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The Desert Campaigns,By W.T. Massey, Official Correspondent of London

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The Desert Campaigns,By W.T. Massey, Official Correspondent of London THE DESERT CAMPAIGNS BY W. T. MASSEY OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENT OF LONDON NEWSPAPERS WITH THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DRAWINGS BY JAMES McBEY OFFICIAL ARTIST WITH THE EGYPTIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE This is the story of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, an army whose work has been thrilling, exacting, and of the utmost importance. The Sergeant. For him the desert holds no secrets - even that which is beyond Bedouins is not hid from him, Jim Liddy, silver miner from Broken Hill, New South Wales. FOREWORD I was prompted to write this book by a sentence in a letter received from a colleague on the Western Front, a thinking man, who some months ago expressed the hope that the war in Egypt would soon be over, for then “the good boys out your way will be able to come to France to see what war is”. That betrayed a lack of knowledge of the Army’s work in Egypt, and from what I have heard from many sources, not the least important being letters received by soldiers from friends at home and on the Western Front, I am afraid it echoes the opinion generally held in Britain. All the great London newspapers, who did me the honour of selecting me to act as their correspondent with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, have been generous in the amount of space allotted to the labours of this Force, but a good deal the newspapers have recorded has been forgotten in the ever-changing picture of all the battle fronts. The epic fights for German strongholds on the Western Front, the struggles for dominating positions, the tense expectation of strategic victory and not merely tactical gains, have made the public look with only half-closed eyes to the lesser field in Egypt, and to concentrate their intelligence upon the ebb and flow of fighting in the wider area where the ultimate decision is to be reached. It would be surprising if the people at home did not focus their attention upon the Western lines, for there their hopes are highest and the prospects most justify the belief that triumph will be ours. Yet they should be brought to realise the deep importance of the campaigns in Egypt and the far-reaching effect of what has been accomplished there, where battles won and the preparations made for further enemy defeats have prevented possible defections of peoples and tribes, and have held in check some dangerous elements in the East. Perhaps this little hurried effort of mine will do something to give our people a better understanding of the really great effort the Army in Egypt has made to serve Imperial interests by keeping open the Gateway between East and West. With this object I shall carry the story down to the battle of Rafa, which ejected the Turk from the Sinai Peninsula and gave back to Egypt every foot of its territory. Palestine, September 1917 NOTE ON JAMES MCBEY James McBey was born in 1883, at Newburgh, Aberdeenshire. While employed in a bank at Aberdeen, he was already acquiring the skill in etching which ensured his rapid success when he decided in 1910 to abandon a commercial career for that of an artist. He profited by his new-found liberty to travel in Holland, Spain, and Morocco. His etchings are much prized by collectors, and he has added to his reputation by successful exhibitions of watercolour drawings. He was on active service in France prior to April, 1917, when he became one of the official artists appointed to make war drawings of contemporary and historical interest. He started for Palestine in May, and is attached to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. The illustrations in this book appear by permission of H M Government. THE CANAL CAMPAIGN CHAPTER I - THE DEFENCE OF EGYPT The outbreak of war brought to those charged with watching over the interests of Egypt no little anxiety. They were left without the strong guiding hand of Lord Kitchener, called to higher duties in the State. With a class of Egyptians that feared him, Lord Kitchener’s presence would have had an important influence, and though many tried men well versed in the Egyptian character remained behind, there was always a risk of trouble. In the winter before the war an extraordinarily large number of Germans visited Egypt, not all of them merely to enjoy the benefits of the balmy winter climate, and certainly all of them did not come to develop commercial interests. There is more than a suspicion that some Teutonic trippers sowed seeds of rebellion which were to germinate when the Kaiser drew the sword in Europe, and if the crop failed it was due more to the alertness of British officers and officials in the Government and at the British Residency, than from a want of fertility of the soil in which the seed was scattered. The Nationalist party was practically moribund, notwithstanding the sympathies for it of the Khedive Abbas, but its adherents suddenly emerged from their holes and corners in August, 1914, and they talked sedition with a boldness never before attempted. The cafes where Egyptians of the effendi class congregated were filled at night, and some natives higher in the social scale visited the bars of the two leading hotels, and openly expressed the opinion that the British Empire had passed its zenith and that the great German people would speedily bring about its downfall. Some natives showed their anti-British feeling on the sidewalks and in trains, and it was only tact and unceasing watchfulness which prevented public incidents of an unfortunate character. Abbas was away at Constantinople, which was a happy circumstance, and the rebellious spirits lacked a leader and feared the consequences of a rising. The effendi’s growl is sharper than his bite. There were many enemy subjects in Egypt at this time. They helped to fan the Nationalist flame, and the early successes of the German armies were always known and spread in the bazaars long before our official reports, and our retreat from Mons was magnified into an overwhelming defeat and the beginning of the end of the British Empire. The arrival of the East Lancashire Territorial Division in Cairo at the end of September was very welcome to the Residency and to General Sir John Maxwell, but it did not stop the native chatter. In place of battalions of Guards and Highlanders which Egyptians had been accustomed to regard as average samples of Imperial troops, they saw a division of half-trained and not too well-equipped men straight from their professions and trades in town, mill-workers and miners, many of them, whose daily labour had made them pale of cheek. The native could not realise how these good fellows were fired by patriotism; they judged by outward appearance only, and declared “These are not soldiers, they are shopkeepers dressed in uniforms”. There were British critics, too, and to a remark, “They run small, don’t they?” an Indian Army general, on his way through Egypt to France, answered: “Yes, that is true, but I wish I had the good fortune to train them. The spirit is there, and mark my words, in two months their improvement will be so great you will not know them for the same men”. That professional opinion was amply borne out, and the 42nd Division on proceeding to the Dardanelles left behind it a record of soldierly qualities, good behaviour, and discipline worthy of the County Palatine and of Britain. The entry of Turkey into the war was another awkward time, but the worst fears were gone when we began to round up and intern enemy civilians, and with them a few Egyptian mischief makers, while the constant arrival of troops from India, the victory on the Marne, and the failure of the German hordes to take Paris, which the natives had been assured was almost an accomplished fact, made the people realise the sealing of the fate of the British Empire was not yet. I arrived in Egypt when the concern of officials had been greatly lessened by the improvement in the outlook. I saw the first 30,000 Australian and New Zealand troops to take part in the war set foot in Egypt, and their physique and “stand-no-nonsense” attitude greatly impressed the people with the fact that we were determined to go through with the war, and that the Mother Country had a mighty reserve in Britons overseas. Though there were undercurrents, more or less strong, when the Turks got to the Canal early in the following year, and when the Grand Sheikh of the Senussi became an open enemy, the Egyptian people from an uncertain quantity became well in hand. For this the Empire has to thank the officials of the Residency, and, perhaps more particularly, General Maxwell, commanding the forces in Egypt, whose policy, firm and just, was based on a deep knowledge of the Egyptian character, and was framed to serve our highest interests at a point which, at the time, was not an over- strong link in the Imperial chain. Sir John Maxwell’s initial success had an important bearing on future events, and his work, sterling as it was held to be at the time, will be even more highly appraised as the years roll on. We have not always been so fortunate in the choice of our administrators in Egypt. On the Young Turk party arriving at a decision which spelt ruin for Turkey, it became vitally necessary to prepare for the defence of the Suez Canal.
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