Khamsin winds made life almost unbearable, and bathing was the one resource, for even bridge became too strenuous a game, though nap was played occasionally by the energetic ones.
El Ferdan
On June 19 the Division was ordered north to take over from the 11th Division the El Ferdan Section, the central section of the Canal zone, midway between Ismailia and Kantara. The move was completed by the end of the month. The 7th and 8th Lancashire Fusiliers took over the defences at Ballah, a station on the Canal, and the 5th and 6th Lancashire Fusiliers at Ballybunnion, a desert post about six miles to the east. The 6th and 8th Manchesters and the 126th Brigade were stationed at El Ferdan and Abu Uruk, about five miles north-east of El Ferdan. The artillery was split up among the posts, the 210th Brigade at Ballah and the 211th at El Ferdan, and during this period the howitzer batteries were rearmed with 4·5 Q.F. howitzers. The 1st Field Company, R.E., was at Ballah and Ballybunnion; the 2nd Field Company at Abu Uruk, and the recently arrived 3rd Field Company at Ferdan, where were also the 2nd and 3rd Field Ambulances. The Division was now occupying the ground where, according to tradition, the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. The 5th and 7th Manchesters went as far north as Kantara, where they were attached to the 52nd Division, and the friendship with the Lowland Scots, begun and cemented in Gallipoli, was here revived. They also took over posts from the 11th Manchesters, the first of the “Kitchener” battalions of their own regiment.
The Engineer-in-Chief, Major-General H. B. Wright, called to his aid the engineers of the Egyptian Government. Civil contractors, labour and plant were brought down to the Canal and material was requisitioned from all parts of the globe—from Australia, timber and wire-netting, the latter to be used for road-making over the loose sand; from India, water-pipes, matting and meat-safes; reed-matting from the Sudan; the whole of her stock of Decauville (two-foot gauge) railway material from Egypt; engines and pumps from England; and from the United States, through Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, a shipload of water-pipes which were so precious as to require a cruiser as escort. It was, however, upon the R.E. of the Division and Corps that the brunt of the work fell, though it might almost be said that the whole Division was temporarily transformed into a corps of engineers. The system of communication maintained by the Divisional Signal Company was extensive, all posts and outlying positions being connected with Headquarters by cable, often buried in the sand for many miles, and by visual signalling. Also all posts had their own system of inter-communication by telephone. Though the great heat continued during the six weeks in this section there was often a cool breeze on the higher ground, and conditions generally were far preferable to those prevailing in the dusty, fiery atmosphere of Suez.
Toward the end of July information was received that a large enemy force, led by German officers, and armed with German and Austrian artillery and machine-guns, was moving, with a rapidity that was surprising when the difficulties of the march of an army across the desert are realized, westwards from El Arish. Before long aircraft located Turkish troops at Oghratina Hod—a hod being a plantation of date-palms—about ten miles east of Romani, held by the 52nd Division. Aerial activity increased on both sides, and traffic swarmed on the Romani road. The Turks meant to force a fight in the worst possible season for British troops, and their march across the desert was a notable military achievement.
It was now decided to transform the 8th Corps, of which the 42nd Division formed part, into a Mobile Column, under Major-General the Hon. H. A. Lawrence (a former Brigadier of the 127th Brigade) for operations in the desert east of the fortified posts. Camels were to be provided to carry all stores, such baggage as was absolutely necessary, engineering, material, food, ammunition, and water. Kit was cut down to the bare minimum. Wheeled transport was removed as useless, and gun-carriages and limbers were fitted with pedrails and equipped with extended splinter-bars to allow four animals to pull abreast, each team consisting of twelve horses. Sand-carts and camel cacolets would be provided for the R.A.M.C., and for the engineers new equipment for well-sinking on an extensive scale, with camels to carry the well-lining materials, troughs, pumps, tools, etc.
In the last week of July the Division was hurriedly ordered north to Kantara, the El Ferdan and Ballah area being handed over to the 54th Division and the 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade. On the 29th and 30th of July the Mobile Column scheme was issued to unit commanders in rough outline, details being left to them. A Base Depot was formed at Ballah for the R.A. of the Mobile Force, and A Battery, 210th Brigade, and certain Ammunition Column details remained at the depot. The horse transport of the remainder of the Division and the heavier baggage were left at the base camp at Kantara.
The 127th Brigade, now complete, as the 5th and 7th Manchesters had rejoined, was the advance brigade at Hill 70. On July 31 it moved forward along the new railway to Gilban, together with the Divisional Squadron, a battery of the 212th Brigade, R.F.A., the 3rd Field Company, R.E., and the 3rd Field Ambulance. On the evening of August 3 the 6th Manchesters proceeded to Pelusium, near the coast and six miles north-west of Romani, to prepare defensive works east of the railway line, and to cover the detraining of the rest of the Brigade. Early in the morning of August 4 the sound of artillery fire from the direction of Romani announced that the Turkish attack had begun. The remainder of the Brigade was hurriedly ordered to Pelusium, and at 3.27 p.m., as the last battalion was detraining, Brig.-General Ormsby received the order to march at once in support of the Anzacs, who were heavily engaged in the neighbourhood of Mount Royston, to the south of Romani. At 3.30 p.m., within three minutes of receipt of the order, the 5th, 7th, and 8th Manchesters moved off without any transport—as none of the camels had arrived—and also without their dinners, the stew which had been prepared for them being left untouched. They passed through the 6th Manchesters, who were ordered to remain in their positions covering Pelusium, in order to escort and assist in organizing the expected camel transport. Artillery, cavalry, and engineer detachments arrived at Pelusium and moved forward, but nothing was seen or heard of the camels until 11 p.m., when two long files, each of 1000 camels, turned up. It was pitch dark, the transport was new to the Division, and the task of sorting out the animals, allocating them to the various units, loading them with fanatis, rations, ammunition and blankets, was a stupendous one. But the 6th Manchesters understood what every moment’s delay in delivering the goods—especially the water—might mean to their comrades, and they put their backs into it. By 4 a.m. the camel convoys for the 127th Brigade and the attached troops had been despatched on their trek into the desert, and the 6th Manchesters had moved off to rejoin their Brigade.
Battle of Romani, Aug. 4, 1916
The Turkish army numbered about 18,000 men, including 4000 in reserve, and was well equipped. The soldiers had been assured that during the great Fast of Ramadan they should destroy the infidel and march victoriously into Egypt. But General Lawrence, whose cavalry and aircraft had been in touch with the advancing army since July 21, had made very thorough preparations for its reception, and the Battle of Romani was fought strictly in accordance with his plans, the enemy conforming with pleasing docility to the tactics he laid down for them. General Lawrence had a large force of artillery, cavalry, and infantry in an entrenched camp at Romani, secured on the north by the sea, and conspicuously protected on its eastern and southern fronts by strong redoubts and entrenchments. The south-western front, being left open ostentatiously, invited attack. The enemy could not ignore the force at Romani and march on towards Kantara and Dueidar, where the 42nd Division and two brigades of cavalry were stationed, as they would then be taken in rear and flank by the troops from Romani and in front by the Kantara force. They fell into the trap. Their aircraft reported the strength of the British position to the east and south of Romani and its apparent weakness to the south-west. On the night of August 3 they had attacked the cavalry outposts to the south of the camp, and had slowly driven them in. On the morning of the 4th they made a strong feint, with the greater part of their artillery, against the redoubts held by the 52nd Division on the east, while their main body moved to the south-west to attack the front that had been invitingly left open. The Anzac Light Horse, withdrawing slowly and skilfully, and now fighting on foot, led them on until they were involved among the sandhills, and at noon the cavalry and R.H.A. from Dueidar closed in from the south-west. The attacks on Katib Gannit, held by the 52nd, had now been repulsed with heavy loss by the Lowlanders, and it was at this stage that Major-General Chauvel, commanding the Anzacs, asked that the 127th Brigade might be sent with all speed to help “mop up” the Turk, who so far had been fighting stoutly as usual.