THE PURSUIT
On the morning of the 8th of November the pursuit began. The enemy had made the best use of the night to put such a distance between his troops and ours that his rearguards were able to entrench lightly, and thus offered a sturdy resistance to our advance all day. He well knew that, if he could keep our cavalry away from water for another 48 hours, they would have to be withdrawn. Once free from the harassing menace of the mounted troops, the Turks, who could always outmarch our infantry, would have experienced little difficulty in retiring rapidly to the north, aided by their two railways, and would have had time to select and entrench a strong position in the Judæan foothills, on which to bar our farther advance.
The cavalry, supported by the 60th Division, were ordered to continue their advance to the north-west, and to push on with the utmost vigour, so as to intercept the retirement of the Gaza garrison. The Anzac Division was directed on Bureir, some twelve miles north-east of Gaza, with the Australian Mounted and 60th Divisions on the left, in échelon to the rear. The country was open, rolling down-land, devoid of trees or scrub, and dotted with prominent hills or 'tels.' The ground surface was hard, and the whole terrain was admirably suited for cavalry work.
The Anzac Division moved off at dawn, with the 1st and 2nd Brigades in line covering a front of some six miles, with centre about Abu Dilakh, and in touch with the Australian Mounted Division on the left. The 7th Mounted Brigade, which had joined the division from Corps Reserve early in the morning, marched in support.
From the commencement of the advance, the Turks resisted strongly. Having been retiring during the two previous nights, and pressed by our cavalry on the intervening day, they had not had any opportunity of organising a definite line of resistance, but bodies of them, varying from a company to several regiments, occupied every tel or other commanding ground along the line of our advance, and held on tenaciously.
About nine o'clock, in order to expedite the advance, General Chaytor pushed up the 7th Brigade between the other two, which were encountering strong resistance. At eleven o'clock the enemy counter-attacked strongly against the 2nd Brigade, which was on the right of our line, near Tel el Nejile, and held up its advance. The 7th Brigade, in the centre, continued to push on, and had nearly reached Bir el Jemameh, about one o'clock, when it was heavily attacked by a large force of the enemy covering the water supply there. The brigade was forced back, and its left flank was endangered, when the 1st Brigade came up on the west, and drove back the Turks. Following up their advantage, the leading troops of this brigade fought their way into Bir el Jemameh shortly after three o'clock, capturing the steam pumping plant intact and complete, even to the engineer in charge. This individual had been left behind to blow up the plant, but instead remained to work it for us with great docility.
A regiment of the 1st Brigade pushed out to the north, and secured the high ground overlooking Bir el Jemameh, and, under cover of this regiment, the 7th Brigade and the rest of the 1st were able to water all their horses. The enemy fell back after dark, and the 2nd Brigade occupied Tel el Nejile. Some water was found here in the Wadi el Hesi, but it was not possible to water the horses of the outpost troops. The division established a night outpost line, protecting Nejile and Jemameh.
Meanwhile the Australian Mounted Division, on the left of the Anzacs, and with the 60th Division in its rear and a little farther west, pushed slowly after the retreating enemy, engaged in continuous, isolated troop actions throughout the day, in the course of which a number of enemy guns, particularly heavy howitzers, were captured. The 3rd A.L.H. Brigade especially distinguished itself in this form of warfare. Troops of the brigade repeatedly stalked enemy guns during the day, and then charged them suddenly from the rear, killing the gun crews and capturing the guns. It became a commonplace to find an enemy 5·9-inch howitzer in a hollow in the ground, with the detachment dead around it, and the words 'captured by the 3rd A.L.H. Brigade' scrawled in chalk on the chase of the gun.
Early in the afternoon, a regiment of the 4th A.L.H. Brigade was ordered to try and gain touch with the right of the 21st Corps, which was out of communication with our troops in the centre. All the afternoon, the regiment rode hard over the plain to the north-west, avoiding the enemy troops where possible, brushing them aside when encountered, and succeeded in linking up with the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade about Beit Hanun before nightfall. It rejoined the division at Huj next day.