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Mena Camp, Egypt, December 1914. Image courtesy Australian War Memorial.

Mena Camp, Egypt, December 1914. Image courtesy Australian War Memorial.

  • The first AIF convoy arrives in Alexandria, Egypt. Australian and New Zealand troops commence four and a half months’ training at Mena Camp, situated ten miles from Cairo in the shadow of the pyramids.
  • British and Ottoman forces clash in the Battle of Qurna in Southern Iraq. Fighting lasts for a week; by 9 December Britain secures a front line in Southern Mesopotamia, securing Basra and the oil refineries at Abadan in Persia.
  • The Battle of the Kolubara begins in Serbia. Fighting lasts four days.
  • The British Government agrees to a Japanese request that Australia should not occupy German islands north of the Equator