Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

With the Cameliers in Palestine

Chapter VII — The New Zealand Camel Companies

page 65

Chapter VII
The New Zealand Camel Companies

In addition to I.C.C. Companies formed from Yeomanry and Light Horse Regiments, two companies were formed from reinforcements for the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade.

The adaptability of the members of the various companies of the Camel Corps was surprising when one considers from where they were drawn—from the crowded cities of England, from the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland, from the townships and back-blocks of Australia and New Zealand, many of them never having seen a camel before, and yet in a few weeks they became almost as expert in handling these animals as the Bedouins. The natives certainly were never seen putting their camels through the various performances that the Cameliers carried out—wrestling on bare-back camels, tugs-of-war, and egg and spoon races 'On camels, while the speed attained by the camels in trotting and galloping contests at sports meetings must have made the Bedouins gaze with wonder.

The Fifteenth Company was formed of New Zealanders under Captain J. G. McCallum, in August, 1916, and after completing its training at Abbassia, it trekked across country to Kantara, and then across the Sinai Desert to link up with the main body of the Camel Corps at Mazar, in December, the day before the army advanced on El Arish.

The Sixteenth (N.Z.) Company was formed in November, and after only five weeks’ training, men and (camels were entrained at Abbassia Siding bound for the Canal. The camels were led, coaxed or carried into ordinary railway trucks, where they were packed, standing as closely as possible, across the trucks, fourteen in page 66each, with their heads tied down to the sides of the trucks by their halters. If horses or mules were conveyed in this manner half of their number would be over the sides of the trucks before the end of the journey, but the camels caused no trouble in this respect, and when their destination was reached, they were quietly led out of the trucks and barracked in rows alongside the railway track to wait for their loads to be put on. It takes something more than treatment of this kind to raise a panic amongst camels.

Sections of the Sixteenth Company were placed at various posts south from the railway line, and from these centres patrols were carried out daily to the south and south-east, to ensure that no raiding parities of Turks attempted to approach from the hilly country in the centre of the Peninsula, to threaten our main lines of communication. Such places as Mageibra, el Geila, el Geisi, Willegha, Bayud, and Arnussi, all mere names on a map, were familiar to the various I.C.C. units that patrolled this part of the desert in the latter part of 1916, and the early part of 1917.

The work assigned to the sections of the I.C.C. at this time was really that of flank guards, as they were peculiarly suited for this type of work. They were able to push away from the main artery, as it were, and, being a self-contained and extremely mobile force, were freely used for distant patrols, where horses could not be possibly used. An instance of such work was when a patrol of the 16th Company, consisting of Sergeant Wilson and sixteen men, pushed out from the vicinity of Mazar, their objective being (1) to locate a well or spring shown on the map as Roghwi, and to gauge the supply of water in it from the point of view of the number of horses it could water in a given time, should it be necessary to use it, and (2) to ascertain if the Turks were attempting to work through the Djebel page 67Maghara for the purpose of making a flank attack on our forces.

With a suggested four days’ limit, this little party pushed out into "the blue," with little else than an ancient map, full bandoliers, four days’ rations, and a liberal supply of the spirit of adventure. On the second day out, when crossing a range of rough hills, 1,700 feet high, they found they had missed their objective by about a mile and a half. The old map supplied to them was remarkably accurate. This map, incidentally was based on surveys made by the late Lord Kitchener as a subaltern in the ’seventies, and the leader of the party was able to locate within a few hundred yards features indicated on it.

In the rapidly falling dusk, movements of objects some distance ahead were responsible for a somewhat precipitate movement into a high strategic position where a very uncomfortable night was spent among sharp protruding rocks where both men and camels protested audibly until dawn. With the coming of daylight the "enemy" force was found to be no more than a roving band of Bedouins with their sheep and goats who were also making for the well of Roghwi.

Locating the well, the patrol found it to be one of the mysteries of this age-old mysterious country. A narrow entrance between the rocks led to a cave-like chamber some four feet high and three feet wide, the rocks on either side being like polished marble, made smooth by the passage of Bedouins, or their predecessors, whoever they were, probably for thousands of years. At the bottom of a sloping rock some twelve feet from the entrance was a pool of the sweetest water, which, when emptied to test its capacity, seemed to yield about twenty gallons an hour. One wondered how many people in bygone ages had quenched their thirst at this source.

page 68

Pushing away to the east through the Maghara Hills, the patrol encountered rougher rocky country. Steep cliffs, sometimes hundreds, sometimes over a thousand feet high, were seen forming a marked contrast to the monotonous interminable sandhills of Northern Sinai. Several traces of ancient ruins are to be found in these hills, showing that in the past this district was inhabited by a superior race to the few wandering families that are now found there. At another Maghara, near the coast of the Gulf of Suez further to the south-west, rock inscriptions have been discovered, showing that mining for turquoise was carried on there over five thousand years before the birth of Christ, by Semerkhet, one of the Pharaohs of the First Dynasty in Egypt.

It was with reluctance that the patrol, finding no signs of Turks, turned toward the coast. It crossed the range of hills by another pass where, for many miles, it was necessary to lead, and often even assist the long-legged mounts over difficult paths, often so narrow that the loads had to be readjusted on the saddles to clear the rocks on the sides of the paths, where one false step meant disaster.

The patrol returned safely to its base, and the sergeant furnished a report to the O.C. of the company, but this was much more prosaic than the reports issued by the individual members of the party to the rest of the company about the wonders of the land beyond the mountains, and the marvellous experiences they had encountered, which reports were, however, duly discounted in inverse ratio to the reputation for veracity of the reporter.

During this trip several of the beautiful desert gazelles were seen, and one of them was captured. These graceful creatures are most delicately proportioned, yet they must be hardy indeed to thrive amidst these arid hills, which are almost totally devoid of vegetation, of page 69which the only examples noticed consisted of a scrubby bush, which must obtain its moisture largely from the night dews, and which no doubt furnishes a precarious supply of food and drink for these nimble creatures. The words of the Psalmist "As the hart panteth after the water brooks," have a fuller significance when one has passed through such scenes as these.

By the end of April, 1917, the whole of the 16th I.C.C. Company came together again at Lahfan in the Wadi El Arish, fifteen miles inland from the coast. From here patrols were regularly carried out to the south and east, and to Magdhaba, fifteen miles further inland. A reconnaissance on a larger scale was carried out when a party of two hundred Cameliers made a raid into Turkish territory for a distance of fifty miles, being away for six days without any vehicular connection with their base.

In May the 16th Company joined up with the Fourth Battalion I.C.C. at Abbasan el Kebir, and from that time onward it took part in all the movements of the Brigade.