Chapter 99 – Larry

Charles Bean describes Tel-el-Kebir as the location in Egypt chosen for the new Australian camp in Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 , vol III (The A.I.F. In France), pp.3-4. The site is thirty miles west of the Suez Canal, and about seventy miles from Cairo by train. Maps are included, including details of the trenches remaining from the battleground of 1882 where an Egyptian revolt was crushed by a British force led by Lord Wolseley.

Ernest Scott states in Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 , vol XI (Australia During the War), that censorship did not, as a rule, pay heed to letters posted within the Commonwealth, for delivery within the Commonwealth.” (p. 85).

The following details are recorded in the History of the First Battalion A.I.F. :

p. 47 – After the evacuation of Gallipoli, the men disembarked at Lemnos, reported to Sarpi camp at Mudros West and rested for three days. On 23 December, the 1st and 2nd Battalions embarked on the ship Hunts Green with three days rations and sailed for Alexandria, where they arrived on 27 December. On 28 December, they disembarked and entrained for Tel-el-Kebir, where they bivouacked until tents available, and went through a period of rest and training.

p.48 – January 1916 was spent at Tel-el-Kebir. The men were given leave to Cairo, “pitting their cunning against the age-old cunning of the east, and generally outwitting the Gippo!” There was a lot of souveniring and Australian pranks. In early February, orders came to split the veteran battalions into two. On 13 February 1916, the 1st Battalion was split into the new 1st and 53rd Battalions. The new battalion wore the same colours as the original, but with vertical black and green bars instead of horizontal.

The following details are recorded in the Nulli Secundus—A History of the Second Battalion, A.I.F. 1914-1919 :

p. 164 – Christmas day 1915 was spent at sea with 1st Battalion on short rations. They disembarked at Alexandria on 28 December and moved along the wharf to waiting train to Tel-el-Kebir, site of a battle of 1882, which they reached at 4:45am on 29 December. No tents were available so the men bivouacked. A camp was set up within a few days, canteens established and program of training drawn up. New reinforcements and some men from hospital by the new year.

p. 165 – The men were still exhausted at new years and slept through, more excited excited about new clothes and regular baths. Old clothes were sent to an incinerator, immediately to be retrieved by verminous natives.

The following details are recorded in the Randwick to Hargicourt – History of the 3 ^rd Battalion, A.I.F:

p. 126 – The men bivouacked at Tel-el-Kebir for 4 days until tents arrived. Tel-el-Kebir means “The Great Sand Hill” in Arabic. The place is described as having no outstanding physical features, being “just a track of sandy and hard gravelly hillocks”.

p. 127 – Tel-el-Kebir is a railway station, connected by a bridge to a village of mud huts, sprawling among date palms to the south-west. The site lies on the fresh water canal which runs from Cairo to Ismailia, and thence along the western bank of the Suez Canal to Port Said in the north, and Suez in the south. Here Lord Wolseley’s British force of 17,000 men defeated the Egyptian army rebelling, secured the canal. Egyptian defensive earthworks run about two miles long and members of the 3rd Battalion spent may leisure hours wandering over the old battlefield, unearthing momentos of the historic battle.

The following details are recorded in The Fighting Fourth – A History of Sydney’s 4 ^th Battalion 1914-1919 :

p.93 – Tel-el-Kebir was the site of famous a battle fought by Lord Wolseley in 1882. Original fortifications and trenches remained intact and were of interest to those with enthusiasm for military history.

Charles Bean describes in Gallipoli Mission (p. 61) that in December 1915, when it became known amongst the men that Anzac was to evacuated, the cemeteries were regularly attended by those “tidying up or otherwise tending the graves of their particular mates. With most soldiers the leaving behind of these graves hurt more deeply than any other implication of the Evacuation.”