Australians and New Zealanders at Suez

On 1 December 1914 the first ships of the great convoy that had sailed from Albany in Western Australia on 1 November anchored in the roads of Suez, at the southern entrance to the Suez Canal. It carried some 21,500 soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force and some 8,500 New Zealanders. At about eleven in the morning the transport Orvieto arrived here with the staff of Major-General William Bridges, the commander of the Australian troops. According to some studies the first ships reached Suez as early as 30 November.

Egypt instead of England

The soldiers had sailed in the belief that they would complete their training in England and then go to the Western Front. On the way the convoy fought its first action. On 9 November the Australian cruiser Sydney left the escort and destroyed the German raider Emden off the Cocos Islands. On 25 November the ships reached Aden, and the next day they set off into the Red Sea.

Then came news of a change of plans. According to some sources, on 27 November Bridges received a telegram from George Reid, the Australian High Commissioner in London. Reid wrote that owing to unforeseen circumstances the troops would remain in Egypt, train there and go on to the front from there. There were several reasons behind this decision. The camps in England were overcrowded, and the Canadians, who had arrived there in October, were suffering in tents on Salisbury Plain from the rain and cold. The Ottoman Empire had also entered the war, and Egypt and the Suez Canal had come within range of a Turkish attack. The Dominion troops could therefore train in Egypt and, if necessary, reinforce its defence. This solution was urged in London by the Australian Colonel Harry Chauvel, and the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, agreed to it.

On to Alexandria

From Suez the ships passed in turn through the canal, whose banks were already guarded by Indian brigades, to Port Said, and from there to Alexandria. Australian sources state that the first transports berthed there on 3 December, and this date is usually regarded as the day the troops arrived in Egypt. Unloading thousands of men, horses and equipment took many days, however. Some units did not go ashore until 8 or 9 December. New Zealand studies also give differing dates for the arrival in Alexandria.

Beneath the pyramids

From Alexandria the soldiers were taken by rail to Cairo. The Australian infantry pitched a great camp at Mena, in the desert at the foot of the pyramids of Giza. The New Zealanders were quartered in Zeitoun camp in the northern suburbs of Cairo. For the following months they trained in the sand and heat, and on their days off they explored Cairo. For many of them it was their first journey away from home.

At the end of December both contingents came under the command of the British General William Birdwood. They were formed into the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, which from the initial letters of its English name came to be called ANZAC. In April 1915 its soldiers landed not in France but on the Gallipoli peninsula.