Camels of World War 1

Camels of World War 1

In 1916, the British created the Imperial Camel Corps.

It was originally used to fight the Senussi but was later used in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I.

The Imperial Camel Corps comprised infantrymen mounted on camels for movement across desert, though they dismounted at battle sites and fought on foot. 

After July 1918, the Corps began to become run down, receiving no new reinforcements and was formally disbanded in 1919. 

In World War I, the British Army also created the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps, which consisted of a group of Egyptian camel drivers and their camels.

The Corps supported British war operations in Sinai, Palestine, and Syria by transporting supplies to the troops.

The Somaliland Camel Corps was created by colonial authorities in British Somaliland in 1912; it was disbanded in 1944.

Bactrian camels were used by Romanian forces during World War II in the Caucasian region.

At the same period, the Soviet units operating around Astrakhan in 1942 adopted local camels as draft animals due to a shortage of trucks and horses and kept them even after moving out of the area. 

Despite severe losses, some of these camels came as far West as to Berlin itself.

The Bikaner Camel Corps of British India fought alongside the British Indian Army in World War 1 and World War 2

The Tropas Nómadas (Nomad Troops) was an auxiliary regiment of Sahrawi tribesmen serving in the colonial army in Spanish Sahara (today Western Sahara). 

Operational from the 1930s until the end of the Spanish presence in the territory in 1975, the Tropas Nómadas were equipped with small arms and led by Spanish officers. The unit guarded outposts and sometimes conducted patrols on camelback.

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