Indian Expeditionary Force "F" sails for Egypt

The British chronology of the war records under 2 November 1914 the departure from India of Indian Expeditionary Force “F”, destined for Egypt. It consisted of three infantry brigades, the 28th, 29th and 30th, formed in October 1914 from battalions of the Indian Army, mainly Sikh, Punjabi and Gurkha. The transports sailed in the first days of November. According to the history of the 14th Sikhs, the convoy carrying the 29th Brigade left Karachi on 3 November, escorted by the armoured cruiser HMS Duke of Edinburgh.

The new brigades were to strengthen the defence of the Suez Canal. When they sailed, the Ottoman Empire had already entered the war, and the British expected that sooner or later Turkish troops would try to cross Sinai and cut the canal, the most important sea route linking Great Britain with India and Australia. At that time there were few regular troops stationed in Egypt.

“E” or “F”?

The designations of the Indian expeditionary forces are sometimes confused in the literature. The troops that reached Egypt in 1914 are described as Force “E”, whose core was the Lucknow Brigade, and as Force “F”, that is the 28th, 29th and 30th Brigades. Some sources count all the Indian forces in Egypt as Force “E”, while others associate the whole later defence of the canal with Force “F”. In practice the two groups soon merged into a single force under General John Maxwell, commanding the troops in Egypt.

The first transports reached Suez in mid-November. On the way the 29th Brigade made a detour at the entrance to the Red Sea to destroy the Turkish fort on the Sheikh Said peninsula opposite the British island of Perim. The brigades then took up positions along the canal. On 24 December 1914 they were formed into the 10th Indian Division, and the Lucknow Brigade and other units into the 11th Indian Division. It was these that repulsed the Turkish attack on the canal at the beginning of February 1915.