The British Imperial Army in the Middle East: Morale and Military Identity in the Sinai and Palestine Campaigns, 1916-18

321 Pages·2014·6.46 MB·English

by  James E. Kitchen

The British Imperial Army

in the Middle East
War, Culture and Society
Series Editor: Stephen McVeigh, Associate Professor, Swansea University, UK
Editorial Board:
Paul Preston LSE, UK
Joanna Bourke Birkbeck, University of London, UK
Debra Kelly University of Westminster, UK
Patricia Rae Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada
James J. Weingartner Southern Illinois University, USA (Emeritus)
Kurt Piehler Florida State University, USA
Ian Scott University of Manchester, UK
War, Culture and Society is a multi- and interdisciplinary series which
encourages the parallel and complementary military historical and
socio-cultural investigation of 20th and 21st century war and conflict.
Published:
The Testimonies of Indian Soldiers and the Two World Wars, Gajendra Singh (2014)
Forthcoming:
South Africa’s ‘Border War’, Gary Baines (2014)
Cultural Responses to Occupation in Japan, Adam Broinowski (2014)
9/11 and the American Western, Stephen McVeigh (2014)
Filming the End of the Holocaust, John Michalczyk (2014)
Jewish Volunteers, the International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War,
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Military Law, the State, and Citizenship in the Modern Age, Gerard Oram (2014)
The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery During the China and
Pacific Wars, Caroline Norma (2015)
The Lost Cause of the Confederacy and American Civil War Memory,
David J. Anderson (2016)
The British Imperial Army

in the Middle East
Morale and Military Identity in the Sinai
and Palestine Campaigns, 1916–18
James E. Kitchen
LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway
London New York
WC1B 3DP NY 10018
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www.bloomsbury.com
Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2014
© James Kitchen, 2014
James Kitchen has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval
system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting
on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication
can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
eISBN: 978-1-4725-1131-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typeset by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India
Contents

List of Illustrations vi
List of Figures vii
List of Maps viii
Acknowledgements ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Maps xii
Introduction 1
1 The Nature of War in Sinai and Palestine 25
2 A Twentieth-Century Crusade? 61
3 Command, Control and Morale 101
4 Citizen Soldiers at War 123
5 The Anzac Legend, Mateship and Morale 151
6 The Indian Army Fighting for Empire 183
Conclusion 215
Notes 221
Bibliography 269
Index 295
List of Illustrations

I.1 Henry Lamb, ‘Irish Troops in the Judaean Hills Surprised
by a Turkish Bombardment’, 1919 3
I.2 Unveiling of the Australian and New Zealand Mounted
Division Memorial at Port Said, 23 November 1932 4
2.1 Bernard Partridge, ‘The Last Crusade’, Punch, 19 December 1917 68
2.2 Bernard Partridge, ‘The Return from the Crusade’, Punch,
17 September 1919 69
2.3 W. Humberrary, ‘History Repeated after Eight Centuries’,
The Northampton Independent, 21 April 1917 71
2.4 2/15th London Regiment Christmas Card, 1918 93
2.5 54th Division Christmas Card, 1917 94
2.6 54th Division Christmas Card, 1917 95
2.7 54th Division Christmas Card, 1918 96
4.1 54th Division Christmas Card, 1917 127
4.2 Programme for 54th Division Concert Party, ‘The Rose of Gaza’,
August 1917 131
4.3 1/4th Norfolk Regiment Christmas Card 137
4.4 54th Division Christmas Card, 1918 141
4.5 Model of the El Arish Redoubt used for training the 54th Division
prior to Third Gaza 144
4.6 Cigarette card featuring the 54th Division badge 147
5.1 5th Australian Light Horse Regiment Christmas Card, 1918 162
List of Figures

1.1 54th Division Infantry Brigade Combat Deaths, 1917–18 47
1.2 161st Infantry Brigade Combat Deaths, 1917–18 47
1.3 162nd Infantry Brigade Combat Deaths, 1917–18 48
1.4 163rd Infantry Brigade Combat Deaths, 1917–18 48
1.5 New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade Combat Deaths, 1916–18 50
1.6 162nd Infantry Brigade Casualty Rates, 1916–18 54
1.7 1st Australian Light Horse Regiment Casualty Rates, 1917–18 54
1.8 3rd Australian Light Horse Regiment Casualty Rates, 1916–18 55
1.9 Malaria Hospital Admissions in the EEF, 1917–18 57
List of Maps

1 Northern Sinai Peninsula, August 1916 xii
2 Palestine, 1916–18 xiii
Acknowledgements

This book has been many years in the making and along the way I have accumulated
many debts. First and foremost, I owe the greatest thanks to my doctoral supervisor at
the University of Oxford, Adrian Gregory, and to my college advisor at Balliol, Martin
Conway; over several years of both undergraduate and postgraduate study I have
benefited enormously from their wisdom, wit and support. I have also been fortunate
to receive help and encouragement from a number of academics during the course of
my studies, most notably Lesley Abrams, Joanna Bourke, John Darwin, Ashley Jackson,
Rob Johnson, Pierre Purseigle, Lyndal Roper, Simon Skinner and Hew Strachan. I am
indebted to Terry Kinloch, Christopher Pugsley, and Peter Stanley for giving me advice
on carrying out research in Australia and New Zealand. Special thanks are due to Alisa
Miller, Harry Munt, and Sam Wilson for their tireless assistance in reading drafts and
helping to challenge and refine the ideas in this book. In addition, I wish to thank my
friends at Oxford who have been particularly patient when listening to my ramblings
on the EEF and the First World War: Jonathan Fennell, Michael Finch, Stuart Hallifax,
Laura Rowe and Andy Syk. I am also most grateful to Rhodri Mogford, my editor at
Bloomsbury, and Stephen McVeigh, editor of the ‘War, Culture and Society’ series, for
the enthusiasm with which they have supported this book and the patience they have
shown during its production. The usual caveat applies that I alone am responsible for
any errors.
My former comrades at King’s College London and the Royal Air Force College
provided much encouragement and support to this project, and helped to broaden my
outlook on the study of war. At University College Dublin I was very fortunate to be
part of a friendly and stimulating research community. Among my former colleagues
in Dublin I owe particular thanks to Robert Gerwarth and William Mulligan for
supporting and helping to clarify my research over the past few years. Furthermore,
I wish to thank all of the scholars who made the Centre for War Studies, and the
European Research Council Project which I was lucky enough to be part of, such an
interesting and exciting academic community: Tomas Balkelis, Suzanne d’Arcy, Julia
Eichenberg, Christina Griessler, Mark Jones, Matthew Lewis, Stephan Malinowski,
James Matthews, John Paul Newman and Gajendra Singh.
The research for this book would not have been possible without the financial
assistance provided by Balliol College, the Frank Denning Memorial Charity, which
contributed towards my research trip in Australia and New Zealand, and the European
Research Council.
The research for this study was greatly assisted by the staff of various libraries and
archives. In Britain, I would like to thank staff at the Bedfordshire Record Office in
Bedford, the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, the British Library, the Essex
Regiment Museum in Chelmsford, the Hampshire Regiment Museum in Winchester,