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The British invasion of Ottoman-held Palestine in 1917-18 was the third - and last - campaign launched by the Allies against the Ottoman Turks in the Middle East during the First World War.

The Sinai campaign is less well known than other First World War campaigns like Gallipoli and those on the Western Front. But it was here, in the harsh, arid desert, that the Allies took the first major step towards their ultimate victory over the Ottoman Turks in the Middle East.

The Sinai campaign arose from a change in British thinking about the defence of the Suez Canal.

The commander of Eastern Force mistakenly thought that the Egyptian Expeditionary Force could capture Gaza in March 1917 by using essentially the same tactics as those employed at Rafa and Magdhaba during the Sinai campaign.

In March 1916 the commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), General Sir Archibald Murray, ordered his forces to occupy the area around the Katia oasis, 40 km east of the Suez Canal.

Although the action at Katia boosted Turkish morale, it soon became clear that it had not deterred the British from continuing their offensive into the Sinai.

The third, successful attempt by the British to capture Gaza began in late October 1917.

By mid-December 1916 the Egyptian Expeditionary Force had advanced across the Sinai to within sight of the original objective of the campaign, the town of El Arish.

Two raids east of the Jordan River cost 3000 casualties. They are the first real defeats suffered by the EEF since the Second Battle of Gaza.

If the British failed to capture Rafah quickly they risked being overwhelmed by large Turkish forces sent from Gaza.

The final battle of the Palestine campaign in September 1918 resulted in arguably the most decisive British victory of the war.

Troopers from the New Zealand Mounted Rifles ride through the city of Cairo in Egypt, December 1914.

The Lewis Gun was an American-designed light automatic machine gun used by the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade in Sinai and Palestine, 1916-17.

A New Zealand Mounted Rifles trooper poses with his horse before setting off on a patrol, about 1916-17.

Troopers of the 3rd (Auckland) Mounted Squadron, Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment fire a Vickers machine gun, about 1917.

Dead horses on the banks of the River Jordan near Jisr ed Damieh, date unknown.

New Zealand mounted troopers training with a Hotchkiss M1909 light machine gun, circa 1917.

Major-General Edward Walter Clervaux Chaytor, commander of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade and Anzac Mounted Division during the Sinai and Palestine campaigns, 1916-18.

Photograph of Trooper Arthur Richard Fitzherbert published in the Auckland Weekly News, 26 April 1917.

A trophy of the First New Zealand Mounted Rifle Association nicknamed 'The Cutter'.