Anzac voices: Living Conditions in the Middle East

When rest of the AIF went to France in 1916, the bulk of the mounted forces remained behind in Egypt. Some men, feeling they were missing out on ‘the action’, left the Light Horse and joined the infantry serving on the Western Front.

Those that remained continued fighting the Turkish Army, who threatened the Suez Canal in Egypt. After 1916 the threat to the canal was over and the British and Commonwealth forces gradually advanced into Turkish territory. In 1917 they entered Palestine and by the end of the year had captured the ancient holy city of Jerusalem. In 1918 they fought in Jordan and Syria and the capture of the city of Damascus in October all but spelt the end for the Turkish forces. An armistice was signed with Turkey a few weeks later.

Fighting in the desert brought many challenges. Being able to find water was essential for the well-being of both the men and their animals, especially as horses and camels were thirsty animals and the location of water greatly impacted on the progress of the campaign. Sometimes horses endured travelling over 30 hours, sometimes even up to 60 hours, without a drink. Even when camped, there was no guarantee there would be enough water. In 1917, Trooper Ion Idriess wrote in his diary:

A squadron of our fellows went out last night, with one water bottle each, and will be away all day. Poor devils … Not a drop of water to drink in camp. We are going away and drinking from the horses’ well. The water is forbidden and brackish but a man must drink something. 1DRL/0373

The flies were also a problem, spreading disease and discomfort, while serving in Egypt in 1916, Varney wrote that:

The flies are in millions they fly flop onto your food whether you like it or not, & as I am writing this note I have to keep them off with one hand & write with the other. Our horses suffer worse than we do. They have to stand in the sun & hot sand, for there is no shelter. We have to scrape the top sand away before we can sit down during a short stop but nothing troubles us now we take things as they come whether it is bully & biscuits, or a drop of tea and no sugar or a nice stew full of sand & flies. PR05253

Attracted to the moisture in the animal's eyes, flies were both an annoyance and a serious threat to the health of the horses of the Light Horse. These fly veils were attached to the brow band of a horse's bridle and protected the animal's eyes from the ever-present flies in Sinai and Palestine campaigns.

Troops travelled long distances in extremes of heat and cold, not always getting their full rations. They slept in the open, or in tents or blanket shelters that provided little to no protection from scorching winds or driving rains.

The simple tents issued to light horseman provided little protection from the elements, as humorously depicted in this cartoon drawn for the troop magazine Kia-ora Coo-ee.

Edward Cleaver, who enlisted in the AIF in 1914, wrote of the conditions that:

[We] go to bed with empty stomachs very often and the sky for a roof very often, enclosed you will see what has been my home for months, but it won’t be any good when the rain comes which we expect any time now at present the dust is awful at times you talk about the dust in Sale it is nothing to over here, I laid down one night to sleep and had to dig myself out in the morning. (3DRL/4114)

Anzac voices is on display at the Australian War Memorial until 30 November 2014.

My thanks to the Simpson family for permission to reproduce quotes from Albany Varney’s letters.

My thanks to Idriess Enterprises for permission to reproduce the quote from Ion Idriess’ diary.