AUSTRALASIANS IN EGYPT.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15243, 3 April 1915, Page 2

AUSTRALASIANS IN EGYPT.

A MADE AND MANUFACTURED FORCE.

RESULT OF HARD TRAINING.

From Caotain C. E. BEAN, Official ltciwrter with the Australian _xpeditiouary Force in Egypt.

(CorTItIGIIT.)

(Rights Sncciallv Secured by ,: The Press.")

MEXA CAMP (near Cairo), Feb. 28. "I hope they won't break up tko div.," said the Army Medical Corps' corporal, removing his pipo for an instant and speaking back over his shoulder. "It would be a pity to break it up now." Tho A.M.C. corporal stuck his pipe ill the other corner of his mouth and turned back to look over tho shoulders of a lino of privates in khaki—tho good old Australian pea-soup khaki, which is as distinctive amongst the brown khaki of the New Zealanders and orange khaki drill of the British troops in Egypt, as if it were light blue or pink or daffodil yellow. Down the dusty white road between the crowded, cheering rows of pea-soup camo a cheerful column of pea-soup. "They're in luck to get sent off liko this to" the Canal, - ' said the corporal again, ''but I hope they won't go and keep them there when we go. It would be a shame to split up the division." Now, the A.M.C. mail camo from Queensland, and the man ho was talking to came from Ballarat: I camo from Sydney —the men who were marching past us came from Melbourne, from Bendigo, from Echuca, and other corners of Victoria. Six ruonths ago they "had been nothing whatever to one another. And. yet now the A.M.C.: man was quite disturbed at their separation from him. STARTED IN DRIBLETS. In October last they sailed in driblets from every quarter of Australia, aud journeyed till they sped away in fast trains across a sunny green plain gridironed with mud. It was with that train journey that the first remarkable change came over tho forco. Day after day tho detachments from various States wero sent off. in different trains, -which went to different places. The different detachment had been disentangled into three separate camps, and,in one of them tho fiivst Australian division found itself in existence. It found itself dumped on the yellow sand in a dusty valley beneath the Pyramids. Tho other units wero scattered elsewhere. That six hours' train journey from Alexandria to Cairo shuffled the force. From that day to this it had been three distinct units, and at the end of tho shuffling for tho first time thero stood on • tho sand flats below the Pyramids tho First Australian Division. It was iho first Australian division that had ever existed. ■_ Looking back on that time when wo sailed in driblets and fractions, in detachments of three and four, in battalions and brigades, with occasional [companies in between, from all corners of Australia, -ono sees clearly enough ! now that although wo spoko of tho first division sailing. I. for one, had no idea of what a division was. HOW .THEY LEARNT. Wo had assembled tho . component parts of. tho division. But oven then it was no moro a division than a wired china doll. A fortnight after tho New Zealand Reinforcements liad arrived I asked one of them tho way to,the tent of Colonel "X," commanding tho brir gado to which ho himself belonged. He was: a smart-looking youngster, and ready to give tho information he had, but he said lie did not think thero was a Colonel "X." belonging to their brigado at all. Th© only colonel he know was the colonel of his regiment: bub if I enquired at a bunch of three or four tents, which ho pointed out to mo in tho middle of'the camp, and which went- by the mysterious "riame of "headquarters,"' they might know something there. It was the , headquarters of his ' 'own'" brigade, and of Colonel "X." its commander. That happened in the Now Zealand camp, but it might equally well have been tho Australian camp at Mena or Maadi. When we came to Egypt there was a proportion of us—officers and men—that scarcely knew tho organisation of their ' own brigado—much less, that of tho division to which it brilonged. But Sapper Wayback has been learn- j ing— so, to tell the truth, . have j Private Browu and Major Smith and Colonel Robinson. -They learnt every day from lots of quite little things that-, the division was a littlo compact army, | all.hangiiig together" like'limbs of a big body. Through' various incidents even when th.3 incidents v-ere accident* —Private Brown came to realise that if ! the waggons of som.e company of the j Army Service, Corps wero not detailed j to bring rations and fodder along to his particular unit on tho march, lie would have no rations or fodder at all. And 60 almost imperceptibly the! Australian division began to know that I it was a division—that, it was all onp body, and not merely a ecliectlpu ol j detachments from different States and j townships. It began to realise that it waa a compact unit which might at any time be sent off anywhere. . Tho | signal company came to look upon itself as the i*,-?rves of that body Avhich would have to carry the message* from the brain to the limbs; tho field companies came to consider themselves tl— fingers, which woukT have "to construct all tho more intricate works "that tho body needed. The infantry brigades wer£ the great heavy fists and arms; which were to deliver tho blows for which this body exists —and so on. PARTICULARLY GOOD SOLDIERS. The first Australian Division camped to-day outside of Cairo. i s a "different force" from what it was at the beginning in Egypt. Ie is a made and manufactured force. Its men aro not only soldiers, but one's opinion is that they are particularly good soldiers. Tho division is not only lit to represent Australia, but one Vould 6ay that it is better-disciplined and better-drilled than the Australian critics believed possible. Of course, there is only one final "test by which it must in history ib© judged, aud wo have not come to that yet. The Australian Division wa ? sent out with every part of its organisation provided —its engineers*, its ambulance, its ordnance departments, its field ambulances, | its artilierv, ite supply column, its police, and tlie light horso regiment for its special needs. But Australia also -sent out several j other units, Tvhich did not form tho j complete parts of a division in themselves, but which havo since been dropping into place in a second division, in which the units sent over by New Zealand har Q also taken their place. That second division, which was not organised with all its nerves And arie_afi.6gecially grorided before it sailed

from Australia and Hew Zealand may roughly bo said to have been pieced together out of the Now Zealand contingent and the second contingent froci Australia. Out of those two contingents has been made _ second division, which, although barely a month has elapsed since our second contingent has arrived, has already reached an advanced staige of training, and has Det; n mana-iivnug as a complete division on four or five days during the past two weeks. The result is a second division of magnificent material, which lias been given the name of "Tho New Zealand and Australian Division."' To sum up, out of the sand and wenrine'-s of the;' Egyptian desert there has come a fair-sized Australian and Now Zealand Army, by far the largest and best-trained that has ever left the South Pacific. It goes by the name of the "Australian and New Zealand Army Corps," and is commanded by Lieu tenant-General Sir William Birdwood. It consists of two divisions — tbe Australian Division under MajorGeneral Bridges, and tho New Zealand and Australian Division, under MajorGeneral Sir Alexander, Godley. A few units took some part in the fighting on the Canal, the New Zeaiaiidev.s being under fire thero, but it has done nothing a s a corps. It cannot, however, be long now before it is neanl of. Australians will follow its progress with the utmost interest. RECRUITS NEEDED. Australia-will do all that she can. But whatever fihe does, she will first and foremost see that these two divisions, which, if one knows anything of them, will thoroughly deserve all the pride she can lavish on them, are kept .full up,to the strength all through the war. Supposing they go to the front, where Australians would wish them to be. If tho Australian force, were allowed to fall-more and more below its strength, nothing is more, certain than that a stage would arrive when, however well it had been fighting, it would be relegated to unimportant work. The public has no idea of the enormous proportion of the reinforcements normally required in the British service. It is laid down in black and white in the British field service regulations, on the experience of British "little wars," that "in the first year of a war the following percentage of troops in the field will be required to keep them up to war establishment:— Eighty per cent, infantry. 70 per cent, for cavalry and mounted infantry, 60 per cent, for artillery." The regulations are that reinforcements equal to from 10 to 20 per cent, of the army in tho field ought to he ready at the front within six weeks of the outbreak of war; that later reinforcements should follow every'month, with an additional reinforcement about tho sixth month; and that they should arrive at the base before and not after they arc wanted. RELIEF FOR THE WEARY SOLDIER. Australia has started well. Those first reinforcements have come to Egypt already, and they are good material,, although they can still* be picked out quite easily'in' the ranks when a battalion is drilling. The supply must be constantly kept up. There is a moral reason for this, almost as strong as the physical one. If the troops have fought a hard fight, and know that they have more hard fighting before them, there is nothing more cheering than to see men march in to fill the gaps. It gives a man heart to know that whatever happens, his battalion will always, be kept up to full fighting strength. On the other hand, if a man finds that his battalion, the harder it fights, dwindles the quicker, and the-work not only the fighting, but the, overpowering fatigue of outposts' duty—falls _ more and more upon him without the possibility of relief which greater numbers give", and if lie realises that the enemy, whatever losses he may inflict on him, is always steadily and unceasingly kept at full strength'—if, as it would be sooner or later, -til's realisation is borne in upon him. then, however well and bravely he had fought, his thoughts when the sun set upon each long day's struggle, would not be cheerful. And that is a thing which no Australian would wish to happen to the men Australia has sent abroad. For that reason, it is to be hoped that Australia, whatever other contingents she may send, will continue to see. as has been excellently done up to the present, that constant and regular reinforcements are sent to those Australian forces which are in the field.