Camel Corps

“ Luckily, two of the gunboats, getting sight and range of the eager dervishes who were hunting the camelmen, began firing with every piece [Pg 170] of armament they could bring to bear. I assume they saved the situation, for the Camel Corps were hard pressed, and lost eighty men before they got to the river and into a safe position under the shelter of the gunboats and Macdonald's brigade, which was at the north end of the zereba. The myth of a Camel Corps as a useful fighting unit had been exploded. ”

“ On his journey to Suez he met a camel caravan in the desert, and noticing the speed of the animals, he determined to form a camel corps; and in the first month of 1799 the experiment was made with such success that admission into the ranks of the camelry came to be viewed as a favour. Each animal carried two men with their arms and baggage: the uniform was sky-blue with a white turban; and the speed and precision of their movements enabled them to deal terrible blows, even at distant tribes of Bedouins, who bent before a genius that could outwit them even in their own deserts. ”

“ In addition to the Mounted Infantry and Heavy Camel Corps, 400 men of the Sussex Regiment came up on the camels. They were intended to garrison the forts and protect the wells when the rest of the force moved forward, but a hundred of them were to go forward with the troops. With the new-comers were 30 sailors with a Gardner gun, 30 men of the Royal Artillery [Pg 188] with three 7-pounder guns, 45 of the Medical and Commissariat Staff, and 120 native drivers for the baggage camels. ”

“ Everyone had to walk, except the sick and wounded, because all the camels belonging to the camel corps and mounted infantry had to be used for transport and baggage animals. There were only just sufficient to bring us away, and nearly all of them were completely played out before they commenced the march. However, we struggled on somehow, and arrived here more dead than alive. Thank goodness we are getting a day’s rest here, which will enable the men to pull themselves together, get some decent food and plenty of water to drink, and that good. ”

“ He touched his helmet, tapped his camel, and trotted on after his men.
"We can't do better than stay where we are until they are all past," said the Colonel, for it was evident now that the men from above would have to come round. In a broken single file they went past, black men and brown, Soudanese and fellaheen, but all of the best, for the Camel Corps is the corps d'elite of the Egyptian army. ”

“ So the stolid British infantryman splashed and slipped his way towards the enemy, and he would probably have been sleeping that night if there had not been a risk of his drowning in the mud. The Camel Transport Corps fought the elements with a courage which deserved better luck. The camel dislikes many things and is afraid of some. ”

“ The Camel Corps, therefore, leaving Futtehpore on the 9th, moved southward, marching daily from twenty to thirty miles till the 15th, when they halted for that day at Burroo. Next day they made a march of twelve miles; and on the 17th, passing through the range of hills which runs from north-west to south-east through Rajpootana, arrived at Ajmeer. In all these marches they started about midnight, often marching till one or two o’clock the next day; and seldom halting for a day, and then only because the horses of the cavalry required rest. ”

“ When half of C Company was suddenly converted into the British Camel Corps at Khartum it was discovered to contain the camel-keeper of Bostock's menagerie. We found piano-tuners for the Sirdar's Palace, gardeners for the Barrack plantations, and in later days expert mechanics for anti-aircraft gunnery. Skilled clerks like Sergeants J.C. Jones and Beaumont were marked out by Nature for the orderly room. Many men well qualified to hold commissions served in the ranks and died before the nation recognised their quality. ”

“ This picquet was relieved every third day. Altogether this standing camp of Kurroundea was a pleasant change for the officers and men; after their long moving about in the plains, the sight of hills was refreshing; and the grazing being excellent, the camels enjoyed the change as much as their riders.
On the 15th a detachment of the Camel Corps, consisting of twenty-five Riflemen and fifty Sikhs, under command of Lieutenant Eyre, marched from Kurroundea at six in the morning, en route for Shergotty. They proceeded on camels about six miles to Dearee, where they halted for breakfast. ”

“ Now Brigadier-General John Ross, C.B., commanding Brigade in Bengal, and lately commanding a Brigade in the Malay Peninsula.
[312] This walking pace was fast for the camel, whose walk does not generally exceed three English miles an hour. The Heirie (or swift camel) can travel, at a trot, eight or ten miles an hour, and maintain this speed for many hours; but that pace is very rough and fatiguing to the rider (‘Illustrated Natural History,’ by the Rev. J. G. Wood, i. 706) . We shall see hereafter what long and what rapid marches were made by the Camel Corps. ”

“ The Camel Corps was soon proficient enough to be sent by the Sirdar on a two-weeks’ trek through villages where white men had rarely been seen, and their presence gave the lie to reports circulated by Turco-German emissaries that all white troops had been recalled from Egypt and the Sudan to defend their home country from the enemy at its gates. ”

“ He had been raiding friendly tribes in the interior and there was a risk that he might attack Berbera. Our garrison there consisted of 260 Carnatic infantry and a body of camelry and about the same number at Sheikh. Further troops were on their way from Aden. It appeared that the Secretary of State for the Colonies had ordered the camel corps to be increased from 150 to 300, and this had been done; and in February he ordered a further increase to 500. ”

“ The remaining two regiments, a mere handful of men, were directed to watch the rear of our force at El Salt, and endeavour to prevent the enemy from advancing up the road from Shunet Nimrin. Our infantry on the west assisted in this task by keeping up a sharp fire fight.
Arrangements were now put in hand to evacuate the wounded and such of the camel transport as was not required with the fighting troops, down the El Shert track, preparatory to the withdrawal of the whole force. Camels are slow and obstinate beasts, even in their native desert. ”

“ The total strength of the desert column, consisting of the cavalry brigade, camel corps, a regiment of infantry, a battery of horse artillery, and two Maxims--in all, two thousand one hundred men--were to make a detour, and come down upon the Nile to the south of Ferket, thereby cutting off the retreat of the enemy. ”

“ Both these positions were in the direct line of the camel stampede, and their occupants were placed at a serious disadvantage. In spite of the completed mimosa fences, trampling their way over all obstacles, a mass of the terror-stricken animals tore right through the northern zeriba, for the time seriously disorganizing the defence. As stated by Colonel Way, an eye-witness—
"Everything seemed to come at once, camels, transport of all kinds, including water-carts, ammunition mules, 17th Native Infantry, Madras Sappers, sick-bearers, Transport Corps, cavalry and Arabs fighting in the midst. ”

“ We were now in an area in which even the optimistic Ordnance Survey (who in the chatty little notes they append to their maps, characterised the local water supply as "abundant though varying in quality") considered wheeled transport as impracticable. In consequence our nodding acquaintanceship with camels ripened quickly into an undesired familiarity. There is a touch of oriental romance about the camel, as the mile long convoys loom up through the night and pass in uncanny silence, slow but untiring across the moonlit desert. ”

“ As they came on, the little party of our scouts fired rapidly, and after about the thousand-yard range, a camel would occasionally sprawl headlong to the ground, or a white-clad figure fall like a sack and lie motionless on the sand.
On swept the Arab harka at the top pace of their swift camels, the men in front firing from the saddle, the others brandishing their long, straight swords and waving their lances aloft. ”

“ These ungainly beasts performed almost all the usual cavalry movements. Besides an armed native driver, each camel carried an English soldier, who occupied the back seat, and was in a position to use his rifle. The camels had been trained to the word of command. On a recognised touch of the guiding-string, they dropped on their knees, the riflemen descended quickly, went on for a distance in skirmishing order, remounted on the recall being signalled, and the camels then rose in their wonted clumsy manner. ”

“ If you have lived all your life all alone in the middle of a howling desert with Grandfather it's a very frightening thing when a complete Frontier Force marches forty miles for the sole purpose of capturing you.
But the day's excitement was not over yet. Towards evening I took my troop off at a gallop in person and captured a camel. It was a very young camel, hardly bigger than a sheep on stilts, and it cried like a child at the sight of me. ”

“ We had only a little ammunition left, and very little water. Now it really looked as if we would soon be dispatched. The mood of the men was pretty dismal. Suddenly, at about 10 o'clock in the morning, there bobbed up in the north two riders on camels, waving white cloths. Soon afterward there appeared, coming from the same direction, far back, a long row of camel troops, about a hundred; they draw rapidly near by, ride singing toward us, in a picturesque train. They were the messengers and troops of the Emir of Mecca. ”

“ To this circumstance we were indebted for the safety of our own camels, which had been in imminent danger, the pagans having collected again in the rear of the principal body of the army. The Bórnu camels are half mehára, and, while they surpass in strength the camels of the desert, possess a great deal of their swiftness. Not only does the camel which carries the war-drum always follow close behind the commander, at whatever rate he may pursue his march, but even his other camels generally keep at a very short distance, and the best camels of the courtiers follow close behind. ”

“ About twenty men on camels, armed with lances, and as many young men on foot, with swords, came to meet him, and those upon camels made their beasts kneel down at some distance from him, as out of respect coming to kiss his hands, as of a holy person belonging to the Caaba, their sanctuary at Mecca.
"The vain, imprudent man dismounted from his camel to give them a more easy opportunity of paying him their respects, and when one of them held him by the hand in token of friendship, another cut him across the hams with a broad-sword, and a third run him through the back with a lance. ”

“ Hardly had they disappeared before back they came into view, very hurriedly, and in a marvellously short space of time the whole of that "coffee-cup" rang with strange cries and shouts as they passed the word up and up its precipitous sides. Along the zigzag path—from one zigzag shouted to the next above—we could hear the news being passed. The camel leaders seized the heads of their camels and stopped them; the Arabs crouching round the gap sprang to their feet as the shouting disturbed them, unslung their rifles, and began talking excitedly. ”

“ We met some rather wild-looking parties, who, the guides told us, were brigands, but we were numerous and well armed, and they kept a respectful distance from us. Even the camel drivers do not dare to travel in this region without being armed with swords and spears and pistols. Met several caravans. Came to some very steep sand hills. The pass over the highest was so narrow and precipitous that I thought the camels could not possibly get safely over it, but they did. ”

“ As the Heavy Camel Regiment numbered 380 and the Guards 367, the Mounted Infantry 360, and there were 90 men of the 19th Hussars and 100 of the Sussex, the total force which was to advance was about 1500 men, 90 horses, and 2200 camels.
All the men with the exception of the natives, who were on foot, were mounted on camels, the Hussars of course excepted, as they rode sturdy little Egyptian horses, which, although little larger than ponies, were capable of enduring an amount of fatigue, hardship, and privation, that would in the course of a few days have rendered English horses useless. ”

“ The ordinary traveller, when once on his camel, would stop there some hours; and again, when he got off, would remain off till it was time to renew his journey, and so he would not get so much of it. But a soldier learning camel drill must go on till he is perfect.
After mounting, dismounting, and re-mounting a certain number of times, the troopers learned to anticipate the camel jerks, and avoid the high pommels which rose in front and rear of the saddles, or rather to use them as aids instead of encumbrances. ”

“ When camels are procurable, a couple of camel trunks, a low legged charpay or bed to fit over the trunks, a good tarpaulin, a folding table and a chair, form the usual load for another camel, while the crockery, pots and pans, &c., &c., form a load for a Cooly, who carries them in a couple of baskets, called petarahs, suspended from the ends of a bamboo, called a bangy. With a horse, three-camels and a Cooly, and a well regulated mess in his regiment, an officer is fit for any campaign, and few enter upon one with less baggage. ”