LEAVING EGYPT.
DRL'AUTIT.r: OF AUSTRALIANS. (Special Krnrr.-mlative. Melbourne Very much of tin: troop.,' early . r,tiiusiasni n't leiving Fgvpt had died uuiwi h\ the lime ihe lirsl contingent got their marching orders. For lon days or mure it had been in llir nil' that a move was io bo made, and then on Sunday/, he la.-t (i.r. of i-'cbrm.ry. cum. 11,.; order for ihe 'third infanlrv brigade, command, d by Co.unol Maeiagan, D.S.U. to embark for Kurope. f have written a continent, for rumour suggested In: If a score of places to which Hi;- troops might bo :,; -\ eg, yet as far .as it is possible to judge, it was evident thai tlio force was sailing lind.'r scaled orders. heard of the destination and triumph of the trv-os (!.;■„(:.•!, (!,-:• c bloc;.aims. When mve-eyuy. secrets are wel'l kept in the army, :-s i:i the navy, and if Constantinople', (Jliuuli. (ireece, It.tK'. .Marseilles r- ;- o.ihaniptsn were meoticmd a; (he <!e „ o.i(ma of til.- f.,r,e, it only goes to show tint the port of disembarkation as wil ai the country was a secret t) if. (J;.I. in its dciarf.ire thence there is ,;;:•:•!, U, relate that will illustrate what ;.iogrcss the arm.- has made, of v. hie!. 1 have already suokoa ill detail (l-e-.vii re.
was not a |o"ie ;ar!y happy one, for (he day had been v, iady ami'th" ivir w,m hot ard stHimg. a.ai thick with ihe dust of the d'-scrf. 'ihe sun was veiled by the ytilow c'.e.ud that bun;.' before it li'ilil it dropped behind (he ridga overlooking .Dead JianVi Cully, ii;/ which the troops hud so often marched. In the pale amber light thai was cast oyer the camp, the battalions of the brigade, were busy „trikiiig camp. They were in no frantic lr.\s(e, fey orders had gone forth days before t-j be in readiness, and -o ali kit; were packed and the little luxuries that had been gathered into the standing cam:, cut out. There w.n a piano .standing by it -elf on a bare, patifh
meat safe. Th:' headquarters cHice tent-. h..!il i:ei:> tiruek, ni.d or=lv here ami there a guard t.'.ii remained' standi;.';, for :i!l this baggage was tu lie taken, boBides (lie usual <quipinent of a force. Five thousand men (for an army medical corps unit and army service brtclury and hrkvry s-ci.ions, and the lk'.-t eompnuy of Diwsional Kngincers were included in the force) were to move as :in army self-contained in every respct, ready to halt in their (racks, pitch their tents, and establish themselves for an indefinite period. They even brought great quantities of provisions, lest they might find themselves in a' hostile country and cut oil from their supplies for a while, -which fact made many declare the truth of the rumour that Constantinople wou'd be their halting point, and that they would form with 'the navv a landing party after the Dardanelles were forced, the fleet being at this time half way thruugh to the iiosphorus. 'J.'he wooden mess rooms were deserted the tables piled in the centre ready to be returned to ordinance, leaving just the shell of a building, to be soTd for old timber. Where the tents once stood were rows of rifles piled, and the black kit bags, like enormous sausage rolls, were lying neatly by the side of the white road, tp be loaded on to the crazy narrow donkey carts and taken oir to the trains, where they went oft' into the station. It was the loud-voiced natives yelling at one another or their miserable, puny beasts of burden that suggested a scene of animation. The, soldiers were lying by their equipment, loath to put on the heavy packs until the last moment of moving oil'. They chatted with the men of other regiment's remaining behind; they sat round on ammunition cases and bundles of native straw and chair, arguing—ever arguing as to where they were moving at all. Behind the battalions ready for tin; march stood the pack horses, loaded up with spades and picks and quick-firing guns and signalling apparatus. Great clumsy service waggons, drawn by six horses to get them through the desert sand, were piled with spare wheels and tents and gear of all description, odds and ends that the technical sections of the little army might want. As for what remained oir the camp site when the men moved it was nothing practically. What could not be burned had been burried in enormous pits. _ 1 watched the fatigue party throwing bits of chairs and improvised [ cabinets and tables en to a huge burning' pile, and in a few minutes the flames' licked them up and there remained just a mass of ashes in the sand. I cannot describe the sense of desertion that one j felt on looking down the line of messrooms, in front of which were the fire trenches, smouldering here and there, | which had been cooking the last meal; three hours before. They had at this' hour of gathering gloom generally been I the busiest spot in the camp. Now tlity ! were black streaks in the trodden sand, i upon which the winds had not yet had time to remove the traces of the thous-d and footprints. An occasional chimney
e.uld be hmmi sticking out of (lie. sand, but (hat, too, would soon he swept down. Cue knew now that the winds of s;i„iini r were comiiu aeint;'. TiiK MAltt'il OUT OF CAM!'. hi the inid-.i <;f all (his. sorr.a:iMed itadi-r, pu'nmiall'.' lilt, •jailieriii'j; up of a'll the piles of b:ij;;;.U'c.', Vlia musVevira/ of the men. A perf-etly ,aim. pro-oaiee concealed (he aii'.ely v.bieli most have gripped Ids heart that all these -IdlW men, all their suiip' ; es,
■j-),\ (heir canvas cayennes, shoold be iiiie.: „;, to a road, parcelled out into ca.hl or more trains, reL'roii)ie(i nb.arl i'rie. (i'.insjiorts, resorted when they d s-;-,;i, '.tied, and that uothinj,' siio.dd be n-.io.in;;, at least nothing essential :<■ the vol fare of all concerned and the army of which (his was a tiny part. llis the a.!:>. ; etv of the organiser, and anxiety to less keenly felt by the junior subailorsi than by tile general of a division. These who wi*. free of care were the ;;re.;t ma.si of men in khaki, Tommy, the Australian Toiumv, like, vet un'ike, .Mr. Tommy Atkins of the whole JSritish Armv.' For (liem no regret at leaving a "horrible hole of a place," The sk;ht of sand v.ais bad ciiuii',di, the mention of it revoltin;;. They deli-ihtcd in the thought of lurii'ra.L:' their backs on it, shaking it off from their feet once and for ever. They took a horrible oath that (hey would mwer return and would not even stroll on the sands of the seashore in the future, if (hey survived to have a future. So thev said!
There was still liivht onoiioji to see the , lir.-t battalion, the'eleventh', as it form- : i'd fours lu the sand and moved oil' on ' to the white road—the firm hard rßad which made a march to Cairo s-'om no- ■ \\\\\\£. ''We eat it up in no time," in , : J was la for to'd. In curious contrast vo ! the ser.d-off to the lads who went to | the canal the cheering that followed ' these troops now as they w 'lit. 'l'iiin I hid two reitimeiits Ikon sel'vled, if was 1 1 clii.'vcd for service at ouec. .bi< 'V it
was only one brigade a day or so ahead of the others. "We'll nil be along in a few days; we have niarehiu;' ordcis to go to the Continent, so goodbye I'gvpt, we've known you long enorgh." So the men told one another as they watched the 11th and then the till and 10th swing out on to the roil VVbat a scramble it appeared for th > road. The medical unit, the third field ambulance, was sandwiched in between two battalions, and then the engineers cut in between two more, and the transport waggons besides. As 1 passed the engineer;' < amp. at the. co''uer. where the load turned sharply round into the desert, tiie space just below the dam was once more bare—this time not swept by the flood waters hut by orders. Sixhorse (cams were slanding in (lie s:i*'id ready to drag the pontoon boats on to the road, but 1 saw the horses were unharnessed, and the sappers put their shoulders to the great, wheels of the waggons, and so they ran (lie boats on to the highway.
The road was choked with vehicles. All inward traffic had been stopped. Jfolor-ear.*, with men hurrying back to e.iiii]) lead been turned aside and were stuck in the sand. The mule carts were unloading kits just at the tram tracks, that ran under the headquarters lines, from which point electric trains were hurrying oil' the gear to the stations. As the road widened out when the troops wheeled on to the main road so the checking and halting became loss frequent. The Pyramids loomed cut of the haze, du!', stolid witnesses of the young army that was dumped at their feet three months before, of the hardened trained soldiers who now passed 'ov without a tinge of regret. High in the clear sky the moon was a!r?'.v.ly brig.it and shedding a luminous lustre—a light so bright one could read by it—over the tilled fields that flanked the road back into Cairo.
Thirteen weeks had slipped by since first the regiments had marched out on to the unknown desert along this same route in almost the same circumstances, but without the rumbling waggons as a constant accompaniment to their steps. Hands and pipes and drums led them on with springing step. It was nothing, this marching on a firm road, after the dreary toiling through half a foot of sand, with each mile the same as the last and each day like the day before.
" OPINION ABOUT TUB KITS. But did the men find their kits very burdensome on this ton-mile march'.' Lot a broiul-slioulderal corporal speak. He was smiling with his eyc3 and his mouth. "1 wouldn't mind lugging tli's so long as we are going forward. We're oil now, and it's no hardship lugging fifty or sixty pounds. But out there (he did not even look towards the desert) you would lug it out in the morning, and lug it back to camp at nigh};, and know that next morning you would have to strap and lug it out again into the daacrt. It was monotonous, that's what it was, darned if it wasn't. Still, wti mustn't complain; it's made us what ve are." Then 1 came on a tall Queenslander with a mate eating rolls from a stall by the roadside. They had discarded their equipment temporarily during feeding operations. "Bit heavy," I began. "Heavy! Blimey, I.have humped a swag through the best part of Queensland—you know Queensland; its something "like the desert here in parts, where they forgot to finish the world—and it's nothing to one of these kits. They hit you all over. Still, it's doing us good, and one day, when we're pretty old, 1 guess we will watch others going to their training and wo will be able to j look on and tell 'cm." j
Spirits such as these were unarguable. Yon find it from one (md of the line to the other, from the first transport outriders on the waggon teams Unit reach Cairo late in the afternoon, down through the lines of infantry to the rearguard and weary army service corps, who struggled into the station in the early hours of the morning to catch the train that loft at daybreak for on the coast, the port of em Creation. Over that fourteen miles of route the troops and transports were spread. At three points the entraining was being carried on—at two sidings under the yellow light of swinging lamps, and at the Cairo main station, where the white light of the incandescent burners lit up (he huge iron structure. Outside on side tracks strings of tiams laden to the roof were standing, while the service waggons plied back and forth to the station. The station yard itself was choked with waggons —forty, fifty of them—in regular lines that were gradually brought on to the platforms and loaded on to the trucks.
ORDKR IX THK MIDST OF DISORDER. To wander from tlm glaring lamps into tlic street ami stumble on confused heaps of baggagf, or masses ol resting troops, of vehicles of ,>ll descriptions, of trains, of slioiitin.; mon 1 and vituperative natives, was 'sugjjes- \ tivo of disorder, to say the lea-.,-, but j on closer investigation one found tbat , there was a relcntles fo.warl movemciit and tbat the piles of canvas kits and companies of men \veyj> inciting I away. Not that everything was woik- : ing like clockwork, for wfyen a Ik avy 1 •waggon became jambed in a gateway, then the wheels were clogged for a brief period. As a matter of fast, the resour- ! ccs of the force had been strained to the ' utmost, as they generally are at niu'iispected moments in wv.' time. I came ! on an officer responsible for ear/ying baggage and fodder almost tearing his hair—it was yet early in tiie cvini'Jig —■
for it had come as a lite ord •>: that | seven days' oxtuft ratio-i.;, making ten davs supply in all ha! to !/■ taken by the troops." To find lln i:',";\!s a day for seven days for oil:)) men is a las': that needs a ready wit io provid'. Mmcover, an extra blanket, fad to be lound on the suggestion of ilie general i.'l'.cei commanding in Fg.vpl, a,id seal down io the troopships. Was tail, a 11, in;; to be earied out in a momeni; ? It in 1 - tuinlv had to be done in twenty bonis. The 'last straw fell on th- :.!.,...:ldei-. of tliose respoiiMhie ween an alierai on I was made in the ammunition supply. adding to the OtH) roi'.ids per man (est provided for. "That's the iron ration," said mi officer, jerking his thumb in li-e db"~tlinl were being put on f,, a Inak. "That's the seven .lays extra they wanted; iron biscuits wiiij c'ico-' in tliem, that every man ivO.nicai'y ear- ■ ries in France and does not eat. '.rut it's there for them." The n.,:> ration was so called because of ill- hardness lof tin; biscuits. There wore hundredof tins of them, (kings of natives were loading them on to the tram, fereci to work at high pressure by the nrcsence of an observer, who -par, d nether words nor blows Sand had be";; -tiev/n over the platforms, to give a gain to the horses' feet. Four trains were loading at one time. Found li.e baf fi'ts the men were drinking hot codec and eating rolls. Some had ibiug II cmselves down, and were soundly slei oing, their heads on their kh.s ov oiie another*' shoulders. Orders cehool fr , ,i nidi' 1o side of the bnihlin;;. intensified liv the iron roof.
On one platform that led directly to the street ihe horses came up a ramp through two low 'uievaw;, the riders compelled to bow their herds to save strikin- them on the ire.i erc-s bar. It was necessary to take rhem in at a rush, to ;»et file heavy wa-eoa, tiiroii.tih. Comi;i!j from the dais: -treel into the glare of'the lifjlit, into ihe midsi of hundreds of men, it was little wander that the animals reared and pluiiffwl. Yet except for a broken pole and the loss of a certain amount of pain; there was no accident. The riders ami drivers swiiii"' their teams round just, at the edge of the 'platform, and the, brakesman jammed hard his brake and brought the waggon to ,a standstill by the open trucks. bike black ants, the natives attacked the baggage, and each with a bundle soon .unloaded the vehicle, which then passed out by another low gateway with ;, rumble like the sound of distant thunder, while another appeared by th. entrance. Meanwhile troops wore 'niarchinging into tin? platforms, and at, the otinr end of the train.'.—immense long trains of forty coaches and truck,-, were selt'iug 'themselves down for the night. Ammunition and supply carts had to be plae< d on the trucks, and the wheels gripped by blocks of wood nailed to the iloors.
CKNFItAJ. MAXWFLL'S INTFURJi'. It may be taken as a high honour that the (lllieer who had had supreme command of our troops came down to witness the departure of the first contingent. Surrounded by his stall' officers, (leneral Sir John Maxwell went from point to point watching all the details __of this fascinating scene, that tlvrobbod with life and might that needed but a spark to cause it to burst into a hell lire of bullets and glistening bay"iwfs to be unsheathed. At such limes as this there is no question of p.iyii.g compliments even to such high oU'iecrs as this. I saw a team of horses coneplunging in ami nearly overwhelm the whole staff.who stepped back haslily on to a truck that happened lueki'.y to be standing by the platform. Our men had discarded tlieir jackets, and, with shirt sleeves rolled up, were working side by side with the natives. If a waggon jammed in the gateway- as it did more than once while th;-general was watching—there came a torrent of words of abuse till the 'Arabs, chaining their dirges, freed the vehicle, and by sheer weight of numbers, that it might proceed on its way. >
Until after midnight General Maxwell passed from train to train, lie expressed his pleasure at the wviy tilings wore going—and each train go"t luvry puncttia'ly on time—and was full of appreciation at the way the troops had flung themselves into their task, Ml was quiet in the carriages as he passed on his way to wish success to Colonel Maclag.ni, standing by the permanent way at the head of the first train, and in his characteristic way he remarked to an (dlicer near nic, "Nothing like a ten-mile march to tame their spirits down a bit"; but one knew he would not have had that spirit broken or different from what it is.
Throughout the night the entraining went on. The entraining officers went swiftly from point to point, adding on units here, picking up stray parties and odd forgotten bundles of equipment. The military police, who had stood with fixed, bayonets guarding the waggons and the station bar, were relieved as tlieir units left and scrambled aboard the trains.
Dawn was creeping into the sky, and streamers of light were shooting over the minaretcd city as the last train steadied out quietly like the others had done, without fuss,- without more than a short b'ast of the whistle and a bugle call from the rear carriage. It is only the first section of the division to move. Sueh work will go on for days yet, as it is proceeding now in England, where not divisions, but army corps' are being moved to France, thousands of men each day across the Channel—the men of Kitchener's armies.
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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 291, 18 May 1915, Page 6
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3,184LEAVING EGYPT. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 291, 18 May 1915, Page 6
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