The Imperial Camel Corps Brigade (ICCB) was a camel-mounted infantry brigade that the British Empire raised in December 1916 during the First World War for service in the Middle East. From a small beginning the unit eventually grew to a brigade of four battalions, one battalion each from Great Britain and New Zealand and two battalions from Australia. Support troops included a mountain artillery battery, a machine gun squadron, Royal Engineers, a field ambulance, and an administrative train. The ICC became part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) and fought in several battles and engagements, in the Senussi Campaign, the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, and in the Arab Revolt. The brigade suffered 246 men killed. The ICC was disbanded in May 1919 after the end of the war. Formation Background The advantages of camels in a desert environment are well known, and the British Army had raised the Somaliland Camel Corps in 1912. However the British Army forces serving in Egypt at the start of the First World War did not possess their own camel formation. The first units of what became the Imperial Camel Corps were four company-sized formations that conducted long-range patrols around the Suez Canal and the Sinai Desert. The companies were raised in Egypt in January 1916 from Australians returning from the failed Gallipoli Campaign. The Indian princely state of Bikaner supplied the first camels as the Bikaner Camel Corps already used camels. These camels were later only used as draught animals and the lighter Egyptian camel became the mount chosen for carrying troops. The camels could cover an average distance of an hour, or an hour trotting, while carrying a soldier, his equipment, and supplies. The camel companies consisted of a small headquarters and four sections, each of seven groups of four men. The establishment of a company was 130 men, all armed with Lee–Enfields, the standard British bolt action rifle of the time. However the move from patrol to a more active combat role in August 1916 led to a re-organisation. Each company added a machine-gun section of fifteen men with three Lewis guns; the company headquarters also received extra staff. All this increased company strength to 184 men. The four companies were expected to operate as independent units that travelled by camel but then dismounted to fight as infantrymen. Following the practise of cavalry and mounted infantry units, one man of each group