Battle of Romani - Prelude

Prelude

On 24 April, the day after the Katia and Oghratina, Chauvel, commander of the Anzac Mounted Division, was placed in command of all the advanced troops: the 2nd Light Horse Brigade and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigades at Romani and an infantry division; the 52nd (Lowland) at Dueidar. The infantry moved forward to Romani between 11 May and 4 June 1916.

The building of the railway and pipeline had not been greatly affected by the fighting on 23 April and by 29 April, four trains a day were running regularly to the railhead, manned by No. 276 Railway Company, and the main line to Romani was opened on 19 May. A second standard gauge railway line from Romani to Mahamdiyah on the Mediterranean coast was completed by 9 June. But conditions on the ground were extreme; after the middle of May and in particular from mid June to the end of July, the heat in the Sinai Desert ranged from extreme to fierce when temperatures could be expected to be in the region of 123 °F (51 °C) in the shade. The terrible heat was not as bad as the Khamsin dust storms which blow once every 50 days for between a few hours and several days; the air is turned into a haze of floating sand particles flung about by a strong, hot southerly wind.

No major ground operations were carried out during these midsummer months, the Ottoman garrisons in the Sinai being scattered and out of reach of the British forces. But constant patrolling and reconnaissance were carried out from Romani to Ogratina, to Bir el Abd and on 16 May to Bir Bayud, 19 miles (31 km) south-east of Romani, on 31 May to Bir Salmana 22 miles (35 km) east north-east of Romani by the New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade, when they covered 100 kilometres (62 mi) in 36 hours. These patrols concentrated on an area of great strategic importance to large military formations wishing to move across the Sinai along the northern route. Here water was freely available in a large area of oases which extends from Dueidar, 15 miles (24 km) from Kantara on the Suez Canal, along the Darb es Sultani (the old caravan route), to Salmana 52 miles (84 km) away.

Between 10 and 14 June, the last water source on the central route across the Sinai Peninsula was destroyed by the Mukhsheib column. This column, consisting of engineers and units of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, the Bikaner Camel Corps, and the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps drained 5,000,000 US gallons (19,000,000 l; 4,200,000 imp gal) of water from pools and cisterns in the Wadi Mukhsheib and sealed the cisterns. This action effectively narrowed the area in which Ottoman offensives might be expected to the coastal or northern route across the Sinai Peninsula.

Ottoman aircraft attacked the Suez Canal twice during May, dropping bombs on Port Said. British aircraft bombed the town and aerodrome at El Arish on 18 May and 18 June, and bombed all the Ottoman camps on a front of 45 miles (72 km) parallel to the canal on 22 May. By the middle of June, the No. 1 Australian Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, had begun active service, with "B" Flight at Suez performing reconnaissance. On 9 July, "A" Flight was stationed at Sherika in Upper Egypt, with "C" Flight based at Kantara.