Egypt: Chapter 8 of The Story of The Anzacs

Post Office of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade

The Australian camp, therefore, lay right on the edge of the Libyan desert, 10 miles from Cairo. Approaches to it were cut through the garden of the famous Mena House Hotel, and a broad macadamized road was levelled by half-a-dozen steam rollers for a length of two miles through the desert; concrete reservoirs were also built, and the camp linked up with the main route to Cairo by an extension of the electric railway. The tents at Mena were laid out like the streets of a town, and each street bore an Australian name. 

The Pyramids in their time had looked down on many a gallant army: in olden times they had beheld the invading Persian hosts of Cambyses, the Greek mercenaries who fought for Inarus at Papremis, the legionaries of Caesar, Vespasian, and Caracalla, the hosts of the conquering Moslem and of the vainly revolting Copt. They had seen the Franks, the chivalry of Saladin, the mailed Crusaders, the Mamelukes, and the Mongols, the Janissaries of Selim, the cavalry of Khyber, the intrepid fighters of Mehemet Ali and Ibrahim, the great hosts of Napoleon, and the British who had gone forth from beneath their shadows to avenge Gordon and destroy the Mahdi. To-day they looked down on the khaki clad host of the youngest nation in the world.

The Australians soon made their presence known in Cairo. Every evening the long road with its fringe of trees was thronged with motor cars, carriages and donkeys carrying the troops into the city where Australia was to encounter for the first time all the glamour and squalor of the East. Life in an Australian city is not particularly picturesque or vividly coloured, hence the men were greatly impressed with the new costumes, customs and modes of living. On the other hand, there is very little concentrated poverty in Australia, consequently the soldiers were struck by the contrast between affluence and penury presented in almost every Eastern street. Young Australia wondered at the swarming crowds, the splendour of the Zoological Gardens, the age and glamour of the Citadel, and last, but not least, at the outrageous demands for backsheesh made upon them by all and sundry.

The essential factor of life at Mena Camp, however, was not pleasure making or wonder, but hard and even grinding work. The ordinary routine of camp training has already been described in this volume. This was modified, for good and for bad, by the conditions of the Egyptian climate. The advantages of that climate have been already described. On its debit side must be set its extremes of heat and cold and its incessant dust. A minor effect of the latter nuisance was the difficulty experienced by the soldiers in keeping the action of their rifles clear of grit. 

Infinitely more serious was the intense cold of the nights, which during the winter season succeeded the blazing days of hard toil. This contrast must be ascribed the frequency of pneumonia among the Australasian troops throughout the period of training. The work prescribed for the forces, moreover, was of a kind to overpower all but the very strongest. The full load of every soldier, including rifle, ammunition pouches, water bottle, bag, etc., is about 80 lbs., and with this to carry the men had to perform, day after day, long marches over yielding sand, besides the ordinary course of instruction.

One beholder describes having seen a detachment returning after an 18 miles' march in ankle deep sand, and the cutting and filling of miles of trenches. "It was interesting," he remarks ("New Zealand Herald," May '7th, 1915), "to see the swinging stride of the Australians, which 14 foodless hours have not shortened; carrying full packs and entrenching tools, they swung along happy and contented that they were another step towards the goal of efficiency."

Nor was their toil over with the day : for at any time during the night they were liable to be called out to perform marches of seven or eight miles. These sudden surprises habituated them to getting ready at a moment's notice without noise or confusion, the manoeuvre being repeated so often that they were eventually able to fall in within ten minutes after the alarm. There was a certain danger that the rigour of the discipline might make the men stale; but when General Birdwood arrived, he varied the training as far as possible, and diversified the monotony of route marching through desert sand by little tactical schemes which relieved the men's; minds and prevented them from getting utterly exhausted with their work. 

The General shared the men's hardships : he sat on the baking desert when they were ordered to sit, and when he saw them weary and dusty with trudging through the heavy sand, he would dismount from his horse and walk by their side.

He also tried to ensure that every man should have a whole holiday in the week : but it was not possible to put this requisition uniformly into practice. For all the variety that could be introduced, the discipline was terribly severe, and there were occasional signs that the health of the men might have been improved by a little casing off.

As the months went on, the temperature rose to over a hundred degrees during the day time with considerable heat at night. The air at this period was laden with dust, but the rigour of the regime was not relaxed. The men had now reached such a high degree of efficiency that elementary work was abandoned in favour of the most advanced exercises. The Australian Field Artillery achieved some remarkable results for both day and night shooting. Their shrapnel fire in the darkness was particularly impressive, targets being frequently torn to pieces at 5,000 yards and over. 

Musketry, according to one observer, had now become a habit, rifle manipulation a subconscious operation. The men had regular and rigorous practice in trench digging and the construction of "fake" redoubts. Each man "carried at his waist an adze-like tool with a spiked top, and time-tests showed that a soldier could throw up sufficient earth to protect his body in five minutes, and in half an hour could scoop a hole in. soft ground to stand in." (Melbourne "Argus," April ist, 1915.)

The most careful attention was paid to sanitation, the water bottles being cleansed and filled every day and the water waggons kept in perfect condition. Sham fights were conducted over wide areas, the New Zealand Rifle Brigade of 1,500 men on one occasion advancing brilliantly in extended squadron formation and saving Colonel Chuvel's Australians from annihilation at the hands of a phantom enemy. The result of all this was that before the Australians had been many weeks in Egypt, they represented a force of which their country might well be proud. British officers, indeed, more than once volunteered the statement that they had never anywhere seen a force with the physique of the First Australian Division.

It is worth noticing here that that Division, when it arrived in Egypt, was composed as follows:

On February ist, the Second Australian Contingent landed in Egypt. They were immediate1v sent into camp in the desert, near the Heliopolis Oasis, with the Sahara desert stretching away as far as the eye could reach. They had done such good work in Australia that they were at once judged fit to play their part in the Divisional manoeuvres.

Certain of the Australasian troops were destined to receive their baptism of fire before leaving Egypt. This opportunity was given them through the attempt of Turkey to attack Egypt. On December 17th Sir Edward Grey had announced that in view of the state of war which had arisen between Great Britain and Turkey, Egypt had ceased to become a tributary state of Turkey and had now become a Protectorate of Great Britain. Turkey's own ambition in the war was probably that of regaining the Crimea, Batoum, Turan, Rumelia, and of driving the British out of Egypt. 

In the latter regard she obviously became the catspaw of Germany, to whom such an operation was of paramount importance. The primary object of Germany, however, was not the actual occupation of Egypt nor the expulsion of the British forces. Such occupation, could it be effected, would, of course, count heavily in the settlement which would follow the War. But the immediately important thing from a strategic point of view, was to render the Canal unsafe for commerce. 

Egypt was at this period of primary value to Germany as the "ground from which the Suez Canal could be attacked." Such control would have much the same kind of effect on the British trade as that which, so it was hoped, might be exerted by the submarine campaign. It would also cut Britain off from her most direct route of approach to India and the southern Dominions. and would hit Australia and New Zealand terribly hard.

There was always the hope, moreover, that Egypt would rise against Britain. The event showed that this expectation was a somewhat forlorn one, but it seems certain that it was at one time entertained by the aspiring Teuton and imparted to the confiding Turk. Hence a large army, recruited in great measure from unwilling Assyrians, was assembled at Damascus, and a holy war was declared. The German Consul, addressing the populace in this city, assured them that Great Britain was their chief enemy, and that the only chance of Mohammedanism lay in her destruction. The Turkish Army was estimated at some 30,000 or 40,000 men, with large quantities of supplies, transport and animals, including 13,000 camels.

During the last days of January, 1915, the Turks made their appearance at the Canal. Their first attacks were made at El Kantara on January 26th and 27th, and at Kubri, near Suez, on January 28th. At Kantara, the Turks opened fire at long range and caused a few casualties, our contact with them lasting ten hours. The Turks had been informed that the Indians would desert, but soon discovered that this suggestion was only another of Germany's miscalculations or misrepresentations. After this engagement they withdrew, and prepared to launch their second and main attack. 

This took place on February 3rd, when the Turkish army attempted to cross the Canal at Tussum, and delivered two subsidiary attacks against Ismailia and Kantara. This engagement is very clearly described in Captain Bean's official despatches. An attack on Tussum had been made over-night, when the Turks reached the Canal and began to bridge. They had with them two batteries of artillery and a 6-inch gun. They opened fire at 5 on the next morning, and made a desperate attempt to cross the Canal, under heavy fire from the British batteries and warships. The Brltish maxim fire was terrible and the pontoons of galvanised zinc suffered heavily from the shell fire of the Indians. 

The Turks launched 16 pontoons, 14 of which were sunk by our fire before they could reach the western bank of the Canal. Only 20 Turks succeeded in crossing. A whole brigade had advanced to the attack at this point, and none of it returned. The Turks fought pluckily, however, and their only fear appeared to be that they might have to return to the ghastly desert over which they had advanced. They continued the fight till 3.30 in the afternoon, when they were compelled to retreat by an advance of the British Infantry from Serapeum. 

Thoroughly worsted, they dug themselves into shallow holes among the low hummocks and scrub. 'Meanwhile, two thousand troops had been discovered at Ismailia Ferry about half a mile in front of the British lines, but these were finally dispersed, and short work was also made with the third Turkish attacking party at Kantara.

The Turkish losses were very heavy, numbering some 3,000, as against our 110; and they must have suffered still more severely in their retreat across the desert, where, according to an English newspaper correspondent, "thousands perished from hunger and thirst, falling a prey to vultures." It is obvious that the commissariat arrangements of this expedition had been a complete failure.

Although the Australasian troops were not heavily represented in this engagement, the part they played was distinguished and successful. Australian Engineers had been working on the defences of the Canal, and had received high praise for their efficiency from the officers of the Royal British Engineers with whom they had been associated. They had played their part in the defence of the Canal under heavy fire, and continued their arduous task of building trenches along the Canal bank in the yielding sand. For their skill and gallantry during this operation they received special praise from Sir John Maxwell. A small force of New Zealand also took part in the action at a point on the western bank of the Canal, between Tussum and Serapeum. 

They held the Turks under heavy fire while they were digging in on the eastern bank, and subsequently met their pontoons with a staggering fusillade, under which the drifted along the Canal for about 50 yards, eventually putting back their own shore. Throughout this engagement the New Zealand marksmen had the ascendancy over the Turkish, and showed their heads fearlessly above the trenches, while the Turks had to hold theirs down under their opponent's more accurate fire.

Great excitement was caused in the main Australasian camps by the news of the attack, and this was intensified when two battalions, the 7th and the 8th Infantry were ordered to take their part in repelling it. The soldiers marched through Cairo on their way to the trenches amid the envy of their less fortunate brethren, but on arriving at Ismailia, the troops were disappointed to find that they were too late for the Turks, who had withdrawn m the Canal some two hours beforehand.

At the beginning of Spring, the Australasian forces were told to prepare for a campaign in a colder country, and when the further intimation was given that the journey would only last for three or four days, it became evident that the troops would perform the next stage of their task on Turkish soil. The first force to leave was Colonel Sinclair Maclagan's Third Infantry Brigade, which had embarked from Alexandria on February 28th, under sealed orders for an unknown destination. Toward the end of March, the rest of the troops wer6 warned of their approaching departure, and on April 1st leave of absence was stopped. 

Within a week of this date, the great camp had ceased to exist. The troops were for the most part moved out at night, with no show or ceremony of any kind, and their destination remained a strict secret.

The actual embarkation occupied 28 hours and there was every variety of transport-ships of the original convoy, steamers from the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, French. liners, and cattle boats. As the journey was a short one the ships were crowded, but the men were so overjoyed at their deliverance from the desert and its rigours that they bore this minor discomfort cheerfully.