Battle of Romani

Sinai, August 4 to 5, 1916

CMR Unit History Account

Powles, CG ed, The history of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles 1914-1919, 1928, pp. 106 - 117:

CHAPTER VIII.

Of the Battle called Romani, but which might have been named the Second Battle of Pelusium.

"And the Egyptians lay encamped on the banks of theNile. which runs by Pelusium. awaiting Cambyses. The Persians crossed the desert and. pitching their camp close to the Egyptians- made ready for battle. Stubborn was the fight that followed. and it was not until vast numbers had been slain that the Egyptians turned and fled." Herodotus.

Now the ruins of ancient Pelusium are to this day to be seen a few miles from the wells of Romani, and it was just outside Pelusium in the year 528 B.C. that the invading Persians conquered the Egyptians. Upon this self same ground 2,500 years later, the invaders of Egypt were to be defeated in the battle of Romani.

In the early hours of the morning of August 4th orders were received to be ready to move at 8 a.m. With the Regiment as advanced guard the Brigade moved in the direction of Dueidar, and heavy firing could be heard away in the direction of Romani. It looked as though the General's batman was right, but after travelling about three mile towards the east the direction of the march was changed north towards Canterbury Post. Nobody knew why, but later it was learnt that the Turks were making a flank attack on the railway in conjunction with their main attack on Romani. and that the Brigade was to hold them, and if possible, drive them back.

Skilfully led by guides, who evidently knew every foot of the British position, the enemy had attacked in three column, one, a holding attack well backed by artillery upon the 52nd Division in their entrenched position, and the two other columns upon the open flank between Katib Gannit and the caravan route. These two columns encountered the outpost line held by the 1st Light Horse Brigade, and they attacked it about midnight on August 4th.

Additional Reading:

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment, Roll of Honour

Battle of Romani, Sinai, August 4 to 5, 1916 

Bir el Abd, Sinai, 9 August 1916

Battles where Australians fought, 1899-1920

Posted by Project Leader at 12:01 AM EADT

Updated: Monday, 19 October 2009 10:01 PM EADT

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Battle of Romani

Sinai, August 4 to 5, 1916

CMR, War Diary Account

The transcription:

4 August

Stood to Arms at 0300 - at 0630 received telephone message that the Regiment was to be ready to move out at 0800 in full marching order although the horses were mostly out exercising. the Regiment paraded at 0830. The Regiment marched out with the Brigade at 0830 and proceeded in the direction of Dueidar - the 1st Squadron under Major Hurst were detached as Advanced Guard to the Brigade - two Troops of 8th Squadron were detached as Right and Left Flank Guard. When about 3 miles out direction was changed towards Crown Hill as it was reported the Turks advancing in large numbers in the south of Romani with the Brigade now strengthened by Auckland Mounted Rifles
regiment (who had gone out to Dueidar the previous night). CMR pushed on and when nearing Royston Hill - the enemy were lining the heights in large numbers. At 1500 the Brigade halted. The CMR Regiment were detached to make a frontal attack on Royston Hill - The 1st Light Horse Brigade being in the centre, 8th Squadron on the right and 10th Squadron on the left. Fire became very heavy from Turkish Machine Guns and the Turkish Battery also opened fire - our troops pushed on - the 5th Light Horse Regiment were supposed to come up in on right but failed to get a touch with us. The Yeomanry operated on left flank. After continuously fighting up till 1730 we drove the Turks off the heights taking a great number of prisoners. Our casualties were 1 killed and 15 wounded.

The Mounted were relieved at dusk by the infantry and we then marched back to Anzac Siding where after watering and feeding up, bivouacked for the night.


5 August

Reveille at 0230 - feed up and ready to move at 0330 - moved out to Canterbury Hill where we replenished our supply of ammunition. We then proceed over the sand drifts in direction of Bir en Nuss where we halted for one hour. Watered and feed up and joined up with the 3rd Light Horse Brigade. After a short spell the brigade moved out in direction of Katia and came up on the Southern side. The 3rd Light Horse Brigade, as support to us on the right but again did not get in touch with them. We were brought under extremely heavy fire with machine gun and artillery and our horses suffered from shrapnel fire. The Auckland Mounted Rifles Regiment were on the left - we advanced down to within 600 yards of the Katia Hod and held that position till orders were given to withdraw at dusk. We accordingly withdrew at 1900 and assembled and joined up with the Brigade and proceeded to Romani and did not arrive at camping ground till 0130 on morning of 6 August.

Roll of Honour

Alexander Harold GOOD

Lewis MANSON

Edward Charles MORTON

Joseph George Alfred PICKENS

Frederick Ormsby REES

Ralph SUTTON

John WALKER

Lest We Forget

Further Reading:

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment, Roll of Honour

Battle of Romani, Sinai, August 4 to 5, 1916 

Bir el Abd, Sinai, 9 August 1916

Battles where Australians fought, 1899-1920

Posted by Project Leader at 12:01 AM EADT

Updated: Friday, 23 October 2009 9:07 AM EADT

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The Battle of Rafa

Sinai, 9 January 1917

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment

Roll of Honour

Poppies on the Auckland Cenotaph plinth

The Roll of Honour contains the names of all the men known to have served at one time with the Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment and gave their lives in service of New Zealand during the Battle of Rafa, Sinai, 9 January 1917.

Roll of Honour

Leslie Walter GIBBS, Killed in Action

 

Alexander LEDINGHAM, Killed in Action

Maurice James LELIEVRE (LE-LIEVRE), Killed in Action

 

Christian Fraser McINTOSH, Died of Wounds

George Alexander MITCHELL, Killed in Action

 

Lest We Forget

Further Reading:

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment, Roll of Honour

The Battle of Rafa, Sinai, 9 January 1917

The Battle of Rafa, Sinai, 9 January 1917, Roll of Honour

The Palestine Campaign, 1917 - 1918

Battles where Australians fought, 1899-1920

Citation: The Battle of Rafa, Sinai, 9 January 1917, Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment, Roll of Honour

Posted by Project Leader at 12:01 AM EAST

Updated: Saturday, 29 January 2011 12:39 PM EAST

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The Battle of Magdhaba

Sinai, 23 December 1916

CMR Unit History Account

Colonel Charles Guy Powles along with Officers of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles produced in 1928 a collective work called The history of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles 1914-1919, in which included a section specifically related to the Battle of Magdhaba and is extracted below A copy of this book is available on the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Association website..

Powles, CG ed, The history of the Canterbury Mounted Rifles 1914-1919, 1928:

On December 20th the Regiment moved out to Ghurfan el Gimal. As it was only five or six miles all baggage, overcoats, etc., were sent by camel transport. A large concentration of infantry, artillery and transport at this place, the present head of the railway, looked as if a big move was imminent. The Regiment settled down to await baggage, but was suddenly ordered off, word having been received that the Turks were evacuating El Arish, and a long night march over heavy sandhills followed. This night is remembered as probably the coldest yet experienced in the desert. At 3 a.m. a halt was made for an hour on a high sandhill called Um Zugla. How everyone regretted that the overcoats were on the camels, but "once bitten twice shy," never again was the Regiment caught without them. At dawn Masmi was reached, after covering about thirty miles since leaving camp. From the top of a high sand ridge the Turkish position covering El Arish could be seen, but the Turks had gone. Along the beach for two or three miles stretched great groves of palm trees, while nearer us lay the town. East of the town is the Wadi el Arish, which is the Biblical "River of Egypt." It is usually a dry watercourse, but floods heavily during the rainy season. It was up this Wadi that the garrison of El Arish had retired to Magdhaba.

The weather had now completely changed, and heavy thunderstorms made things uncomfortable for everybody, though the fall in temperature was most grateful.

The day after arrival at Masmi one of the wood-gathering parties took eleven prisoners, who were evidently stragglers from the retreating enemy. At short notice on the evening of the 22nd the Regiment moved to the Wadi el Arish, and the early hours of the morning of the 23rd found the Mounted Division riding steadily towards Magdhaba.

The fires of the enemy camp at Magdhaba having been observed at 3.50 a.m.

the force continued to advance until 10 minutes to five, and then halted and dismounted in an open plain some four miles from its objective, while the Divisional Commander (General Chauvel), with the brigade commanders, went forward to reconnoitre. The number of bivouac fires indicated a considerable force, and the brightness of the lights was very misleading as to distance.

This careless showing of lights by the enemy clearly indicated how impossible he thought it that tired horses and men, after an all-night march of 30 miles, could possibly set out immediately upon another 30 miles march to the position to which he had retired.

General Chaytor with the New Zealand Brigade and the 3rd Light Horse Brigade was given orders to move on Magdhaba by the north and north-east and to endeavour to cut off all retreat. The Camel Brigade (for these operations taking the place in the Division of the 2nd Light Horse Brigade) 71 was to advance straight up the Wadi, following the telegraph line, and the 1st Light Horse Brigade was for the present to be in reserve. The Division's batteries soon got to work, but the targets were hard to find. The enemy's guns and trenches were exceedingly well concealed, but by 10 o'clock the New Zealand Brigade had closed well in. News then coming in that our aeroplanes could see the Turk withdrawing east, the 1st Light Horse Brigade was sent in direct on Magdhaba. By 12 o'clock all three Brigades and the Camel Brigade were hotly engaged, but on account of mirage and dust clouds good observation was impossible.

General Chaytor sent forward the Canterbury and Wellington Regiments — the Wellington on the right and the Canterburys on the left, and to the left of them the 10th Light Horse Regiment. Steady progress was made over country flat and bare of cover beyond small bushes.

By one o'clock the progress of the two regiments had caused a gap to appear between them, and into this gap General Chaytor sent the 8th and 9th Light Horse. The line now pressed strongly forward, each squadron moving forward by rushes, covered by the fire of the Lewis and machine guns, and by 3 o'clock were within five hundred yards of the enemy trenches.

More ammunition was brought up, and, under cover of the machine guns, ground was gained in short rushes, until, with a final charge with fixed bayonets, the nearest trenches were reached. The Turks immediately began to surrender, and the 1st Light Horse Brigade on the west and the 10th Light Horse Regiment, on the east pressing in, the whole system of redoubts enclosing the houses of Magdhaba surrendered.

It had been a race against darkness and water, for if Magdhaba had not fallen there was no water nearer than El Arish, and if darkness had fallen before the trenches were captured most of the Turks would have got away.

One of the decisive events of the afternoon was the capture of a battery of four mountain guns by Lieutenant A. B. Johnstone, with his troop of the 8th Squadron. This battery had given much trouble and was still firing when Johnstone with six men rushed the emplacement, and the garrison consisting of 2 officers and 15 men surrendered. Casualties were light in spite of the prolonged nature of the fighting; among those who fell was Lieutenant H. A. Bowron, of the 10th Squadron, who was hit during the early advance over the bare plain.

The sufferings of the wounded were again accentuated by the long distance they had to be carried to Railhead, a matter of just over 50 miles, and from Magdhaba to El Arish the journey had to be made by cacolet. From El Arish to Railhead the most serious cases were taken in sand carts or carried on improvised sledges, both of which means of conveyance through rough country were infinitely better than the dreaded cacolet.

Magdhaba was a mounted man's action; it would have been impossible for infantry. As Gullett says in his history of the Australians in Sinai and 72 Palestine—"The unqualified success at Magdhaba supplies a classical example of the right use of mounted riflemen. In scarcely more than twenty four hours the Light Horsemen, New Zealanders, and Camels had ridden upwards of fifty miles, had fought, mounted and dismounted, twenty-three miles from their water supply and fifty miles from Railhead, and had surprised and annihilated a strongly placed enemy. The engagement brought out all the effective qualities of these mounted men: the excellent discipline of the silent night-ride, the rapid approach before dismounting, the dashing leadership of the junior officers, the cleverness of the men, while maintaining their advance, in taking advantage of all cover, the effective use of machine guns and Lewis guns, and the eagerness of the troopers for bayonet work as they got to close quarters." In an address to the Brigade the following day General Chetwode (who now commanded the forces east of the Canal and called the Desert Column) said that the mounted men at Magdhaba had done what he had never known cavalry in the history of war, to have done before, i.e., they had not only located and surrounded the enemy's position, but they had got down to it as infantry and had carried fortified positions at the point of the bayonet. But the work was not yet finished. Prisoners had to be collected and horses watered.

Time did not permit of much being done, so a regiment was left to clean up the battlefield, and the column started on its long ride home. It was a bitterly cold night and men and horses were tired. It must be remembered that they had been marching and fighting for thirty hours without pause, and for most of them this was the third night without sleep. To pass one night without sleep is trying; two nights is absolutely painful; but the third night without sleep, after heavy fighting with all the added strain and excitement. is almost an impossibility. Men and horses were dropping off at the oddest times and in the oddest positions. The, dust was intense, and to the lightly clad men bereft of their overcoats, the cold seemed to penetrate to the bone. Men saw or fancied they saw plantations, towns with large buildings lighted up, precipices or a gradually closing wall. A man would halt, thinking he was on the edge of a cliff, then seeing others riding on he knew it to be imagination only. But all journeys end, and Masmi was reached at 6 o'clock on the morning of Christmas Eve. The result of the raid was one thousand two hundred and eighty-two prisoners, four mountain guns, machine guns, rifles, ammunition and stores of all description.

Further Reading:

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment, Roll of Honour

New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade

The Battle of Magdhaba

The Battle of Magdhaba, Sinai, December 23, 1916, Roll of Honour, Australia and New Zealand

Battles where Australians fought, 1899-1920

Posted by Project Leader at 12:01 AM EAST

Updated: Sunday, 22 November 2009 12:32 PM EAST

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CMR, NZEF

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment

Roll of Honour

John Cameron

A brief biography of John Cameron extracted from the Cenotaph Database hosted by the Auckland Museum.

Full Name: Trooper John Cameron Rank Last Held: Trooper Forename(s): John Surname: Cameron War: World War I, 1914-1918 Serial No.: 7/1705 First Known Rank: Trooper Next of Kin: W.A. Cameron (brother), Marangai, Wanganui, New Zealand Marital Status: Single Enlistment Address: Marangai, Wanganui, New Zealand Military District: Wellington Body on Embarkation: 7th Reinforcements Embarkation Unit: Canterbury Mounted Rifles Embarkation Date: 9 October 1915 Place of Embarkation: Wellington, New Zealand Transport: HMNZT 32 HMNZT 33 HMNZT 34 Vessel: Aparima or Navua or Warrimoo Destination: Suez, Egypt Page on Nominal Roll: 105 Last Unit Served: Canterbury Mounted Rifles Place of Death: Egypt Date of Death: 2 December 1916 Year of Death: 1916 Cause of Death: Died of disease Further References: Search http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz for information about this person's Military Personnel File. Use the Simple Search option. Sources Used: Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force Volume I. Wellington: Govt. Printer, 1914-1919

Lest we forget

Further Reading:

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment

Canterbury Mounted Rifles Regiment, Roll of Honour

Battles where Australians fought, 1899-1920

Posted by Project Leader at 12:01 AM EAST

Updated: Sunday, 13 September 2009 12:15 AM EADT

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