With the British Army in The Holy Land

by H. O. Lock

TRENCH WARFARE

It was in the late summer of 1917 that the regiment with which I was serving joined the Expeditionary Force. Coming from India, we landed at Suez and were railed through at once to Kantara. This place we found a hive of industry, as befitted the military base of so important an expedition. Like other units similarly arriving from India, we were kept here for a fortnight. This time was devoted to the equipping of the battalion on the scale applicable to this country, with transport, draught and riding animals, Lewis guns and such other equipment as we required for the operations on which we were to embark.

Immediately we were ready to move, we were railed up to the Front, to Belah, which, at that time, was railhead. This was our first experience of travelling on the Kantara Military Railway, and is not likely to be forgotten. The shortage of rolling stock available did not permit of troops, or, at that time, even of officers accompanying troops, travelling in passenger coaches. On the contrary, a number of open trucks were adapted for troop traffic, being roofed over with a covering affording protection from the sun but with sides left open. These trucks had neither continuous brakes nor screw couplings. Our journey, therefore, was enlivened by the frequent successful attempts of our truck to overtake the truck ahead, followed by a difference of opinion with the truck behind, a wavering between two opinions, and then another mad plunge into the darkness in pursuit of the truck ahead, and the next check brought about a repetition of this pleasing diversion from sleep. If the writer of a recent popular song really believed that the Sands of the Desert never grow cold, let him try travelling across them by night in an open truck. The train was not furnished with that luxury of modern travel, steam heating. For the men, a substitute was found by adopting the method by which sheep are kept cosy on similar occasions, that is, by packing into each truck a few more than it can accommodate. The officers rolled themselves up in their valises, bruised every protruding bone in their bodies, "and wished for the day."

On arrival at the Front, we moved first into a position in reserve near the Wadi Ghuzzeh. As we crossed the summit of In Seirat Ridge, what a view unfolded itself before our eyes! Before us lay the Plain of Philistia, spreading from the sea to the Judæan Hills, to our left front lay the white buildings of the town of Gaza, while, ever and anon, were heard and seen the booming of cannon and the bursting of shell.

We were now put through a gradual process of acclimatization. Ensconced in one of the offshoots of the Wadi Ghuzzeh well behind the front line, we enjoyed safety from shelling. We were, however, sufficiently in the picture to have guns constantly firing around us and aeroplanes flying overhead, and could watch our friends being shelled in the front line and the daily anti-aeroplane shoots, both by our own and by the enemy's "Archies." Here we were able to carry out a certain amount of training, and to organize the battalion upon the lines of the new "normal formation," giving the platoon commander control over each kind of weapon with which the infantry are armed—rifle, bayonet, bomb, rifle-bomb and Lewis gun. Gas masks were issued, and all ranks were instructed in their use. In a couple of weeks this training, or rather adaptation of our previous training to the conditions of trench warfare upon this front, had so far progressed that we could enter upon the next stage of our acclimatization. Individual companies were now sent up into the front line "for instruction." This consisted of their being attached to other units that were garrisoning the front line. Our men were posted in the trenches with men of such other units; and some of the officers and men accompanied patrols into "No Man's Land." After three weeks of acclimatization, we moved up to the front line and ourselves took over a section of the defences. And here we remained until after the Fall of Gaza.

The Turkish army at this time, as we have seen, held a strong position from the sea at Gaza, roughly along the main Gaza-Beersheba road to Beersheba. His force was on a wide front, the distance from Gaza to Beersheba being about 30 miles. Gaza itself had been made into a strong modern fortress, heavily entrenched and wired, offering every facility for protracted defence. The civilian population had been evacuated. The remainder of the enemy's line consisted originally of a series of strong localities, which were known as the Sihan group of works, the Atawinah group, the Baha group, the Abu Hareira-Arab el Teeaha trench system, and finally, the works covering Beersheba. During the period from July to October, the defences had been considerably strengthened, and these strong localities had, by the end of October, been joined up to form a practically continuous line from the sea to a point south of Sheria, except for a gap of some 1,500 to 2,000 yards between Ali Muntar and the Sihan group. The defensive works round Beersheba remained a detached system, but had been improved and extended. A new railway had been made from El Tine, just south of Junction Station on the Damascus-Beersheba railway to Beit Hanun, just north of Gaza, with a subsidiary branch to Huj, the latter intended to supply the centre of the defensive line. It was evident, therefore, that the enemy was determined to make every effort to maintain his position on the Gaza-Beersheba line.

The British force was extended on a front of 22 miles from the sea opposite Gaza to Gamli. About 6 miles inland, the Wadi Ghuzzeh is joined by a short tributary wadi, on the right bank, known as the Wadi Nukhabir. The point at which this wadi commenced was about a mile or so nearer to the enemy than the line of our positions opposite Gaza. Its head-waters (to use an expression scarcely appropriate to a dry watercourse) were within the apex of a V-shaped escarpment, the point of the V protruding towards the enemy. The feature might be compared to a heel-mark in soft ground. On the convex side were slight ridges with gentle forward slopes; on the concave were steep escarpments. The ridges of the V were known as Mansura and Sheikh Abbas Ridges respectively; the point was merely known as "The Apex." Our trench system here ran along the forward slopes of these ridges, a hundred yards or so below the crest, whence the country fell towards the enemy in a gentle glacis slope devoid of cover. Our reserves and our day positions were behind the escarpment, where was excellent cover from hostile shelling. The portion of the enemy's works in front of this sector was the Sihan group, a strongly prepared position distant about a mile. The apex itself formed a salient, necessary to hold since its Ridges would otherwise have dominated our positions; but, though a salient, the position was undoubtedly strong. The situation and the conformation of the Apex, therefore, both invited attack and assisted defence. From the sea to the Apex we had a continuous line of trenches. Beyond Sheikh Abbas our defences consisted of a series of redoubts, our right flank being to some extent in the air. Here, however, was a waterless desert, so difficult to cross that this flank could be sufficiently protected by cavalry patrols.

Considering that there was a war on, campaigning life on this front was by no means uncomfortable. Those who had seen service in France bemoaned the lack of comforts and amusements behind the line, and the absence of home leave, those who had come from Salonica were congratulating themselves on the exchange; while those of us who had been in Mesopotamia during the bad times of 1916, considered ourselves in the lap of luxury. Rations were good and plentiful and canteen well stocked. The Turkish rations, on the other hand, were scanty and poor, with the result that morale was low, discomfort rife, and desertions frequent. On one occasion, when the enemy were making a raid upon our trenches, a couple of Turks got into an empty bag where one of our men had left his pack. The manner in which they pursued their advantage was by helping themselves to his tin of bully beef and getting away with all speed. A Turkish officer, who was subsequently taken prisoner, said, "If the Turkish rations had been as good as yours, you would never have captured Gaza."

The health of our troops, on the whole, was good. In so far as there was sickness it consisted of a certain amount of dysentery, almost unavoidable in an army in the Field, septic sores, which are unusually rife, and a slight epidemic of sandfly fever. Foremost among the inconveniences to be tolerated were the flies, which made it difficult for the men to sleep by day, the time when they most need rest after manning the trenches all night. Next to the flies came the dust. The country, in which for the time we were making our home, consisted of arable ground devoid of crops, and thoroughly cut up by the passing of transport. A breeze, that blew daily without fail, served to raise a fine impalpable dust that permeated everything. This powder dust made marching difficult, but wise forethought caused galvanized iron netting to be laid along all the principal routes, forming "wire roads" for the use of light motor-cars and "foot-sloggers." If we grumbled at the dust, we had, at this time at least, no cause to complain, like our brethren in Flanders, of the mud. Taken all together, the morale was good and the men distinctly happy.

Life in these days was not without its diversions and touches of humour. A nice Roman tessellated pavement was unearthed near the Wadi Ghuzzeh, at the place called Umm Jerar, which is associated with Abraham. Going one day to look for it, I found a military policeman on duty within half a mile of the spot. I said to him, "Can you tell me the way to the tessellated pavement?" He looked at me vacantly for a minute and then replied: "Is it the wire road that you happen to mean, sir?" On one occasion, the General was going round the front line accompanied by the Intelligence Officer (who is the Officer that selects the pass-word which is changed daily) and by the C.O. of the unit in this sector. Staying out rather later than they had intended, it was dusk or dark when they approached one of the posts. The sentry challenged, "Halt—hands up." Up went the General's hands in prompt compliance. "Advance one, and give the countersign," continued the sentry. The General turned to the Intelligence Officer, "What is the countersign to-day?" said he. "Really I am afraid I have forgotten," replied the Intelligence Officer, and both referred to the Colonel. "When I left my headquarters, it had not yet come through," was his reply. The sentry remained obdurate. Then followed explanations, and, after some parley and identifications, the party were allowed to proceed. As they were leaving, the General hurried again to the sentry, saying, "Well, my man, you might just tell us now what the pass-word is." "I am sorry, sir," was his reply, "but I haven't the least idea."