Kiwis immortalised in charge of bike brigade

Cyclists of the British Army’s Sixth Cyclists’ Battalion train in 1916. New Zealand also has a...
Cyclists of the British Army’s Sixth Cyclists’ Battalion train in 1916. New Zealand also has a proud military history on bicycles. During the Boer War, Kiwis were the first soldiers to win a military skirmish on bicycles. Photo: Otago Witness
I have a Class A addiction to weird and useless information, writes John Lapsley.

It’s ingrained and untreatable, but I survive it. The truth is that if I didn’t suffer from Weird Fact Syndrome, I’d have run out of column material around the time Prince Harry discovered long trousers.

Two months back Wit’s End noted with awed bemusement that in 1917 this proud country dispatched 300 Kiwis on bicycles (yes) to reinforce our troops on the Western Front.

To prove this truth, we ran a picture of Prime Minister Massey inspecting the New Zealand Cyclists Battalion as it stood to attention, its spit-polished bicycles readied for inspection. I’d have left it at that, but for being harassed by historians of the velocipede, who tell me I understate the wartime role of the bicycle. They point out that the Vietcong bicycled spring rolls and bullets down the Ho Chi Minh Trail to defeat the mechanised Americans. That when Japan invaded China in 1937, 50,000 Nippon troops banzai-ed into the Middle Kingdom on bikes. And when the Soldiers of the Emperor advanced through Malaysia en route to the capture of Singapore in 1942, their privates pedalled (Japan was short on trucks and petrol).

My knowledge of The Warrior Bicycle is clearly inadequate, so I took to Google which, bless its spidery tentacles, found The South African Military History Society Journal, Volume 4, Number 7 (1977) — Bicycles in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 (D. R. Maree).

And there I discovered the Wit’s End weird fact of the year — Kiwis were the first soldiers ever to win a military skirmish on bicycles. This victory was won during the Boer War.

Mr Maree informs us that bicycle scouts had been widely used for spying and running messages. But then, in 1901, the breakthrough: "Eleven cyclists from New Zealand were on their way with dispatches in the vicinity of Eerste Fabrieken, when they came across 10 Boers on horseback. After a spirited chase across the veldt they captured the Boers and (historian) H. W. Wilson maintains that this is the only such feat achieved by cyclists in the war."

Seeking verification (I was snowed in at home, with little else to do), I found this Charge of the Bikes on NZ History Online. 

The detail differs, but the essence is the same.

Our spoked soldiers were led by Lieutenant Alexander Wynyard-Joss, who NZ History tells us, was "Auckland’s favourite mandolinist".  Wynyard-Joss described the heroics to a Brisbane newspaper.

"I am pleased to say I have been personally congratulated by General Plumer for the smart capture of a small Boer convoy, consisting of nine Boers, four wagons, and 160 head of cattle. I took them completely by surprise with eight of the Cycle Company, and had the pleasure of smashing up their rifles and burning all their ammunition, securing for myself a lovely Mauser carbine and a Boer bandoleer full of cartridges."

Discussing his cavalryman thoughts on horse versus bike, the lieutenant explained: "We have had a terrible lot of horse sickness in the camps and over 200 have been walking these last few days. This sickness does not attack the bikes, but, oh! the prickles and punctures are awful."

The Kiwi cyclists’ victory is immortalised by a breathless painting of the bicycle pursuit. Sadly it bears the pedestrian title: Capture of Boers by Cyclists near Eerste Fabrieken.

War encourages the military inventors. The Boer War saw great advances in small arms, and the Royal Australian Cycle Corps launched a new fighting machine called "The War Cycle."

This was an eight-man bicycle — with two rows of four saddles — for troops to pedal on both land and rail. It claimed a top speed of 48kmh and had space for lunches and a Maxim machinegun.

Unfortunately, its riders scored much the same job as galley slaves, so somewhere in the Australian military archives, there is surely correspondence to the following effect: "Dear Major Brown, I am concerned for the welfare of my boy Sidney. He has for the last sixth months been enslaved on a War Cycle, pedalling on the third left seat. This is cruel and excessive. What can be done for him? Yours, etc, Sabrina Smith (Mrs)."

"Dear Madam, Thank-you for pointing out the plight of Private Smith. We in the Army are not heartless, and I have arranged an immediate transfer for your son. Sidney will now pedal from the second seat on the right. Your Obedient Servant, C. W. Brown (Major)."

- John Lapsley is an Arrowtown writer. 

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