After seeing the last of the infantry commanders safely away, the cavalry used to withdraw, and march back to Shellal during the night. The reconnaissances thus entailed two nights and a day of almost continual movement and watchfulness, without any sleep or rest, during which time it was not uncommon for regiments to cover seventy miles or more. Apart from the fatigue occasioned by thirty-six hours of constant anxiety and hard work, the absence of water caused severe hardship to the horses and no little discomfort to their riders. No water for horses was available from the afternoon of the day on which the division moved out till the evening of the following day, when, as a rule, they got a drink at Esani on the way back to Shellal. The men started with full bottles, and got one refill from the regimental water-carts.
The day was made up of a series of petty annoyances. The scattered squadrons were invariably bombed by the enemy, generally with effect, and the Turks' light guns, brought out to concealed positions, from which they had previously registered all the high ground, wadi crossings, etc., added to the general discomfort by their continual, galling shell fire. Many of the crossings in this part of the country consisted of a narrow, stony cleft in the rock sides of the wadi, down which troops could only move in very narrow formation, often only in single file. When, as sometimes happened, a whole brigade of cavalry had to cross by one of these narrow drifts, while the bed of the wadi was being swept by shrapnel and high explosive shell the whole time, tempers were apt to get short. We on our side could rarely spare an aeroplane to observe for one of our own batteries, and so were seldom able to locate the hostile guns. The inability to reply effectively increased the exasperation caused by their fire. Many of the surrounding natives had been armed by the Turks and stirred up against us, and, though they never succeeded in causing us any casualties, their hostility added to the general insecurity, and increased the need for watchfulness.
For the rest, the country was a desert of blistering rocks and stones, the temperature ranged up to 110 degrees in the shade (of which there was none save that cast by the bodies of men and horses), and the flies were innumerable and persistent. It was with a sigh of heartfelt relief that the troops saw the last of the motor cars of the 'Royal Parties' disappear in a cloud of dust to the north-west, and received the welcome order to withdraw and march back to Shellal through the cool night.
There was, however, one never-failing amusement to be got out of these reconnaissances. This came on the following day, when we intercepted the Turkish wireless communiqué on its way to the Berlin press. These communiqués never varied in their description of the operations. 'The enemy made a determined attack on Beersheba with about seventy squadrons supported by artillery.' This was the invariable formula. 'After heavy fighting, the hostile forces were defeated and driven right back to their original positions, having suffered important losses!' One imagines that even the simple Berliner must have become, at last, somewhat sceptical of these regular, fortnightly victories.
The result of this series of reconnaissances to the west and south-west of Beersheba was that every general officer who was to lead troops over this area gained a very thorough knowledge of the country, which was of the highest value in the subsequent operations. The sappers attached to the cavalry divisions also took advantage of the reconnaissances to reconnoitre for water at Khalasa and Asluj, where they subsequently repaired the wells that had been destroyed by the Turks, and to develop the supply at Esani in the Wadi Ghuzze. They also improved and marked many of the wadi crossings, and made route surveys of the whole area.
Our line of communications, at this time, consisted of a broad-gauge railway, which had been laid by the Royal Engineers across the 130 miles of desert from Kantara on the Suez Canal to Deir el Belah, about eight miles south of Gaza. The railhead of this line had followed close behind the Desert Column during its advance across Sinai. After the occupation of El Arish, the doubling of the railway track had been taken in hand, and, by the end of September 1917, the double track extended as far as Deir el Belah. During September and October a branch line was laid from this place to Shellal, where it was carried over the Wadi Ghuzze, here some 800 yards wide and sixty feet deep, on a fine trestle bridge built by British and Australian Sappers. Work was then continued towards Karm, whence a narrow-gauge line was to be run out to Beersheba, as soon as that place was in our hands.
In order to relieve the railway of some of its heavy traffic, to enable it to bring up stores for the 'Big Push,' a sea-borne supply line from Port Said to Deir el Belah was organised by the Royal Navy during September. All the supplies for the 21st Corps, which held the coastal sector of our line, were then carried by sea, and landed in surf boats on the coast. The shipping, convoying, and landing of stores were admirably carried out by the Navy, under great difficulties.
Towards the end of October these long and careful preparations were completed, and the troops began to move unobtrusively to their concentration areas, leaving their old camps standing, in order to deceive enemy aircraft. So well were these large troop movements concealed, that, up to the moment when our attack was launched, the enemy believed that we had six infantry divisions still in the Gaza sector and only one in the eastern sector. This apparent disposition of our troops confirmed him in his mistaken opinion that our main attack would be delivered against Gaza, and caused him to concentrate most of his available reserves behind the western portion of his line, a fact which contributed materially to our success in the subsequent operations.