CHAPTER THREE

ON ACTIVE SERVICE IN THE EAST

THE ENEMY – LICE AND SAND

The 31st Division was being sent to Egypt as part of the Imperial Strategic Reserve, there to counter any threat from the Turkish forces in the Suez Canal Zone. Two other divisions, the 14th and 46th, had been scheduled to defend Egypt but when the threat did not materialise they were not needed; as a result the former never sailed and the latter was recalled to France before it had fully disembarked.

These three divisions had been needed while the Allies were fighting at Gallipoli but, with the successful withdrawal from the peninsula at the end of the campaign in January 1916, there would now be thousands of seasoned troops available to defend the Canal Zone. As a result, only the 31st Division, which was in place before the withdrawal, was actually needed. Even though the men from Gallipoli were veteran soldiers, many had no rifles, many were suffering from inadequate rations, illness or both, and most units were far short of their full complement of men and officers. The whole Canal Zone would become a huge retraining and regrouping camp. Sir George MacMunn wrote that the GOC of Egypt Forces was to receive: