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The Silent Division: New Zealanders at the Front, 1914-1919

Chapter XIV Of the Reorganization in Egypt, the Formation of the N.Z. Division, and Good-bye to the Mounteds

page 133

Chapter XIV Of the Reorganization in Egypt, the Formation of the N.Z. Division, and Good-bye to the Mounteds

We are at rest … miles behind the front … Reinforcements have arrived … Some of them are old hands, but there are, men of a later draft from the base.

After the evacuation the troops assembled in a tented camp outside Mudros. The "diehards" of the last party were welcomed with great joy. But the greatest welcome was reserved for the two Australian battalions that had held the Old Anzac Ring and that had been the last to leave. The road by which they marched was lined with cheering men for the brotherhood of Anzac had been a very real thing. It was there that Australians and New Zealanders learned to appreciate each other as never before or after. And these men who were marching in without rifles had been the last garrison, the men who had looked down from the crags to see all others in safety before they at the very last moment withdrew to the boats.

There were no wild excitements about Lemnos. Mudros itself was a commonplace and dirty village. The only building of any beauty was the church, page 134which was a new one with the interior adorned with oil paintings of some quality. The camp itself was pitched on a somewhat dreary slope and the admixture of pebbles and turf did not make for comfort at night. The old monotonous training was recommenced. A few days of comparative quietness passed by during which everyone yearned for the fleshpots of Egypt. The only real excitement was a raid carried out by certain bold spirits of all units upon a certain guard of "Jocks" who had been appointed the custodians of sundry barrels of beer. The Jocks were suddenly overwhelmed and led away in one direction while the barrels were rolled away in another, and after a while were shamefully abandoned. There was keen disappointment when it was realized that Christmas in Cairo was out of the question.

Many of the units actually embarked on Christmas morning. There had been very little for breakfast but the tents were struck and the packing done with the utmost cheerfulness because of the promised dinner that was supposed to be even then in preparation on the transports. Everyone was soon on board in a state of happy confusion waiting for the coming feast. Time passed and nothing happened but for a while the mood of optimism prevailed. The hours went by. The officers assembled in the saloon and savoury dishes were borne in before the eyes of men now growing ravenous. Appetites were further whetted and eagerness became almost wolfish. There could not be very much more delay. There was not. Some boxes page 135of hard biscuits were dumped on the decks. There wasn't even any bully. To wash down this noble repast a small quantity of cold water was made available. There were things worse than defeat it seemed and the men of the N.Z.E.F. were never before or after in quite such a black and bitter mood.

Once more Alexandria rose up out of the sea and the boats were soon berthed at the quays. There was to be no leave. Trains were waiting and almost at once the files were moving down the gangways and along the wharves.

Right on the main wharf was a little tea buffet for the convenience no doubt of the soldiers whose duties brought them on and about the water front. Framed in this little booth like a picture was an English girl dressed in a spotless Red Cross uniform. Very fair and sweet and clean she looked to men who for nine months had seen no woman except withered-looking old Greeks and a few nurses in the far distance. They felt like little boys in the primers, young and very shy, worshipping one of the goddesses who preside in those regions. And she was so utterly unattainable! They had no Egyptian money, so couldn't buy tea or chocolates or cigarettes to give them an excuse actually to speak to her. There happened to be no others buying at the moment, so they couldn't just stand and stare as they would have liked to. She looked far too much like a nice New Zealand girl for anyone to dream of striking up a casual acquaintance. All that could be done was for them to walk past once or twice and look as though they were not looking page 136at the lovely vision. If they could have only told her that they were very, very young and very homesick and if she would only have smiled at them once and asked them what their Christian names were and where they lived and if they had any little brothers and sisters!

In an hour or two the trains were rattling down the Nile Delta. Very homely and pleasant it looked after the barren hills. Old Egypt seemed just the same any way, war or no war, and everyone's spirits commenced to rise. Two or three indeed got so exhilarated that they fell off the train and damaged themselves rather seriously, but otherwise nothing happened to mar proceedings until at Benha Junction the trains turned east to Zag-a-zig and so through Tel-el-Kebir to Moascar Siding a mile or so outside the Canal town of Ismailia. The men detrained on to the desert. So it was not to be Cairo. Bivouacs were formed on the desert sands and in a few days tents arrived.

At Alexandria the infantry and the mounted troops parted company—the latter going to the old camp at Zeitoun and from there to the campaign in Palestine. Here they must pass out from this story and their deeds must be told by some other chronicler.

To Moascar came the newly formed Rifle Brigade whose first battalion had been in action against the Senussi, and also the men of the 7th, 8th and 9th reinforcements. In addition many hundreds sick and wounded from Gallipoli were now fit again and ready for duty. It was possible page 137therefore to reorganize and to form a complete infantry division, made up entirely of New Zealanders. This was done and hard training became once more the order of the day.

It was during this period that feeling with regard to promotion first became very acute. There were in all the units men who had served through the Gallipoli campaign with great distinction and who were in every way qualified for promotion to commissioned rank. When a depleted brigade suddenly grew into a division scores of new officers were needed and these men naturally expected to receive their commissions. Moreover, in many cases their commanding officers were most anxious to have their services in positions where they would have been of the greatest use.

But to the dismay of all it was found that each reinforcement brought a quota of officers more than sufficient to meet all requirements. These men had no particular qualifications except that they had passed a not very difficult examination in the New Zealand training camps. Many of them indeed were of the number who were less eager to get to the front, and who, by signifying their desire to do the special N.C.O. and then officers' training courses, thereby delayed their departure from New Zealand for upwards of six months. In very few cases could any special reason be advanced for these men receiving preferential treatment. Nevertheless, they were arriving reinforcement after reinforcement at a rate that bade fair to stop all promotion from the ranks. Men inexperienced in war and un-page 138proven as far as personal courage was concerned, would be continually taking commands ranging from platoons to companies.

In Egypt protest became strong. Some of the senior officers waited upon General Godley and urged the discontinuance of the system. The General agreed that there was definite injustice but said that he was powerless to act, for despite his protests the authorities in New Zealand insisted on sending the men away. Nothing more could be done, but there was much soreness.

Amongst the men who came away with commissions were some who turned out extremely fine soldiers; the majority were men of average type and filled the positions in a not unsatisfactory fashion, while a minority were utterly inefficient, incapable and cowardly. The system provided for a succession of mediocrity which continued from the beginning to the end.

Throughout the whole war there was seldom a time when the average New Zealand company could not have selected from its ranks men who would have officered it better than those who actually held the commands. There was a very even diffusion through all ranks of the qualities of initiative, personality and intelligence. This gave a certain solidarity which made it difficult for things to go utterly wrong, for there was nearly always some N.C.O. or private who could rise to a crisis and save a situation. But it did mean that units were continually hampered in constructive endeavours by relatively uninspired leadership and also by the fact page 139that whatever might be their natural capacity, so many company and platoon officers lacked experience. As time went on a quota, and an increasing quota of men were recommended from the ranks for commissions, but the vicious system of sending new officers went on until the very end.

There was little to break the monotony of training. Ismailia, though a beautiful place enough, was small and there were not many attractions, and yet as there was nowhere else to go it was usually thronged. The main diversion was bathing in Lake Timsah. Every day when training was finished, thousands of men stripped off and plunged into the water. Behind lay the gleaming, shimmering line of sandhills broken in two or three places by green patches of vegetation. The wide expanse of water was blue beneath the cloudless sky. Out in the channel warships patrolled slowly through and then along the line of the Canal, while great transports went by crowded with battalions from India, or reinforcements from Australia or New Zealand. The bathers splashed and shouted, their beautiful white and brown bodies flashing and gleaming in the sunlight.

The most exciting incident of the period was when one day a few exhausted Australians staggered into the camp with the news that they were all that remained of a brigade which had set out to march from Tel-el-Kebir to Moascar. Their water had given out, the distance was considerable, march discipline had collapsed, and the men struggled on, more and more falling out as the sun increased in page 140power. As soon as the New Zealanders realized what had happened, every vehicle possible was sent out into the desert, and the helpless and exhausted men were rushed back to the camp. They were lying in ones and twos and threes for miles back, their packs and rifles and equipment scattered everywhere. After some hours they were nearly all got in, some with a helping hand from the infantrymen, some on artillery horses, some on limbers, and some in field ambulances. It was a bad enough business as it was; but if the New Zealand camp had been a couple of miles farther on it might well have been a ghastly catastrophe.

It was at Moascar that the N.Z.Y.M.C.A. made its first appearance among the fighting men. Two marquees were put up and were of course crowded.

And now the New Zealanders were strong again. They had grown from a single brigade to a great company of men, a full division. No heavy fighting was likely to take place on the Canal and it was obvious that before long there would be a move. Again rumours of all sorts commenced to circulate. Salonika, Mesopotamia and France were all talked of. As the Gallipoli campaign had definitely failed, it was more than ever certain that the heaviest fighting of the war would now be in the west. It was the strong desire of the New Zealanders to proceed to France—and to France they went. Embarkation orders came early in April and soon the N.Z.E.F. was running the gauntlet of the German submarines as the great ships ploughed across the Mediterranean towards Marseilles.