Produced by Irma pehar and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
LATE OF "A" BATTERY, H.A.C., AND EGYPTIAN CAMEL TRANSPORT CORPS
LONDON: ANDREW MELROSE LTD. 3 YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 1919
Little has been said, and less written, of the campaigns in Egypt and Palestine. This book is an attempt to give those interested some idea of the work and play and, occasionally, the sufferings of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, from the time of its inception to the Armistice. Severely technical details have been reduced to a minimum, the story being rather of men than matters; but such necessary figures and other data of which I had not personal knowledge, have been taken from the official dispatches and from the notes of eye-witnesses.
Here I should like most cordially to thank the following old comrades for their generous help: Capt. B. T. Hinchley, R.A.S.C., late of the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps, and L. Allard Stonard, Esq., late of "A" Battery, the Honourable Artillery Company, for permission to print their excellent photographs, which will, I am sure, add materially to the interest of the book; and R. Arrowsmith, Esq., late of "A" Battery, the Honourable Artillery Company, whose admirable notes have been of the greatest assistance to me in compiling some of the later chapters.
III. ON 'UNTIN'--AND SOME OTHER MATTERS 38
FELUCCAS BRINGING SUPPLIES TO KANTARA (see p. 54) 64
I. CAMOUFLAGING A TENT WITH DESERT SCRUB (see p. 29) 144
II. THE VALLEY OF CHAOS--BEFORE THE TURKISH RETREAT 256
THE VALLEY OF CHAOS--AFTER THE BOMBING RAID (see p. 255) 272
It is a little difficult to know the precise place at which to begin this narrative. There are, as it were, several _points d'appui_. One might describe the outward voyage, in a troopship packed to three or four times its normal peace-time capacity; where men slept on the floors, on mess-tables, and in hammocks so closely slung that once you were in it was literally impossible to get out until the whole row was ready to move; and where we were given food (!) cooked and served under conditions so revolting as to turn the stomach at the bare sight of it. And there were other things....