant-colonel and commanded AMR until the war ended.
§
Chunuk Bair
The objective of the Battle of Chunuk Bair (6-9 August) was to capture the commanding heights of the Sari Bair Range, of which Chunuk Bair was one of the high points. A second goal was to link up with British troops who were to land at Suvla Bay, 8km north of Anzac Cove.
In the lead-up to the battle AMR were bivouacked at No. 2 Outpost, and Tom McCarroll, by now a sergeant, had been patrolling with a few men on reconnaissance. NZMR’s initial role was to clear the way for an assault column to capture the ridge at Chunuk Bair. AMR’s particular task was to recapture Old No. 3 Outpost, which had been taken by the Turks in late May.
By 10.30pm on the night of the 6th-7th AMR had taken their objective, and they spent the rest of the night reorganising the defences and repelling counter-attacks. By morning it was secure, and the regiment was relieved of their post and spent the day resting.
The assault columns, however, had fallen badly behind schedule, and AMR was committed to join a renewed assault on Chunuk Bair on the night of the 7th and 8th. Their goal was to help consolidate and extend the ground that had been taken by the Wellington Battalion of the NZ Infantry Brigade, but which was under constant Turkish counter-attack.
NZ History writes:
At 1.30 a.m. the AMR moves out of its bivouac and up the slopes towards Chunuk Bair. By dawn the regiment is behind the Apex awaiting developments. At 8 a.m. the AMR and the Maori Contingent are ordered to reinforce Chunuk Bair. The AMR suffers heavy casualties while crossing a ravine to reach Chunuk Bair. At 11 a.m. the regiment is in the line at Chunuk Bair. It spends the afternoon attempting to dig trenches in hot conditions while repelling Ottoman attacks and throwing back ‘bombs’ (grenades).
After dark the AMR is ordered to move forward to hold a ditch in front of the main Chunuk Bair position. This position is untenable because of the heavy fire and the regiment soon withdraws to the established line. Casualties in the AMR are now so high that the unit has almost ceased to exist.
Casualties: The AMR was relieved from Chunuk Bair at 5 a.m. on the 9th, and withdrew to near No. 2 Post, where they’d been bivouacked before the battle began. Richard Stowers writes:
Charles Bean [Australian war Correspondent] was present when the remains of the Wellington Infantry reported to Headquarters after coming off Chunuk Bair: “Of the 760 of the Wellington Infantry Battalion who had captured the height that morning, there came out only 70 unwounded or slightly wounded men. Throughout that day not one had dreamed of leaving his post. Their uniforms were torn, their knees broken. They had no water since the morning; they could only talk in whispers; their eyes were sunken; their knees trembled; some broke down and cried like children.”
The Auckland Mounted Rifles suffered a similar fate. Of the nearly 288 Aucklanders that advanced on the summit, only 22 remained. Corporal James Watson of Cambridge was one of those 22. He later wrote: “Practically all the Auckland Mounted Rifles were killed or wounded. The fourth [Waikato Squadron] had about 16 left out of 89. All the officers were killed.”
§
Hill 60: Late in August what was left of AMR again suffered heavy casualties in an attack on a feature called Hill 60. One officer and 37 other ranks were killed, and four officers and 61 other ranks wounded. According to the NZ History Timeline the strength of the AMR had been reduced to five officers and 83 men. Stowers writes that on the 28th Sergeant Tom McCarroll was promoted to temporary 2nd Lieutenant to help fill the vacuum of missing officers.
Stowers says the New Zealanders and Australians scorned the Hill 60 battles as wasteful actions with no military purpose, that “yet again we see on Gallipoli Dominion troops as well as British forced to fight with heavy casualties actions that were totally worthless and meaningless in their purpose.”
§
Later that month the AMR were evacuated to the island of Lemnos in the Aegean for rest and training. The unit returned to Gallipoli briefly, with 10 officers and 286 other ranks, but by December was in Alexandria, Egypt. By then it had 16 officers and 321 other ranks, or about 2/3 of its original strength.