In December 1915, the brigades that would form the ANZAC Mounted Division were evacuated from the Gallipoli Campaign and became part of the British Empire's Egyptian Expeditionary Force.

[13] Members of the division carried out their first offensive action, crossing the Suez Canal, in the Jifjafa raid between 11 and 14 April 1916, resulting in the campaign's first Australian death.

[38] The next day, Lieutenant-General Philip Chetwode, commanding the Desert Column, arrived and ordered the division – supported by the Imperial Camel Corps Brigade (ICCB) – to attack Magdhaba.

At 18:00, Lieutenant General Charles Macpherson Dobell, GOC Eastern Force, and Chetwode agreed to call off the attack towards nightfall, due to their belief that there was a lack of progress, and the approaching threat from Turkish reinforcements.

The troops moving north skirmished with Ottoman cavalry then occupied a position between the Makhrune well and Towal Abu Jerwal, capturing four machine-guns and 180 prisoners.

Later that day, during the breakthrough of the old Gaza to Beersheba line, the ANZAC Mounted Division advanced to Ameida where the 1st Light Horse Brigade captured an ammunition supply train, a field hospital, a large quantity of stores and 391 prisoners.

At 12:30, news of the fall of Gaza reached Chaytor and he was ordered towards Jemmameh, to cut off the retreating Turkish forces, capturing the village of Dilakh in the process.

Chaytor's plans to advance depended on the Australian Mounted Division moving up to join them, but by 16:30 on 7 November, they were still engaged in fighting at Hareira and Sheria and their horses had not been watered for some time.

Brigadier-General Granville Ryrie, GOC 2nd Light Horse Brigade, was conscious of his troops exposed position and ordered a withdrawal to Es Suafir el Gharbiye, during which they skirmished with Turkish infantry and captured another four howitzers at Ebdis.

[78] On 12 November, the 156th (Scottish Rifles) Brigade attacked Burkha – with the 1st and 2nd Light Horse Regiments in support to their left – using their machine-guns to enfilade the Turkish rearguard trenches.

By 16:00, the Turkish rearguard had advanced close enough for a bayonet and grenade charge, which the Auckland Mounted Rifles managed to hold, forcing the attackers to withdraw leaving 162 dead and a large number of wounded behind.

[81] The 1st Light Horse Regiment moved ahead to reach Lydda three miles (4.8 km) further north, where reports of Turkish soldiers nearby were received.

Lieutenant-Colonel Cecil Granville in command ordered two troops to investigate, and forty troopers rode out to locate them and charged a hostile column while under artillery and machine-gun fire.

[82] On their left, the New Zealand Brigade reached Rishon LeZion and continued towards Jaffa but was ordered to halt a few miles short of the port by EEF GHQ.

[83] While the main effort of the EEF headed north-west towards Jerusalem, by 20 November the division had established a line of observation posts along the River Auja a few miles north of Jaffa, stretching from Nalin at its eastern end, through Budrus and El Yehudiyeh, then along higher ground south of the Sheik Abu ex Zeitun mound and to the coast.

The 1st Light Horse Brigade, providing flank protection for 60th Division, went north to locate the track to Es Salt,[99] which is twenty miles (32 km) north-east of Jericho but at an altitude 3,940 feet (1,200 m) higher.

[104] During this rest period, on the night of 26 March Chaytor ordered the railway lines north and south of Amman to be cut to prevent any escape or reinforcement by rail.

Daily the defenders saw Turkish patrols but were not attacked, and the division spent their days digging trenches, stringing barbed wire and siting machine-guns.

[132] The last unit to cross back across the Jordan was the New Zealand Brigade, leaving the Auckland and Wellington Mounted Rifles as the east bank guard force, along with the Ghoraniyeh bridgehead.

On 21 September, the Auckland Mounted Rifles advanced to the north on the western side of the river towards the Damieh bridge and Mafid Jozele, forcing the Turkish troops to withdraw to their reserve line.

[165] To close the trap on the Fourth Army, the Auckland Mounted Rifles sent a squadron overnight on 25 September to destroy the railway line north of Amman.

[169] The break through came when the 7th Light Horse Regiment reached within eighty yards (73 m) of the Turkish trenches; they fixed bayonets and charged, capturing 113 prisoners and seven machine-guns.

[170] On 26 September, the 3rd Light Horse Regiment captured one hundred pro-Turkish Arabs, then reached Ez Zerka where they discovered ninety-five sick or wounded Turkish soldiers and an artillery piece.

The next day, the 1st Light Horse Brigade outflanked Wadi el Hammam and captured 453 prisoners and three machine-guns, and also closed the eastern road north from Ma'an.

The 5th Light Horse Regiment was sent to reconnoitre the position, which was surrounded by the Beni Sakhr tribe who were harassing the defenders, galloping around the trenches and firing their guns in the air.

[174] The next morning at 08:00, the New Zealand Brigade arrived and a Turkish force, thirteen artillery pieces, thirty machine-guns, a train with three steam engines and five thousand men went into captivity.

In the nine days since operations started, Chaytor's Force had taken 10,300 prisoners and captured fifty-seven artillery pieces, 132 machine-guns, eleven railway engines and 106 lorries.

[190] Despite a military Court of Inquiry by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force headquarters concluding that there was insufficient evidence for believing that the murderer was a person in the village of Sarafand al-Amar, soldiers took matters into their own hands.

While their actions constituted serious crimes while on active service according to British military law, the division met investigators with a wall of silence that prevented anyone from ever being tried or punished for the murders.

These actions cast a dark shadow over the disbandment of the ANZAC Mounted Division and Britain, Australia, and New Zealand paid £2060.11 towards rebuilding the destroyed village.