A Christmas Quiet between Campaigns

Having caught up again with my grandfather’s Artillery corps activities 100 years ago, I see that Christmas and New Year were spent at Zeitoun camp in Egypt, following the evacuation from Anzac Cove in early December 1915. You don’t hear much about the evacuation these days – certainly no special commemorations like we’ve seen for the disastrous Anzac landing and the battle for Chunuk Bair. But here’s what the official New Zealand Artillery in the Field, 1914-18 war record said at the time:

The evacuation of the New Zealand Field Artillery, and the other batteries attached to the Division, extended over little more than a week. Orders to evacuate the guns were issued on December 10th, and the evacuation began the following night, when one section of guns from each New Zealand Battery was sent away. In many cases the guns had to be manhandled for a considerable distance, across trenches and broken ground, before they could be got on to ground where they could be limbered up and taken to the beach by the teams, but these difficulties were made light of in the determination that the New Zealand Brigades should leave none of their guns behind when Anzac was evacuated. ...

The final stages of the evacuation were carried out with methodical quietness, and exactly according to the time-table which had been laid down. It was a trying and anxious time for the whole Army Corps, but for none so much as the small garrison which held Anzac during the last twenty-four hours, and whose lives may be literally said to have hung by a thread. Everything possible was done in order to create the appearance of normal activity, and even to encourage the enemy in the belief that fresh troops were being landed by night.

Later, the official record reports:

The evacuation of Anzac having been a gradual process extending over more than a week, units arrived back in Egypt distributed on different transports, and in no particular order. On arrival at Alexandria some parties proceeded to Zeitoun, and others to Moascar. At this latter place, which was merely a railway siding a mile from Ismailia, on the banks of the Suez Canal, advance parties were proceeding with the establishment of a big camp where the Division was to be once more concentrated under canvas. With the arrival of the Infantry Brigades, the artillerymen with their horses and guns, other Divisional troops, and the Supply and Transport services, the camp took on an air of bustle and animation, and the men gradually settled down again to the routine of training.

Te Ara has this short video clip of Zeitoun camp from the time, where my grandfather was exactly a hundred years ago, though his war record shows he moved to Moascar camp on 24 January 1916. The location of each camp is shown on the map below.