As early as October 1914 the New Zealand Expeditionary Force sailed from Wellington. Diverted from their original destination in Europe, the New Zealanders were landed in Egypt, where they helped repulse a Turkish attack on the Suez Canal in February 1915.

The New Zealand volunteer soldiers remained encamped in Egypt, alongside their Australian comrades, undergoing training prior to being sent to France.

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In December 1914, the convoy carrying the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) steamed north through Egypt's Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea. Men and horses disembarked at Alexandria and travelled by train to Cairo. Based at nearby Zeitoun Camp, they trained in the surrounding desert for operations against the Ottoman Empire that were expected to be fought in similar terrain.

The Ottoman attack on the Suez Canal that was launched across the Sinai Desert in February 1915 briefly reinforced this expectation. New Zealand soldiers saw their first combat of the war when they helped defend the Canal during this attack, the site of which is marked on the map with an orange cross. Private William Ham was severely wounded and became the NZEF’s first combat fatality.

The failure of the Ottoman Empire to succumb to the Anglo-French naval assault on the Dardanelles in February–March 1915 saw the New Zealanders join the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, which was hastily cobbled together on the ill-conceived assumption that the Ottoman Army would fail to resolutely defend the Turkish homeland.

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The New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) was the title of the military forces sent from New Zealand to fight for Britain during World War I. Upon the outbreak of war, New Zealand immediately offered to provide two brigades—one of infantry and one of mounted troops—with a total of 8,500 men. This contingent sailed for Australia within two months of the start of the war and then joined with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in a convoy sailing for Egypt.

The NZEF was commanded throughout the war by General Alexander Godley, a British officer who in 1910, on the recommendation of Lord Kitchener, had been appointed as the commander of the New Zealand Military Forces.

After Godley departed with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in October 1914, Major General Alfred William Robin commanded the New Zealand Military Forces at home throughout the war as commandant, and was pivotal in ensuring the ongoing provision of reinforcements and support to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

New Zealand, like Australia, had a pre-war policy of compulsory military training, but the NZEF was initially reinforced by volunteers only. Conscription was introduced on 1 August 1916 and by the end of the war 124,000 men—nearly half the eligible male population of 250,000—had served with the NZEF.

Of these, about 100,000 had been sent overseas.

Source: fragments from NZ history, wikipedia, etc (on (CC) copyright),