Palestine campaign
Imperial Camel Corps
Camels, like horses, have been used in warfare for centuries. Their ability to carry heavy loads and go for days without water made them ideally suited for patrol and transport work during the desert campaigns of the First World War.
Overview - Palestine campaign
With the successful conclusion of the Sinai campaign the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) and its commander, Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Murray, had achieved their original objective – securing the Suez Canal against any further threat of Turkish attack. This victory led to pressure from the British government, under a new Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, to invade Ottoman-controlled Palestine.
Formation and expansion - Imperial Camel Corps
The first recorded use of camels in battle occurred more than two and a half thousand years ago when the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great used them in his victory over the Lydians at the Battle of Thymbra in 547 BC.
First Battle of Gaza - Palestine campaign
The commander of Eastern Force (the Allied troops east of the Suez Canal), Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Dobell, thought that the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) could capture Gaza in March 1917 using tactics similar to those employed at Magdhaba and Rafah during the Sinai campaign, but on a much bigger scale.
New Zealand Camel Companies
In August 1916 No 15 (New Zealand) Company, Imperial Camel Corps, was formed from men originally intended as reinforcements for the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade.
Battle of Magdhaba
End of the Imperial Camel Corps
The New Zealand camel companies served with the Imperial Camel Corps Brigade in Palestine until it was disbanded in June 1918. At that point the Kiwi cameliers were reorganised as the horse-mounted 2nd New Zealand Machine Gun Squadron.
The Fallen Cameliers
Imperial Camel Corps Deaths
British artillery firing at Rafa
British 18 pounder Mark II field guns fire on Turkish redoubts during the Battle of Rafa, December 1916.
Artillery support for the Anzac Mounted Division's attack on Rafa was provided by the Inverness Battery, 4th (Territorial Force) Horse Artillery Brigade, and the Hong Kong and Singapore (Mountain) Battery attached to the Imperial Camel Corps.
Australian camelier 1916
An Australian trooper of the Imperial Camel Corps, August 1916. Australian Light Horsemen and Australian cameliers both wore the same uniform, easily identified by the distinctive feather-plumed slouch hat and leather bandolier worn across the chest. More than half of the camel companies of the Imperial Camel Corps were provided by the Australians.
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