The 10th Battalion underwent desert training in January and February 1915, during which time it was reorganised around the four-company structure that had been adopted by the British. Designated 'A' to 'D', each company consisted of 228 men that were spread across four platoons. In late February, the 3rd Brigade received orders that it was being committed to an operation to seize the Dardanelles Strait near where it enters the Mediterranean Sea, to secure passage through to the Black Sea via the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara in the wake of a failed naval operation to force the straits. After moving by rail to Alexandria, on 1 March the battalion boarded the "Ionian", a Greek steamer. After reaching Lemnos, a shortage of fresh water on the island meant that the battalion was accommodated on the ship for the next seven weeks, although they spent their days ashore conducting exercises and mounting guard duty. Planning for a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula began in early April; while this proceeded, on 15 April the battalion was issued its distinctive blue and purple unit colour patch.