Indian Expeditionary Force F merged into Force E

The British chronology of the war records under 25 March 1915 that Indian Expeditionary Force F, stationed in Egypt, was absorbed by Indian Expeditionary Force E. This was an organisational change that other sources hardly mention. From then on all Indian troops in Egypt appeared under a single designation. Force F ceased to exist at the moment when its brigades were beginning to leave for other fronts.

Two forces on the canal

Force E was formed in Egypt at the beginning of October 1914. In time its designation covered most of the units sent from India to defend the Suez Canal. Force F, made up of the 28th, 29th and 30th Indian Brigades, sailed from India at the beginning of November, and its first units landed at Suez on 16 November. On 24 December 1914 the 10th Indian Division was formed from the three brigades of Force F, and the 11th Indian Division from other units. From the outset both forces were under General John Maxwell, commander of the British forces in Egypt, and in practice formed a single grouping. That is why the designations E and F are sometimes confused in the literature.

At the beginning of February 1915 the Indian brigades, supported by warships and artillery, repulsed the Turkish attack on the canal. The 29th Brigade was then defending Kantara in the northern part of the canal. The Turks withdrew into Sinai and for months afterwards no longer posed a serious threat to the canal.

Brigades for other fronts

The repulse of the Turks meant that the Indian troops in Egypt became a reserve for other fronts. It was precisely because the brigades of Force F were leaving one after another that keeping it as a separate formation no longer made sense.

The first to leave was the 30th Brigade of General Charles Melliss. On 10 March the Secretary of State for India, Lord Crewe, announced that it would shortly sail from Egypt to Mesopotamia to reinforce Indian Expeditionary Force D operating there. The brigade reached Basra on 6 April, and a few days later, in mid-April, fought the Turks at Shaiba. The 29th Brigade sailed for the Gallipoli peninsula at the end of April. It was the only Indian infantry brigade to fight in that campaign. The 28th Brigade stayed on the canal for the time being. In July 1915 it sailed to Aden, where it drove back the Turks threatening the British base, and at the end of the year it too went to Mesopotamia.

The 10th Indian Division effectively ceased to exist as a whole. It was re-formed in Egypt only in January 1916, partly with a different composition, but after only two months it was broken up again. The designation Indian Expeditionary Force E, on the other hand, survived in British returns of troops in Egypt until at least the summer of 1915.