Indian Expeditionary Force "E" is formed

A British chronology of the war records under 2 October 1914 the formation of Indian Expeditionary Force “E” in Egypt. The new force was based on units of Force “A” that had not sailed on to France but had remained on the Suez Canal. The designation “E” later also covered further troops sent from India to defend Egypt.

The Indian troops were originally to replace the British garrison in Egypt entirely. When, however, London sent the main body of Force “A” to the Western Front, only the Sirhind Brigade of the Lahore Division, which had arrived at Suez in September, remained in the country. Meanwhile General John Maxwell, commanding the troops in Egypt, needed more and more soldiers. The Ottoman Empire was formally neutral, but it was drawing ever closer to Germany, and its troops could threaten the canal from the Sinai.

Accounts describe the composition of Force “E” in different ways. According to some, its core was the Lucknow Brigade, sent from India in October 1914 to relieve the Sirhind Brigade and allow it to rejoin the Lahore Division in France. In the following weeks further units reached Egypt, among them a cavalry brigade made up of regiments raised by the Indian princely states (it arrived at Suez in mid-November), the Bikaner Camel Corps and several infantry brigades. At the end of December they were formed in Egypt into the 10th and 11th Indian Divisions.

At the end of 1914, therefore, the defence of the Suez Canal rested largely on soldiers from India. When Turkey entered the war and at the beginning of February 1915 its troops tried to force the canal, it was the Indian brigades, supported by warships and artillery, that repulsed the attack.