The rolling downs round about us were dotted here and there with the graves of fallen Australian and New Zealand soldiers, and, riding as I often did with General Chaytor, he would explain the operations which took place when the British first entered Palestine at this point. He gave me many vivid descriptions of the part which his Brigade had taken in the overthrow of the Turks at the Battle of Rafa.
The General had a very narrow escape on that occasion. In the middle of the battle, when he was galloping from one position to another, attended only by his orderly, he came suddenly upon a concealed trench full of Turks. Fortunately they thought he was at the head of a Squadron, so threw up their hands and surrendered. The General left his orderly to march off the prisoners and galloped on to conduct the fight elsewhere.
We motored over to Gaza once and spent a most interesting day there.
From Ali Muntar, a hill to the east of the town, which had been the General's headquarters in the first battle of Gaza, he described the whole situation. From this point almost every bit of Gaza and the surrounding country could easily be seen.
It will be remembered that at the first battle we claimed a victory which history has not since been able to verify, for we retired in hot haste on Rafa; but it is said that, if there had only been a little more push and go in the high command that day, Gaza would have been ours.
As a matter of fact it was ours at one time, for part of General Chaytor's brigade was right in the town, where they captured some hundreds of prisoners and a couple of guns which they turned on the Turks in Gaza with considerable effect, sighting their strange new pieces at point blank range by peeping through the bore of the guns.
The Turks were everywhere beginning to throw up the sponge, when, alas, the British Force was suddenly ordered to retire because a Turkish relieving column was seen approaching in the distance; but if only the British Division, which all this time had been held in reserve, had been thrust forward to intercept this column, tired, thirsty, and done up as it was, we could, no doubt, have shattered it and won a complete victory.
General Chaytor was ordered to retire somewhat early in the afternoon, but, as he had a squadron right in the town, and many wounded men in advanced positions, he waited until nightfall before withdrawing, taking with him all his wounded, and also the Turkish prisoners and captured guns. No matter who had the "wind up" that day, it certainly was not General Chaytor or his Brigade.
The second battle of Gaza was, of course, a terrible fiasco, in which we were repulsed and lost thousands of men to no purpose.
On another occasion I motored, with Colonel Croll, R.A.M.C., of the Anzacs, to Beersheba. It was at this point that General Allenby made a successful thrust when he first took command in Palestine, and from that day to this he has never looked back. The Anzacs and the Australian Mounted Division in this attack made a wide turning movement, outflanked Beersheba, burst suddenly in upon Tel el Saba, some three miles to the east of it, galloped the Turkish trenches, and poured into Beersheba at one end in a whirlwind of dust and storm while the Turks skedaddled out of it as fast as ever they could run from the other end, and made for the shelter of the foothills towards Hebron.