The rest of the month was spent in training and lectures, when the heat permitted, and was only varied by an occasional route march in the early morning, not a pleasant outing. The tracks were not watered by the local borough council and chewing grit was the only occupation of the silent troops; talking and singing was impossible, and this denial always added to the monotony of the march. Practice attacks were also carried out against imaginary enemies.
By the beginning of September the Battalion had moved to El Shaulth, near Sheik Nuran, and remained there to prepare for the offensive which was to be made in Palestine. The men had become accustomed to the heat and no longer was it necessary to reserve parades until evening time. All day and every day training was carried out with vigour, until Brigade operations in the way of advanced guards, attacks and long night marches became frequent. A rifle range was built and field firing was done. It may be interesting to mention that some of our tactical schemes were carried out some six or seven miles in front of the wire of the defences. On one occasion the Brigade set out on a long night march by the assistance of many luminous compasses and numerous pacers, the objective being a lone tree standing in the open desert some ten miles away from our camps. The march was made and by all the careful calculations we arrived at our destination about two hours before dawn. A halt was called, but no trace of the lone tree could be found, and after an energetic search by mounted officers and a consequent “pow-wow” the verdict, “Lost,” was given, and there was nothing to do but to wait till dawn. When the sun rose it transpired that we were in the correct spot, but during the night some Australian Troop, which had run short of wood, had cut down the tree which had stood alone in the desert on the previous day, and to all appearances had stood since the days of the Flood, only to be felled by the hand of a “Dinkum.” The opinion of the Brigade staff who had arranged this pleasant little outing is not recorded, but it is thought was not complimentary to our friends from the Antipodes.
Plans for the great attack were being drawn up about this time, and officers made reconnaissances towards the Turkish lines. These outings were no small undertakings. A party of officers and grooms would leave El Shaulth about 5 a.m. in the morning and ride over the desert to the more rugged and undulating country to the south of Beersheba, and then spend some hours in the heat of the day in scouting over the hills on foot to become acquainted with the ground, and at the same time doing their best to evade the Turkish patrols which frequented the hills. The party would then rendezvous at a given time in the early evening and start on the homeward journey. A halt would be called about ten miles from the Turkish lines, at which point it was considered safe to disregard the Turk. Here, under the glorious moonlight, a picnic would be held and the adventures of the day would be recounted, and after a smoke the journey would be resumed, camp being reached by about 2 a.m. the next morning. From the Turkish lines to the Wadi Ghuzze landmarks were definite enough, but on the other side of the wadi there was nothing but sand for miles. Everyone knew the most direct route to the camp, and, of course, this was the beginning of an argument which often ended in parties of officers going off in different directions. At different times during the night these parties struck the camp; some had taken the direct route, some had been misled by lights in other camps; others found that some camp which had existed when they went out had moved during the day, and so on. However, on return to camp there was always a hot meal ready, prepared by our faithful batmen, who waited up for us. A word here perhaps would not be out of place in praise of the batmen of the Battalion. Veritable “scroungers,” they always thought of their officers, and nothing was too hot or too heavy, not even the Company Commander’s valise. At the end of each day’s trek or manœuvre they forgot their own fatigue and prepared meals for the mess, the variety of which was confined to the army rations and the ever-present issue of sand.
The only excitement of the war at El Shaulth was the daily visit of two enemy aeroplanes to our camps and a few days’ operations at Hiseia, on the Wadi Ghuzze, where we tackled the banks of the wadi instead of trenches dug in the flat sand, and where we had already exhausted the possibility of taking cover on such ground during the attack.
Besides the shortage of water, fuel was also very limited, and Egypt was practically denuded of trees to provide fuel for the E.E.F. One Company cook, however, had different views as to the origin of his firewood, and after vainly endeavouring to chop a hard piece of olive wood which had been issued to him, paused, and with much emphasis consigned the trunk to a far hotter fire than his own, remarking what he required was “wood and not Adam’s petrified doorposts.”
So far I have only spoken on the warlike side of our stay at El Shaulth, but among the pleasanter things of life was the leave to Cairo or Alexandria which had been granted. With what joy those few miles over the desert to Sheik Nuran were traversed, followed by a scramble for the leave train and then a long train journey on the Desert Railway to Kantara, which took about twelve hours. At Kantara a rush was made for the Divisional Rest Camp, a wash and shave and breakfast and a dash for the first available train on the Egyptian State Railways and then a comfortable journey to Cairo or Alexandria. I need hardly describe either of these cities, for as holiday resorts they hold a world-wide reputation. The return to the line about nine days later was never so pleasant. The heat became oppressive again, the meal at the rest camp at Kantara was adversely criticised, and the desert train journey was monotonous in the extreme. However, on rejoining the Battalion, tales of the Continental, Shepheards, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Barrage and so forth were told, while the fellows from Alexandria talked of nothing but the Majestic, the Regina Palace, the Races, Bathing, and Groppi’s.
By the middle of October the serious side of the campaign in Palestine had commenced, and most people had had their leave in Egypt. Leave was stopped and football and sports in the evenings, and an occasional Divisional concert party were our only entertainments. The post was regular and parcels were received, although occasionally a foot-note in Battalion orders to the effect that the mails from the United Kingdom on certain dates had been lost at sea through enemy action made us depressed. Canteen stores were plentiful, as we were near the railhead at Sheik Nuran, but they soon became less in quantity as the ration trains were then being employed for war material for the coming advance. Towards the end of October the attack on Beersheba was a popular topic, and the hard training was not to be in vain. The Battalion was fit and strong, although malaria and fever had claimed their victims, and a fair number were sent down to Base Hospitals. However, the Battalion was ready and willing to show the Turks the way to the north.
While at El Shaulth several changes took place in the higher command. Major-General J. S. Shea, C.M.G., had taken over the Division from Major-General E. S. Bulfin, C.B., who had been promoted to the command of the 20th Corps, while Lieut.-Colonel C. de Putron left us to go to the School of Instruction at Zeitoun, near Cairo, his place being filled by Lieut.-Colonel T. E. Bisdee (Duke of Cornwall’s L.I.). Colonel Bisdee was intensely popular with all ranks from the first day of joining the Battalion, and in the short time he commanded us before Beersheba he worked wonders. The Company Commanders at this time were Captains C. H. Rimington, F. W. Lewis, K. A. Wills, and A. C. H. Benké.
CHAPTER XXXIII
BEERSHEBA, 1917 (21ST OF OCTOBER TO 4TH OF NOVEMBER)—WADI WELFARE
The left flank of the Turkish line, which ran south-eastward from Gaza, formed a stronghold around the south-eastern outskirts of Beersheba. In the main scheme of the advance in Palestine the 60th Division was detailed to attack and take those trenches covering the Khalasa Road which ran from Beersheba on the south-west of the town. On the right of the Division were the 21st Corps cavalry regiment (½nd County of London Yeomanry) and they were ordered to make an enveloping movement simultaneously with the main attack on the Beersheba defences. From the desert line held by the Battalion near the Wadi Ghuzze at Gambli a long approach march was necessary. On the 21st of October, 1917, the Battalion moved from the Wadi Ghuzze, near Gambli, where the 179th Brigade had been concentrated. The march was not a difficult one, as the track lay over country of a more solid surface than the desert we had just left, but some sympathy must be given to “D” Company of the Battalion, who had marched some additional eight miles at midday across the desert from Divisional Head Quarters at Shellal, where they had represented the Battalion at a Divisional Church Parade in the morning and had been on parade since the early hours of dawn.