SOME EXPERIENCES IN EGYPT. 
61 
as after the battle of Atbara I was, much to my grief, ordered home, and did not 
return. The unit which I commanded was in one sense a unique one, because I 
believe it is the first time on record that Maxims to the number of six, as they 
were on that occasion, have been brigaded or brought together in one battery ; 
and also I believe it is the first time (though I am open to correction on 
that point) that machine guns have ever been officered and manned entirely by 
the Royal Artillery on service (applause). At the beginning of January, when 
I was captain of the Garrison company in Cairo, I was ordered to form a Maxim 
battery to go up and join the British brigade. We robbed the three infantry 
regiments in Lower Egypt, much to their disgust, of all their Maxims—all we 
could then get were six—and we took these ; I selected a detachment of my own 
company and we left Cairo for the south about a week afterwards. The six guns 
were mounted on infantry travelling carriages. We had altogether 35 non¬ 
commissioned officers and men, and the compactness and utility of the unit I 
think will strike you when you think that with that comparatively small number 
of men I had under my command, a unit with fire effect equal I think to about 
two battalions of infantry. We left Cairo and went up the river as Major 
Elmslie has described to us this evening, part of the way by boats and gyassas 
and part of the way by the Sudan Military Railway, bringing us up through 
Haifa where we stopped for some time and then up to join the British brigade 
at what was then the terminus of the railway at Abu Dis ; the railway was 
then finished no further than that, or rather ten miles beyond it. The two 
most interesting portions of that part of the campaign, that is before the final 
advance on Omdurman, were, first, of course the battle of Atbara itself, and, 
secondly, what I think was no less a test of our endurance, the march which the 
British brigade did from Abu Dis up through Berber to Dabeeka. That march 
we began on the 25th Eebruary, a Friday. After having done that morning, an 
ordinary route march of about 17 miles, we left that evening for the front at 
about three hours notice. There at Abu Dis we dumped the whole of the 
camp equipment down in the desert and left it lying. That was not the 
only place where we did that, because every few days we found that we could 
not carry what we had and we had to dump down some more, so that when we 
got up to Berber we had at intervals baggage lying all along the route. I may say 
that it all turned up eventually, a fact which I think reflects great credit on the 
Egyptian transport organization. The march, which you probably all know about 
was, I think, rather a fine record. The first night after the ordinary 17 miles 
route march we did about 17 miles, and then the General got a telegram from 
the Sirdar saying that Mahmoud had started to come down from Shendy to 
attack Atbara, and he wanted us to come up with all possible speed and if 
possible to arrive there by the following Wednesday. The General sent for us 
and told us what we had to do, and on the second night we did a march which 
we were told would be about 19 miles and a very trying march it was. We 
started about 9 o’clock and marched till about 12 along a fairly good road; 
then we halted for about an hour and then marched from about half past 
one till about half past five down what they call a “ khor ” in Egypt, a sort of 
sandy nullah with most awful deep sand and tremendous dust, and as there were 
three regiments in front of us we got the full benefit of the dust and stuffiness 
of it. When we got down to this place about half past five in the morning 
we halted for another hour, and then we had by way of a little variety five hours 
along a terrible rocky desert, where I thought the wheels of my Maxims 
were coming off every ten minutes. Eventually we struck the river and 
thought we had come to an end of our labour for that day, when 5 the 
General came up and told us that we had come to the wrong place and we 
we had got another five miles to do. Eventually we got into our bivouac at 
