NEW ZEALAND MOUNTED RIFLES

As of June '08 we are expanding the topics relating to the NZMR
This restructuring with give viewers a greater in-depth look at the
actions carried out by the Anzacs during the Great War 1914-18

 
The Railway Muddle that confused the ability for friend and foe to trasnsport troops and goods in the Middle East in WWI
The map above is to be part of a new page on the railway structure during the Sinai Palestine Campaigns,
I am asking members for any relevant information regarding these lines to get it touch. I intend to cover the attack on the railway at Asluj of course and the line to Medina - however showing this map here from Llyod Georges Memoirs shows that along with the British 3' 6' track laid from Katara in Egypt meant there was a jumble of varios width rolling stock that made it difficult to cross Turkish Palestine from one side to the other.





 
 

""The AMR at the Railway Station at Asluj" - Men of the NZMR preparing to blow-up the station. Copy relating to the railways in the Middle East coming soon.
A team of Auckland Mounted Riflemen have a hard working team lifting rails and sleepers from the rail bed at the left of photograph- the rails are then heated over fires to soften the steel and then bend the rail to make them useless to any enemy repair squads who follow - two rails lie twisted in the foreground.

Below a section from General Allenby's Dispatch – December 16, 1917 showing the importance of this isolated station south of Beersheba
"...6. The date of the attack on Beersheba, which was to commence the operations, was fixed as Oct. 31. Work had been begun on the railway from Shellal towards Karm, and on the line from Gamli to El Buggar. The development of water at Esani, Khalasa, and Asluj proceeded satisfactorily. These last two places were to be the starting point for the mounted force detailed to make a wide flanking movement and attack Beersheba from the east and north-east."