WORK IN THE DESERT

Evening Star, Issue 18339, 28 July 1923, Page 1

WORK IN THE DESERT

IMPERIAL CAMEL CORPS. Colonel Smith presided at the meetin of the Ulticers’ Chib, when a lecture on the Imperial Camel Corps was given by -Major Robertson, who was a member of that brigade until its transformation into a mounted brigade in Juno, IDES. The (.'(imposition of the Imperial Camel Corps, which included the loth and IGth companies of New Zealanders, was described, the members being troopers mounted on camels instead of cm horses, and for certain duties in desert areas these troops were more suitable than tbo ordinary mounted forces. The Imperial Camel Corps was a self-contained force, as every member always carried live days’ rations for man and beast, including water for the men, and a.s all stores were packed on camels the brigade eould go off into the desert at very short notice without any communication with its base for at least a week, if necessary. Various expeditions carried out by the Imperial Camel Corps described were the clearing out of the, Scnussi forces from the lialuina oasis in tho Sahara desert, where 500 years before the birth of Christ a Persian force of 50,000 men vanished without leaving a trace behind; the visit in Mount Sinai to collect arms supplied to tho Arabs by the Turks, ami perhaps to give a refresher course in tho study of tho Ton Commandments by the “ Pilgrim Patrol,” with, however, very little result in cither course. A New Zealand Company—Kith Imperial Camel Corps—with a, party of Australians, made a raid into enemy territory at Apia, in South Palestine. They were absent from their base for six days, and in that time they blew up viaducts on the Turkish railway and blew in all wells in tbo districts raided, to keep the Turks from using those a.s bases for opera!ions. Tho fate of tho party of eameliers at Aa 1 fn, near Hebron, was related, A small detachment sent to harass !he retreating Turks from Peersheba was surrounded by two battalions of tim enemy and forced to surrender after expending all their ammunition. The expedition to .'baba, artel north to near Amman Cover tho track of tho Children of Israel to tho Promised Land) and hack to tmersheba—a trek of over 900 miles—occupying seven weeks, was described, as was also Colonel Lawrence’s famous ride from Akaba to Suez—a distance of ‘J’JtI miles across the Sinai desert—in thirty-six hours, with only one change of camel, to arrange for rations and ammunition for the Arab allies. Equipment, treatment of camels, drill movements of tho Imperial Camel Corps, the major operations they took part in, (lie different kinds of country traversed, from the barren wastes of sand in the Sinai (■' tl, o rocky mountains of Gilead and Moab, east of the Jordan, were also described. The Imperial Camel Corps took part in the celebrated Amman raid, forty miles east of Jericho, on the high country east of tho Dead Sea, where the camels toiled up the goat tracks (impassable for artillery and wheeled transport) for three nights and two days, for most of tho time in heavy rain, a climb of 4,000 ft from tho starling point near tho shore of the Dead Sea.

After tailing part in the operations in the Jordan Valley, where the First Australian Battalion made a spirit oil defence of the hill of Mnselahah (after this known ns the Camel's Hump) the brigade was withdrawn ami transformed into the 'Ah Light Horse Brigade, the two Hew Zealand companies forming the Second Machinegun Squadron, As a part of the Australian Division, this force swept north in the great cavalry movement past Nazareth, Damascus, "Baalbek, and almost; to the gates of Aleppo, until there was no Turkish force to fight. Lantern slides worked hv lieutenant, Timbers were shown to illustrate the various points set put in the lecture.