Egypt, Palestine, Syria (First World War)

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Also see

• Actions in Egypt 1914-15
• Prisoners of the Turks (First World War)‎

External links

• Indian Cavalry In Palestine. Hansard 21 May 1919 (retrieved 21 June 2014)
• Photograph: 9th Hodson's Horse in General Chauvel's march through Damascus, 2 October 1918. National Army Museum (retrieved 21 June 2014)
• Watercolour: Hodson's Horse at Aleppo : encamped about a mile from the town, on the Alexandretta Road 10 November 1918 Imperial War Museums (retrieved 21 June 2014)
• Map of Palestine, Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia showing Lines of British Advance November 1918 Library of Congress/American Memory
• Soldiers’ Stories: [Account extracts]. Private William Bowyer of 1/1st Buckinghamshire Yeomanry (Royal Bucks Hussars). Egypt’s Western Desert in 1915. nam.ac.uk
• General Allenby and the campaign of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, June 1917 - November 1919 by Matthew Dominic Hughes. PhD Thesis King's College London (University of London) 1995. Also available through the British Library EThOS
• Cavalry of the Clouds: Aspects of the Air War in the Eastern Theatre,1914-1918 by C H. Whitley 1997. A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History in the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. A pdf download, which depending on your browser, you may need to locate in your downloads folder.
• Philately: Sinai & Gaza - Part 3: World War I, British Empire and Allies by Edmund Hall (ESC 239) QC (Quarterly Circular) September Quarter 2012, p156-165. This is a journal/publication of the Egyptian Study Circle, UK (Egyptian Philately)
• Videos: World War One Through Arab Eyes by Tunisian writer and broadcaster Malek Triki. ‪Al Jazeera English. YouTube videos. ‪ Episode One: The Arabs‬ . They fought as conscripts for the European colonial powers occupying Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia – and for the Ottomans on the side of Germany and the Central Powers. Episode two: The Ottomans. Includes the history of the Ottoman-Germany relationship. Episode three: The New Middle East. Includes the way Britain and France divided the former Ottoman Empire between them.
• "The Short Life of Private Ihsan: Jerusalem 1915" by Salim Tamari. Includes extracts from the diary of an ordinary recruit in the Ottoman military headquarters in Jerusalem. The article is derived from Year of the Locust: The Great War and the Erasure of Palestine’s Ottoman Past by Salim Tamari 2008. palestine-studies.org

Maps

• Also see next section.
• 1920 General Map of Cairo by Survey of Egypt. Library of Congress.

Historical books online

• History of the Great War: Military Operations, Egypt & Palestine: From the Outbreak of War with Germany to June 1917 by Lieut-General Sir George MacMunn and Captain Cyril Falls HMSO 1928. Volume 2 June 1917 to the End of the War: Part 1 by Cyril B Falls 1930 Volume 2, From June 1917 to the End of the War Part II by Cyril Falls 1930 . Catalogue links to pdfs. Digital Library of India . Archive.org versions: Vol. 1, Vol. 2:1, Vol. 2:2.

Online maps, either from the above volumes, or from an additional volume are available through the National Library of Australia's Search, using title: Military Operations, Egypt & Palestine/Add limits: Map and Online. From the results select Maps, and Online. Sixteen maps have been noted.

• The Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine, 1914-1918 by H S Gullett 1923 Archive.org. Volume VII, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918. The Preface states “The story… in its bolder features covers the whole British force”.
• History of the Great War Based on Official Documents: Medical Services: General History by G W Macpherson Volume 3 includes Egypt and Palestine. 1924 HMSO. Archive.org
• Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services, 1914–1918 Volume I – Gallipoli, Palestine and New Guinea (2nd edition, 1938, first published 1930). Links to pdf downloads Australian War Memorial website.
• French Official Histories: Les Armées françaises dans la Grande Guerre sga.defense.gouv.fr. Includes Tome IX. Les fronts secondaires. Premier volume. Théâtre d'opérations du Levant (Égypte - Palestine - Syrie - Hedjaz); Deuxième volume. Les campagnes coloniales : ...Opérations contre les Senoussis. With online maps (Cartes).
• A Record of the 58th Rifles F. F. in the Great War 1914-1919 by A G Lind DSO 1933. Wikimedia Commons. Direct pdf link Archive.org pdf. With 7 maps at the end. May be slow to open. 58th Rifles Frontier Force was an Indian Army regiment which saw action in Egypt and Sinai in 1916, Palestine 1917-1918, and Egypt 1919.
• The Empire at War edited for the Royal Colonial Institute by Sir Charles Lucas, in five volumes, with a catalogue contents description. (Volume 1 British Library Digital file) Volume 5, 1926, covers WW1 The Mediterranean colonies ; Egypt and Palestine ; Aden ; India ; Ceylon ; Malaya ; China. Volume 5, British Library Digital file, Contents. Also available as a pdf download from the Digital Library of India Vol-vth, Archive.org version.
• The Royal Army Service Corps: A History of Transport and Supply in the British Army, Volume II by Colonel R H Beadon 1931. Link to an Adobe pdf download. Digital Library of India. Archive.org version. Includes the First World War period, including Egypt and Palestine.
• A History of the Army Ordnance Services, Volume III: The Great War by Major General Arthur Forbes 2nd edition 1932, first published 1929. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org version. Includes chapters on the Base in the Levant and Mediterranean [Egypt]; Palestine.
• "Inland Waterways and Docks, Royal Engineers in War Time, with special reference to the mystery port of Richborough (Lecture & Discussion)" by Captain A E Battle, RE Proceedings of the Victorian Institute of Engineers 1923-1924, pages 104-116. Includes Inland Water Transport in Mesopotamia, and brief mention of other theatres of war Egypt, Salonika, East Africa, Italy and Northern Russia. Melbourne University Digital Collection.
• Britain's Sea Soldiers. A Record of the Royal Marines during the War 1914-1919. Compiled by General Sir H. E. Blumberg, Royal Marines 1927. Hathi Trust Digital Library. Contains a chapter "Royal Marine Artillery Battery in Egypt 1915-1916", page 414.
• The Post Office of India in the Great War edited by H.A. Sams 1922 Archive.org. Egypt and Palestine page 77. The following chapter "The Dardanelles, Salonika and Constantinople 1915-1919" also has some references to Egypt.
• "Weather Controls over the Fighting in Mesopotamia, in Palestine, and near the Suez Canal" by Robert De C. Ward Scientific Monthly April 1918 Archive.org
• The Operations in Egypt and Palestine, 1914 to June, 1917: illustrating the Field Service Regulations by A. Kearsey, Late Lieutenant-Colonel, General Staff. Published Aldershot 1929. State Library of Victoria. (May be slow to open)
• The Palestine Campaigns by Colonel A. P. Wavell 1928. Link to a pdf download. Digital Library of India. A book in the series Campaigns and their lessons.
• Sir Archibald Murray’s Despatches, June 1916-June 1917 [The Commander-In-Chief, Egyptian Expeditionary Force]. Archive.org
  • Maps from Sir Archibald Murray's Despatches University of Toronto. These maps are not included in the Archive.org file.
• A brief record of the advance of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under the command of General Sir Edmund H. H. Allenby ... July 1917 to October 1918 Compiled from Official Sources. Second Edition 1919 Archive.org. Contents Includes “Brief Records of the various branches of the Army” Royal Engineers, Royal Army Service Corps, Ordnance, Medical, Veterinary, Egyption Labour Force etc.
• The Desert Campaigns by by W T Massey, Official Correspondent of the London Newspapers with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, with drawings by James McBey. 1918 Archive.org

How Jerusalem was Won : being the Record of Allenby's Campaign in Palestine by W T Massey, 1920 Archive.org

Allenby's Final Triumph by W T Massey 1920 Archive.org

• Intelligence
  • "Under Eastern Eyes", page 172, Chapter V, The Secret Corps : a Tale of "Intelligence" on all Fronts by Captain Ferdinand Tuohy 1920 Archive.org
  • British Intelligence in Palestine from page 199 and "Chapter XXIII: Allenby in Palestine and Syria in 1918", page 303, Secret Service by Major-General Sir George Aston, formerly of the Naval Intelligence Department and the Secretariat of the War Cabinet 1930 Archive.org
  • Hard Lying Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Full title “Hard Lying”: Eastern Mediterranean, 1914-1919 by Captain L B Weldon 1925. The author was a British Army Intelligence Officer , initially OC of a British Ship (HMS Anne previously Aenne Rickmers) carrying a French, later British seaplane squadron used for reconnaissance flights, and subsequently HMY Managem 1917-1919, involved with the supply of agents, money, weapons, etc to the Syrian coast.
  • In the Side Shows by Captain Wedgewood Benn 1919 Archive.org. Some editions have the title In the Side Shows: Observations by a Flier on Five Fronts. The author was a Member of Parliament and joined the Middlesex Yeomanry, with whom he served at Gallipoli. He subsequently became military observer attached to the Royal Naval Air Service, East Indies and Egypt Seaplane Squadron.
• The Desert Mounted Corps : An Account of the Cavalry Operations in Palestine and Syria, 1917-1918 by Lieut –Colonel RMP Preston 1921 Archive.org
  • The Indian Army Cavalry regiments are listed from page 333
• Digitised Manuscripts from the India Office Records, British Library. (Also see europeana-collections-1914-1918.eu.)
  • IOR/L/MIL/17/6/78 History of the 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade during the Great War 1914-1918 London: HMSO, 1920. Includes maps. Also available as a pdf download, Digital Library of India, Archive.org version.
    • The Brigade appears to have spent the War in Egypt and Palestine. The constituent regiments include the Kathiawar Signal Troop, Hyderabad Lancers, Mysore Lancers including two troops  Bhavnagar Lancers and one troop   Kashmir Lancers, Patiala Lancers and Jodhpur Lancers
  • IOR/L/PS/11/129 P 4640/1917 The Turkish campaigns in Mesopotamia, Palestine and Hedjaz 1917.
  • IOR/L/PS/20/C195 Syria and Palestine. Handbooks prepared under the direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office - no 93 [London: Foreign Office], 1919] General information including
    • Table of Alternative Place Names
• Leaves from an Officer's Notebook by Eliot Crawshay-Williams 1918 Archive.org. Includes Egypt, Sinai from February 1916 to August 1916. The author was in a Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery (Territorial Force).
• With Our Army in Palestine by Antony Bluett, late of “A” Battery, H A C and Egyptian Camel Transport Corps 1919 Archive.org
• Glimpses of the Great War: Letters of a Subaltern from Three Fronts Edited by his wife. 1919. The letters of George Herbert Whyte [London Irish Rifles]. He joined a volunteer hospital unit in France, in 1914, and became a Second Lieutenant in the London Irish Rifles in 1916. He was in France, Macedonia and Malta, Egypt and Palestine. Page 127 contains a description of the action in which Lieut. Whyte was killed, at Khurbet Adaseh, just north of Jerusalem. He was a well known Theosophist. Digital Collection, Württembergischen Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart, with the library website in German. Read online or download, the latter is "Ganzes Werk herunterladen".
• By-ways on Service : Notes from an Australian Journal by Hector Dinning 1918

Nile to Aleppo, with the Light-Horse in the Middle-East by Hector Dinning, Captain, Australian Army. 1920 Archive.org

• Boundary Riders of Egypt by Lieut. H Bowden Fletcher 1919. The Australian Light Horse in Egypt. State Library of Victoria.
• The Cameliers by Oliver Hogue 1919. Archive.org. The Imperial Camel Corps in Egypt, Sinai and Palestine.
• With the Cameliers in Palestine by John Robertson, formerly of the Fourth Battalion of the Imperial Camel Brigade, T. Major New Zealand Mounted Rifles. 1938. New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, Victoria University of Wellington Library.
• What to know in Egypt : a guide for Australasian soldiers by C.E.W. Bean 1915. National Library of Australia.
• The Kia Ora Coo-Ee : The Magazine For The Anzacs In The Middle East, 1918 10 Monthly editions, from March-December 1918. New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, Victoria University of Wellington Library. For the contents, click on the title text below the cover image.Volume 1, March 1918 is available online from the British Library. access.bl.uk. All may be slow to open.
• With the British Army in the Holy Land by Major H O Lock, Dorsetshire Regiment 1919 Archive.org.
• Palestine Days and Nights; Sketches of the Campaign in the Holy Land by Captain J. G. Lockhart 1920. Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek. John Gilbert Lockhart subsequently appears to have been a writer (biographer and sea stories). IWM catalogue states: Associated people and organisations: 4th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment . 1st/4th Battalion appears to be the Battalion which was in Palestine.
• "The Palestine Detachment" Chapter V, page 71 The Tank in Action by Captain D G Browne 1920 Archive.org
• Through Palestine with the 20th Machine Gun Squadron [Cavalry] 1920 Project Gutenberg at Archive.org, or from Gutenberg.org
• With the Judaeans in the Palestine Campaign by Lieut-Col J H Patterson 1922 Archive.org
• The 28th, a Record of War Service with the Australian Imperial Force, 1915-1919. Volume I. Egypt, Gallipoli, Lemnos Island, Sinai Peninsula by Colonel H.B. Collett, First C O of the Battalion. 1922. Hathi Trust Digital Library. Gutenberg.org version.
• The Mounted Riflemen in Sinai and Palestine: The Story of New Zealand's Crusaders by A. Briscoe Moore late Lieut. Auckland Mounted Rifles. Illustrated by photographs taken with the N.Z.M.R.Brigade in the field. c 1920 New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, Victoria University of Wellington Library.
• The New Zealanders in Sinai and Palestine by Lieut.-Colonel. C. Guy Powles, Brigade Major N.Z.M.R. Brigade 1914-1916
, A.A. & Q M.G Anzac Mounted Division 1916-1918. From material compiled by Major A. Wilkie, W.M.R. 1922. New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, Victoria University of Wellington Library.
• 2/4 Battalion. Hampshire Regiment 1914-1919 Published 1920?. State Library of Victoria. (May be slow to open). The Battalion was in India January 1915-April 1917, where it provided many drafts for Mesopotamia, and was then in Palestine and France.
• With the Machine Gunners in France and Palestine by Major J. H. Luxford N.Z.M.G.C. 1923 New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, Victoria University of Wellington Library.
• British Campaigns in the Nearer East, 1914-1918. From the outbreak of war with Turkey to the Armistice: Volume II The Tide of Victory by Edmund Dane , Military Correspondent of the Westminster Gazette 1919 Archive.org (Volume I)
• War in the Air: being the story of the part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force, Volumes II-VI by H A Jones. Volume V 1935, Volume VI 1937. Part of the series History of the Great War based on official documents. Include Egypt and Palestine. Archive.org
• The Australian Flying Corps in the Western and Eastern Theatres of War, 1914-1918 by F M Cutlack 1933 (first published 1923). The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918: Volume VIII Archive.org
• From Dardanelles to Palestine by Captain Sarkis Torossian. Boston,USA. 1947 academia.edu. Article: 'How the Armenian Genocide Forced a Loyal Ottoman Officer to Espouse the Arab Revolt" by Joseph A. Kéchichian, Contemporary Review of the Middle East, Vol. 1, No. 4, 2014. academia.edu. Captain Torossian was of Armenian descent & fought at Gallipoli as an Artillery observer in the Turkish Army. After the Armenian genocide he switched sides & commanded 6.000 Arabian horsemen with the Allied army to Damascus.
• Memories of a Turkish Statesman, 1913-1919 by Djemal Pasha, Formerly…Imperial Ottoman Naval Minister, Commander of the Fourth Army in Sinai, Palestine and Syria. 1922 Archive.org
• London men in Palestine, and how they marched to Jerusalem by Rowlands Coldicott 1919 Archive.org. The author was, at least at one time, a Captain in the 21st(County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles), with the 2nd/21st serving in Palestine, as did the 2nd/20th and 2nd/22nd. The 2/21st, was disbanded on 3 June 1918 with men drafted to other London battalions, but was reformed in 1920.
• Khaki Crusaders. With the South African Artillery in Egypt and Palestine by F H Cooper 1919 Archive.org
• Through Egypt in War-time by Martin Shaw Briggs 1918 Archive.org. The author was an architect who became an officer in a Sanitary Section, Royal Army Medical Corps, involved in duties such as inspecting camps, disinfection and watertesting. Information on many topics, including Army Camps and railways. Index
• With the R.A.M.C. in Egypt by Serjeant-Major, R.A.M.C 1918 Archive.org
• The Australian Army Medical Corps in Egypt; an illustrated and detailed account of the early organisation and work of the Australian medical units in Egypt in 1914-1915 by James W Barrett, Temporary Lieut-Col RAMC and Lieut P E Deane AAMC, Quartermaster, First Australian General Hospital, Egypt 1918 Archive.org. Gutenberg.org version with photographs which may be enlarged.

A vision of the possible; what the R.A.M.C. might become; an account of some of the medical work in Egypt together with a constructive criticism of the R.A.M.C by James W Barrett, Temporary Lieut-Col RAMC 1919 Archive.org

The War Work of the Y.M.C.A. in Egypt by James W. Barrett, Temporary Lieut-Col RAMC 1919 Hathi Trust Digital Library

• A Consulting Surgeon in the Near East by A H Tubby RAMC (T). 1920. Archive.org. Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine.
• War experiences of a Territorial Medical Officer (ADMS, 2nd Mounted Division, Egypt, 1915-1919) by Major General Sir Richard Luce, RAMC(T), extracted from the Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, 1936-1937, "with photographs stuck in". Also includes an index at rear. Wellcome Library online. If you wish to read online, it is suggested you select “Full screen”, as otherwise it is difficult to read. Articles appeared from April 1936, 66 (4) to December 1937 69 (6).

The online JRAMC extracts are easier to read, but missing three parts. Gallipoli Chapters 5-9, the remaining chapters are in respect of Egypt and Palestine. Chapters 1-3, missing May 1936, 6-7, 8-9, 10-11, 12, 13, 14-15, 16, 17, 18-19, 20, missing April 1937, 22, 23, 24, 25-26, 27, 28, 29, missing Dec 1937.

Part 12 includes details of the types of camel cacolets [litters] used to transport the wounded.

• Light and Shade in War by Captain Malcolm Ross, Official War Correspondent with the New Zealand Forces and Noel Ross of The Times (lately Lance-Corporal with the Anzacs and Lieutenant Territorial Artillery 1916. Archive.org. Includes chapters about Egypt.
• On the Anzac Trail : being Extracts from the Diary of a New Zealand Sapper by 'Anzac' 1916 Archive.org. The author joined a NZ unit in London. Includes some chapters covering the stay in Egypt prior to Gallipoli.
• The 74th (Yeomanry) Division in Syria and France by Major C. H. Dudley Ward 1922 access.bl.uk British Library

Regimental Records of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (23rd Foot). Volume IV 1915-1918 Turkey-Bulgaria-Austria by Major C H Dudley Ward 1929 Archive.org.

• The Diary of a Yeomanry M.O. : Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine and Italy by Captain O Teichman RAMC (T F) 1921 Archive.org
• The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in the World War by Sir Frank Fox. [With plates and maps.] 1928. British Library Digital. Includes a chapter titled "The Holy Land".
• The Truth About Mesopotamia Palestine and Syria by John de Vere Loder 1923. Link to a pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org version.
• A soldier's handbook. Palestine and Jerusalem, salient points in the geography, history and present day life of the Holy Land by Rev H Sykes, Secretary of the Palestine Mission of the Church Missionary Society c 1917 Archive.org. 2nd version with marginally more informative map at rear. Archive.org
• Digger Dialects : a Collection of Slang Phrases used by the Australian Soldiers on Active Service by W.H. Downing, late 57th Battalion, AIF. [1919]. State Library of Victoria. Some of the words were probably also used by British and other soldiers.
• Out of Step: Events in the Two Lives of an Anti-Jewish Camel-Doctor by Arnold Spencer Leese. Born 1878, he was a veterinary surgeon who had researched camel diseases. During WW1 he worked for a time purchasing camels for the Army. In the late 1920s Leese became a British Fascist anti Jewish politician. His camel books include
  • "Tips" on camels for veterinary surgeons on active service by A.S. Leese 1918. Pdf download, KrishiKosh: Indian Agricultural Research Institute.
• Revolt In The Desert by T E Lawrence 1927. Link to a pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org version. Other files are available

The Evolution of a Revolt by T. E. Lawrence (Late Lieut.-Colonel General Staff, E.E.F.) first published 1939, CSI reprint. Link to a pdf download (scroll down) [US] Army University Press.

T. E. Lawrence: In Arabia and After by Liddell Hart 1934 Archive.org

• The Memoirs Of Sir Ronald Storrs 1937 Archive.org. The author worked in Egypt in from 1904, initially in the Egyptian Civil Service, subsequently as Oriental Secretary (British Foreign Office)
  • Palestine from December 1917 page 287. The author was in Palestine in December 1917, and subsequently was appointed Military Governor of Jerusalem
• Serbia To Kut by Joseph T Parfit 1917. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org version. Full title: Serbia to Kut: an account of the War in the Bible Lands [Balkans, Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia]. An overview of the conflict. The author, then or subsequently, was Canon of St George’s Jerusalem.
• Prisoners of the red desert, being a full and true history of the men of the "Tara" by Captain Rupert Stanley Gwatkin-Williams RN 1919 Archive.org. HMS Tara was sunk by a German submarine near Sollum, Egypt in 1915. The surviving crew were handed over to the Senussi, allies of the Turks and were held prisoners at Bir Hakkim (Bir el Hakim) in Libya until rescued in 1916 in dramatic circumstances by British Armoured Cars under the command of the Duke of Westminster.

"The Tale of the Tara" page 253 True Stories of the Great War, Volume II. Editor in Chief Francis Trevelyan Miller 1917. Archive.org

• Eastern Nights-and Flights; a Record of Oriental Adventure by Alan Bott 1920 Archive.org The author was a scout pilot in Palestine, who became, after his plane crashed in 1918, a prisoner of the Turks, eventually in Afion-Kara-Hissar in Turkey. Alan Bott Wikipedia.
• The Escaping Club: "Part II" [page 241] by A. J. Evans 1922 Hathi Trust Digital Library. The author, a POW had escaped from Germany in June 1917. In March 1918, while on a bombing raid in Palestine his plane came down. He was captured by Arabs, along with two others, and subsequently became prisoners of the Turks. Also available as a pdf download, Digital Library of India.
• In Brigands' Hands and Turkish Prisons, 1914-1918 by A Forder 1920 Archive.org The author was an American missionary who was taken prisoner in Jerusalem in November 1914 and jailed by the military He was a prisoner in Damascus for four years until the British occupation.
• Turkish prisoners in Egypt: a report by the delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross extracted and translated from the official reports of the Red Cross Society 1917 Archive.org
• The dawn of a new era in Syria by Margaret Mcgilvary, Secretary Beirut Chapter, Red Cross 1920 Archive.org
• With the Turks in Palestine by Alexander Aaronsohn 1916. Also an Librivox audio recording Archive.org
• The Handbook of Palestine edited by Harry Charles Luke and Edward Keith-Roach. Issued under the Authority of the [British] Government of Palestine 1922 Archive.org

References

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