IN the first days of 1917 the British army in Egypt expelled the invaders, and moved right up to the boundary line which separated Egyptian territory from that ruled by the Ottoman Sultan. There was one final place to be captured, and then all Egypt would be free of the Turkish invaders. That place was Rafa, just a few hundred yards inside Egypt, and to attack it some of the British forces had to cross the border.

Rafa consisted of an unimportant village and, a little way off, a solid building in the form of the keep of a medieval castle on a hill called el-Magruntein. All around this central strongpoint was an open, almost flat area with wellsited Turkish trenches encircling it. To attack this position the British used a force of mounted infantry, British, Australians, and New Zealanders. The New Zealand Brigade rode right around the Turks’ position to face it from the north, the Australian brigades faced it from the east and north-east; the British 5th Mounted Brigade blocked the west; between the 5th and the Australians was the Imperial Camel Corps Brigade. To reach their assigned position the New Zealanders had to cross and recross the international border, which was also that between Africa and Asia. At the border Colonel Mackesy of the Auckland Mounted Regiment is said to have halted his men, ridden alone over the line, and thanked God he had been permitted to enter the Holy Land.

The New Zealanders had two preliminary tasks: to capture Rafa village to prevent the people there from raising the alarm. The capture was made and the people corralled, but the alarm was nevertheless raised by the women, who set up an ululation which was clearly heard by the main Turkish force at el-Magruntein. The second task, which fell to the Wellington Regiment, was to put out a flank guard to the north-east to investigate the possible approach of Turkish forces from that direction. At the actual attack, therefore, only the Auckland and Canterbury Regiments were at full strength. As they arrived at their assigned positions the New Zealanders found some incomplete trenches and captured several German and Turkish officers; 163 Turkish soldiers were also taken in the advance – the surprise was thus almost complete.