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Chapter III.
Egypt

By 7 a.m. on the 3rd December several of our transports were berthed. The Regiment did not relish its task of remaining behind and cleaning up ship, but it had to be done, and the sooner it was done the quicker the detachment would get away.

Disembarkation started immediately after breakfast on 3rd December, and by 5 p.m. most mounted units were off their ships and bound for Cairo. The first portion of the Regiment to get away from the transports comprised West Coast Company and Ruahine Company who proceeded by one train, leaving the wharf at Alexandria about 2.15 p.m. on the 4th December. Cairo station was reached about S p.m., after a most interesting run through the Nile Delta.

After an hour at Cairo, the detachment departed on the short run to Helmieh siding, which was reached at 10 p.m. Here Major-General Godley and his staff met the troops, and guides were furnished to take the detachment to the camp site, about a mile and a half distant. There were no luggage carts, and, in consequence, the men in heavy marching order had to carry their full kit bags in addition on their shoulders. It was a bright, clear starlight night, and the air after the stuffy conditions prevailing on ship was very bracing. The two companies arrived in camp about 11 p.m. extremely tired and hungry. They were marched on the camp site, a bare patch of desert, and left to make the best of things till daylight. Arms were piled, kits sorted out under a friendly flare, and officers and men wrapped in their great coats and blanket lay down to rest. Much to everyone's surprise the ground was intensely cold, and the air seemed almost frosty. Sleep was very difficult, and the first ray of dawn saw a good page 15many astir endeavouring to restore animation to limbs stiffened with cold and cramp. By 8 o'clock all ranks had had something warn to drink, and a start was made to pitch camp, in anticipation of the arrival of the rest of the battalion. The first night's exposure on the desert produced n mild epidemic of influenza colds, and some twenty men were ordered off to hospital the first day. By night tents had been pitched, straw issued and that night was one of comparative comfort. Those who were privileged to experience that first night's bivouac on the sands of the Egyptian desert will long remember it as one of the coldest of their lives.

From the 4th to 6th December, Battalion Headquarters and the Taranaki and Hawkes Bay Companies were detained at Alexandria to complete the discharge of the transports. They reached camp about 6 p.m. on the 6th December, well pleased to be away from work on the wharves. Immediately upon arrival, the Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Col. "W. G. Malone, with his customary zeal and energy, had set to work to square the camp to his liking. All tents were struck, the camp and tent lines laid out and tent poles dressed and tents re-erected. A neighbouring pile of soft white stones, apparently ownerless and deserted, gave inspiration to all and sundry to beautify their lines, and mark out paths, boundaries and tent limits. The heap of stones rapidly faded from view, and the neat and tidy lines of the Wellington Regiment, with their white-edged streets and paths became the envy of the Divison. Our distinction, however, was short lived. A native owner, viewing the site of his future home, was astonished to find his treasured heap of building material gone; but his astonishment turned to anger, when he ultimately found the good-sized stones broken to tiny fragments, and spread out in rows about the camp. The sequel was a prompt order from Brigade Headquarters that the stones should be returned to the original heap, and the Commanding Officer would attend a court of enquiry into the unauthorised destruction of certain private property, to wit, a heap of building stone. Eventually the Regiment page 16had to pay a considerable sum to reimburse the owner in return for which the small pieces became regimental property.

Training now began in real earnest. Every morning before breakfast "physical jerks"; and, at 8 a.m., the battalion paraded, carrying lunch in haversacks, and the day was spent in training. Full packs were always carried on the march, and across the desert the going was heavy and dusty. The training grounds were usually selected at a distance three or four miles from the camp, so as to ensure a certain amount of marching every day.

Although the nights were invariably cold and the early mornings raw and misty, the sun shone from a cloudless sky throughout the day, and tunies were soon discarded. Training was never interfered with by the weather and, in fixing training schemes, weather contingeneies were not considered.

Outside training hours there was much to interest and amuse all ranks. Cairo was within half an hour's journey by rail or tram. There, the great hotels and restaurants were still open. Then Cairo and its environs offered limitless scope to those who were interested in antiquities. The "Muski" gave those who wished to send souvenirs to New Zealand unprecedented opportunities for bargaining. Life was never dull, and, when work was over for the day, the camp quickly emptied of those entitled lo leave.

Shortly after the battalion had settled down in camp, the Ceylon Planters Rifles, a company of Englishmen raised in Ceylon, which had been some weeks in Egypt, was attached to the battalion as a fifth company. They were from the C.O. to the bugler a fine lot of fellows, and a close friendship soon sprang up between the planters and all ranks of the battalion. They continued to serve with the battalion until March 1915, when they were almost all placed in an officer's training unit in Egypt to qualify for commissions in the British Army. The planters wore a light khaki drill tunic and shorts, and in the hot dusty marches we envied them iheir tropical kit. For our part, we had landed in Egypt with the warmest of clothing, equipped, in fact, for an English winter.

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During training operations the battalion was for a few days hors de combat through vaccination against smallpox. Sore and painfully swollen arms were universal, entitling their owners to several days' light duty. The Commanding Officer rather scoffed at the Medical Officers considering that such a trifling inconvenience warranted men being excused parades, until his own turn came. The Doctor then saw to it that he received that application of vaccine to which his rank entitled him. Thereafter the Commanding Officer had no hesitation in taking his two days' light duty. Our vaccination for smallpox was the forerunner of many similar trials both in Egypt and on Gallipoli.

Christmas and New Year passed quietly. During Christmas week, training slackened; extra leave was granted, and rations were supplemented from Regimental Funds. All ranks made good use of the few days' leave.