Half Way Now

Thursday 15th February 1917 from our correspondent in the field

Marching by the old caravan route the 1st/5th Bedfords have reached Bir el Mazar around half way on their long journey to Rafa.

Source: X550/6/8

Showers in the Desert

Tuesday 13th February 1917 from our correspondent in the field

Yesterday the 1st/5th Battalion marched from Bir-el-Abd to Salmana, meaning they are now about a third of the way to Rafa. They did their marching in the morning, resting during the afternoon when there were showers of rain.

Source: X550/6/8

Results of the 4th Battalion Attack

Monday 12th February 1917 from our correspondent in the field

We hear that the attack made by 4th Battalion yesterday night north of Beaucourt-sur-Ancre was a complete success. Two companies made the attack with one in support and one in reserve acting as a carrying party for ammunition for consolidating the line gained. At 9.05 pm the line advanced. The left company was temporarily held up by enemy wire and heavy machine-gun fire and the Company in Support was then pushed forward and the objectives gained by 3 am this morning. Twenty one men were killed during these operations and many more wounded.

The 2nd Battalion today moved into the front line south of Agny, which is, itself, south of Arras. They occupy the line shown in red on the map above. The adjutant opined that they are being introduced to this new area in time to become acquainted with it prior to an attack, but we will have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, in the deserts of the Sinai the 1st/5th Battalion yesterday marched to Bir el Abd where it bivouacked. The adjutant wired that there was “brilliant lightning and some thunder later during the night but especially about 2300 there was heavy rain and some hail”. Not the weather one expects in a desert.

Sources: X550/3/WD; X550/5/3; X550/6/8

A Sinai Picnic

Monday 5th February 1917 from our correspondent in the field

The 1st/5th Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment are marching across the Sinai Desert to the front line with the Turks on the borders of Palestine. They have reached the town of Romani (just north-west of Katia on the map above). This was where an important victory was gained over the Turks last August. 

Today around three-quarters of the Battalion are due to go for a bathe and a picnic after their tiring marches since the first of this month.

Source: X550/6/8

1st/5th Bedfords on the Move

Saturday 3rd February 1917 from our correspondent in the field

We have heard today from the 1st/5th Battalion in the Sinai Desert between Egypt and Palestine. They are marching to the front line which is around the town of Rafa (extreme right on the map above) on the border between Sinai and Palestine, which was taken from its Turkish garrison on 9th January.

On Thursday they marched twelve miles from Kantara(1) towards Romani(2) where they bivouacked. Kantara is on the Suez Canal about half-way between Port Said and the Great Bitter Lake and on the esxtere left of the map above. Yesterday the Battalion marched along the Pelusium railway siding and today they should arrive in Romani. They still have a long way to go to get to the front as they will have the cross the whole of the North Sinai Desert.

Sources: X550/6/8

(1) Now el-Qantara

(2) Now Rommana

Christmas in Egypt

Tuesday 26th December 1916: From our Correspondent in the Field

The 1st/5th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment are in Egypt. Your correspondent received a wire today that they has a whole day’s holiday yesterday as well as sports finals. Apparently it looked very black all afternoon and a few spots of rain fell about 5.30 and by 5.50 heavy rain was falling. Rain continued to fall heavily at intervals during night. This is as close as the Sinai gets to snow at Christmas and was very surprising.

Source: X550/6/8

Practice for a Winter Campaign?

Wednesday 29th November 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

The 1st/5th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment are in Egypt holding the Suez Canal and patrolling eastwards in the Sinai Desert.  At the moment they are practising firing Lewis guns and throwing live grenades. The commanding officer and the adjutant are engaged in a thirty mile ride around all the various outposts held by the Battalion.

Source: X550/6/8

1st/5th Bedfords in the Sinai Desert

Wednesday 22nd November 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

I have received a communication from 1st/5th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment. Readers will remember hat this battalion isn part of 54th (East Anglian) Division, which took part in the fighting in Gallipoli in the latter part of 1915 and has been, since January this year, in Egypt.

Whilst the storm on the Somme had thundered and raged the situation in Egypt has been calm by comparison. The main problem for the men stationed there has been the heat, the flies and the scorpions which, we understand, make a hobby of hiding in men’s boots when they have been removed and lie in wait to deliver their venomous sting to the unthinking man putting his boots on without checking.

Given the harsh desert conditions around the Suez Canal and in Sinai the Medical Officer plans examinations for all ranks. This will weed out those unfit for active service which, in the cooler winter months, is more likely than in the heat of the Egyptian summer.

Source: X550/6/8

More Patrolling in Sinai

Wednesday 26th April 1916: The adjutant of 1st/5th Battalion tells us that a column has returned to Shalufa today after a five day patrol towards Turkish outposts in eastern Sinai.  The column concentrated at Wadi el Haj where the Bedfordshire Regiment met elements of the Camel Corps, Royal Engineers and Royal Army Medical Corps. A post was established at the wadi to protect camel convoys and a signal station was set up to be in contact with Darb el Haj. Another post was set up further east next day near a ruined chapel at Wadi el Tawal, just under half way from Suez to the Turkish garrison at Nekhel. The post consisted of one officer and sixty other ranks. The men were involved in prospecting for water along with convoy protection duties. Trying to get further east was “very slow and hard work for both horse and man owing to the undulating and drifted sand” as the column commander reported.

The next day the column met up with another column to reconnoitre further east. All patrols sent out showed no sign of a Turk anywhere.

Source: X550/6/8

Patrols Return to the Suez Canal

Sunday 16th April 1916: On 10th April, as readers may remember, patrols were sent out by 1st/5th Battalion towards Turkish outposts in Sinai. Yesterday the patrols returned and their activities are detailed below.

On 10th four officers and one hundred men accompanied a camel convoy to Darb-el-Haj, taking five and a half hours to reach that place, where they bivouacked for the night. The next day they marched to Wadi-el-Hagge, being joined en-route by the Middlesex Yeomanry. On 13th the yeomanry captured three Turkish prisoners which they handed over to the Bedfords’ column. The column started back to Shalufa the next day and arrived back yesterday, without casualties.

Source: X550/6/8

Patrolling

Monday 10th April 1916: The 1st/5th Battalion, just east of the Suez Canal at Shalufa, some fifteen miles north of Suez,  have begun to implement patrols to try to detect any movement towards them by the Turks. Today a column of four officers and one hundred other ranks will go as far east as Bi’r al Jidy. Following the Turkish attacks on the canal last year the enemy retains outposts in Sinai and could, at any time, use them as forward staging areas for any repeat attacks.

Source: X550/6/8

1st/5th Bedfords Reach Their New Camp

Friday 7th April 1916: yesterday the 1st/5th Bedfords’ train arrived at Shalufa at the southern end of the Great Bitter Lake, fifteen miles north of Suez, which forms part of the Suez Canal. The men were given tea and their baggage transported across the canal. The battalion then went to their camp, half a mile east of the canal. There they pitched tents and manhandled the baggage from the canal to the camp. In the coming weeks they will be patrolling into the Sinai desert to detect any Turkish thrust towards the canal, such as those which took place last year.

Source: X550/6/8