Continuing the journey of my grandfather in the Field Artillery with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, I have come to the point where the flotilla receives unexpected news while crossing the Red Sea that they would disembark in Egypt, rather than Europe:
(The Ottomans did attack the Canal just a few months later in February 2015). However, at this point, the NZEF were due to disembark at Alexandria on the Mediterranean northern shores of Egypt:
Most of the men had firmly believed that they were on their way to England, and would ultimately go from there to France, and they parted with their illusions regretfully, but once it had been definitely stated that the voyage would end at Egypt they were quick to realise the cogency of the reasons which probably lay behind this decision. At Suez, where the leading transports anchored for an hour or two, detailed disembarkation orders were brought out to the flagship, the Canal pilots were taken aboard, and the Maunganui led the way into the Canal. A powerful electric light was installed in the bows of each, boat so that they might feel their way along the narrow channel in the darkness.
Of the town of Suez little could be seen—a glimpse of the palm-shaded water-front, a glimmer of lights, and then the boats were in the Canal with the low banks on either hand so close at times that it seemed almost possible to leap ashore from the decks. ... The soldiers clustered up forward and silently watched the canal-banks slip by like the unfolding of a cinematograph film; but, late at night a heavy fog enveloped everything, and the leading boats anchored till the morning in the Bitter Lake. Proceeding by day, the entrenchments and fortified posts skirting the canal, with their garrisons of English and Indian troops, provided a first impression of the seriousness attached to the Turkish threat to the precious waterway, and of the elaborate preparations being made for its defence.
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| http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/nzef-egypt-1914-16-map,
(Ministry for Culture and Heritage) |
The city was in sight at dawn [on 3 December], and very soon after breakfast the transports had berthed, and men and horses and stores were pouring out on to the wharves. The Force was to be encamped on the outskirts of Cairo, so there was still a train journey of almost 150 miles before its travels would for the time being be over. Once the batteries had marched their horses down the big ramps, and slung their guns and stores up from the holds, they had to set to and pack them into the long troop trains which were in waiting to carry them off to their new home on the edge of the great desert.
