The troops having undergone pretty strenuous training, we were inspected by Sir Ian Hamilton, who was to command us in the forthcoming campaign.  Then, early in April, the commanding officers of units were assembled at Headquarters and the different ships allotted.  Finally, on the evening of the 11th April, our camp was struck, and; we bade good-bye to Heliopolis.  The waggons were packed and the Ambulance moved off, marching to the Railway Station in Cairo.  Nine-thirty was the time fixed for our entraining, and we were there on the minute—­and it was as well that such was the case, for General Williams stood at the gate to watch proceedings.

The waggons with four horses (drivers mounted, of course) were taken at a trot up an incline, through a narrow gateway on to the platform.  The horses were then taken out and to the rear, and the waggons placed on the trucks by Egyptian porters.

We had 16 vehicles, 69 horses, 10 officers and 245 men.  The whole were entrained in 35 minutes.  The General was very pleased with the performance, and asked me to convey his approbation to the men.  Certainly they did well.

TO GALLIPOLI

At midnight we left Cairo and arrived at daybreak at Alexandria, the train running right on to the wharf, alongside which was the transport to convey us to Gallipoli—­the Dardanelles we called it then.  Loading started almost immediately, and I found that I—­who in ordinary life am a peaceful citizen and a surgeon by profession—­had to direct operations by which our waggons were to be removed from the railway trucks on to the wharf and thence to the ship’s hold.  Men with some knowledge of the mysteries of steam winches had to be specially selected and instructed in these duties, and I—­well, beyond at times watching a ship being loaded at Newcastle, I was as innocent of their details as the unborn babe.  However, everyone went at it, and the transport was loaded soon after dinner.  We had the New Zealand Battery of Artillery, Battery Ammunition Column, 14th Battalion Transport and Army Service Corps with us, the whole numbering 560 men and 480 horses.  At 4 p.m. the ship cast off, and we went to the outer harbour and began to shake down.  The same hour the next day saw us under weigh for the front.  The voyage was quite uneventful, the sea beautifully calm, and the various islands in the Egean Sea most picturesque.  Three days later we arrived at Lemnos, and found the harbour (which is of considerable size) packed with warships and transports.  I counted 20 warships of various sizes and nationalities.  The Agamemnon was just opposite us, showing signs of the damage she had received in the bombardment of the Turkish forts a couple of months before.  We stayed here a week, and every day practised going ashore in boats, each man in full marching order leaving the ship by the pilot ladder.

It is extraordinary how one adapts oneself to circumstances.  For years it has been almost painful to me to look down from a height; as for going down a ladder, in ordinary times I could not do it.  However, here there was no help for it; a commanding officer cannot order his men to do what he will not do himself, so up and down we went in full marching order.  Bearer work was carried out among the stony hills which surround the harbour.