The Desert Mounted Corps

ween his troops and ours that his rearguards were able to entrench lightly, and thus offered a sturdy resistance to our advance

ld have experienced little difficulty in retiring rapidly to the north, aided by their two railways, and would ha

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

s, with centre about Abu Dilakh, and in touch[Pg 51] with the Australian Mounted Division on the left. The 7t

cavalry on the intervening day, they had not had any opportunity of organising a definite line of resistance, but bodies of them, varying

rigade, 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. Foll

ade 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 her

ich 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 re

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

verely from the murderous fire. Major-General Shea, commanding the division, finding Colonel Gray-Cheape of the Warwick Yeomanry close by him, requested him to charge the enemy guns at once. Colonel Cheape collected a few troops of his own regiment that he had with him, and some of the Worcester Yeomanry, and led them away to the right front. Taking advantage of a slight rise in the ground to the ea

the cavalry dashed into the first enemy battery. The following troops, swinging to the right, took the three heavy howitzers almost in their stride, leaving the guns silent, the gun crews dead or dying, and galloped round the hill, to fall upon the mountain battery from the rear, and cut the Turkish gunners to pieces in a few minutes. The third w

cut up by the charge to be able to pursue them, but few of the enemy gunners lived to figh

s during the campaign, it was noticeable how many more horses were killed than men. Apart from the fact that a horse presents a much bigger target than a man, it is probably that infantry, and especially machine gunners, when suddenly charged by cavalry, have a tendency to fire 'into the brown,' where the target looks thickest, which is about the middle of the

5] not on the field of battle as he would have wished, but in the Mediterranean, when the transport that was tak

made on the spur of the moment, with little preliminary reconnaissance of the ground, without fire support, and with the equivalent of little more than one squadron of cava

re, with its machine guns and quick-firing artillery, brigadiers had been given a free hand to develop the tactics they favoured, subject to the principle that fire suppo

on to attack any supports that might be coming up. The remainder of the regiment charged[Pg 56] without swords. The second squadron galloped over the trench while the enemy troops were still in a state of confusion, dismounted on the farther side, and attacked from the rear with the bayonet. The third squadron dismounted before reaching the tr

ing this method to the test, but the 4th A.L.H. Brigade use

lly recognised, and in most cases where a charge was made deliberately and after

rs were of opinion that this formation offered the most difficult target to artillery, provided the interval between troops was not less than 25 yards, and the distance between squadrons not less than

tting fire to it. The squadron commander of the Worcesters at once decided to charge the fire instead of the enemy, and his prompt action was the means of putting out the fire and saving

a to Beersheba. During the retreat over the plain of Philistia their units were so scattered and disorganised that they had to rely almost entirely on gallopers for all orders and messages. Once in the Jud?an hills, however, they re-established their wireless service, and thereafter all orders were sent by wireless, until the arrival of fresh telephone

rocess of letting down and hauling up by hand a few small canvas buckets attached to a[Pg 58] length of field telephone wire. Most of the horses had been without any water since the afternoon of the 6th, and the poor brutes were raging with thirst, and drank ino

ong position on the high and broken ground at Khurbet el Mujeidilat. The 8th Mounted Brigade attacked this position, but was unable to dislodge the enemy, and, before a further attack could be organised, orders were received to break off the action and march to Sharia to w

eira positions had been disposed of by the Anzac and Australian Mounted Divisions during the past two days, but the sturdy resistance offered by these rearguards, coupled

g

r as the first objective and El Mejdel as the second. The Australian Mounted Division, on completing the watering of horses at Huj, was to move to the north on Arak el Menshiye and El Faluje, thus coming up on the right of the Anzac Division. T

n support. The 1st Brigade, on the left, entered Bureir about half-past eight, after encountering some opposition. About an hour later, the 2nd Brigade, nearing El Huleikat, located a body of the

force of Turks there making but a feeble stand. One hundred and seventy prisoners were taken. Ther

roops pressed on as fast as their jaded horses could carry them, and, towards evening, the 1st Brigade reached Esdud, and the 2nd entered the villages of Suafir el Sharkiye and Arak Suweidan. On the way the latter brigade had captured a Turkish convoy, with its escort of about 350 men. Wh

dvanced with fixed bayonets to attack the outposts of the 2nd Brigade. When they were close up to our line, an officer in the brigade, who had evidently been studying the Handbook of Turkish Military Terms, shouted in Turkis

anised, and offered little resistance to our advance. They were quite worn out by their exertion

nd Division, 21st Corps, reac

TNO

t picture by Lady Butler painted from notes made