No. 1 tank successfully attacked El Arish redoubt and was penetrating the maze of trenches beyond, when owing to the darkness it was ditched; its crew then joined the infantry.
No. 2 tank assaulted El Arish redoubt and met a similar fate; eventually it received a direct hit which broke its right track; its crew also joined the infantry.
No. 3 tank attacked Rafa redoubt, and later on, losing direction in the mist, rallied.
No. 4 tank assaulted Rafa Junior, Yunus and Belah trenches, and after depositing its R.E. material rallied.
No. 6 tank captured Sea Post, moved along the enemy’s trench, crushing down the wire as far as Beach Post, attacked Cricket redoubt, Gun hill, and Tortoise hill, and reaching Sheikh Hasan deposited its R.E. stores. Shortly after this it moved forward to attack A.5, but breaking a track it had to be abandoned.
Nos. 7 and 8 tanks received instructions at 4 a.m. to support the infantry attack on El Arish redoubt, and to proceed in this direction with R.E. material. These machines were loaded up with empty sandbags on the roof, these caught fire, probably through the heat of the exhaust pipe, both tanks went out of action.
On the whole the tank operations during the Third Battle of Gaza were of assistance to the infantry. All tanks, except one, reached their first objectives; four reached their second, third, and fourth, and one reached its fifth objective. Of the eight machines operating five were temporarily disabled. Casualties in personnel were very light—only one man being killed and two wounded.
The Third Battle of Gaza closed the tank operations with the Army of Palestine, and though the damaged machines were repaired and put into fighting trim they were not used again. In order to overcome the great difficulty in rounding up, by means of cavalry, the rearguard detachments of the retiring Turkish Army, a mission was sent to France to obtain, if possible, a number of Whippet machines. This mission reached Tank Corps Headquarters in France on March 21, the day the German offensive was launched. All hope of procuring these machines consequently vanished. The Tank Detachment, therefore, handed over their machines to the Ordnance Department at Alexandria and returned to England.
The tank operations in Sinai and Palestine conclusively proved that tanks could be employed almost anywhere in desert regions, and all that they required were certain improvements in mechanism and changes in design.
What success the Tank Detachment won during its two years in the East was due to the determination and fine fighting spirit displayed by its officers and men, who laboured under the greatest difficulties, not the least being the entire lack of knowledge displayed by the other arms in the limitations of tanks and their tactical employment. When all is said and done and every criticism rounded off, success with tanks in battle is as much a matter of co-operation, that is, unity of action of all arms combined, as it is of mechanical fitness. This can only be attained by constant practice in combined exercises on the training area long prior to the battle even being thought of.