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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #64455 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64455)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Australia in Palestine, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Australia in Palestine
-
-Author: Various
-
-Editor: Henry Somer Gullett
-        Charles Barrett
-        David Crothers Barker
-
-Release Date: February 05, 2021 [eBook #64455]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-Produced by: Richard Tonsing, MFR, and the Online Distributed Proofreading
-             Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
-             images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUSTRALIA IN PALESTINE ***
-
-
-
-
-                         AUSTRALIA IN PALESTINE
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  GENERAL SIR EDMUND H. ALLENBY, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.
-]
-
-
-
-
-                               AUSTRALIA
-                              IN PALESTINE
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                 SYDNEY
-                         ANGUS & ROBERTSON LTD.
-                         89 CASTLEREAGH STREET
-                                  1919
-
-                         _Nineteenth Thousand_
-
-
-
-
-                               Printed by
-           W. C. Penfold & Co. Ltd., 183 Pitt Street, Sydney
-               London Agents: The Oxford University Press
-
-
-
-
-                             TO THE MEMORY
-                                   OF
-                            FALLEN COMRADES
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                             Editors’ Note
-
-
-This book owes its publication to the warm interest taken in its
-initiation by a Committee comprised of the G.O.C., A.I.F., in Egypt; the
-G.O’s.C. Anzac and Australian Mounted Divisions and Brigades, and a
-number of other senior A.I.F. officers; and, later, to the generosity of
-the many contributors of paintings, sketches, photographs, verse and
-prose.
-
-“Australia in Palestine” is in no sense intended as a complete picture
-of the Australians’ part in the Great Campaign. It is merely a Soldiers’
-Book, produced almost entirely by soldiers in the field under active
-service conditions to send to their friends in Australia and abroad. An
-edition has also been published for sale to the general public, and any
-profits derived from it will go to one of the A.I.F. funds.
-
-Thanks are due to our many contributors, and in particular to Mr. James
-McBey, the Official British Artist in Palestine, for his fine portrait
-of General Allenby (specially drawn for this book) and other sketches;
-to Captain Hodgkinson, British Press Officer, for permission to use many
-British official photographs; to Mr. Jeapes, British Official Cinema
-Photographer, for the loan of many snapshots; and to Sergeant E. A.
-Hodda, A.I.F., who took charge of the business arrangements, and to
-whose keen interest and ability our obligation is substantial.
-
-We have also to thank Major N. D. Barton, 7th A.L.H. Regiment, and
-Messrs. H. M. Somer and Sydney Ure Smith for the valuable assistance
-they have given as Committee of Publication in Australia.
-
-                                               H. S. GULLETT } Editors.
-                                               CHAS. BARRETT }
-
-                                               DAVID BARKER, Art Editor.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                                CONTENTS
-
-
-                                                                    Page
- Preface (Lieut.-Gen. Sir H. G. Chauvel)                           xiii.
-
- Fighting for Palestine (H. S. Gullett)                                1
-
- Anthem Bells (“Gerardy”)                                             60
-
- Palestine Poppies (Charles Barrett)                                  61
-
- Farming in Arcady (H. S. G.)                                         64
-
- Standing To (Brentomman)                                             69
-
- A Waler’s Story (E. L. D. Husband)                                   71
-
- The Horses Stay Behind (“Trooper Bluegum”)                           78
-
- One Too Many (“Anon”)                                                79
-
- The Light That Failed (“Sarg”)                                       83
-
- A Night March (“Aram”)                                               87
-
- A Gloomy Outlook (“Aram”)                                            90
-
- Reconciliation (“Gerardy”)                                           91
-
- Mail Day (“Wil Cox”)                                                 92
-
- A Day Over The Lines (H. Bowden Fletcher)                            94
-
- Mounts and Remounts (“Acrabah”)                                      99
-
- Concerning Medical Blokes (“Larrie”)                                102
-
- The Signal Service (“Ack-Vic-Ack”)                                  109
-
- Battle Song (“Gerardy”)                                             114
-
- The Little Bint of Wady Hanein (“Camp Follower”)                    115
-
- Algy, Misfit (“Billzac”)                                            121
-
- Palestine (“Trooper Bluegum”)                                       123
-
- The Camel Brigade (“Trooper Bluegum”)                               125
-
- Resting (“Tralas”)                                                  132
-
- The Mukhtar’s Goats (“2469”)                                        137
-
- The Batman (W. M. W.)                                               139
-
- Damascus (H. W. D.)                                                 140
-
- Malaria (“Koolawarra”)                                              144
-
- Fall Out The 1914 Men (“Bataggi”)                                   145
-
- Old Horse o’ Mine (T. V. B.)                                        149
-
- Concerning Machine Guns (“Sarg”)                                    150
-
- Delivered! (“Gerardy”)                                              153
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                             ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-
-                              COLOUR PLATES
-
-                                                                    Page
- General Sir Edmund H. H. Allenby, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.                 iii.
-
- Jerusalem, from below the Mount of Olives                             4
-
- Romani. Mount Royston in the distance                                14
-
- Magdhaba, showing the Wady Bed about one mile from Turkish
-   buildings                                                          26
-
- The Road to Jericho                                                  38
-
- The Dead Sea (Sunrise)                                               42
-
- Australians on the Road to Jerusalem                                 30
-
- An Australian Flying Squadron in Palestine                           50
-
- Jaffa                                                                54
-
- Australians prior to the fight for Nalin                             54
-
- Anzac Ridge, Gaza                                                    56
-
- National Types                                                       70
-
- Evening amongst the Judean Hills                                     78
-
- A Camp in the Desert                                                 78
-
- Got Him Cold                                                         94
-
- The End of the Scrap                                                 96
-
- Convalescent                                                        106
-
- A Signal Office in the Field                                        110
-
- Some Souvenir                                                       124
-
- Buying Oranges, Jaffa                                               138
-
-
-                            PHOTOGRAPHS, Etc.
-
- Lieut.-General Sir H. G. Chauvel, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.                  xv.
-
- Jaffa                                                                 4
-
- Map of Ottoman Empire                                               6–7
-
- A Brief Halt Richly Earned                                            9
-
- Jerusalem from the Air                                                9
-
- Damascus from the Air                                                10
-
- 3rd L.H. Camp at Belah                                               10
-
- In a Village Street                                                  14
-
- Map of Northern Sinai                                             18–19
-
- Turks marching out of Jerusalem (1914)                               23
-
- Gaza                                                                 23
-
- The Mount of Temptation                                              24
-
- All the World Over                                                   24
-
- Turkish Prisoners at Beersheba                                       29
-
- Street Market, Jerusalem                                             29
-
- Jericho, showing garden oasis                                        29
-
- Light Horse crossing Jordan                                          29
-
- In the Jordan Valley                                                 30
-
- Spring Water, Clear and Cold                                         30
-
- Map of Palestine                                                  34–35
-
- Ismailia                                                             38
-
- In the Jordan Valley                                                 41
-
- Shopping in Jericho                                                  41
-
- “Baksheesh”                                                          42
-
- A Meal outside the Bivvies                                           42
-
- Scotties on a Route March                                            42
-
- Major-Gen. Chaytor receives Arab Chiefs                              46
-
- Jerusalem                                                            46
-
- Map of Syria                                                      48–49
-
- Orange Seller, Jaffa                                                 53
-
- In the Shade                                                         53
-
- The Village Well                                                     54
-
- Native Plough and Team                                               54
-
- Harvest Time                                                         65
-
- Ploughing as of Old                                                  65
-
- Native Stock                                                         65
-
- The Franciscan Monastery                                             66
-
- Lake of Tiberias                                                     66
-
- Outposts                                                             70
-
- Jordan Valley Dust                                                   70
-
- 5th L.H. Brigade entering Nablus                                     73
-
- Watering Horses, Es Salt                                             73
-
- Horses Thirsty                                                       74
-
- Light Horsemen in Judean Hills                                       74
-
- Wady Nimrin                                                          81
-
- Arab Agents                                                          81
-
- German Prisoners in Jericho                                          81
-
- Meal Time                                                            82
-
- “She’s Boiling”                                                      82
-
- Defences in the Ghoraniyeh Bridgehead                                85
-
- The Brickmaker                                                       85
-
- A Typical Arab Village                                               86
-
- 4th L.H. Brigade Watering Horses                                     86
-
- Roman Fort, Jericho                                                  88
-
- Horses under cover                                                   89
-
- A.L. Horse in Camp                                                   89
-
- 2nd L.H. marching through Khan Yunis                                 89
-
- Turkish Prisoners at Es Salt                                         97
-
- Jericho                                                              97
-
- Nazareth from the Air                                                98
-
- “A Light Horse Type”                                                101
-
- Mounting First Guard in Jericho                                     107
-
- Halt and Rest                                                       107
-
- Church and Tomb of the Virgin                                       108
-
- Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem                                               108
-
- Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem                             108
-
- Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem                                   108
-
- Brig.-General Ryrie inspects the “Bully”                            119
-
- Brig.-General Cox on River Jordan                                   119
-
- A Wallad of Palestine                                               120
-
- “Tower of the Forty”                                                123
-
- Mosque of Omar                                                      124
-
- The Midday Halt                                                     126
-
- Brig.-General C. L. Smith, V.C., M.C.                               127
-
- Our Water Supply                                                    127
-
- Watering Time, Camel Brigade                                        129
-
- “Prepare to Mount”                                                  129
-
- Camels bearing Supplies on the Philistine Plain                     131
-
- Bedouins Captured at Hassaniya                                      133
-
- Street Market, Jerusalem                                            133
-
- Bedouin Village                                                     134
-
- Turkish Prisoners, Nablus                                           134
-
- Mrs. Chisholm’s Canteen at Kantara                                  146
-
- Bethlehem                                                           147
-
- Troopers entering Jericho                                           148
-
- Damascus                                                            148
-
- Finish                                                              154
-
-
-
-
-                                Preface
-
-
-“Australia in Palestine” should prove of great interest to the people of
-Australia, and especially to those whose lives have been spent outside
-the great cities, for it includes a record of the achievements of their
-“very own”—the horsemen of Australia, and of the Flying Corps and the
-Anzac Section of the Imperial Camel Corps, which were recruited from
-them, and co-operated with them in the greatest war yet known to
-history.
-
-The Australian Light Horseman—and under this name I include the Field
-and Signal Engineers and Medical Services connected with him, who come
-from the same stock—is of a type peculiarly his own and has no
-counterpart that I know of except in his New Zealand brother. His
-fearlessness, initiative and endurance, and his adaptability to almost
-any task, are due to the adventurous life he leads in his own country,
-where he has been accustomed to long hours in the saddle, day and night,
-and to facing danger of all sorts from his earliest youth. Perhaps these
-qualities are inherited from his pioneer parents. His invariable good
-humour under the most adverse conditions comes from the good-fellowship
-and camaraderie which exists in the free and open life of the Australian
-Bush. His chivalry comes from the same source, and it is one of his
-strongest points. In other words, the life he has been accustomed to
-lead has fitted him to become, with training and discipline, second to
-no cavalry soldier in the world.
-
-As far as Australia is concerned, the Palestine Campaign may be said to
-have commenced with the crossing of the Suez Canal by the Anzac Mounted
-Division at Kantara on the 23rd April, 1916, to re-occupy Romani and the
-western end of the Katia Oasis Area. The mounted troops of Australia and
-New Zealand had already proved their extraordinary adaptability to
-circumstances as infantrymen in the hard school of Gallipoli, but it yet
-remained for them to show their value as cavalry. The occupation of
-Romani was followed by long and trying marches in the Desert of Sinai,
-during the hottest summer known in Egypt for many years, after an
-elusive enemy who did not appear in any force until July, 1916, when he
-advanced on Romani preparatory to his second attack on the Suez Canal.
-The disastrous defeat inflicted on the Turkish arms at Romani, and the
-pursuit which followed, not only demonstrated the inestimable value of
-the horsemen of Australasia as cavalrymen, but opened the way for the
-advance to the Eastern Frontier of Egypt which ended the enemy’s menace
-to Egypt. The systematic advance of the British Force from Romani to the
-Egyptian Border was covered by Australian and New Zealand horsemen,
-British Yeomanry and the Imperial Camel Corps, ably assisted by the
-reconnaissance of the R.F.C. and Australian Flying Corps. The victories
-of Magdhaba and Rafa completely cleared the enemy from Egyptian
-territory and opened the way for our advance into Palestine. The
-operations which began with the capture of Beersheba and concluded with
-the capture of Damascus and Aleppo, and eventually led to the complete
-surrender of the Turkish Forces, are dealt with in this volume, and I
-will say no more of them than that the brilliant part in those
-operations played by the Australian and New Zealand mounted troops has
-more than upheld the reputation they established on the battlefield of
-Romani.
-
-The splendid record of the 1st Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps
-speaks for itself. It was formed in Egypt and has grown with the
-campaign to a state of efficiency which places it second to none of the
-same arm.
-
-The casualties in action in this campaign have been light compared with
-the results achieved. In a very large measure this was due to the dash
-of the troops, which saved heavy losses on many occasions; but many
-brave fellows have given their lives through diseases contracted in
-areas which the exigencies of the service required to be occupied and
-fought in.
-
-Before concluding, I would like to say a word for the Medical Services,
-which have endured the same hardships as the combatant arms, and always
-performed their duties cheerfully and efficiently under the most adverse
-conditions.
-
-[Illustration: H.G. Chauvel.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR H. G. CHAUVEL, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.
-]
-
-
-
-
-                         Fighting for Palestine
-
-                        Three Years’ Campaigning
-
-
-If the Turks had not aspired to the capture of the Suez Canal, and the
-reconquest of Egypt, they might still have been in quiet possession of
-the whole of Palestine. This campaign, so rich in brilliant exploits and
-so appealing to the imagination of the people of the world’s three
-greatest religions, was the direct result of Turkish aggression.
-Prompted by Germany, the Turk had, early in 1915, penetrated Central
-Sinai and, moving down the ancient route of the Wady Muksheib, attempted
-with a very inadequate force to cross and hold the Canal. He was easily
-driven off by a British force, which included a few Australian units.
-That was before our attack upon Gallipoli. It was not until the
-following year, when the heroic failure on the Peninsula had removed the
-menace to the heart of his Empire at Constantinople, that the enemy was
-able to attack Egypt with an army that gave him any promise of success.
-
-
-                             AROUND ROMANI
-
-Soon after the return of the Australians from Gallipoli, in 1916, at a
-time when the future of the Light Horse, which had fought as infantry at
-Anzac, was in considerable doubt, the Turk appeared in strength in
-northern Sinai. Thirty or forty miles across the desert from Port Said,
-there is a widely-scattered area marked here and there by hods, or
-little palm groves, which tell of the presence of water at shallow
-depth. The Romani area, as it is generally called, has always been of
-prime importance to the armies which, since the dawn of history, have
-marched east and west across the Sinai Desert between Egypt and Syria
-and Persia, and lands even further afield. Napoleon rested there before
-that precarious leap at El Arish which nearly cost him his army. Ancient
-invaders of Egypt always refreshed their thirsty and desert-worn troops
-around Romani before sweeping down upon the rich prize of the Nile
-Delta.
-
-In 1916 the Turks began their forward operations by a raid in great
-strength, which beat down the resistance of Yeomanry posts at Katia and
-Oghratina. At that time, the organization and training of the Anzac
-Mounted Division was being completed at Salhia, west of the Canal. The
-2nd Brigade, under Brigadier-General Ryrie, was immediately rushed out
-to Romani, where it was found that the enemy had temporarily withdrawn
-further east.
-
-
-                          THE TURKISH ADVANCE
-
-Steps were taken at once by the British Command to make the Romani area
-secure. The remainder of the Anzac Mounted Division, commanded by
-Major-General Chauvel, went out in support of the 2nd Brigade; British
-infantry followed. The railway was pushed vigorously forward. The 1st
-and 2nd Light Horse Brigades, with their camp at Romani, were engaged in
-ceaseless reconnaissance in force. Taking the task alternately in
-24–hour shifts, they kept substantial touch with the enemy, who was all
-the while adding to his numbers, bringing up guns over the desert from
-El Arish, and pressing steadily onward. By the beginning of August a
-line of infantry strong posts extended at a right angle towards the
-north from the sea, covering Romani to the east. There we were
-invincible; so the Turk, moving swiftly and in strength, to the number
-of about 18,000, on the night of 3rd August attempted a great flanking
-movement past the south-western flank of the infantry line. His scheme
-was to drive in behind the infantry and Romani, cut our railway and
-other communications with the Canal, and envelop our entire forward
-force. Anticipating this move, however, General Chauvel had that night
-placed the 1st Light Horse Brigade, under the temporary command of
-Brigadier-General Meredith (General Cox being absent on sick leave in
-England), on a line of outposts joining up with the desert end of the
-infantry line, and thence swinging towards the Canal at a right angle.
-This disposition completely frustrated the enemy, and won us the battle
-of Romani.
-
-
-                          FIGHTING IN THE DARK
-
-The Turkish vanguard reached the Light Horse posts soon after midnight
-and attacked immediately. For hours an extraordinary hand-to-hand fight
-was waged in the dark among the sand dunes. The Light Horse line, ten
-times outnumbered, was pressed steadily back, but maintained an unbroken
-front to the enemy host. Soon after dawn the 2nd Light Horse Brigade,
-temporarily commanded by Brigadier-General Royston, a South African
-veteran (General Ryrie being absent on leave in England), was galloped
-forward in support and, dismounting, carried on the fight while the
-Regiments of the 1st Brigade passed through them to the rear for a brief
-breathing-space. All that day, the 4th August, the Turks gained ground
-on this flank, and at the same time kept our infantry in their posts by
-heavy shelling and a demonstration in strength from the east. A small
-number of infantry available was put in to support the Light Horse line,
-which, by nightfall, had been pushed back so close to the camp that some
-units were served with tea by the regimental cooks as they fought. But
-the end was now in sight. The New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade, and a
-Brigade of Yeomanry, both under Brigadier-General Chaytor, supported by
-a British infantry force, came swiftly down on the Turkish left flank,
-which was high in the air. By nightfall we knew that the battle of
-Romani was ours. At dawn next morning there was a slashing general
-attack with the bayonet. The enemy’s line broke, his retreat became a
-rout, and only the physical impossibility of getting speed out of our
-horses, many of which had been without water for nearly fifty hours,
-saved the whole Turkish army from destruction. The horses, burdened with
-an average load of 240 to 250 lbs., and often up to 280 lbs., laboured
-gallantly, but slowly, over the deep, hot sand.
-
-
-                                 KATIA
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Many thousands of prisoners, several guns, great quantities of munitions
-and other material were captured; but it was not until the retreating
-Turk had reached the large palm area around Katia, six miles away, and
-had been able to re-form his firing line in a reserve position there,
-that we were able to collect our scattered Brigades and give him fresh
-battle. The fight at Katia was drawn. On our side it was marked by a
-stirring charge of the 1st and 2nd Light Horse Brigades and the New
-Zealand Mounted Brigade, in an unbroken line across the sands. In the
-preceding weeks the horses had frequently been watered in the hod at
-Katia, and this, doubtless, contributed to the spirit they displayed in
-the charge. The three Brigades, however, which had the support of a
-Brigade of Yeomanry, were compelled by heavy fire from the enemy
-batteries to dismount and fight on foot. The 3rd Light Horse Brigade,
-under Brigadier-General Antill, which had undertaken a wide flanking
-movement on the south, was held up by the enemy in Hamisah, where, in a
-brilliant little engagement, they smashed the Turk and took 440
-prisoners, with a trifling loss on our side. The delay, unfortunately,
-kept the 3rd Brigade off the Turkish left flank at Katia, and enabled
-him stoutly to resist the frontal assault of the Australians and New
-Zealanders. Towards nightfall the engagement was reluctantly broken off.
-
-
-                               BIR EL ABD
-
-Touch was maintained with the retreating Turks, and, a few days later,
-the same Brigades again engaged them at Bir el Abd, some fifteen miles
-further east. Once more a gallant dismounted frontal attack was made by
-our forces, but again the 3rd Brigade on the flank was obstructed, and
-its enveloping mission frustrated. In the main fight, which was much
-hotter than that at Katia, our men pressed in close with the rifle. The
-Turk was strongly supported by guns and machine guns in a very
-advantageous defensive position, and the Australians and New Zealanders
-were unable to reach him with the bayonet. The engagement was marked by
-many splendid acts of heroism and self-sacrifice, but it was doomed to
-be indecisive. The Turks evacuated the position the following day and
-were pursued to the edge of the oasis area, withdrawing with the remnant
-of their shattered Romani army to the neighbourhood of El Arish, fifty
-miles away.
-
-After the fight at Bir el Abd there was ceaseless heavy reconnaissance
-and patrol work for the Light Horse, as the railroad, and with it the
-full strength of what was now an established British army of invasion,
-moved slowly, though inexorably, across the desert. On 21st December the
-Light Horse and Imperial Camel Corps entered El Arish and received a
-demonstrative greeting from the Arabs of that old village.
-
-
-                              ON THE FLANK
-
-During these Romani operations, fraught with so much significance for
-Palestine and Egypt, the extreme right of the British line was entrusted
-to Colonel C. L. Smith, V.C., M.C., afterwards Commander of the Camel
-Brigade, who had under him a composite force made up of the 11th Light
-Horse Regiment, from Queensland, a London Regiment of Yeomanry and four
-companies of “Camels,” drawn from Australia, Scotland and Wales—a truly
-Imperial lot. A Turkish force, reported to be three thousand strong, was
-moving down from Magara in a south-westerly direction, with the
-intention of cutting in between Romani and the Canal. This estimate of
-enemy strength proved to be exaggerated, but our column had some sharp
-little fights against superior odds, and its work was warmly commended
-by the Commander-in-Chief. At Awedia the Camel companies went into
-action for the first time since their hurried formation; but as most of
-the Australians were old Light Horse and infantry veterans from
-Gallipoli, they were not strange to fire, and, like the remainder of the
-Australians fighting at Romani, they rejoiced in open warfare after the
-confined trench work of the Peninsula. A day or two later, the column
-fought sharply at Hilu and Baud, each time mauling the enemy severely
-and contributing substantially to the general disaster in store for the
-Turks.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  JERUSALEM, FROM BELOW THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
-
-  _By Lieut. G. W. Lambert_
-]
-
-[Illustration: Jaffa]
-
-
-                                MAGDHABA
-
-On the night of the 22nd December, the Anzac Mounted Division, made up
-of the 1st and 3rd Light Horse Brigades, commanded by Generals Cox and
-Royston, the New Zealand Brigade (General Chaytor), and the Imperial
-Camel Brigade (General Smith, V.C.) which included a majority of
-Australians, moved upon the Turkish post at Magdhaba, twenty-three miles
-away up the Wady El Arish. Again marching all night, they came at dawn
-within striking distance of the garrison settlement. Deploying swiftly,
-they soon had Magdhaba surrounded, and, galloping in as close as the
-Turkish fire, which came in strength from a number of well-concealed
-entrenched positions, permitted, dismounted and pressed forward in troop
-rushes with the bayonet.
-
-The chief trouble for the Anzac Mounted Division at Magdhaba was the
-supply of water for the horses. If the Turks could not be smothered by
-nightfall, a withdrawal was imperative, for it was impossible to
-contemplate another day’s fighting with the horses still thirsty. In a
-country like this, where all the chargers are brought from far overseas,
-horseflesh must not be lightly thrown away. The struggle for Magdhaba
-was, therefore, as at Rafa a fortnight later, a struggle against time, a
-gamble against daylight. The Division, with the Imperial Camel Corps,
-fighting still under the able command of Major-General Chauvel, scored
-just on the call of time. As the day was closing vital Turkish strong
-posts fell almost simultaneously to our assaulting units on three sides
-of the settlement. In a wild rush the encircling troops overwhelmed the
-Turks, and met—with an extraordinary mingling of units coming in from
-every point—in the centre of the ring of battle. The survivors of the
-Turkish garrison, some 1250 officers and men, were made prisoners. Our
-total casualties were fewer than 150. Darkness fell swiftly, and, in the
-early hours of the night, there was an amazing scene as the prisoners
-were collected, and officers and men sought their units and searched for
-their led horses. Before midnight the Division was re-formed and, with
-the exception of a few squadrons left to clear the battle-ground and
-escort the wounded, our victorious little force was riding—for the
-second night in succession—back to water and rest at El Arish. As they
-tracked along in the darkness there were whole squadrons with not a man
-awake—a strange Christmas Eve!
-
-[Illustration: OUTLINE MAP OF OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND ADJOINING COUNTRIES]
-
-
-                                  RAFA
-
-Next came Rafa. On the evening of 8th January the Anzac Mounted
-Division, made up of the Brigades which had fought a few days before at
-Magdhaba, strengthened by the Camel Brigade and a Brigade of Yeomanry,
-cleared camp near El Arish and, riding all night, appeared before Rafa
-at dawn. The Turks held a strongly entrenched position consisting of
-three main systems of redoubts with many outlying rifle-pits on high
-ground, culminating in a knoll. On this knoll was a solitary tree,
-visible for many miles; and this, roughly speaking, was our objective.
-As at Magdhaba, the enemy was rapidly surrounded by Brigades moving at
-the trot and the gallop. Then the horses were raced back to places of
-safety, and the circle closed in on foot. The ground was more open than
-at Magdhaba, and our advance lay up long, bare slopes, swept by enemy
-fire. All day the cordon drew closer. Again, until the last moment,
-there was uncertainty as to whether the Turk could be smashed before
-nightfall. Again our horses were without water. And again victory came
-at sundown; this time after a series of long, sustained charges with
-fixed bayonets in the face of expert Turkish riflemen and German machine
-gunners, shooting at their best over specially prepared zones of fire.
-Rafa was a grim, deadly fight, waged up to the moment when our
-exhausted, but still excited, troopers jumped down on the Turks in their
-trenches.
-
-That spirit of mercy which has distinguished so many Australian fights
-was shown here at its best. The Turks, who had shot at our men
-mercilessly and effectively until they charged home into the very
-trenches, then dropped their rifles and held out their hands—to have
-them warmly shaken by Australians! Such incidents, occurring frequently
-as they have in this campaign, may not be according to the rules of war,
-and the psychology disclosed may be difficult to follow; but the
-recollection of them, while it always moves our men who were concerned
-to shamefaced laughter, must clearly be a source of lasting
-gratification. At Rafa, practically every Turk who survived was made a
-prisoner, and we also secured many guns and much war material. Even in
-more marked degree than Magdhaba was Rafa placed to our credit at the
-eleventh hour, for not only was our force threatened by the lack of
-water and the approach of darkness, but heavy enemy reinforcements were
-rapidly approaching.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  A BRIEF HALT RICHLY EARNED
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  JERUSALEM FROM THE AIR
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  DAMASCUS FROM THE AIR
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  3rd L.H. CAMP AT BELAH, A FAVOURITE RESTING GROUND BY THE SEA SOUTH OF
-    GAZA
-]
-
-This marked the passing of the desert. On the evening of the night march
-which brought us close to Rafa, our troops were still in the waste in
-which they had spent nearly a year without a glimpse of civilization or
-verdure. Travelling all night through the heavy sand, they came, just
-before dawn, on sounder going for their horses, and daylight showed them
-a wide, rolling landscape, gay with brilliant winter flowers—the fringe
-of Palestine.
-
-
-                           DESERT ADVENTURES
-
-No survey, however incomplete, of this fine campaign should fail to
-mention the countless little desert expeditions in Western and Central
-Sinai, in the early days of the fighting. These had various purposes.
-Sometimes they were political, but more than once they led to sharp
-fighting. The first time Australians were actually engaged east of the
-Canal was when the 9th Light Horse Regiment (chiefly South Australians,
-with a few Victorians), by a long night march and clever manœuvre,
-swooped down and bagged the Turkish outpost garrison at Jifjafa. Then
-there was a fine dash by the 11th Light Horse Regiment to Nekhl, the
-British pre-war administrative centre in Sinai. Later, two interesting
-expeditions were made up the Wady Muksheib, the ancient and central
-route across Sinai by which the Turks came in their feeble attack on the
-Canal, early in 1915. The drawback of that route was the shortage of
-water, and along the Wady bed some ancient power had excavated huge
-cisterns which filled during the rains. These cisterns are still intact.
-Once, the Light Horsemen pumped them out, and so closed the route for
-that season to the Turks; going out again, they sealed and covered them
-so as to make their rediscovery by the enemy very difficult.
-
-Australian units from the Camel Brigade more than once rode across the
-desert to Akaba, at the head of the Persian Gulf. In October, 1916, a
-force marched thirty-five miles across the sandhills from Bayud to
-Maghara, and engaged in a vigorous reconnaissance in the foothills below
-the almost inaccessible, high-built Turkish garrison position. As an
-instance of the man-power and transport necessary to maintain a force in
-action on the desert for even a few days, the details of this little
-enterprise are remarkable. The column contained only 1100 rifles, and
-the operations covered but a few days; but no fewer than 7000 camels,
-2300 horses and (including natives) 5000 men were employed to provide
-supplies of food and water for the force.
-
-All these little side-shows necessitated long night marches across
-countless desert hillocks. To the untrained eye, one square mile of
-country in Sinai is indistinguishable from any other square mile, even
-by daylight. At night all movement was by compass and the stars, and the
-task of our guides was complicated a hundredfold by the constant change
-of route imposed by the steepness of many of the sand dunes. Very early
-the Light Horseman displayed that apparently inborn sense of direction
-which, almost alone, would have made him famous in this campaign. After
-a brief trial, the native guides provided by the Imperial authorities
-were found to be too slow and uncertain, while, if the enemy was close,
-fear usually reduced them to a state of imbecility. As soon as this was
-recognized, the whole of the guiding was done by our own officers, many
-of whom developed a certainty of location, whatever the circumstances,
-which amounted almost to inspiration.
-
-
-                               FIRST GAZA
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Ten weeks after Rafa, on 26th March, came the first battle of Gaza. The
-scheme for the capture of this old gateway of Palestine proper was
-similar to that which succeeded so decisively at Rafa and Magdhaba. We
-were to move by night and envelop and isolate the town, with a view to
-its capture before the Turk could bring up reinforcements. But it was a
-far bigger enterprise than the two earlier raids. Modern Gaza is a
-fairly compact old town, which, before the war, contained 30,000
-inhabitants. Most of the houses are of mud and straw, but there are also
-many substantial modern residences. The little city is graced by many
-mosques and minarets. Standing on a low hill on the inland edge of the
-wide belt of sand dunes, which, on this coast, everywhere fringe the
-Mediterranean, it is bounded on the north, east and south by an
-occasional fine orange grove, wide areas of olives and an intricate
-network of huge, sprawling cactus hedges surrounding hundreds of tiny
-fields. The Turks were soundly dug in, and well supported by many guns
-in commanding positions, while the irregular system of cactus hedges
-made an ideal barrier between them and the naked plain over which the
-attacking troops had to advance.
-
-Since Rafa a notable change had taken place in our force. The mounted
-troops had been reinforced by the arrival of large numbers of Yeomanry
-and, for the first time in the campaign, a substantial force of infantry
-was available for frontal attack. Marching in the darkness, part of our
-army surrounded Gaza, while a strong mounted force took up positions to
-the east and north to prevent the intervention of heavy Turkish
-reinforcements, which were within easy striking distance. British
-infantry attacked from the south and east. On their right flank was a
-Brigade of Yeomanry. Next came the New Zealanders, and on the extreme
-right, pushing in from the north, with their flank on the sea, was the
-2nd Light Horse Brigade, with Brigadier-General Ryrie back in his old
-command. Unfortunately, a heavy morning fog prevented the infantry from
-getting into grips with the Turk in the earlier part of the day.
-
-
-                            AMONG THE CACTUS
-
-The mounted troops, moving faster, galloped first through the scattered
-groves of olives and then pressed forward, still on their horses, amidst
-the maze of cactus hedges. For our men it was a wonderful day of
-detached, individual fighting. Exact conformity was impossible.
-Regiments and squadrons, and even troops, fought wild little
-hole-and-corner combats of their own. There was much excited
-steeplechasing over the cactus. At times, our men and the Turks fought
-each other from either side of a hedge a few paces in width, the enemy
-on foot and our troops firing from their horses. Then the Light Horse,
-dismounting, hacked their way through the cactus with their bayonets,
-and did effective work with the steel. Our machine gunners, advancing in
-rushes in front and to a flank of the 2nd Brigade, maintained a clever
-and deadly covering barrage.
-
-The fighting was marked by countless fine incidents. One Light Horse
-squadron gallantly rushed an important Turkish observation post. The New
-Zealanders, assisted by a Light Horse troop, took a number of enemy
-guns. Swinging one of these round, and sighting through the open barrel
-at point blank range, they demolished with a single shot a stone house
-containing a number of troublesome Turkish riflemen. By nightfall, both
-the infantry and mounted troops had won into the outskirts of the town,
-and captured large numbers of prisoners. But the garrison was still
-strong, and heavy Turkish reinforcements were closing in rapidly from
-three directions. We had missed by a hairsbreadth. The fight was broken
-off and our men, suffering a sense of disappointment scarcely less than
-that felt at the evacuation of Gallipoli, were withdrawn.
-
-
-                              SECOND GAZA
-
-Three weeks later, on 19th April, the second battle of Gaza was fought
-on a long line extending from the sea eastward towards Beersheba. The
-Australians fought dismounted out on the right flank, and the day was
-the bloodiest our men have known in their Palestine fighting. For many
-hours they pressed forward in thin lines, up long, bare slopes, in the
-face of heavy and well-directed high explosive, shrapnel, machine gun
-and rifle fire. In places they made substantial headway and bent the
-Turks back. At one point, since known to fame as “Tank Redoubt,” two
-Australian companies of the Camel Brigade, co-operating with the British
-infantry on their flank, won temporary possession of a main key in the
-enemy line. Many splendid deeds distinguished this day’s hard fighting;
-they will rank with the best performances of Australian infantry in the
-war, and the exploit of the “Camels” at the Tank Redoubt with the
-greatest achievements of British arms in any age. But the Turk, though
-badly shaken, stood firm. The simple fact was that, in this
-Gaza-Beersheba line, which lent itself admirably to stout defence, we
-had encountered enemy forces so superior in number and equipment, that
-further advance was, for the time, physically impossible.
-
-
-                               BEERSHEBA
-
-Between then and the end of the following October, when the Turkish
-position was shattered, significant additions were made to our strength.
-We were reinforced by some Divisions of infantry, and many guns of
-different calibre, while the Desert Mounted Corps was formed from the
-old Desert Column, consisting of the Anzac and Australian Mounted
-Divisions, and a Yeomanry Division. During this period, too, General
-Allenby arrived from France as Commander-in-Chief. In the great attack
-which demolished the enemy’s strong defensive system on this line, the
-Turk was out-witted and outfought. By a wide detour, covering several
-days and notable for its long, exhausting marches, and the remarkable
-performances of the Engineers in the development of water in desert
-areas, the Anzac Mounted Division appeared as a bolt from the blue to
-the south-east of Beersheba, on the morning of 31st October. Beersheba
-marked the end of the Turkish line of defence. Seen from the surrounding
-hills, the scattered modern town, with its wide, dusty streets planted
-with straggling eucalyptus and pepper trees, is not unlike some western
-townships in Australia. It lies in a basin below the southern end of the
-Judean Range, and had been strongly fortified by the enemy. The attack
-from the south-east, however, was a complete surprise to the Turk.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  ROMANI. MOUNT ROYSTON IN THE DISTANCE
-
-  _By Lieut. G. W. Lambert_
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  IN A VILLAGE STREET
-]
-
-
-                         GALLOPING THE TRENCHES
-
-In the early morning the New Zealanders moved swiftly to the assault of
-Tel es Saba, a formidable mound, bristling with machine guns and rifles.
-At the same time, the 1st Light Horse Brigade went in to the south on
-the New Zealanders’ left, while the 2nd Light Horse Brigade dashed away
-on a long gallop under heavy shell-fire, and took up a position to the
-north, to cut off the retreat of the Beersheba garrison along the road
-leading over the Central Range, through Hebron and Bethlehem, to
-Jerusalem. After very heavy fighting on foot, over broken ground, the
-New Zealanders, supported by the 1st Light Horse Brigade, scaled and
-captured Tel es Saba. The day was well advanced. Beersheba had not
-fallen, and it was patent that, if we relied upon a dismounted attack,
-the town would certainly resist until nightfall; which would have given
-the enemy an opportunity to adjust his forces and perhaps upset our
-whole offensive. Four miles away to the south-east, the Australian
-Mounted Division was in reserve, and, shortly before sunset,
-Brigadier-General Grant received orders to attack the town with the 4th
-Light Horse Brigade. Between him and Beersheba lay a definite system of
-strongly-held Turkish trenches. As it was recognized that time did not
-permit of a dismounted advance, the decision was made to go in mounted,
-at a gallop. This hazardous enterprise of galloping infantry into an
-entrenched position was entrusted to the 4th Regiment, from Victoria,
-and the 12th Regiment, from New South Wales.
-
-
-                            A FAMOUS CHARGE
-
-Moving off at a trot, and soon quickening the pace to a gallop, the
-regiments swept in a bee-line towards Beersheba. They were soon under
-heavy shell and machine gun fire, but this only served to speed the
-horsemen. Charging wildly down on the Turks, despite heavy rifle fire,
-leading troops of Light Horsemen jumped the advanced trenches at a
-gallop, going clean over the Turkish bayonets. Once within the enemy
-trench system, part of the force dismounted, and, jumping down with
-their bayonets among the startled enemy, soon cleared the position.
-Meanwhile the mad gallop of the other squadrons was continued through
-enemy resistance into the very heart of the town. The Turks were thrown
-into hopeless disorder, and, believing that the handful of Australians
-formed but the advance guard of a great cavalry force, put up an
-indifferent fight. Upwards of 1100 were captured, but the darkness,
-which fell immediately after our horse clattered into the town, enabled
-many more to escape. Nine field guns and a large quantity of material
-fell into our hands. The Light Horsemen had charged with fixed bayonets,
-not that they could make any use of them on horseback, but for the moral
-effect upon the enemy. This magnificent enterprise, establishing as it
-did that Turkish nerves were not proof against a resolute body of
-galloping horse, led to highly important results in the Great Drive
-which followed. The Yeomanry, who were equipped with cavalry swords, a
-privilege not then enjoyed by any of the Australian Light Horse, routed
-greatly superior numbers of Turks in a series of charges which rank with
-the greatest performances of British regular cavalry.
-
-
-                        UP THE PHILISTINE PLAIN
-
-A few days after Beersheba the Turkish line was broken by the infantry
-at Sheria, and again between Gaza and the sea. The mounted men were
-turned loose on the heels of the retreating enemy, and the wild stern
-chase was continued for nearly fifty miles. The speed of the horsemen
-was regulated chiefly by difficulties of transport and water supply; but
-all the way the Turk fought clever rear-guard actions, making therein
-especially effective use of his strong equipment of machine guns. The
-Australians’ work was fast and bold throughout. There were scores of
-fights by night and day, which brought credit to the staff work and
-Brigade and Regimental fighting. Up till then it was the grandest
-cavalry drive in the war, and perhaps it has no equal in any campaign of
-the past. When the British forces came to a halt on a line running
-roughly from the coast a few miles north of Jaffa eastward to the
-mountains, the cessation of the pursuit was due not to enemy resistance,
-but to the impossibility, at that time, of extending our lines of
-communication any further. During this great cavalry drive, the Desert
-Mounted Corps, which embraced all the mounted troops, was under the
-command of Lieut.-General Sir H. G. Chauvel, who enjoys the distinction
-of being the first Australian to rise to the leadership of a Corps. And,
-with the 3rd Light Horse Brigade under General Wilson and the 4th under
-General Grant, the four Australian Mounted Brigades were, for the first
-time, all under Australian commands.
-
-
-                         JERUSALEM AND JERICHO
-
-In the wars of the ancients, cavalry and chariots were always used down
-on the Philistine Plain, while the Judean Hills were regarded as
-practicable only for infantry. It is the same to-day. The Great Drive on
-the Plain finished, the British infantry, with Yeomanry dismounted,
-moved eastward through the narrow passes and up the harsh, rocky
-hillsides of Judea towards Jerusalem. The Turks stubbornly resisted our
-capture of the Holy City, and the fighting, at times, was bitter and
-bloody in the extreme. But the gallant little Londoners, to whom fell
-the honour of most of this significant advance, won their way steadily
-forward. Only one Light Horse Regiment, the Western Australians, played
-any immediate part in the operations which, on 9th December, culminated
-in the surrender of Jerusalem.
-
-A few weeks later, the 1st Light Horse Brigade and the New Zealanders
-marched secretly, at night, from Bethlehem by steep mountain tracks,
-and, co-operating with the 60th (London) Infantry Division, after a
-sharp fight at Nebi Musa captured Jericho. This exploit was
-distinguished, as the Anzacs’ work in the campaign has always been, by
-the remarkable work of our guides. A squadron of the 1st Brigade had the
-honour of being the first to enter the village; but the winning of the
-Jordan Valley, like the capture of Jerusalem, was, in the main, due to
-the solid fighting qualities of the men of London. To-day, all through
-the Judean Hills, you come upon little wooden crosses which tell of the
-spirit and self-sacrifice of our good ally, the fighting Cockney.
-
-
-                                 AMMAN
-
-A brief pause, and then, the Desert Mounted Corps Bridging Train (B
-Troop, Australian Engineers) having thrown the first bridge across the
-Jordan, the Anzac Mounted Division, together with the Imperial Camel
-Brigade and, once again, the Londoners, made their famous rush for the
-Hedjaz Railway, far out across Jordan to the east, where the Plateau of
-Moab begins to merge into the sand of the wide Arabian Desert. This
-expedition, which, so far as the Colonials were concerned, fell chiefly
-upon the 2nd Light Horse Brigade, the New Zealanders and the Camels, was
-perhaps the severest we had had since crossing the Canal. Rain fell
-almost unceasingly for many days. The mountain tracks were so narrow and
-broken that the Brigades, travelling only by night, moved in single
-file, leading their horses and camels. The weather was piercingly cold.
-Men were wet through for several days and nights in which they knew no
-sleep, and were almost ceaselessly engaged in heavy fighting. In these
-circumstances, the destruction of some miles of the railway, and the
-safe withdrawal of the force, was an especially good performance.
-
-[Illustration: OUTLINE MAP OF NORTHERN SINAI]
-
-
-                                ES SALT
-
-A few weeks later practically all the Australian mounted troops, with
-the exception of the Camels, again crossed the Jordan, and, cutting in
-behind the Turks after some rare mountaineering feats in the darkness,
-took possession of Es Salt, a considerable Turkish base. In this
-enterprise, the 3rd Light Horse Brigade particularly distinguished
-itself, the 8th Regiment of Victorians alone taking prisoners equal to
-at least twice their fighting strength. The same Regiment also captured
-thirty machine guns and large quantities of other war material.
-
-
-                             JORDAN VALLEY
-
-During the spring and summer, which were spent in Jordan Valley, there
-were many highly successful little defensive fights. One of these, in
-which the Turkish attack fell mainly upon the 2nd Light Horse Regiment
-of Queenslanders, left nearly two hundred enemy dead within a few chains
-of our barbed wire. At about the same time, the foe assaulted the
-Musallabeh knoll, on the other side of the river, held by the 1st
-Battalion (Australians) of the Camel Brigade, and got to close quarters,
-in which bombs and bayonets, and even stones and hands were freely used
-on both sides. The Turks were beaten off with some hundreds of
-casualties.
-
-On 12th July, a day on which the shade temperature stood for hours at
-120 degrees, a stout attempt was made by a considerable force of German
-infantry against the 1st Light Horse Brigade under Brigadier-General
-Cox, on this same Musallabeh sector. Our line there was a series of
-small strong posts over a long and broken front. The Germans, advancing
-in the dark, penetrated between two of the posts, and actually reached
-the centre of our advanced position. A feature of this fight was that
-every little post, except one which was overwhelmed, successfully
-resisted the German attack, although all were surrounded and isolated
-for hours. In some, practically every officer and man became a casualty.
-The Germans were routed by a brilliant counter-attack of the 1st Light
-Horse Regiment (New South Wales), which was in reserve, and the affair
-cost the Germans 360 prisoners and about 1,200 casualties. Our losses
-were slight. Troops from four States, Tasmania, South Australia,
-Queensland and New South Wales, shared in the victory. On the same day,
-also in Jordan Valley, a troop of Queenslanders, men from the 5th Light
-Horse Regiment, twice left their lines with bombs, and, surprising enemy
-forces many times their number, brought in forty-five prisoners, and
-they had killed and wounded as many more in the fight. The casualties
-suffered by the troop were one officer and two men slightly wounded. Two
-cars of No. 1 Australian Light Car Patrol also took part with the
-Imperial Service (Indian) Cavalry in a brilliant counter-attack east of
-the Jordan.
-
-
-                         PREPARING FOR DAMASCUS
-
-The long, distressing summer in Jordan Valley died hard. In September,
-when the Anzac Mounted Division was there, the hottest days of the whole
-year were endured. The various mounted troops had held the Jordan sector
-in turn, those in reserve enjoying brief periods of rest on the bracing
-uplands about Solomon’s Pools, a little to the south of Jerusalem. There
-the sunny days were cool, and at night men who had known little sleep
-down on the Jordan rejoiced in the mountain mists and the unwonted
-comfort of their blankets.
-
-In the course of the year there had been another interesting change in
-the composition of General Allenby’s army. Many of the Yeomanry and
-British infantry had gone to other battle fronts, and in their place
-came one hundred thousand Indian horse and foot. Many of our Light
-Horsemen had fought beside the Gurkhas and other Indians on the
-Peninsula; some of us had seen the Indian cavalry in France in the early
-days of the war; but to most of the Australians the Indians were
-strangers. To-day, after a few months and a stirring campaign together,
-the bond between the two races is a remarkably strong one.
-
-
-                        AUSTRALIA’S NEW FRIENDS
-
-The Australian soldier has, for a man of insular breeding, shown an
-extraordinary capacity for making friends. He has an easy way with
-peoples of all races and colours. In France he is completely at his ease
-among the French peasantry; and he saunters through the Arab villages in
-Palestine as familiarly and as confidently as he used to walk the
-streets of his townships and cities at home. His old enemy the Turkish
-ranker is his admired personal friend. But the strong bond which sprang
-up so quickly between the Light Horseman and the Indians was perhaps the
-strangest of all his new war friendships. They were divided by colour,
-the language barrier was absolute, and, most unpromising of all, there
-was the barrier of caste, which prevented the devout Indian from sharing
-his rations, and so made little acts of camp hospitality impossible. But
-the barriers, although they seemed impassable, were miraculously
-surmounted. The Indians made no secret of their admiration of the Light
-Horseman as a past-master at the game of combined mounted and dismounted
-fighting, while the Australian was genuinely appreciative of the
-splendid soldierly qualities of the highly-trained regular Indian
-cavalry. Moreover, nearly all the Indians rode Australian horses!
-
-Every trooper in Palestine knew that a great campaign would be launched
-in the early autumn. General Allenby would, according to the camp-fire
-strategists, “hop in” during the brief season between the extreme heat
-and the beginning of the heavy rains in November. Further, the C. in C.
-would, in all probability, assail the enemy line at the full of the
-moon, so that we should have light for the great cavalry night marches
-that were anticipated. But it is doubtful whether any soldier in
-Palestine, who was not in the official secret, forecasted a scheme so
-bold as that General Allenby had resolved upon. Certainly, none dared to
-hope for a triumph so dazzlingly swift and complete.
-
-
-                        THE WONDERFUL FORTNIGHT
-
-The great campaign opened at dawn on the morning of 19th September,
-1918. A fortnight after General Allenby flung his artillery bombardment
-at the enemy line, the great Turkish and German force in Western and
-Eastern Palestine had been destroyed, and our prisoners numbered 75,000.
-Of the 4th, 7th, and 8th Turkish Armies south of Damascus only a few
-thousand foot-sore, hunted men escaped. Practically every gun, the great
-bulk of the machine guns, nearly all the small-arms, and transport,
-every aerodrome and its mechanical equipment and nearly every aeroplane,
-an intricate and widespread telephone and telegraph system, large dumps
-of munitions and every kind of supplies—all had, in fourteen swift and
-dramatic days, been stripped from an enemy who for four years had
-resisted our efforts to smash him. It was a military overthrow so sudden
-and so absolute that it is perhaps without parallel in the history of
-war. And it is still more remarkable because it was achieved at a cost
-so trifling.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  TURKS MARCHING OUT OF OLD CITY OF JERUSALEM AT BEGINNING OF WAR, 1914
-
-  (_Captured German Photograph_)
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  GAZA
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  THE MOUNT OF TEMPTATION
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  ALL THE WORLD OVER
-]
-
-It was a stupendous result, gained by a simple scheme. The strategy was
-strikingly bold, but perhaps the most impressive thing about General
-Allenby’s triumph was the superb manner in which his plan was carried
-through. The campaign went with a bang from the moment the line was
-broken until Damascus, more than 150 miles distant, was taken. It
-galloped all the way. There was never a moment’s indecision, never a
-semblance of fumbling. Here was a British Army at its best, every man
-efficient, every man enthusiastic.
-
-The scheme was obviously the conception of a confident leader of horse.
-General Allenby is a cavalryman, and he had under his command the most
-powerful cavalry force in the war. And he knew the quality of his
-mounted men. All of the Australians and New Zealanders and Yeomanry had
-been in the sixty-mile drive from Gaza, of the previous year, and most
-of them had been in the saddle in Egypt and Palestine for two and a half
-years. The dashing Indian cavalry had been with him for many months and
-had given many examples of their speed and love of battle. Again and
-again in the summer their advanced patrols had galloped down bodies of
-Turks, and their terrible use of the lance in those little actions had a
-highly useful effect on Turkish nerves. The cavalry was General
-Allenby’s special weapon for the campaign, but in addition, he had a
-substantial and fit force of veteran infantry. He had, too, a
-particularly brilliant lot of airmen, and in his supply services he
-possessed a vast organization of railway, motor, camel, horse, mule and
-donkey transport, which was efficient and resourceful in the highest
-degree, and had already performed miracles.
-
-Altogether the British Army of Palestine was, when the final campaign
-opened, as near to perfection as any force ever was. All ranks were
-veterans and all were animated by that spirit which every army feels
-when confident of victory and happy in its leaders.
-
-
-                             A BOLD SCHEME
-
-This was the scheme. We faced the Turks on a fifty-mile line running
-from a point on the Mediterranean coast about twelve miles north of
-Jaffa south-eastward across the Plain of Sharon, thence eastward over
-the Mountains of Samaria at a height of 1500 to 2000 feet, falling to
-1000 feet below sea-level where it crossed the Jordan Valley, and
-terminating in the foothills of the Mountains of Gilead. The Sharon
-Plain sector was some fifteen miles in length, across Samaria fifteen
-miles, and the stretch in the Jordan Valley about eighteen. The Turkish
-position was a strong one. On Samaria, or the Central Palestine Range,
-south of Nablus, the enemy had ideal defensive country, rugged and
-broken, yet well served by rail—on the north-west to Haifa, and on the
-north-east across the Jordan at Beisan and by way of Damascus to Turkey;
-he had also good roads to Haifa and to Damascus by way of Nazareth.
-
-To push the Turk on the mountains by a frontal attack would have meant
-at best the gradual withdrawal of his forces. In Jordan Valley the
-enemy’s safety lay in the fact that his guns on the foothills of either
-side covered the limited ground which was practicable for horse and
-transport. And, even if we had galloped up Jordan Valley, it would have
-been extremely difficult from there to swing in behind the Turkish
-position on the Central Range. General Allenby took the Plain of Sharon
-for his great enterprise. Forty miles behind the Turkish position the
-Jordan Valley and the Plain of Sharon are joined to the Esdraelon
-Plain—the old Plain of Armageddon. In other words, the Jordan and Sharon
-and Esdraelon formed a half-circle round the main central Turkish
-position on the mountains. All the enemy lines of communication led
-across Esdraelon. If we could seize the Plain swiftly, cut the railways
-and hold the roads, the Turkish army west of the Jordan was in our
-hands. It was a scheme calculated to test the mettle of any army. If we
-were to succeed, every branch of the service had to show at its best.
-First our airmen had to destroy or drive off the German aeroplanes and
-so keep the enemy ignorant of our plans; then the artillery barrage had
-to make the way possible for our infantry; in its turn, the infantry
-had, in one rush, to drive a gap for our cavalry, and the cavalry,
-galloping through the gap, had to cover fifty miles and reach Esdraelon
-Plain on the night of the first day. Lastly, the cavalry must hold the
-communications they had cut, and to do so, they had to be fed. The
-transport necessary for feeding tens of thousands of men and horse had
-to travel almost as fast as the cavalry. The scheme had to go through to
-time-table or it might not go through at all. If the artillery had
-failed to do its work in a swift half-hour’s bombardment, or if the
-infantry had faltered, the enemy would have had time to redistribute his
-forces, and General Allenby might have been robbed of his victory.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  MAGDHABA, SHOWING THE WADY BED ABOUT ONE MILE FROM TURKISH BUILDINGS
-
-  _By Lieut. G. W. Lambert_
-]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-                               CAMOUFLAGE
-
-General Allenby took no chances. He followed the sound principle of
-fighting under the best possible conditions. By the aid of clever and
-greatly successful bluff, the Commander-in-Chief delivered his smashing
-blow at an unexpected point of the Turkish line. The enemy was led to
-believe that the British offensive would fall on the eastern sector.
-While a huge force of cavalry, artillery and infantry was being smuggled
-by night marches to the Plain of Sharon on the west, active and amusing
-camouflage preparations were being made in the Jordan Valley. For
-instance, many dummy camps were brought into existence, and large
-numbers of realistic canvas horses were tethered in them. Mules drawing
-sledges were driven about in the dust to suggest heavy traffic. Fast’s
-Hotel at Jerusalem, then being conducted for officers by the Canteen
-Board, was ostentatiously emptied of its inmates, two sentry-boxes were
-placed at the entrance, and a whisper was started in the bazaars that
-the hotel would be General Allenby’s advanced headquarters during the
-coming offensive. Simultaneously, the Arabs east of the Jordan made
-realistic sham preparations for an attack on Amman, out on the Hedjaz.
-They put down a big base, engaged in bold reconnaissance, and cut the
-line between Amman and Damascus. The deception of the enemy was
-complete. We know now that he expected and prepared for the blow on the
-east, and was stiffening his defences there until a few hours before our
-bombardment opened on the west, near the Mediterranean.
-
-The airmen materially assisted in this hoodwinking. During the eight
-weeks preceding the offensive, the German air service was practically
-driven out of the sky. Fifteen machines were destroyed or forced down
-and enemy aerodromes were bombed. So complete was our ascendancy that
-not an enemy plane was seen over the threatened sector for eight days
-before the offensive began.
-
-Blind as to our movement of troops, and mistaken by fifty miles as to
-where his line was to be assailed, the enemy’s plight was further
-accentuated by the destruction of his communications on the very evening
-of the bombardment. Pulling out at night from their sham camp near
-Amman, the Arabs rushed away up north, and cut the railway and telegraph
-communications between Deraa and the great Turkish base at Damascus.
-This left the enemy on his whole front without supplies for the fight.
-Other telegraph lines further west were severed at the same time, and a
-bomb from an Australian plane on the night before our advance destroyed
-his great forward telephone exchange at Nablus, which dislocated all his
-lateral communications. When our guns opened at dawn on 19th September,
-the Turks were already in a desperate plight.
-
-
-                            THE NIGHT BEFORE
-
-On the night before the bombardment there was an atmosphere of perfect
-confidence in our camp close behind the line. Every man was moved by the
-prospect of a successful adventure, which would give vast immediate
-results and have an incalculable influence on the world war. The
-tropical intensity of Jordan Valley, where the Australian Brigades, with
-one exception, and some of the British and Indian cavalry had spent the
-whole summer, had left its mark. We had suffered much from malaria and
-other fevers, which, it was feared, might recur when we moved into the
-cooler north. The horses were, if not in poor condition, certainly on
-the light side; but these things were forgotten as the critical day
-approached. The Australian Mounted Division, commanded by Major-General
-Hodgson, and now made up entirely of Light Horse, except for one
-dashing, picturesque regiment of French Colonial regulars, had recently
-been armed with swords. The period of training in the new arm was very
-brief—for many Regiments only a few hours; but the men taking very
-keenly to it, soon reached a high standard of efficiency. Every trooper
-was excited at the thought of a true cavalry charge. The Anzac Mounted
-Division was still in the line in Jordan Valley.
-
-During many nights before the push every road on the coastal sector was
-crowded with slow-moving, well-ordered traffic. By day all was normal,
-except for significant glimpses of camps in the wide olive groves around
-Ludd, and in the orchards and orange groves about Jaffa. But as darkness
-fell the whole countryside would become thronged with masses of horse
-and foot and guns, and every kind of transport, groping their way
-through blinding clouds of dust. The roads were impassable outside the
-organized columns; the night was loud with the shouts of drivers
-speaking divers languages. A few hours before the great push began this
-night traffic culminated in a general move northward, the cavalry moving
-up close behind the infantry, and the supplies following the cavalry.
-Every road was massed with motor-lorries and horse transport; every
-track with endless strings of camels. Each unit in the great army was
-pressing up as closely as possible to the starting gate.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  TURKISH PRISONERS AT BEERSHEBA
-
-  STREET MARKET, JERUSALEM
-
-  Inset—JERICHO
-  Showing the pretty little Garden Oasis
-
-  LIGHT HORSE CROSSING JORDAN
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  IN THE JORDAN VALLEY
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  SPRING WATER, CLEAR AND COLD
-]
-
-The bombardment opened at dawn, a heavy barrage. For half an hour the
-startled Turks were battered in their trenches. Then, abruptly, the
-bombardment ceased. “Now the infantry,” said a Brigadier of horse “and
-then!...”
-
-
-                              THE ADVANCE
-
-Our battalions leaped forward as the gunnery died away, and carried the
-Turkish trenches after a brief struggle. They simply overwhelmed the
-enemy riflemen, and even the German machine gunners and Austrian
-artillerymen, after a wild burst of bad shooting, were forced to flight
-or submission. Within half an hour the infantry had made a gap for the
-great force of Indian and Yeomanry cavalry waiting near the coast, and
-soon afterwards they opened another a few miles inland. The expectant
-horsemen jumped off like thoroughbreds from the barrier.
-
-
-                         THE GREAT RIDE BEGINS
-
-They rode away in the sunrise, the advanced squadrons trotting out after
-the ground scouts, the flank patrols galloping wide; Brigade after
-Brigade rode out over the rolling sandhills. The men were eager, the
-horses fought for their heads. The swords of the Yeomanry flashed and
-Indian lances glinted from each successive skyline. It was like a war
-scene of the picture galleries. Quickening the pace, the Regiments raced
-on past our guns, most of which were already limbered-up for the
-pursuit. The infantry, busy with their prisoners, cheered them as they
-passed, and soon they were speeding down on Turks who had fled from the
-onslaught of the infantry. But their sport with sword and lance was
-brief. In this Sharon sector, the enemy had no forward reserves, no
-second-line trenches. The Turkish front here had depended for its safety
-on a one trench system. From the crossing of the trenches until they
-reached the Esdraelon Plain, late in the night, the cavalry encountered
-no resistance. Once or twice they sighted small bodies of the enemy and
-made for them at the gallop. But the Turks would not give battle. Before
-the campaign was three hours old there began the long series of almost
-bloodless surrenders which were to be the most amazing feature of the
-sleepless fortnight.
-
-The perfection of our organization was revealed very early. The cavalry
-was scarcely clear of the trench system before scores of field guns were
-rumbling in their wake. And, pressing on after the artillery by many
-tracks, good and bad, went mile after mile of camels and wheeled
-transport. Where the cavalry went the supplies must follow; and the
-cavalry rode from forty to fifty miles between sunrise and midnight.
-With nothing to check them, their pace was controlled only by the
-endurance of their horses. The men rode light; they carried only one
-blanket, and that as a saddle-cloth. Tent sheets and waterproofs were
-forbidden. It was a wild ride against time. But horses were loaded with
-three days’ rations, and few carried less than 250lbs.—many of them more
-than 280lbs.
-
-
-                            ESDRAELON PLAIN
-
-At dawn next morning the Yeomanry were across the Esdraelon Plain and in
-Nazareth, where they caught most of the garrison of 3000 and the whole
-population still in their beds. They secured the town at the expense of
-eighteen casualties. By noon the Esdraelon Plain was in our hands, and
-the Turkish Army in Western Palestine left without a line of
-communication or retreat, except at Beisan on the north-east corner of
-the trap; and the capture of Beisan was already assured. How completely
-the enemy was deceived, and how light were his forces on the sector
-broken for the cavalry, is shown by the fact that on the first day,
-although our horse travelled fully forty miles on a wide front, only 900
-prisoners were taken by them. Next day, as the net closed round the
-forward enemy forces on the Central Range, and they attempted to retreat
-across the Esdraelon Plain, our cavalry took upwards of 12,000.
-
-
-                          DOOMED TURKISH ARMY
-
-At the beginning of the second day, we contained the Turkish western
-army on the south, west and north. The Anzac Mounted Division, which is
-two-thirds Australian and the balance New Zealanders, and a light
-infantry force, all under Major-General Sir E. W. C. Chaytor, were moved
-up the Jordan Valley on the east of the Turks and so the net was
-completed. But the task of the Anzacs was difficult. Before they could
-move, the enemy guns dominating the narrow ground on either side of the
-river had to be silenced or shifted. This meant that the Turks had to
-begin their retreat on the Samarian Range before the Division could race
-them for the crossings. Not until the second day did this come about,
-and then the Anzacs, riding fast, closed the fords and the Turkish
-Western Army was doomed. Forty hours after the fight commenced, as the
-second day was closing, the enemy began to stream down the tracks
-leading on to the Esdraelon Plain from his forward mountain position. He
-had already abandoned guns and transport, a tragedy which he owed mainly
-to the appalling havoc wrought with bombs and machine guns by our
-airmen.
-
-At dusk on the second day a large force was reported to be heading
-towards Jenin, on the northern edge of the Esdraelon Plain. General
-Chauvel, who was directing the battle from Megiddo (now Lejjun), the
-actual site of ancient Armageddon, at once ordered the 3rd Light Horse
-Brigade to move to the attack. An hour later, the Brigade had captured a
-mass of prisoners, who subsequently counted out at more than 7000; and
-we had the first evidence of the demoralization of the enemy. As the
-Brigade approached Jenin, with the 10th Light Horse Regiment (Western
-Australians) leading and the 9th (chiefly South Australians) working
-round to the rear of the village, the Turks ran out and surrendered in
-thousands. We had one officer and one man wounded. The only shots fired
-at us came from nine German riflemen, who fought to a finish, although
-two of our machine guns were laid on them at a range of sixty yards. The
-plan had put our troops into certain positions and the Turks, as at sham
-fight, recognizing the checkmate, were surrendering without bloodshed.
-Any resistance which followed on the long ride to Damascus came almost
-entirely from the Germans.
-
-
-                                CUT OFF
-
-An endeavour has been made in the preceding pages to show how the
-galloping cavalry cordon was thrown round the main enemy position on the
-Samarian Range. Before the close of the second day, our horsemen,
-stoutly armed with machine guns and automatic rifles, in addition to
-rifle and sword and lance, and further strengthened by many batteries of
-horse artillery, held all the roads and railways behind the Turks and
-Germans. The enemy was practically cut off from supplies and retreat.
-Worse than that, he was already irretrievably smashed by the attack of
-the British and Indian infantry on his front. Recoiling from this blow,
-and hastening to reach the Esdraelon Plain before the cavalry completed
-the net, he was caught by our airmen in narrow mountain passes,
-subjected to terrible bombing and harassing machine gun fire, and forced
-to abandon most of his guns and transport. At the same time, the 5th
-Australian Light Horse Brigade under Brigadier-General Macarthur Onslow,
-accompanied by one regiment of French cavalry, was thrown in during the
-first day on his right flank, about halfway between the old front line
-and the Esdraelon Plain. The Australians, moving very fast, scattered
-with their swords a force several thousand strong north of Tul Keram and
-took two thousand prisoners. Then, riding all night, they cut the enemy
-frontline railway close behind Nablus. A few hours later, the Brigade
-captured Nablus itself.
-
-[Illustration: OUTLINE MAP OF PALESTINE]
-
-
-                           TERRIBLE AIR WORK
-
-But before this the airmen had commenced their work in the passes. When
-our infantry broke the enemy’s line on the Plain of Sharon, many
-thousands of Turks, who were on the foothills eastward of the gap our
-cavalry had galloped through, had endeavoured to swing round and retreat
-to the highlands of Samaria. But the movement was at once detected by
-the Australian airmen. The Turks, with their transport, were seen to be
-heading for a narrow defile leading up from Tul Keram to Anebta. Using
-their wireless, the airmen called up aerodromes where dozens of British
-and Australian pilots were awaiting the signal. The doomed column,
-extending over upwards of two miles, was deep in the pass when the first
-flight arrived with its bombs. Beginning on the leading troops and
-vehicles, the airmen, flying low, had, in a few minutes, blocked the
-narrow track. Pilot after pilot, flying in perfect order, dropped his
-bombs, and then, assisted by the observers, raked the unfortunate Turks
-with machine guns. Their ammunition exhausted, the airmen sped back to
-their aerodrome for more, and returned again to the slaughter. Some
-pilots made four trips on that day. While the airmen attacked the
-column, the 5th Light Horse Brigade came up over the hills on either
-side of the track, and caught the Turks with their swords as they
-attempted to escape. Blocked in front, the battered, distracted
-procession closed up and telescoped, and fires broke out among the
-massed and broken vehicles.
-
-Still more appalling, because of the greater magnitude of the disaster,
-was the fate of a column between Balata and Fermeh on its way down the
-range towards Beisan, on the Jordan. Flying over Samaria, you appreciate
-the opportunities which this retreating army offered to the airmen. The
-stony hills are not so rugged as in Judea, but they are still too steep
-to permit masses of troops to move off the narrow roads. These roads
-wind along beside the wadies and are flanked nearly all the way by
-abrupt hillsides. The Balata column contained the bulk of the enemy’s
-forward transport. It stretched, slow-moving and in full view from the
-air, over seven or eight miles of the confined track. An Australian
-reconnaissance pilot sighted it soon after dawn and, an hour later,
-dozens of British and Australian bombers and machine gunners, flying
-within a few hundred feet of the ground, were smashing it to splinters.
-Again they began at the head, and forced the helpless drivers to pile up
-from the rear. For hours the bombing was continued. Here the airmen
-worked unaided by any other arm of the service, and they had wrecked or
-disabled the whole of the transport before the infantry came up from the
-south and took the dazed survivors. The broken material afterwards
-collected in the pass included 90 guns, 840 four-wheeled and 76
-two-wheeled horse and cattle vehicles, 50 motor-lorries and a large
-number of miscellaneous transport, such as water carts and travelling
-kitchens. The horror of the scene during the bombardment and afterwards
-need not be dwelt upon. As the bombs rained down with pitiless
-regularity, scores of lorries and wagons were overturned and dashed to
-pieces as they went hurtling down into the rocky beds of the wadies.
-Included in the column were large formations of infantry, and these and
-the drivers, rushing from the track to escape the bombs, were shot down
-by airmen. These air attacks were repeated many times on a similar scale
-in the first two days.
-
-
-                            FINE STAFF WORK
-
-Rarely have the various services of an army worked in such perfect
-accord. The infantry drove the enemy from his front, the Australian and
-French cavalry, at the same moment, struck from the flank at his very
-heart at Nablus; as he attempted to retreat in good order, the airmen
-wrecked him from the skies, and, in a few hours, turned his army into a
-shell-shocked rabble, with few guns or munitions, and little food. The
-wretched Turks, in their tens of thousands, urged on by officers, came
-at last to the outlets into the Esdraelon Plain. When first the cavalry
-galloped down upon them, and they surrendered in hordes without the
-least attempt at resistance, we were astonished. It was not until we
-learned what had happened in the mountains that we understood the tragic
-state of their morale.
-
-The air force achieved a notable victory. They had not only inflicted
-very heavy losses, but had incalculably lessened the task of both our
-infantry and cavalry. They had prevented the Turk from fighting
-effective rear-guard actions against the pursuing infantry, and had
-hammered him so soundly that he was incapable of any attempt to burst
-through our cordon of cavalry. Without this help from the airmen,
-General Allenby must still have won a great victory; but it would have
-been much short of the sensational one achieved. Progress must have been
-much slower, and our casualties heavier by many thousands.
-
-Before the fight was two days old our aeroplanes were using aerodromes
-captured from the enemy. At one point on the march to Damascus, when we
-were a hundred miles from our starting-place, a number of airmen came up
-and established a flying ground abreast of our cavalry advance guard.
-Throughout the operations an air-post service was maintained between the
-leading troops and General Headquarters. An Australian Brigadier and a
-Colonel of the Light Horse, who were in hospital far down the line when
-the campaign opened, surprised their troops by alighting from aeroplanes
-in their midst, a hundred miles from our starting-point.
-
-
-                           GERMANS FIGHT WELL
-
-The few thousand Germans who were with the Turkish 7th and 8th Armies
-west of the Jordan met the same fate as their allies; nearly all were
-destroyed or captured. But one must give the Germans credit for a stout
-resistance. Throughout, they fought resolutely to avert the great
-disaster, and if all of them did not continue the struggle to the death,
-it must be remembered that they were in a desperate situation. They
-handled nearly all of the hundreds of machine guns, which were the most
-formidable weapons possessed by the enemy. All the way to Damascus they
-fought stout rear-guard actions.
-
-Having the great body of Turks on Samaria safe, and most of them already
-accounted for, General Allenby decided to clear Haifa; the operation
-demonstrated the relative morale of the Turks and Germans. A flying
-reconnaissance of armoured cars and smaller cars of the Light Car Patrol
-was pushed into the outskirts of the town. About three miles from the
-town our force saw the heads of a party of Turks in a strong redoubt two
-hundred yards from the road. The armoured cars halted and swept the
-Turkish parapet with their machine guns. The white flag was at once
-hoisted, and about eighty Turks came out without firing a shot. Two
-miles further on, the British came upon an Austrian battery of light
-field guns, supported by German machine gunners. Our little probing
-expedition was at once brought to a standstill, and was not sorry to
-pull out. Next day the Indians and Yeomanry, supported by horse
-artillery, rode into the town, and again the only opposition came from
-the Austrians and Germans. “We tried to cover the Turks’ retreat,” said
-a captured German officer, “but we expected them to do something, if
-only keep their heads. At last we decided they were not worth fighting
-for.”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  THE ROAD TO JERICHO
-
-  _By Lieut. G. W. Lambert_
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  ISMAILIA
-]
-
-
-                             EAST OF JORDAN
-
-Before Haifa fell our troops were moving swiftly east of Jordan. A
-Division of Indian and Yeomanry cavalry crossed the Jordan about Beisan
-and rode eastward. Simultaneously, the Anzac Mounted Division forded and
-swam the river further to the south, and moved on Es Salt and Amman. The
-Australians and New Zealanders were familiar with the country. This was
-their third expedition to the Plateau of Moab and the heights of Gilead.
-They knew every goat-walk on the steep mountain side. This time they had
-come to stay; the Fourth Turkish Army on the East was to share the fate
-of the 7th and 8th Armies on Samaria. The tactics employed on both sides
-of the river were broadly similar. General Allenby depended for success
-upon the speed and stamina of his horses. Before the operations
-commenced, the Turk held a defensive position which was roughly an
-extension of his line west of the Jordan. He was strong in the foothills
-of Gilead; on the mountain he had his base at Es Salt, and at Amman he
-had a substantial force guarding a vital series of tunnels and viaducts
-on his Hedjaz railway. Beyond the railway the Eastern Palestine Range
-flattens out on the wide desert, which extends right across to the
-Euphrates. On the fringe of the desert was the Army of the Sherif of
-Mecca, a picturesque, galloping, thrusting, well-armed force. The Arabs
-harassed the Turk by day and night, repeatedly dashing in and cutting
-his railway and telegraph communications with Damascus. When attacked,
-they would fade away into the wide desert and leave the slow-footed Turk
-in the air. While the Anzacs marched upon Es Salt and Amman, the Arabs
-made a detour in the desert, appeared on the flank of the enemy north of
-Deraa, and cut the railway where the Hedjaz line junctions with the line
-which supplied the Turks west of the Jordan.
-
-
-                         THE RACE FOR DAMASCUS
-
-Meanwhile the Indian and Yeomanry Division had crossed Eastern Palestine
-and reached Deraa, where it joined hands with the Arab army. Then the
-Arabs, the Indians and the Yeomanry sped on towards Damascus. There was
-still a chance of escape for some 20,000 Turks, who had moved northwards
-of Deraa before the arrival of our forces. These struggled gamely
-towards Damascus, hoping either to make a stand at that great base or to
-escape by rail to the north. But General Chauvel still had in hand the
-Australian Mounted Division and a strong force of Indians and Yeomanry,
-which had returned to the Jordan after the capture of Haifa. With the
-Australians leading, he marched from Esdraelon Plain north-east across
-Jordan for Damascus. Then ensued one of the grand races of the war. Our
-tired horses were called upon for the heaviest work of the lightning
-campaign. Marching by Beisan, the 4th Light Horse Brigade, after a stiff
-fight—the most expensive cavalry fight in the campaign—took Semakh, and
-then, co-operating with the 3rd Brigade, which had come down from
-Nazareth, occupied Tiberias. After a day’s partial rest, during which
-our men swam and fished in the blue waters of Galilee, the Australian
-Division marched swiftly for the Jordan crossing, a few miles south of
-Lake Huleh. But the enemy was now seized of our intention, and the
-German machine gunners put up a fine resistance. Their stand at Semakh
-aimed at preventing us reaching Damascus before the 20,000 Turks, who
-were retreating from the direction of Deraa, and to give time for the
-removal of as many military stores as possible from the city. South of
-Lake Huleh, also, the Germans fought well and delayed us for a few
-hours. We then ran through as far as Kunneitra, but, a few miles further
-on, were again held up by machine guns and a field battery.
-
-
-                          GREAT-HEARTED HORSES
-
-Our horses had covered, with marching and fighting, an average of thirty
-and forty miles a day. Thousands of Australian-bred animals must have
-covered some 400 miles in twelve days, a very fine performance when it
-is remembered that they carried a load exceeding an average of 250lbs.
-and had been on short rations. On our ride to Damascus, the excellent
-work of the staff was demonstrated again. As the advance guard of the
-4th Light Horse Regiment (Victorian), travelling north-east, came within
-view of the green and generous plain of Damascus, we saw, some eight
-miles away on our right, and moving north-west, a great converging
-column of the fugitive Turks from Deraa. Nearly all of these were
-captured, the Germans once more fighting well with their machine guns.
-But even the Germans had now almost given up hope, and on this last day
-before Damascus, and in the two days which followed, they abandoned
-their machine guns, and fled at the galloping approach of the
-Australians. That evening many thousands of prisoners were captured by
-the 3rd and 5th Australian Light Horse Brigades, and the city was
-enveloped.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  IN THE JORDAN VALLEY
-
-  SHOPPING IN JERICHO
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “BAKSHEESH”
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  A MEAL OUTSIDE THE BIVVIES
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  THE DEAD SEA (SUNRISE)
-
-  _By Lieut. G. W. Lambert_
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  SCOTTIES ON A ROUTE MARCH
-]
-
-
-                              ABANA GORGE
-
-At dusk, in the Abana Pass, which leads out from Damascus towards
-Beirut, another disaster befell the enemy. Here, a column many miles in
-length was committed in a deep and narrow and singularly beautiful
-gorge. The floor of the gorge is less than a hundred yards across, and
-it is crowded with the Abana River—a rushing, mountain torrent,—a
-railway and a road. The river banks are overgrown with trees and bushes;
-the railway and road cross and re-cross the tumbling stream. On either
-side rise the gaunt cliffs of the desert. In this brief survey it is
-impossible to describe the fight between the long enemy column and the
-handful of dismounted Light Horsemen of the 3rd and 5th Brigades, who
-were perched in pockets of the cliffs on either side. The Germans,
-working their machine guns from the tops of motor wagons and lorries,
-fought to the death. Three hundred and seventy officers and men were
-killed, and fell among the dead and dying horses in the wild tumult of
-the chaotic column. We had scarcely a man hit. That ended the attempt to
-leave Damascus by the west; but the enemy was streaming out by the north
-along the road to Aleppo. Their run, however, was brief. Early next
-morning the 3rd Light Horse Brigade—the first force to enter
-Damascus—was in hot pursuit. The German machine gunners again attempted
-a rear-guard, but they could not withstand the charges of the elated
-Light Horsemen. Thousands of prisoners and hundreds of machine guns were
-taken by the Brigade.
-
-On the morning of 1st October a squadron of the 4th Light Horse Regiment
-received orders to patrol into the city. Winding along the crooked lanes
-between the irrigated orchards and gardens, it came upon the great
-Turkish barracks, swarming with troops. The Turks did not at once
-surrender, and the squadron leader, before attacking, awaited the
-arrival of the remainder of the Regiment. Then followed a fitting
-termination to the wonderful, and practically bloodless, British ride. A
-few hundred of the 4th Light Horse took nearly 12,000 prisoners in
-Damascus before noon, together with dozens of field pieces and scores of
-machine guns. Scarcely a shot was fired. There was no formal surrender;
-each body of men laid down its arms as the Australians rode up.
-
-
-                             EXULTANT ARABS
-
-The Victorians entered the city and joined up with the exulting Arabs.
-These two forces, which had started hundreds of miles apart with two
-mountain systems intervening, were mingled together in the midst of the
-swirling, madly-excited populace. To the Arab, Damascus was the dazzling
-prize, the promised reward. Here he was to proclaim and set up his
-government. Riding forth from his tent on the desert, or his little mud
-village, he was, in Damascus, the lord of a city of 250,000 souls—the
-oldest city in the world, and distinguished by the richness and strange
-character and beauty of its surroundings. Fired with pride, his long
-robes touched with brilliant patches of silk, he rode the streets on his
-sprightly desert horse, caparisoned with richly woven Persian
-saddle-bags. His scabbard of gold and silver flashed in the sunlight,
-and he fired his rifle freely at the skies. Ameer Feisal, the third son
-of the Sherif of Mecca, who was soon to be proclaimed the new ruler,
-rode into the city. The Arabs of the city gave an almost fanatical
-greeting to the Prince.
-
-
-                        THE GALLOP INTO DAMASCUS
-
-Although the Victorians secured the great haul of prisoners, the first
-troops to enter Damascus were the Light Horsemen from Western Australia,
-who, also, had had the distinction of being the first mounted men to
-enter Jerusalem, in December. The Western Australians found their way
-into Damascus by accident, and their ride was one of the most dramatic
-and picturesque incidents of the campaign.
-
-The 3rd Light Horse Brigade, to which the Western Australians belong,
-spent the night in the Abana Gorge, a few miles from Damascus, to the
-west along the Beirut Road. Brigadier-General Wilson was under orders to
-move at dawn and seize the road leading from the city northward towards
-Aleppo. It was hoped that a track would be found around the outskirts of
-the town, but this proved impracticable. The Brigade, therefore, with a
-troop of scouts leading, and the Western Australians following, came
-down the Abana Gorge, clearing a track through the shambles of dead
-Turks and Germans and hundreds of camels and horses, heaped on the road
-in the fighting of the evening before. It soon became plain to the
-officer second in command of the Western Australians, who was riding
-ahead with the scouts, that the only way to the Aleppo road lay through
-the heart of Damascus. The city had not surrendered, and he did not know
-how many of the enemy it contained. But he decided on the bold course,
-and pressed on. As the scouts passed the outskirts of the city, riding a
-narrow road with the river on one side and a prolonged, mud-built garden
-wall on the other, there was a sudden burst of Turkish rifle fire. No
-one was hit, and the officer in command, checking the scouts until the
-advanced squadron of Western Australians came up, ordered drawn swords,
-and dashed on at a gallop. Across the river, two or three hundred yards
-away, were thousands of Turks at the barracks. For a moment, the enemy
-decision was in the balance. But the sight of the great Australian
-horses coming at a gallop (the Turks and natives never ceased to marvel
-at the size of our horses), the flashing swords, and the ring of shoes
-upon the metal, turned the scale. “The shooting by the Turks,” said one
-of our officers, “gave way, in a second, to the clapping of hands by the
-citizens.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  MAJOR-GEN. CHAYTOR RECEIVES A DEPUTATION OF ARAB CHIEFS NEAR AMMAN
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  JERUSALEM
-]
-
-The Australians rode hard, scattering the excited people from their
-track. The firing increased, but its character had changed. The shots
-were now coming from native Arabs, who were expressing their feelings,
-in the popular Arab way, by blazing at the heavens. Across the river
-ahead, in front of the large new Town Hall, a huge crowd was assembled,
-and clattering over a bridge, the cavalry pulled up at the steps of the
-building. Instantly, there were hundreds of eager horse-holders, and an
-intense demonstration of goodwill. The East was greeting the victors of
-the day. Three officers, all carrying their revolvers, entered the
-building, and demanded the civil governor. They were at once taken
-upstairs to that personage, a trim, little middle-aged Turk, who greeted
-them with complete calm and much dignity, and begged to know their
-wishes. He was told that a great British force of cavalry was entering
-the town, and that he would be held responsible for good order and the
-protection of property; the shooting in the streets must instantly
-cease. The Governor replied that there was nothing to fear from the
-civil population, that the shooting was merely the expression of an
-excess of feeling, and that the British wishes would be respected in
-every way. He then begged the Australian officers to accept his
-hospitality.
-
-A reliable guide was obtained and the party hurried forward. As the
-Australians continued their ride through the city they received the
-honours traditionally lavished on conquerors. The stalls were emptied of
-their incomparable grapes and pomegranates, which were handed up to the
-passing horsemen. Crowds hung to their stirrups and ran along with their
-hands on the bridle reins. They were smothered with perfumes. Every man
-who smoked enjoyed a gift cigar. Dark-eyed women and pretty girls
-appeared in every window, some of them the wives, doubtless, of Turkish
-soldiers, timidly, and showing no pleasure; others boldly waved their
-hands, smiled their welcome, and threw down scents and other favours.
-
-[Illustration: OUTLINE MAP OF SYRIA]
-
-
-                                VETERANS
-
-It was a wonderful hour for our young Australian countrymen. But the
-long war had made them into reserved men of the world, and the streets
-of old Damascus were but a stage in the long path of the war. They rode,
-very dusty and unshaved, their big hats battered and drooping, through
-the tumultuous populace of the oldest city in the world, with the same
-easy, casual bearing, and the same quiet self-confidence that are their
-distinctive characteristic on their country tracks at home. They ate
-their grapes and smoked their cigars, and missed no pretty eyes at the
-windows; but they displayed no excitement or elation. They had become
-true soldiers of fortune. And their long-tailed horses, at home now,
-like their owners, on any road in any country, saw nothing in the
-shouting mob or banging rifles, or the narrow ways and many colours of
-the bazaars, to cause them once to start, shy, or even cock an ear. The
-3rd Brigade rode out to a series of ugly, but highly successful, actions
-with stout rear-guards of German machine gunners. Few men, in any age,
-have passed through twenty-four more adventurous and gratifying hours
-than they during this first day around Damascus.
-
-
-                           BEAUTIFUL DAMASCUS
-
-The district of Damascus is an irrigation settlement on a vast scale,
-set in the midst of comparative desert. So rich and close are the
-orchards, and so tall the plantations of poplars and other decorative
-trees, that, looking over the city from the neighbouring hills, all you
-see of the city of 250,000 people are the stately minarets of its many
-mosques and the roofs of the larger residences of the rich. Immediately
-to the west of the town rises the bare, glaring mountain side, and to
-the east and north and south of the green expanse of gardens you ride
-out upon the harsh and treeless plain. Damascus owes all its wealth,
-even its very existence, to the torrential Abana River, which, surging
-down from Anti-Lebanon, bursts from the mountain gorge on to the plain
-and, splitting up into several beautiful streams, has made a rural
-paradise on the edge of the Arabian wilderness.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  AUSTRALIANS ON THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  AN AUSTRALIAN FLYING SQUADRON IN PALESTINE
-
-  _Photos, in colour by Capt. Frank Hurley_
-]
-
-In Palestine the troops looked in vain for the Promised Land “flowing
-with milk and honey.” The Plain of Philistia was fertile, but apart from
-the few Jewish and German colonies, and the orange groves about Jaffa,
-it was, with all its natural possibilities, a land bare and neglected, a
-reproachful ghost of a great life that is gone. But Damascus was a prize
-worth the winning. Here, after nearly three years of desert and
-exhausted, unfruitful regions, was an area good to look upon, and
-teeming with an active people. Few of us were sorry that we had at last
-outrun our supplies, or rather, that the huge capture of prisoners had
-somewhat strained the wonderful commissariat which had so gallantly kept
-at the heels of the galloping cavalry, and that a brief halt was
-necessary for the Australian Mounted Division. For a month some of the
-Regiments were in camps in the gardens around the city, and man and
-horse never accepted rest more gratefully. After thirteen days on bully
-and biscuit, it was good to know fresh meat and bread again; the mutton
-was of the best, and the bread, if dark and coarse and heavy, was still
-a long way ahead of biscuit. We were too late for the famous Damascus
-apricots, but there were grapes for the multitude, and pears and apples
-and pomegranates, and, also, raisins and other dried fruits and
-specialties in Eastern sweetmeats. Best of all, every camp was within
-sight and sound of many running waters.
-
-Noisy little streams crossed our path a hundred times a day. Follow one
-along, and it suddenly disappeared into an underground passage, to burst
-forth like a spring a hundred yards away. In the streets, many of the
-gutters are river-fed waterways, and, to reduce the dust, the tired
-civic authorities block the drains and cause an effective little flood,
-which is extended by boys splashing with their hands. You buy grapes at
-the stalls, and carry them a few yards to dip into the waters of a
-mountain stream. But Damascus is dirty and insanitary. Without the purge
-of the Abana waters, flushing through it and under it, the city would
-die of its filth in a single summer. And even with its beautiful streams
-it proved a false friend to great numbers of Australians. The Australian
-Mounted division suffered more sickness in the Damascus area than
-anywhere else in the campaign.
-
-
-                            THE ANZACS’ PART
-
-In most of the operations which cleared Sinai and Palestine of the Turk,
-the lead was entrusted to the veterans of the Anzac Mounted Division. In
-this last and greatest campaign of all, the Division found itself away
-from the spectacular side of the enterprise. A trusty mounted Division
-was needed for the subsidiary, but highly important, work on Moab and
-Gilead, east of Jordan, and the choice fell upon the Anzacs.
-
-The Australians and New Zealanders complained about their luck. But
-their task made one strong appeal to them. Twice before they had been
-across the Jordan, and twice they had returned leaving not a few of
-their men in enemy graves. The two great raids over the river, early in
-the year, were brilliantly successful, as raids. Each time our purpose
-was achieved. But each time our men broke off the fight strongly against
-their inclination, and prayed for the day when they would get orders to
-go over and see the job through, and stay. Old Amman, the ancient
-Philadelphia, was especially coveted by our men. There, in March, 1918,
-we had fought for days over sodden ground in extreme winter weather and
-come away, the railway having been well broken, just after the New
-Zealanders had won into the town. This time, Australians and New
-Zealanders competed, in a sporting way, for first entry, and the 5th
-Light Horse Regiment, from Queensland, narrowly gained the honour.
-
-At the outset, the Anzacs, and the small infantry force operating with
-them, made up chiefly of the Jewish Battalion, the British West Indians
-and troops from India proper, had no chance of breaking out of our
-bridgeheads east of the river. Their orders were to keep in very close
-and firm touch with the enemy, and to demolish him as soon as he began
-to withdraw in consequence of his defeat on Samaria. Also, this Jordan
-Valley force was to push northwards up the Valley, and complete the
-cordon round the two Turkish armies on Samaria. Both missions were
-admirably accomplished. While the New Zealanders and infantry were
-advancing up the Valley, the Australians were probing the strongly
-entrenched and wired positions along the Moab and Gilead foothills,
-across the river. As soon as the Turk moved the two Australian Brigades
-pounced upon his rear-guard, and fought him as he climbed the narrow
-wady tracks up on to the tableland. Meanwhile, the New Zealanders,
-crossing away to the north at Jisr el Darnie, ascended the goat-track
-which leads from there to Es Salt, and, for the third time in the
-campaign, that old stone-built town was in Australasian hands.
-
-All the way our men had evidence of the success of the British bluff.
-The Turks’ defences on the foothills, and higher up, were particularly
-strong. Had our main attack gone that way, the fight would have been
-very bitter, with the enemy in a strong natural position. But now the
-Turks were compelled to abandon their stronghold because of their
-disaster in the west, and, also, because the Arabs had broken their
-communications to the north, and were joining hands with a British and
-Indian cavalry Division right across those communications. As the
-Australians passed Shunet Nimrin, they discovered a long-range navy gun
-lying on its side, a piece known to them as “Nimrin Nellie” and “Jericho
-Jane,” with which the Turk had often made our camps near Jericho dusty
-and unpleasant.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  ORANGE SELLER, JAFFA
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  IN THE SHADE
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  THE VILLAGE WELL
-
-  NATIVE PLOUGH AND TEAM
-]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  JAFFA
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  AUSTRALIANS PRIOR TO THE FIGHT FOR HEIGHTS OF NALIN
-
-  _Photos, in colour by Capt. Frank Hurley_
-]
-
-
-                             AMMAN CAPTURED
-
-It was not until our men were far across the tableland, and close to
-Amman, that the enemy showed fight. There our advance guard came under
-machine gun fire; but the Division’s rapid advance on the town was not
-stayed. As the scene of the severe March fighting came into view the
-Australians appreciated the disaster which had so suddenly fallen upon
-the Turkish arms. In March, the only possible approaches to Amman led
-through hurricanes of machine gun fire, together with shells from
-several field batteries. But now, the broken foe, although he fought
-gamely at this particular spot, was quickly out-witted and out-classed
-by Light Horse manoeuvre, and soon the Australians, after trifling
-casualties, were riding in the streets of the squalid modern village,
-and marvelling at the glory of the ancient Roman amphitheatre. Contact
-with the Roman in this hour of our triumph did us good. It subdued our
-vanity. In these far outposts of the old Roman Empire, on the very edge
-of the barbarian desert, the massiveness of the stone-work and the fine
-quality of the decorative carving proclaimed to the least imaginative
-mind the culture and mighty physical achievements of our great rivals in
-the task of Empire building. “The splendour that was Rome” is told far
-more convincingly in distant Amman and Baalbek than in the ruins of Rome
-itself.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The Australians took 350 prisoners in Amman, and the New Zealanders
-another good bag as the Turks attempted to escape to the north. But the
-chief, and by far the most amusing, exploit of the Anzacs’ campaign,
-fell to the 2nd Light Horse Brigade under General Ryrie, at Ziza, about
-twenty miles to the south. News came through that a large Turkish force,
-which had been far to the south on the Hedjaz railway at Maan, was in an
-entrenched position at Ziza, and a regiment of Queenslanders rode down
-to spy out the land and, if possible, to smash them. The C.O. reported
-that he was in touch with 5000 Turks, who wished to capitulate, but they
-would not lay down their arms until they were sure that a great force of
-hostile Arabs, by whom they were surrounded, would be kept away from
-them. So the Colonel of the Queenslanders suggested that the whole
-Brigade should hurry down to assure the Turks of their safety. General
-Ryrie at once decided to go, and the twenty miles were covered in less
-than three hours.
-
-
-                            ARABS AND TURKS
-
-The Brigade arrived shortly before dark, and an extraordinary situation
-was discovered. The Turks were in a strongly defended position around
-the village. They were made up, in the main, of Anatolians, regulars and
-the cream of the Ottoman army. Moreover, they were well armed and
-capable of a good fight. Our Brigade was not complete and was
-outnumbered by about ten to one. The Turkish commander rode out to meet
-the Australian Brigadier. “I will surrender,” he said, “if you will
-protect us against the Arabs.” “Certainly,” said the Brigadier. “The
-Arabs are our allies; if you surrender, you have nothing to fear.” But
-the Turkish leader would not be convinced, and he demanded that the
-Australian force should be greatly increased before his men gave up
-their arms. Otherwise, he would be pleased to fight. General Ryrie was
-anxious to complete the surrender and save casualties, and the
-Australians and Turks spent the night together in arms around the same
-camp fires!
-
-Next morning, the Turks laid down their arms and marched as prisoners to
-Amman. The incident was an interesting sidelight on the feeling of the
-Turk towards the Arabs, whom he has so long governed. But it is a highly
-significant fact that, in the long campaign, the Arabs took 17,000
-Turkish prisoners, and the Turks not a single Arab. To the Arab, the
-Turk has been an enemy in arms. To the Turk, the Arab has been a rebel,
-and deserving of a rebel’s fate.
-
-Ziza practically finished the Anzacs’ brilliant little campaign. In all,
-some 11,000 prisoners were taken. The total battle casualties for the
-Division did not exceed a few score.
-
-
-                         THE TECHNICAL SERVICES
-
-The writer of this sketch has been obliged to keep severely to the work
-of the Force as a whole, and has recorded little or nothing of the great
-achievements of the many technical services, lacking which the
-victorious progress of the Light Horsemen would have been impossible.
-The performances of the Australian No. 1 Flying Corps Squadron, the
-first Commonwealth Flying Squadron engaged in the war, deserve a volume
-to themselves. Recruited chiefly from the Light Horse Regiments, both
-pilots and observers excelled in resource and daring, and in their
-golden chivalry to their foes, and in their many fine rescues of fallen
-comrades far behind the enemy lines, shone the spirit of Saladin and
-King Richard. They were the modern Knights of Palestine.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  ANZAC RIDGE, GAZA
-
-  _By Lieut. G. W. Lambert_
-]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Then there were the Engineers (no attempt is made to place these
-services in order of merit—a hopeless task), who found us water at will,
-as with a magician’s wand, beneath the blistering sands of Sinai; who
-bridged the Jordan under heavy fire for the crossing to Moab, and who,
-so often, blew enemy railroads, bridges and viaducts heavenward. Working
-over every kind of country from the desert to the mountains, they won
-through because of their indomitable spirit, and their boundless gift
-for improvization.
-
-
-                                THE M.O.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-In the whole war there has not been a campaign which depended so much
-for its success upon the native wit of the individual. Conditions
-changed with dramatic suddenness from battle to battle. What served
-to-day, was useless to-morrow. As an example of this, take the superb
-work of our Medical Services. The Medical Officer was, all the way, a
-man of many inventions. In the desert the wounded were habitually
-carried on sledges made of sheets of galvanized iron, and, later, upon
-an improvement of this device; as the campaign progressed, they were
-borne on camels; and once, at least, in the mountains east of Jordan,
-they were carried lying flat on rough beds made of greatcoats on the
-backs of horses; and as the road improved, they were carried in
-two-wheeled sand-carts, in ordinary G.S. wagons and every kind of motor.
-The Light Horse galloped, and those who would serve them must gallop
-too. The almost miraculous rapidity and efficiency with which the
-Medical Units would establish their various stations and communications,
-at the very heels of a fight, distant perhaps a hundred swiftly-covered
-miles from railhead, made them worthy peers of the sparkling horsemen.
-And, thanks to the establishment of the mobile operating theatre—a
-veritable galloping machine, like the rest of the force—under a gifted
-surgeon, it was possible for the most intricate skull and abdominal
-operations to be carried out at the edge of the zone of fire. All honour
-to our doctors and their devoted staffs! And especially dear in the
-memory of Light Horsemen will always be the mounted stretcher-bearers.
-No wounded man was beyond their gallant reach.
-
-Of the Light Horseman’s debt to the Nursing Sisters this narrative will
-not dare an estimate. As long as memory lasts, every officer and man
-will think with deep gratitude of the sustained, self-sacrificing
-devotion of these noble Australian women. Fighting in this alien and
-uncivilized land, thousands of young Australians for years never spoke
-to a British woman, except when in hospital. What the ever-ready
-sympathy and helpful friendship of the Sisters meant to them only these
-lonely soldiers could tell.
-
-
-                               THE A.S.C.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The supreme masters of improvization were the officers and men who
-handled the supplies. Not only the Australians, but the whole of the
-Imperial Cavalry—the greatest mounted force in the war under a single
-command—led by General Chauvel, depended for their rations upon the
-distinguished ability of the Queensland Colonel who was responsible for
-the direction of the supply and transport for mounted corps in the
-Desert. A cavalry force requires about four times the quantity of
-supplies which suffices for infantry, and, on occasions, it travels four
-times as fast. During the ride to Damascus, the horsemen, more than
-once, covered sixty miles in twenty-four hours; and on the whole
-advance, no man or horse went short of a mobile ration. British
-railways, captured Turkish railways and rolling-stock, motor-lorries,
-four-wheeled G.S. wagons, two-wheeled limbers (their off-side horses
-carrying pack-saddles, so that, if the vehicle failed, the load could be
-transferred), camels in tens of thousands, countless mules and
-donkeys—the interminable, sleepless procession on the roads during
-General Chauvel’s final triumph was a fitting culmination to the great
-transport record from the Canal onward.
-
-Of our Australian machine gunners and signallers, and of the model
-Veterinary Service, which cared for our sick and wounded walers as
-promptly and faithfully as the Medical people cared for the men, and of
-the British batteries of Horse Artillery, which unfailingly advanced to
-extreme limits with their guns and shot so unerringly (never was man so
-welcome as a galloping gunner in a sticky dismounted fight)—of all
-these, it is enough to say that without them Palestine could not be ours
-to-day.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The fighting ceased for the Australians early in October, with the
-capture of Damascus and Amman, though No. 1 Australian Light Car Patrol
-(Captain James), accompanying the 5th Cavalry Division, took a prominent
-part in the capture of Aleppo, and in the pursuit of the Turko-German
-forces north of that city. The final campaign yielded prodigious results
-at a trifling cost in battle casualties. Of the 75,000 prisoners made by
-General Allenby’s Army, more than 40,000 were taken by the Australian
-and Anzac Mounted Divisions. The losses in killed and wounded, in the
-two Divisions, were nominal. Unfortunately, however, the Force then
-suffered the worst spell of sickness it had known since leaving
-Australia. The terrible ordeal of Jordan Valley during the summer took
-its suspended toll. Malaria ran like wildfire through the regiments, and
-there was also much acute influenza with pneumonia following, sandfly
-fever, and other more or less serious diseases peculiar to the Holy
-Land. Many brave men, who had survived four years of hard fighting and
-extremely rough living, lost their lives by sickness in the moment of
-victory.
-
-The Australian Mounted Division was pushing on from Damascus towards the
-country north of Aleppo, and the armistice was signed as they reached
-Homs, which marked the northern limit attained by the Light Horsemen.
-
-To-day, the force asks only one question: “Who goes Home—and when?”
-
-[Illustration: H. S. Gullett.]
-
-  _Palestine, December, 1918._
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                              Anthem Bells
-
-
-     Heard ye the bells, the chapel bells,
-       Pealing in Bethlehem?
-     The vibrant swells, the solemn knells,
-       On the eve of a requiem?
-     Saw ye the trees
-     When the gentle breeze
-       Caressed the leaves of them?
-
-     Heard ye the guns, the distant guns,
-       That thundered down the vale,
-     When comrades strode the mountain road
-       To brave the battle gale?...
-     O, see the worn, returning men whose march no fire could stem,
-     And hear their song as they surge along
-       The road to Bethlehem!
-
-     O, hear the hoofs, the iron hoofs,
-       Falling in Bethlehem,
-     While sunlight flames on the ruddy roofs
-       In the hills of Jerusalem!
-     And if you’ve crossed the wilderness by well and palmy hod,
-     Pray heed the bells, the heavenly bells,
-       That call the folk to God.
-
-                                         “GERARDY.”
-
-
-
-
-                           Palestine Poppies
-
-
-From the hills to the sea, a scarlet trail of flowers in the spring,
-when the little grey larks are singing and all the low country is green
-with barley. Wild flowers everywhere, yellow and purple and
-butterfly-blue—but the poppy is our choice. It glows on Australian
-graves in the plains and down by the sea where the surf croons all day
-long; it makes beautiful old battle-grounds, and flakes the wady’s brown
-banks with scarlet. The blood-red poppy is Palestine’s flower. At the
-wind’s touch petals fall from the slender stems to lie softly in the
-grass, as if some rare and lovely bird had shed its plumage there. The
-red poppy is our flower of War, and in the tranquil days of Peace will
-be our flower of Memory.
-
-Among the sea-dunes white lilies grow, and they, too, will have power to
-win us memories of Palestine, unclouded by sorrow; memories of the blue
-Mediterranean, serene as a summer sky, or flinging ramparts of foam
-alongshore. When we camped at Malala or Marakeb beach, heeding all day
-the call of the surf, the land wind bore to us faintly the scent of
-blossoms unseen. A colour, then, and a fragrance of flowers are the
-gifts we shall take overseas. One will bring memories tinged with
-sadness; the other of golden hours.
-
-Palestine is a wild garden in spring. Many plants blossom on through the
-summer, fading at last in the season of mists, when dawn comes veiled
-like a bride and the earth is pearled with dew. In spring, when the
-wattles shower gold on our streams, Palestine poppies are blooming. From
-the white sea-dunes to the long blue hills the land is alight with
-flowers. And all the larks of the world and all the butterflies seem to
-be gathered there. Over every blossom some bird is singing or a
-butterfly floating on sunlit wings. A murmur of bees in convolvulus
-bells; grasshoppers leaping over the tall grass; wagtails gleaning in
-sheltered places; white vultures high in the blue; and kestrels hovering
-over the barley, keen-eyed for prey.
-
-Those long rides across the plains, before the Turks were driven back to
-the hill country, were wonderful. Our horses breasted a green sea of
-barley, and it was hard to urge them on. Often we drew rein to look at
-leisure on the earth’s green mantle inwrought with flowers. The plains
-and the valleys were beautiful. We rode inland along the blue ways of
-Dawn, rode on till noon, then, after rest, took the sunset trail, when
-cloud shadows were skimming over the earth. We gazed at the purple
-ranges and wondered what lay beyond. Under the stars we slept well.
-
-One ride I remember more vividly than all others. We started at sunrise
-from Belah, rode through a village, and came to a place of little hills
-whose slopes were bare of trees. Here the Bedouins had pitched their
-tents, some on the hills and some in the valleys, singly or in groups.
-When we cantered past men came from the tents to look at us, and
-children followed after, wailing for backsheesh. The women remained at
-their tasks. Dogs barked at our horses’ hoofs till their masters cursed
-them, when they slunk back snarling. We travelled on, with Fara on our
-left—a great grey bulk against the sky—coming at length to old
-pasture-lands that War had restored to Nature. Where dust had lain deep,
-and all plant life had perished under the feet of an army, Nature had
-won loveliness, healing earth’s wounds with grasses and flowers. It
-seemed an idle dream that the red tide of war had surged where poppies
-flamed in the sun and the little speedwell’s eyes of blue shone amid the
-grass.
-
-Far as our vision ranged the land was bright with flowers—tulips, blue
-salvias, scarlet pimpernels, asphodels, white daisies, anemones, and
-lilies swaying on tall stems; hollows brimming with sunshine and pink
-with cyclamens; acres of red poppies set in emerald; sky-coloured
-lupines; a green knoll fringed with “pheasant’s eye”; and away to the
-west a long, brown field flaked with white convolvulus flowers.
-
-For a mile we rode along the wady, seeking vainly an easy descent for
-the horses. Every cleft was starred with flowers; over the ledges melon
-plants trailed, making caves of tiny crevices haunted by lizards and
-spiders. Down a steep track we rode carelessly, letting our eyes dwell
-on blossoms and giving the horses free rein. We won to the other side
-safely, then on again through flower-land, with the white tents of the
-Camel Corps gleaming afar at Shellal. A long, glad ride from dawn till
-dusk across the plains in spring.
-
-When we carried war to the Judean hills we found wild beauty there;
-flowers among the terraced hills and olive trees in the valleys. Pink
-hollyhocks grew on the heights along the Jerusalem road. The valleys
-were gardens. Gehenna’s goat-tracks, winding among old tombs, were
-bordered with scarlet poppies.
-
-Wild flowers are Palestine’s glory. No one has named them all. From Dan
-to Beersheba, among the hills of Moab and Judea, on the wide plain of
-Esdraelon, on Hermon and Tabor, in Gilead and Bashan; everywhere in
-Palestine Spring casts down her kindling buds. We have seen them all in
-our long campaign, and out of the shining company have chosen two for
-remembrance: the little red poppy (symbol of sleep), and the lily that
-grows by the sea.
-
-                                                        CHARLES BARRETT.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                           Farming in Arcady
-
-
-Up in fanatical, uncorrupted old Hebron, where, happily, the cheap
-tourists are afraid to venture, you see the rude but expert craftsman
-making the plough. Seated in his gloomy little recess, hewn out of the
-stone of the hillside, he works swiftly with toes and fingers. Seizing a
-rough bent branch of an olive tree, he stands it up and grasps the lower
-end firmly with his deft and supple toes. The pieces fly. Slashing and
-turning, he lops the smaller limbs, hacks it here and prunes it there,
-and, in a few minutes, flings it aside complete, except for the steel
-tip which plays the part of the share.
-
-For a few shillings the plough is bought by the Bedouin. The selection
-of the land for cultivation is equally simple. Over most of the
-Palestine we covered, there is little regularity in the tenure of the
-small holder. The Sheik of the village has a loose control over a wide
-area, for which he pays tribute and taxes in grain to the Turk. The
-Bedouin is granted a plot the size of which is according to his capacity
-to cultivate and his inclination to work. He is rarely ambitious, and
-always lazy. If he has more than one wife, or has children of a working
-and a hungry age, he will extend his area. But, like the piece of glass
-bottle in Grimm’s fairy tale, he loves best just to lie about and
-glitter in the sun. That is better than any exceptional success as a
-farmer.
-
-As a cultivator he has complete confidence in Allah. He has never heard
-of artificial manures, or of the rotation of crops; he rarely troubles
-to irrigate even when water is available. Here, as all over the Eastern
-Turkish Empire, there is fertile land for every inhabitant, and to
-spare. So the Bedouin roams wide with his plough. He crops here this
-year, and next year tries a patch a few miles away, which has been
-resting for a season or two under the thin native grasses. His selection
-made, he appears at dawn one morning, riding on his mournful ass and
-carrying his plough in front of him. Or perhaps he rides one of his
-little black oxen and leads the ass; or he may ride either the ass or
-the oxen and lead a horse or camel. The point is, that he always rides
-and carries the plough, and that his wife, if she is in attendance,
-always walks and carries half-a-hundred-weight of something on her head.
-It is a significant commentary upon his neighbours that he always brings
-his plough home at night.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  HARVEST TIME
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  PLOUGHING AS OF OLD
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  NATIVE STOCK
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  THE FRANCISCAN MONASTERY
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  LAKE OF TIBERIAS
-]
-
-In his team he seldom drives two of a kind. It is a cow and a donkey, or
-a scabby, bony ghost of a pony and a camel. You can yoke them as you
-please. Palestine is a land that knows no shame, and so the horse does
-not rebel at being harnessed with a cow. Lazy as he is, the Bedouin is
-always up at dawn. At dusk he goes to his mat to sleep; he cannot read,
-and the villages burn no night-lights.
-
-Cleverly holding his simple plough upright with one hand, he pelts clods
-at the team or wields a long goad with the other. Up and down he
-scratches little gutters a few inches apart, his camel towering
-ludicrously above his ass. Usually, he sows his seeds in strips before
-the plough. He rarely harrows and never rolls, but sometimes he shows a
-sense of the value of fallow by ploughing twice. The rest he leaves to
-Allah.
-
-Sometimes, in the spring, he will pluck the wild turnip and radish and
-other tares from the growing corn. As a rule he prefers to sit in his
-coloured rags in the pleasant sunshine. Or he may go off to Jaffa with
-his asses and his women, and traffic in oranges. Then you see him, with
-both asses and women brutally overloaded, goading the donkey, or perhaps
-astride behind the burden of fruit, as the little long-eared slave
-totters along the tracks. The women, like the asses, never protest. The
-man is master. It is the way of the East.
-
-The beautiful lilies and poppies vanish as summer comes upon the
-rolling, treeless plain. The corn ripens and harvesting begins.
-Machinery plays as little part here to-day as it did among the “alien
-corn” near Bethlehem long ago, when pretty Ruth worked for Boaz. In
-Palestine the world has stood still for a thousand years or more, or
-when it moved it moved backward. Much of the barley and wheat is pulled
-up, roots and all, but some is cut with sickles. In each village there
-is a harvest floor—a patch of clean, hard ground, where each man builds
-his little stack and sees about the threshing.
-
-Occasionally you see the flail at work, but it is not popular. To wield
-the flail is hard work. So the Bedouin employs his cattle, his wives and
-his children. He spreads the loose crop in a little circle about two
-feet deep. Donkeys and oxen and ponies are then tied together, from two
-to four abreast, and goaded round and round upon the straw. Sometimes
-the threshing is done by their hoofs alone; but often a rude wooden
-sledge is drawn after them. Time is of no concern. The cattle barely
-move; the owner sits with his friends under the shade of an olive tree,
-smoking many cigarettes and occasionally dreaming luxuriously over his
-hubble-bubble; pleasant breezes blow across from the gleaming
-Mediterranean. The season has been generous: Allah is good. Why hurry?
-
-The threshing finished, rough wooden forks are used to remove the
-coarsest straw, and then the winnowing begins. Day after day the harvest
-is thrown high into the air, and, slowly but surely, the chaff and dross
-are separated from the grain by the Mediterranean breezes.
-
-Then the Turk comes—or he did before the war—and takes from thirty to
-sixty bushels out of every hundred! That is why the Bedouin is so fond
-of glinting in the sunshine, like the piece of glass bottle in the old
-fairy tale.
-
-                                                                H. S. G.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                             “Standing to.”
-
-
-       While the sleep-drunk world behind lies still abed,
-       And the dawn breath chills the smoking mists before,
-       Down the lines between in commune of the Dead,
-       There are eyes, that world of slumber watching o’er;
-       There are trenches darkly sheening readied steel,
-       There are orbs aglint, the darkness peering through;
-       And the shades of Night, the shades of Death scarce veil,
-       For the millions, to the Day, who’re “Standing to”
-
-       “Standing to”—in grim attesting to a Thought,
-       By the scars that weal Earth’s Face from sea to sea
-       In the pride to set the need of Life at naught
-       For the will to live a fancied Destiny;
-       Waiting, watching, till the hour of dree be gone,
-       Or muezzin-guns roar forth their hate anew—
-       O! Well may the world of Slumber slumber on,
-       For those watchers of the Dawn, who’re “Standing to.”
-
-                                                 BRENTOMMAN.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  OUTPOSTS
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  JORDAN VALLEY DUST
-]
-
-[Illustration: DINNER GONG!]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                            A WALER’S STORY
-
-
-Of my early life I remember but little. I have a dim recollection of
-golden sunlight, of wide-sweeping plains, of a huge dam down by a
-homestead, of tall trees like some I have seen around Jaffa, and others
-with golden blossom, and of a long trip in a railway truck to
-Homebush—ah! you know the place?—where I was sold.
-
-Since I have been in the Army my comrades have often taunted me with not
-knowing on what station I was born, and have called me a town-bred
-scrub; but I cannot help that. I will not bore you with details of my
-early career at Surry Hills as a “week-end” horse (I was then owned by a
-prosperous butcher), nor will I inflict upon you my first impressions of
-Army life at Moore Park; but I must say that I was at Broadmeadows,
-learning “Sections right,” “Form troop,” and “Walk march,” before they
-would put me in a unit.
-
-On the 20th November, 1914, our troop was taken down to a big dock and
-put on board what our masters called a transport. (I have heard them
-call it a ship, a tub—and other names as occasion demanded). We horses
-had a rough time all the way across; and judging by the manner in which
-our masters cursed when they came to feed us and perform their stable
-duties, or to lead us about the decks for exercise, I think they had a
-rough time, too. I remember a remarkable incident on our deck when we
-were somewhere in the tropics. (If you know anything about the tropics
-and about ships, you will know how we and our masters existed). Ginger,
-who never wore anything to speak of except a pair of shorts, shoes, and
-a grin, looked after the horses on my off side; he also used to hitch
-baskets on to a long rope, which disappeared through the deck above.
-“Haul away!” was all he ever said, and the basket disappeared. Later, a
-voice would echo from above: “Under below!” and Ginger would stand well
-back until it landed again. One day when the rope slipped, the chap up
-above forgot to say “Under below,” and the big basket fell down on
-Ginger and extinguished him. When he got clear, his conversation with
-the chap on top was so unrestrained and vivid that three horses broke
-out of their stalls and tried to climb up on deck. I did not mind—I had
-often heard the expressions Ginger used.
-
-We reached Alexandria at last and were taken ashore. At first I thought
-that a peculiarity existed in the ground of Egypt, for it kept rocking
-and swaying under my feet like the movement of the ship; but this
-feeling went away in two or three days. We were taken to Gabbari, put
-into trucks, and rattled to Ma’adi, a pretty little suburb of Cairo. At
-Ma’adi we had plenty of feed, good stables which kept the sun off us
-during the day, and very little work while the boys were away at the
-Peninsula. Sometimes we went out on route marches and dummy stunts, and
-always on Sundays our masters used to take us out on to the desert
-behind the camp, to gallop us until we were tired. Those gallops were
-great sport. There would be horses all over the desert, some of them
-with riders clinging affectionately to their necks, others without
-riders, and all of them thoroughly enjoying the fun, and kicking their
-heels playfully into the air. We were at Ma’adi right up till February,
-1916, and then we were pushed off to Serapeum and dumped in a camp close
-to the Canal. After the delights of Ma’adi, Serapeum came as a shock to
-me; and in a few days I was feeling very ill on account of the sand I
-had swallowed with my food. I could not stand, so I rolled about in
-agony. Up till then I had never had a day’s sickness, so this experience
-was quite a new one. The farrier-sergeant visited me on the evening of
-my collapse, administered a “ball” to me, and told Bill (my boss) that I
-would be all right in the morning. A lot he knew about horses! He ought
-never to have left that boot factory. He also told Bill to give me a bit
-more _berseem_. Bill stopped with me for a while, talking; then a
-whistle blew and he cleared out. “Good-night, Baldy” (that is the name I
-always got) he said as he departed, “you’ll be O.K. at reveille.” In the
-morning I was almost better, and by lunch time, when Bill gave me a big
-feed of _berseem_ that he had pinched from somewhere, I was as good as
-ever again.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  5th LIGHT HORSE BRIGADE ENTERING NABLUS
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  WATERING HORSES, ES SALT
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  HORSES THIRSTY
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  LIGHT HORSEMEN IN JUDEAN HILLS, JAN., 1918
-]
-
-We had been at Serapeum only a few weeks when I was taken up to Salhia,
-where I was promoted on the strength (I think that is the term) of a new
-Squadron. Bill came with me, so I had no complaints to make—not even
-about the _tibbin_. Bill always was a good master, and he was never
-tired of looking after me. In heat, in dust, in mud; across the desert,
-over the plains, amongst the hills—anywhere at all—Bill always groomed
-me and saw that I got my full issue of tucker. We used to have long
-talks together; and I really think he understood what I had to say to
-him. He was always considerate in the way he loaded my saddle, and
-rather than sacrifice my bag of grain, he would dump his own gear. He
-could not do enough for me; and, believe me, I could not do enough for
-him. Unfortunately, all masters are not like Bill, or (pardon my vanity)
-all horses like Baldy.
-
-My first real stunt was from Salhia to Kantara across the desert; and I
-think that it will live as long in my memory as that Amman show. We
-travelled all night by short stages—Bill would ride for ten minutes,
-then walk beside me during the next ten, and then we rested for ten
-minutes. I had a fair load on the saddle, but this was Bill’s first
-desert stunt, too, and he had not realized exactly how severe desert
-stunts can be. After that he always let someone else have the heavy
-gear, while he looked after the light stuff. That was in April, 1916.
-The long months from then until March, 1917, were one nightmare of bombs
-and sand, out of which our stunts—Romani, Bir el Abd, Mazar, Magdhaba,
-Rafa, and many minor ones—stood like the milestones I have seen along
-the roads at home. At the commencement of things in Sinai tucker was
-plentiful, and we waxed fat in the land and thrived on brackish water;
-now we no longer get the same amount—or so it seems—but the water is
-good. I did not notice the change until yesterday, when I had recourse
-to chew through my headrope so that I could visit the feed-heap while
-the piquet slept. Yet the change has been very gradual, and it has not
-been severe on me. I am still pretty sound in wind and limb, although I
-have seen old Bill look sorrowfully at me, and say, “Baldy, ten pounds
-of grain without fixings isn’t much to offer a man’s best cobber, is it?
-Never mind, old chap, we’re coping very well—very well, you and I.”
-
-Once Bill was away for seven days; and when he came back I noticed that
-he was stable-guard for a whole fortnight. I thought it rather good of
-Bill to look after the horses for such a long time without a break. I
-heard all about it afterwards. Bill and the sergeant—a big, ugly bloke
-like a Gyppo—were talking near me, and I overheard Bill’s final remark.
-“Yes,” he said, “I’d be a stableman for a month if I could get those
-three days in Cairo again.” Ah, Bill! what were you doing? While he was
-away in Cairo we had a little stunt to blow up a railway line; and
-because I was a good worker, the big Gyppo bloke passed me on for the
-occasion. The chap who rode me was a dopey kind of individual, and,
-although the stunt was only to occupy thirty hours, he loaded me up with
-all sorts of gear, and forgot my lunch-bag. We came home in the night
-time in a fog, tried to find Tel el Fara, and circled about all over the
-place until I got tired of it, and wanted to make for home and a feed;
-but my dopey rider kept with the column, refusing to be guided by me. On
-another stunt, I just side-stepped the “Killed in Action” return by a
-hair. Jacko sent across a few shells in our direction, and one of them
-landed right underneath a horse next to me and sent him West. Two others
-were as full of holes as a colander, but we got them home. Strangely,
-the horses on my side of the burst were untouched, and merely suffered
-from slight shock.
-
-The summer of 1917 was what Bill called a “snifter”—he also called it
-other things. Day after day, on those wind-swept, dust-covered plains of
-Southern Palestine, we stood in the heat and sweated from sunrise to
-sunset; during the night we shivered with the cold, and were wet with
-the dew and mist. Then there came rumours of a big stunt. It was good to
-hear that a big stunt was at last spoken about, not only because we got
-more attention prior to it, but because we would be leaving these
-sun-baked plains behind, and doing something towards earning our
-_tibbin_. It was on 28th October that Bill loaded my saddle, and rode me
-away towards Beersheba with the Squadron. From there onwards to Jaffa we
-dodged shells and planes, and existed on a very scanty ration. (Even
-Bill complained now and again.) We went without water on more than one
-occasion for sixty hours on end; and we had many weary night marches.
-Just after we left Beersheba I lost a good pal. She was following the
-General’s car, and had a despatch-rider in the saddle; and while doing a
-stiff gallop she stumbled, fell, and rolled over—dead. I think her death
-was due to lack of water, since she had had none for three days. She was
-a dear old thing, and I have yarned away many an hour with her. She died
-as I would like to die—a soldier.
-
-Winter caught us at Jaffa, and the rain came down unceasingly day and
-night. Here I had a lot of trouble with our labour corps—the mules. They
-were a hungry lot of cannibals, and, not being satisfied with a ration
-of grain, they used to break away from their lines at night and eat our
-rugs. Some of them even gnawed the hair and tail off a sick pal of
-mine—he did look a wreck in the morning! Another inconvenience was that
-I shivered so much that I always shook the rug off, no matter how
-careful Bill was about putting it on. The early part of 1918 was a time
-of wind, cold, rain, rocks and mud, and stunts amongst tremendous hills.
-We had a most exciting time then, and I often wonder how it was I kept
-out of hospital. Later on, when we stopped in the Valley, I tried to
-“swing it” a bit, and succeeded in bluffing the sergeant; but the vet
-knew too much for me, and so I remained. Fortunately, we moved back to
-Bethlehem, where the bracing hill air, and the sight of the olive trees,
-made a new horse of me.
-
-Our last big stunt was rather pleasant, as well as most profitable.
-(Bill agreed with me in that.) We again went to Amman, and this time
-captured all the Jackos in that part of the world; it was quite a
-different affair from that first Amman stunt, when I slipped on the
-muddy track and almost went overboard into a wady some hundreds of feet
-below. After we had collected all the gear which Jacko had left behind,
-we turned our heads west, came through Jericho, and passed up into the
-hills. We stopped for a day at Jerusalem, and then travelled down to the
-coastal plains near Jaffa. We returned to Richon to recuperate, and to
-await further developments.
-
-Now our masters are talking of going home, and I hear them whisper in
-the lines—“Yes, they’ll remain behind”—“Ah! They’ve done their work
-bravely and well”—“I wonder what will happen to them?” Bill is going
-home; to-day he came to me and told me so. “Good-bye, Baldy, old
-comrade. You’ve been a good pal to me,” he said; and then he was gone.
-Here at Richon I would like to stay with Bill, and end my days. Richon,
-with its trees, its vines, its orchards, recalls my early life in some
-strange way; its fertile fields and pleasant surroundings make the
-desert days seem but a bad dream of long ago; and in its shady lanes,
-the toilsome hills and the rain, and the dust of the Valley, are
-forgotten. But Bill is gone! I must stay behind! Let them shoot me—and
-quickly—for I would go to that land of eternal sunlight, there to wait
-until Bill calls to me.... Then together we shall gallop for ever over
-the plains.
-
-                                                       E. L. D. HUSBAND.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                         THE HORSES STAY BEHIND
-
-
- In days to come we’ll wander west and cross the range again;
-   We’ll hear the bush birds singing in the green trees after rain;
- We’ll canter through the Mitchell grass and breast the bracing wind:
-       But we’ll have other horses. Our chargers stay behind.
-
- Around the fire at night we’ll yarn about old Sinai;
-   We’ll fight our battles o’er again; and as the days go by
- There’ll be old mates to greet us. The bush girls will be kind
-       Still our thoughts will often wander to the horses left behind.
-
- I don’t think I could stand the thought of my old fancy hack
-   Just crawling round old Cairo with a ’Gyppo on his back.
- Perhaps some English tourist out in Palestine may find
-       My broken-hearted waler with a wooden plough behind.
-
- No; I think I’d better shoot him and tell a little lie:—
-   “He floundered in a wombat hole and then lay down to die.”
- May be I’ll get court-martialled; but I’m damned if I’m inclined
-       To go back to Australia and leave my horse behind.
-
-                                           _Trooper Bluegum._
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  EVENING AMONGST THE JUDEAN HILLS
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  A CAMP IN THE DESERT
-
-  _Photos, in colour by Capt. Frank Hurley_
-]
-
-
-
-
-                              One Too Many
-
-
-It was a hell of a night. Thunder enough to wake the “Jacko” dead, and
-raining fit to swamp old Solomon’s Pool. I was a good ten miles from
-camp, and it was with a dinkum bullocky’s curse that I swung into the
-saddle again and turned the pony’s nose for home. For about an hour we
-battled along, and then the supply dump at S—— hove in sight. Glad of a
-brief respite, I guided him toward it, and for a few minutes we rested
-in the shelter of a huge stack of _tibbin_.
-
-The rain had eased off, and for a brief second a sickly-looking moon
-gazed down on things earthly. That was what started the trouble.
-
-An Algerian guard was on duty, and, to the initiated, there is no need
-to say more than that. You might trick a Tommy or induce a Billjim to
-look the other way, but the man who beats an Algerian is going some.
-
-But, as I was saying, it was the moon that caused the trouble. When she
-took that peep from behind her cloud bank she gazed fair on to four
-shadowy figures, each surmounted by a bag of barley and a felt hat.
-
-Chuckling a little, she dodged behind the clouds again; but it was too
-late. The mischief had been done, and in a trice the “shadowy figures”
-found themselves surrounded by about a dozen sons of the Sahara and a
-like number of business-like bayonets.
-
-The result was a confused babble of voices for ten minutes, and then a
-procession to the Supply Officer’s tent. From where I was standing I
-could see and hear everything that passed, and everybody seemed to be
-trying to talk at once. As the “shadowy figures” could not speak a word
-of Arabic, and the Algerians vice versa, the result was laughable. But
-with the advent of the Supply Officer things took a different turn. He
-had been wakened from a sound sleep, and was arrayed in the pink pyjamas
-the girl had sent him, and a desire to be “firm in the matter.” He had
-no knowledge of Arabic, and was placing the “shadowy figures” under
-guard pending the arrival of an interpreter in the morning.
-
-That would have been serious for the said “shadowy figures,” so I
-decided to see whether I could help them at all. I had borrowed a
-cobber’s flash civvy raincoat in the morning, and that and the Jacko
-pony I rode must have made the S.O. think I was an officer. Anyhow, he
-greeted me very decently; and when I told him I could yabber Arabic
-pretty fluently, he was more than delighted at my arrival.
-
-Well, for a good ten minutes I did the interpreter stunt, and then I got
-him to dismiss the guard.
-
-Then I opened the case for the defence. I pictured to him the love of
-the Colonial for his horse, the long night rides, and a dozen other
-pitiful things, and altogether put up such a beautiful tale that even
-old Judge Jeffreys would have had to declare the accused “Not guilty.”
-So the S.O. decided to give the “shadowy figures” a stern lecture, take
-their names and numbers, and refer the matter to their O.C. next
-morning. Forth came the note-book and down went the particulars. I am
-pretty hard in the dial, but I was glad he was not looking my way then.
-For every one of the four had a number with six figures in it and
-belonged to the 19th Light Horse Regiment, 9th Light Horse Brigade.
-
-Luckily, he was a new man out, or the bluff wouldn’t have worked. But it
-did, and that was all that mattered then. He gave them the lecture, and
-in it repeated often, “I’ve been one too many for you fellows this time,
-what!”. Then he let them go, and as they left the tent the last one
-winked at me, and in that wink there was a world of mystery.
-
-Five minutes later I was in the saddle again and thinking hard. I was
-wondering where the “shadowy figures” had left their horses, and whether
-they would bump further trouble on the way home. Then I remembered a
-young wady that runs by the side of the dump and turned the pony’s head
-toward it. Half-way to it, I met them coming back. But where there had
-been four “shadowy figures” there were SIX, and where there should have
-been four horses there were ten. And the spare nags were loaded heavily,
-too. The chap who gave me the wink told me the rest of the yarn, and
-here it is.
-
-Two of them had acted as horse-holders while the other four had carried
-out the raiding part of the business. Three times they had returned
-without mishap, and it was on the fourth trip that the moon peeped out
-and made a mess of things.
-
-It started to rain again then, so we parted; they to their bivvies and I
-to a sharp trot home.
-
-Two hours after the sun came up, the chap who was “one too many” rolled
-out of bed and prepared his report for the O.C. 19th Light Horse
-Regiment, 9th Light Horse Brigade.
-
-                                                                  “ANON”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  WADY NIMRIN
-  Along whose banks the A.L.H. had many sharp fights
-
-  ARAB AGENTS ARRIVING FROM A TRIP ACROSS THE DEAD SEA
-
-  GERMAN PRISONERS IN JERICHO
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  MEAL TIME
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “SHE’S BOILING”
-]
-
-
-
-
-                        “The Light that Failed”
-
-                         (And some that didn’t)
-
-
-Among the many examples of ingenuity displayed by Billjim on service,
-the manufacture of illuminants, if you will pardon the prolixity, shines
-out the most brilliantly. The Sun itself is considered to be a pretty
-perfect and economical source of light, but it is not infallible. The
-annoying habit it has of dodging off about sundown excludes it from the
-category of the perfectly perfect, and Billjim is forced to procure a
-substitute to enable him to relieve the tedium of his evenings with the
-exhilarating influence of two-up, poker, swapping yarns and other
-harmless pursuits.
-
-The issue candle is, of course, the recognized form of illuminant; but
-by the time the Greatest, the Sub-Greatest, the Q-Emmer, the
-Orderly-Room Ogre and the Sigs get their cut, the stock is usually
-depleted to a mere skeleton of its former fat self, and the
-insignificant stump that is left to shed its radiance around the humble
-bivvies of the rank and file, is, as often as not, irretrievably lost to
-sight owing to the shortage of telescopes in the unit’s equipment. Hence
-the exercise of Billjim’s ingenuity.
-
-Some devices were truly efficient, others resembled the seeds that fell
-on stony ground; while one I know of was positively dangerous. The one
-in question was disapproved of from its very inception. The wise ones
-shook their heads dubiously, and opined that it was sheer flying in the
-face of Providence to use one’s issue of rum for the sacrilegious
-purpose of making air-gas for a blooming light. After the explosion
-occurred, and the blasphemous one was struck off the strength, they
-said, “I told him so,” and everybody was satisfied.
-
-The most popular form is the slush-light, which is simply composed of
-any old thing that will hold grease, and any kind of grease that will
-fit into it; first, a layer of sand or clay is dumped into the jam,
-milk, cigarette or other tin; then a wick made of “3 x 2,” or issue
-flannelette, wrapped around a thin pine stick, is stuck upright in the
-middle of the sand or clay; and finally the grease is introduced, the
-quantity being governed by the amount one has been able to acquire. It
-is on record that some chaps have had the effrontery to use dubbin, yes,
-“dubbin!” but, of course, this is not official, just common furphy.
-
-Next to the slushie comes the bottle-o; but to employ this it is
-necessary to have the above-mentioned rarity, candle. For candle one is
-not wholly dependent on the “issue” brand, for it has been known to be
-purchaseable at the canteen—when those institutions are in the vicinity.
-Supposing the possession of candle to be an established and material
-fact, the next necessity is a clear-glass bottle; old lime-juice bottles
-are excellent, and they can be found outside any officers’ mess, or the
-messes of troopers who “did a trot.” The bottom of the bottle is knocked
-out by insistent but vigorous tapping with the marlin-spike of a
-jack-knife till a hole is broken through, and then the rest is chipped
-off in small instalments till the end is quite out. The candle is then
-pared at the bottom end to fit the slope of the bottle neck, and a deep
-groove gouged in it, the candle, to admit air. Apply a match to the
-candle, drop it into the inverted bottle, and there is your light. If it
-is not very windy, of course, all that is necessary is to drop some
-melted grease on someone else’s tin hat, and stick the candle in it;
-simple, isn’t it?
-
-There are a few of the lesser Edisons who eliminate disturbance by wind
-by curling a legging around the candle; but only a very narrow chink of
-light exudes from its gaping edges, and the odour of singeing leather is
-not pleasant.
-
-One of the finest ideas was a combination of the slushie and the
-bottle-o. A squat chutney-bottle that fitted snugly into a toffee tin,
-was found, and the quality and steadiness of the light generated made
-drawn filament look painfully experimental. Some wire _tibbin_ bands
-secure the “globe” to the body, at the same time forming a handle.
-
-The designs, elaborations and embellishments of the original idea are
-practically numberless; they range from the primitive cremation of a
-religious aunt’s epistles and incriminating love effusions up to the
-princely slushie-cum-bottle-o; and they radiate in all classes of
-bivvies, and shed their glory on the tangle of the newly erected as
-brightly as on the white-stoned splendour of the resident.
-
-With these remarks, and any necessary apologies to the Dinkum Military
-Scribe, I shall leave them to shine on the just and the unjust, like
-their mighty lord, the Sun.
-
-                                                                 “SARG.”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  DEFENCES IN THE GHORANIYEH BRIDGEHEAD
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  THE BRICKMAKER
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  A TYPICAL ARAB VILLAGE
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  4th LIGHT HORSE BRIGADE WATERING HORSES AT THE JORDAN
-]
-
-
-
-
-                             A Night March
-
-
-At twilight, when the air is cool, we prepare for our second consecutive
-night march. Overcoats and mufflers are put on, saddles are inspected to
-see that all is secure. Later it will be too dark, and we too tired to
-attend to such matters.
-
-After a short wait we move off. Two to three hours steady plodding
-through the darkness, with the effects of fatigue scarcely noticeable.
-Then, suddenly, an utter weariness assails us, numbing limbs, distorting
-vision, and rendering minds a prey to tantalizing and disturbing
-thoughts—thoughts that mock and taunt; thoughts of feather beds and
-roaring fires; thoughts that accentuate our weariness and awake us to
-the realization of the cold.
-
-We ride, with drooping eyelids, a swaying body, and a precarious seat,
-surrendered to the inevitable.
-
-The column halts, and simultaneously we fall forward on our horses’
-necks, hoping to ease our aching limbs. Hoping against hope to hear the
-order to dismount. A jerk, our horses move forward again, and
-disappointedly we resign ourselves to the further delusions of minds
-tortured from want of sleep.
-
-Visions become distorted, we visualize the objects of our thoughts. A
-thought of water, and the road becomes a flowing stream. Thoughts of
-horses and trees, and in the darkness arises a village—a village that
-remains ever in the distance, and endures only so long as our thoughts
-are of villages. The horse ahead moves strangely; it appears to be
-dancing, and has taken unto itself the shape of a beast of prehistoric
-ages. By an effort of will we shake off this state of semi-somnolence,
-and, for a time, see things in their normal shapes again.
-
-At last, the order to dismount. Tumbling off we throw ourselves down at
-our horses’ feet, indifferent to our position and its possibilities.
-With heads pillowed on arms, water-bottles or haversacks, we endeavour
-to win a few minutes respite. Follows sleep and blissful
-unconsciousness, until friendly hands awake us, and wearily we rise to a
-repetition of the last hour. On moving off some walk and lead their
-horses, stepping out briskly in an endeavour to dispel the
-ever-increasing drowsiness. It succeeds whilst walking, but a reaction
-sets in on regaining the saddle, leaving the walker in worse plight than
-ever.
-
-With nerves on edge, we curse the numerous and apparently purposeless
-halts, become uncomplimentary about our leaders, revile horses for
-jogging and stumbling, warn companions of the damage they are likely to
-do if they persist in being careless with their rifles. Cheerful and
-good-tempered soldiers are few at 03.00.
-
-And so on until we hail with relief the approach of dawn, which dispels
-the hallucinations of darkness.
-
-                                                                 “ARAM.”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  ROMAN FORT, JERICHO
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  HORSES UNDER COVER
-
-  A. L. HORSE IN CAMP
-
-  2nd A. L. H. MARCHING THROUGH KHAN YUNIS
-]
-
-
-
-
-                            A Gloomy Outlook
-
-
-Amidst the universal joy—booming of guns, ringing of church bells,
-cheering, and the screeching of ships’ sirens—I am gloomy and ill at
-ease. I cannot share in the thanksgiving and tumultuous welcome of
-Peace; my mind is dark with foreboding, oppressed by thoughts of three
-things that have made so many happy lives miserable during the Great
-War.
-
-With the knowledge that huge stocks of dubbin, bully and biscuits are on
-hand, how can a chap be joyful? They must be disposed of—not cast into
-the incinerator—and thoughts of the woe that they will cause make me
-sorrowful.
-
-The war has ended, and with it the need for dubbin. Stacks of the
-beastly stuff must be disposed of before we are demobilized. There is no
-market for it, and nobody would take it as a gift. Offer it to a Light
-Horseman or a driver, and you would see stars not of the firmament. But
-I’m sure that The Heads won’t let it be wasted. It’ll be read out in
-orders soon, that all saddlery and harness must be anointed with dubbin
-once daily and twice on Sundays. There’s a good time coming!
-
-Bully and biscuits are even dearer than dubbin to the granite hearts of
-Q.M.’s, but they’ll have to issue them now by the ton. Rapid consumption
-is the only way to get rid of the pyramids of B and B left on hand
-through Fritz throwing in the towel sooner than the Supply Office
-anticipated.
-
-Army biscuits are beyond the capacity of Gyppos and Bedouin; if we
-strewed them broadcast over Palestine, they would lie there untouched,
-and ruin all agricultural prospects: even a stump-proof plough would
-crumple up if it struck an army biscuit. We can’t dump our stocks in the
-sea: think what would happen in a collision between a liner and an A.
-B.! No; we’ve got to eat the lot, empty every tin of bully and biscuits,
-and take the consequences like heroes.
-
-                                                                 “ARAM.”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _FROM GENERAL CHAYTORS HDQTS._
-
-  _After the Battle of BIR EL ABD_
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _THE FIELD OF BATTLE
-  FOR
-  RICHON LE ZION_
-
-  _Morning 15th Nov_
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _THE BATTLE of BEERSHEBA_
-
-  _Drawn for Anzac M^{td} Div Hd Qts KHASHIM ZANA_
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                             Reconciliation
-
-
-           Full many a time we’ve known the call to arms,
-             The sudden storm ... the aching aftermath,
-           When spent companions slumbered ’neath the palms,
-             And wooden crosses marked the wake of wrath.
-
-           Full often have we saddled up and sped
-             Over the sand, sweeping along at large,
-           Braving the fitful hurricanes of lead,
-             Galloping down resistance in the charge.
-
-           Mute sorrow and great hardship have been ours,
-             Long journeyings and escapades in force—
-           But have we not beheld the poppy-flowers
-             Nodding in red confusion on our course?
-
-           Yea, we have crossed the woeful waste of sand,
-             Left sorrow far behind; and we have heard
-           The skylarks carolling in the Holy Land,
-             Where flower and tree commune with bee and bird.
-
-                           “GERARDY.”
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                Mail Day
-
-
-“The mail’s in!” The glad tidings are tossed from lip to lip and shouted
-down the lines, outstripping, and for the time suppressing, the current
-furphies, “Furlough to Australia,” “Peace Negotiations,” “A big Stunt,”
-and similar creations of the idle imaginative mind.
-
-“There’s a mail in!”—A magic wand has been waved above the troops by an
-unseen hand and weariness and even sleep are banished from the war-worn
-soldiers. Even the sick are interested, and their eyes light up with an
-eager look of expectancy.
-
-“There’s a mail in!” The chronic grouser forgets to grouse, the lead
-swinger lays aside the lead and, for the time, his petty pains, and they
-join the eager throng around the perspiring orderlies who are struggling
-with the jumbled mass of letters, papers and parcels, bringing chaos to
-order, sorting mail into squadrons and then into troops, ere it can be
-distributed.
-
-What a study are the faces of that watching throng; what a joyous gleam
-leaps into the sleep-laden eyes of a tired youngster who has caught a
-glimpse of a letter addressed in the well-known hand of the mother who
-waits at home.
-
-There is a youth just from school, who has not yet tasted the mad joy of
-battle, of a ding-dong mix up, when death shrieks through the air
-missing one by inches, by hairbreadths. Here, too, is the war-hardened
-warrior, who knew Anzac before the Suvla advance, who has met, fought
-and beaten the Turk from Romani to Jericho, the hero of a hundred
-fights, of scraps fought out on lonely patrol, that the world knows
-naught of, though to the individual they are more fraught with peril
-than a big battle.
-
-To soldiers mail day is a day of bliss. Recruit or warrior, their faces
-portray the emotions that are surging through their breasts. Their eyes
-grow bright with eagerness as they watch the pile of mail assume shape
-and order under the deft hands of the postal orderlies.
-
-Men moving out on outpost or patrol shout to their mates, “Get my mail,
-Jack,” “Get mine,” and ride off casting longing eyes at that waiting
-crowd; with joyful hearts they move out into the night, to outwit the
-enemy or return no more. But what care they—for it is mail day!
-
-Before dawn, outpost and patrol return, weary and with sleep-laden eyes.
-They off-saddle and picket their horses, and dash into the bivvies for
-their mail. Matches are struck surreptitiously, candles are lighted and
-hidden by blankets, for lights are forbidden when in touch with the
-enemy; and thus are the letters eagerly read. Often Billjim falls asleep
-from sheer exhaustion, the last letter still clutched in his hand, and
-dreams of his Australian home; the fragrance of gum and wattle blossom
-are wafted to him from overseas on the cool night breeze.
-
-Mail day, the most joyous and most tragic in a soldier’s life, brings
-messages of love and trust from dear ones, messages of faith and praise
-from friends; and at times news that is sorrow-laden.
-
-                                                              “WIL COX.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                          A Day Over the Lines
-
-
-In the language of the Corps, “there was something doing,” for from dawn
-till dark machines had been coming and going on the aerodrome almost
-without a break; in fact, it was “some day.”
-
-Just as the first grey streaks of dawn crept over the horizon the roar
-of a couple of hostile aircraft patrol machines taking off woke an
-otherwise peaceful camp. An hour later the orderly officer was bustling
-round two more machines, which were to leave on the early morning
-reconnaissance of the country behind the actual scene of operations and
-along the Turkish lines of communication, to search for any signs of
-fresh concentrations or reinforcements being hurried up.
-
-At two hour intervals machines left in couples to patrol above our lines
-and prevent any possibility of Boche machines sneaking over, either to
-watch the movements of our troops or to bomb them; for, during a stunt,
-it was just as important for us to keep the Hun blind as to keep our own
-eyes well skinned.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-To me fell the first patrol, and a call from the Orderly Officer at 3.30
-a.m. was not received with the utmost courtesy. After hot tea and toast
-by candle light, we scrambled into warm leather coats, woollen-lined
-boots, gloves and helmets, and climbed aboard. By the time I had
-inspected my guns and the usual contents of the cockpit, the engine was
-ticking over and we were ready to start. It was still dark enough, as we
-took off, for the pilot to need all his lamps alight to see the various
-instruments, and, as we climbed, the crisp morning air set our blood
-tingling with the joy of living. When above the clouds at about 8000
-feet the first rays of the rising sun shot across the sky, and very
-shortly the clouds, which until then had been snowy white, were bathed
-in a crimson glow that held us spell-bound with its beauty. Primarily,
-the crests of those billowy mists were tipped as with a wand of fire
-whilst, as we ascended into space and the sun gradually rose above the
-horizon, the colour spread over that sea of cloud until it appeared like
-a stupendous stream of lava belched forth from some volcano which, after
-years of quiescence, had suddenly burst into activity.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  GOT HIM COLD
-
-  _By Lieut. O. H. Coulson_
-]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I have seen many sunrises under varying conditions, sunrises at whose
-beauty I marvelled, but never before had I witnessed anything that could
-come within coo-ee of the riotous blaze of colour that lay spread
-beneath us, covering the Holy Land, as it were, with a cloth of gold. It
-disappeared from view, however, all too soon, for, as the sun gained in
-strength and we in height, the colour slowly faded from fiery brilliance
-to a delicate pink until, finally, the clouds once again showed up in
-all their glistening purity.
-
-It seemed impossible to realize, whilst nature was all aglow beneath us,
-that war was being waged with all its relentless cruelty, that guns were
-sending forth their messengers of death and pain, and, above all, that
-we, who had been privileged to witness the glory of God’s handiwork,
-were scanning the heavens for something in the way of Hun airmen to
-kill. To me it seemed a sacrilege that, on such a glorious day, hate
-should be animating the hearts of men, and that I should be a willing
-agent, eager for an opportunity of sending a fellow-mortal crashing to
-earth and death. The Hun, however, evidently deeming discretion the
-better part of valour, did not put in an appearance, and when, after
-three hours’ cruising up and down the lines, we returned to the
-aerodrome, I believe I was pleased that I had not been, by force of
-circumstances, compelled to share in sending some creature to meet his
-Maker.
-
-So, throughout the day, the work went on, and, as a Hun “bus” was
-reported to have bombed our troops in the early morning, every one of
-our machines thereafter carried four bombs to drop on any suitable
-target that offered itself.
-
-Whilst on afternoon reconnaissance, the observer located a large body of
-enemy troops, and, immediately on receipt of his report, a bomb raid was
-ordered on which every available machine was to be sent. Luckily, I was
-detailed for escort duty, and it was a pleasant experience to watch the
-bombing machines assembling overhead, as they arrived from the different
-aerodromes, and took up the allotted formation. About 5 p.m. the leader
-fired his light and thirty machines, like a flock of great birds, set
-off on their journey to play havoc with our old friend, the Turk. After
-dropping the bombs, all machines swooped down on the troops and used
-their spare machine gun ammunition in shooting them up and generally
-giving them a devil of a time.
-
-All good things come to an end, and, finally, we set out for home, which
-we reached just as the sun, a ball of fire, was sinking to rest. The
-machines, glistening white in the reflected sunlight, resembled a flock
-of swans coming home, as, in slow, stately circles, one by one, they
-glided to earth. The Mediterranean, as calm and unruffled as a
-mill-pond, reflected the glory of the sun until its surface glowed like
-a sheet of burnished gold. By the time we, as escort, had seen the last
-of our charges land in safety and commenced our own descent, the sun was
-well below the skyline, and the narrow ribbon of the pink afterglow that
-skirted the horizon was all that remained to remind us of the sun and
-its glory.
-
-                                                     H. BOWDEN FLETCHER.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  THE END OF THE SCRAP
-
-  _By Lieut. O. H. Coulson_
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  TURKISH PRISONERS AT ES SALT
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  JERICHO
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  NAZARETH FROM THE AIR
-]
-
-
-
-
-                          Mounts and Remounts
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-On my arrival at the Unit, I considered myself fortunate when the
-corporal presented me with a fat, sleek remount, only lately up from the
-Base. My suspicions were not aroused until, preparing to mount, I
-discovered what an enormous supply of cameras the Troop possessed. All
-classes seemed to be represented, from the V.P.K. pip-squeak to the
-ponderous P.C. “Jericho Jane” variety. Maintaining a professional
-attitude, I mounted.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-In my youthful days I’ve paid two shillings to see a horse perform
-evolutions and gyroscope stunts not to be compared with the tricks that
-animal unearthed. I had an irresistible tendency from the first to fall
-off over the place where, in normal times, his head and neck should have
-been. Finally, yielding to impulse, I descended to good Palestine mud
-amid the shrieks of an ill-mannered crowd. Some imbecile sauntered up
-and said, “By jove, matey, if you could only have stopped up another
-five secs. I would have had one of the best snaps in the Unit.” I
-wouldn’t trust my reply to a green envelope. The sergeant remarked that
-horsemanship didn’t seem to be my forte, so I informed him that my
-marching-in papers proclaimed me a flag-wagger, not a Bronco Buster.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Right,” said he, “take Maaleesh.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-I took him, for better or for worse, and went to make his acquaintance.
-That horse didn’t belie his name. Maaleeshness fairly radiated from him,
-from his huge, out-of-proportion head that an A.S.C. mule might envy, to
-his stump of a tail, the missing part of which had provided food for a
-hungry moke on the Jaffa stunt. What was left of it provided me with
-food for reflection.
-
-He wasn’t a bad horse. As the Troop farrier said, he had no vice in him.
-The trouble was, he was as devoid of energy or grey matter as he was of
-vice. He progressed at a lumbering shuffle, with his head low down after
-the manner of a cow-catcher on a locomotive. He had also acquired a
-taste for feed-bags, and was blessed with a very good appetite. Every
-time I fed him he disposed of _tibbin_, grain and nose-bag. The day
-before we went on the stunt Maaleesh contracted Spanish Influenza, and
-on the vet administering that panacea for all equine ailments, a ball,
-he barracked and refused to move.
-
-Then I was handed over to the tender mercies of “Lofty.” The lancejack,
-who knew a bit about horses, confidently informed me that Lofty was one
-of those horses that never carry much condition, and he knew a horse at
-Cunnawulla.... I hastily agreed with him, especially the former part of
-his statement. We looked at Lofty, who favoured us with an apathetic
-stare. If the third generation theory is correct, Lofty’s granddad was a
-camel. Going through a neighbouring town I was No. 1 of the section, and
-being of a sensitive nature, it hurt me to see the people laugh; but
-Lofty appeared indifferent.
-
-The first day out he chewed up two signal flags and all the
-straps on my mate’s gear. Half-way through the stunt he
-faced the East, struck a prayerful attitude and, with a
-don’t-give-a-hang-if-you-shoot-me-I-won’t-move expression in his eyes,
-prepared to rest. Our sergeant shot him, whereupon he displayed more
-agility than anyone had hitherto thought he possessed, and gambolled off
-over a ridge. A sympathetic New Zealander recaptured him, but took
-warning from the black looks and wild gesticulations of the mob. Shortly
-afterward a report was heard. Lofty’s soul had gone West. Visions of the
-photo I intended to send to my best girl, of my illustrious self mounted
-on a fiery charger, faded into oblivion; and as I transferred my
-trappings to a spare mule, I vaguely wondered, from force of habit, what
-characteristic and peculiarities my new mount possessed.
-
-                                                              “ACRABAH.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “A LIGHT HORSE TYPE”
-
-  _By W. O. David Barker_
-]
-
-
-
-
-                       Concerning Medical Blokes
-
-
-The Army Medical Corps is a chain of many links. Let the lay mind which
-has condensed its conception of the Corps’ duties into “picking up the
-wounded,” reflect upon an interwoven organization of Base Hospitals,
-Convalescent Homes and Rest Camps; Auxiliary Hospitals, Isolation
-Hospitals and Dermatological Hospitals; Stationary Hospitals (which are
-liable to move about) and Casualty Clearing Hospitals—we are working up
-the chain from the back to the front—Motor Ambulance Units and Hospital
-Trains and Hospital Ships; Divisional Receiving Stations, Field Dental
-Units, Field Operating Units and Field Laboratories (these all hear the
-firing of the guns); Field Ambulances (which comprise within themselves
-Field Hospitals), Dressing Stations and Advanced Dressing Stations
-(these get bullets through their tents and shells in their bivvies);
-and, end of the chain, the Medical Blokes with the Regiments. They are
-the last link; they are the tip of the longest tentacle of the Medical
-octopus. Truly, modesty forbids me from adding that they are the
-sweetest violet in the bunch.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The Medical Blokes are detailed from the Ambulance at the rate of an
-N.C.O. and one man to each Regiment. Thereafter they become part and
-parcel of that Regiment; live with it, move with it, minister to it;
-share its trials, troubles, tribulations, triumphs and rum issues.
-Nevertheless, in cold, official fact, they still belong to the
-Ambulance, being upon its supernumerary strength—“attached for duty and
-discipline to the Xth Regiment.” This little complication has its
-unsuspected advantages, for it sometimes breeds in the mind of an R.S.M.
-a shade of doubt as to exactly how far the Medical Blokes come within
-his jurisdiction, and he is constrained to permit them a certain
-independence of existence and exemption from routine. They obey
-“Reveille;” they approximate their appearance on the horse-lines, to
-groom, feed and water, as nearly to the Regimental schedule as the
-exigencies of the medical service permit; they generally manage to
-scratch an instant to be present at the cook-house at meal times; at the
-Quartermaster’s bivvy when he is doling out rations, and at the Orderly
-Room on pay-day. Their liabilities discharged, they are left free to
-order their time as they please. They are usually to be found lurking in
-the medical tent, though they sometimes go to earth in a bivvy pitched
-somewhere in its vicinity.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-In addition to the two above-mentioned stalwarts, the Regimental medical
-establishment carries a Medical Officer and an offsider, a trooper of
-the Regiment, detailed for the job, who, in course of time, is likely to
-become so imbued with the spirit of his surroundings that he is not to
-be distinguished from genuine Medical Blokes themselves. Nominally he is
-intended for water duties; to carry out daily at the area drinking-water
-supply the mysterious rite (known to the uninitiated as “chlorinating”
-and to the rank and file as “poisoning”) by which the further existence
-of cholera and other germs in the water is discouraged. He is the man
-responsible for making the water taste as if there were a very dead
-camel lying a hundred yards further up the stream whence it was drawn;
-while tea made with it always seems to have been cut with an oniony
-knife. Yet he deserves a certain amount of pity. If he over-chlorinates,
-the whole Brigade will blaspheme him and his activities; if he
-under-chlorinates, Medical Officers accuse him of encouraging epidemic;
-and the happy medium of chlorination is so deucedly elusive that he
-never strikes it!
-
-By way of transport for their chattels the Medical Blokes have a cart,
-called Maltese, a square contrivance on two wheels and no springs, drawn
-by three horses abreast. You can pick it out on the road at the tail end
-of the Regimental transport in company with the water-cart. It is
-invariably overloaded with what looks like a lunatic’s purchases at a
-bargain auction sale—or somebody’s goods undergoing a back street
-removal—baskets, bottles, barrels, boxes, bedding, brushes, blankets,
-bivvies, buckets, to say nothing of all the things which begin with
-other letters of the alphabet. The driver of the cart is not a Medical
-Bloke; he is a Philistine from the transport lines.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-There are cinema-and-picture-nourished imaginations at Home who fancy
-war as one unending, crimson, bloody pageant of battle, whereas it is
-merely a different sort of humdrum existence from their own, with
-occasional violent patches of excitement. Also, they worship the A.M.C.
-man as the Red Cross Hero of the Piece, whereas ... never mind. But you
-will grant me that, of all the A.M.C. personnel, the Medical Bloke gets
-nearest to the heroic rôle. He shares the hazards of a fighting unit; he
-is an all-but combatant. When the squadrons go out to fight he sloughs
-all his bulky baggage, puts gauze, wool, bandages, iodine and scissors
-into his haversack, and follows. Comes at dawn—we have branded dawn for
-ever as the battle hour—a moment when a ragged, scattered line of men
-begin to walk forward up the gentle slope of a low ridge. This is
-attack. The split and scatter of shrapnel, the hiss-bang-crash of H.E.,
-and z-z-z-en of flying fragments, make death a chance in the shallow
-gully. But the top of the ridge is the edge of open, machine gun-swept
-country. It is a hundred yards to the crest—and death for someone. This
-Medical Bloke, the wind well up, has shrunk himself into a crevice and
-waits for a call. He desires nothing better than to stay there. He
-watches the men walking up the slope—such everyday, wise, silly, plain,
-good, bad, smart, childish men—just simply walking up the slope. And in
-that moment our Medical Bloke realizes that they are better men than he,
-because they are walking up that slope of which _he_ is afraid. Are they
-better? He is walking, rather slowly, up the slope now. He runs a few
-steps and drops behind cover on the crest, and waits for the need that
-will call him. Fate grants him a few minutes’ spell, and then puts him
-to the test. “Stretcher-bearers!” they cry to the left. The Medical
-Bloke can see two men bending over the third, and he faces one of those
-decisions which mould character. Quite properly, he may wait until they
-carry the man to him, behind cover (there are troopers whose hazardous
-duty it is to act as stretcher-bearers), or he may walk out and help. He
-walks out as steady as he can; it is quicker and ... well, what peculiar
-right has a Medical Bloke to the safety of cover when the men are “out
-there”?
-
-[Illustration]
-
-It is little enough can be done in action for the wounded; to cut away
-the blood-clotted clothing, to clap a rough dressing of iodine and gauze
-on the wound, or a crude splint on a smashed limb; to get the man to
-comparative cover, to rig some sort of a shade over him and to give him
-water; and then to wait—for the M.O. to come with the skill that soothes
-and the hypodermical needle of comfort. But the bitterest game of
-patience on earth is played when the tide of battle fails to flow
-onward, and the wounded lie all the livelong, sun-tormented day in the
-fire-swept zone, and the Medical Blokes can only watch and wait for
-nightfall to give safe-conduct to the ambulance carts or the camels,
-with great, unwieldy, white cacolets, which come to carry their poor
-shattered charges to sanctuary.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Believe me, romantic reader, that I will now reveal the true _raison
-d’être_ of Medical Blokes; the nature of their life-work, their excuse
-for existing. It is not, bless you, ministering to the wounded under
-fire. It _is_ merely to bandage up septic sores and to distribute a
-variety of pills, most commonly known in the proportion of “two of these
-and one of those.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The daily life of the Medical Bloke hinges on “Sick Parade.” It is the
-Daily Event. The M.O. sits enthroned in the Medical Tent. Orderly
-corporals present their list of competitors. One by one they enter and
-face the Presence. Pulses, tongues, throats, eyes, temperatures are
-submitted to scrutiny. The questing stethoscope roams over bared bosoms
-and backs. Each man speaks his piece—the most sick say least and the
-least sick say most, as a general rule.
-
-“Give him two of these and one of those,” prescribes the M.O., and the
-victim, a handful of tablets clutched in his fist, retires. The rewards
-to be gained by braving “Sick Parade” run up a scale from “Medicine and
-Duty,” through “Light Duty” and “Exempt Duty,” to “Evacuate,” which last
-is the coveted prize.
-
-“Go and get your gear together and be ready to go to the Ambulance,”
-directs the Medical Bloke, and the patient sees at once visions of the
-cushy comfort of a Base Hospital, wherein he may hope to wallow shortly.
-He has netted a trip!
-
-Medical Blokes have a restless job. Sickness and accidents call upon
-them at any time. Men drop into the Medical Tent at all hours of the day
-and night for “a couple of pills for a headache,” or something else.
-“Got any liniment?” is the next inquiry, followed by a request for
-eye-lotion. In this country a scratch or a graze does not heal in the
-course of things—it is just as likely to turn septic. Neglected, it
-spreads and develops initiative; it breaks out in fresh places without
-waiting for the skin to be knocked off. Hot foments and ointment
-dressings are the cure. Bandaged hands are the badge of the Palestine
-campaigner. Half the men, half the time, have either boils or septic
-sores. They meander into the Medical Tent in pairs, and out of hours, to
-get them bandaged. They are met there with scant courtesy—probably they
-are the umpteenth interruption to the letter which the Medical Bloke is
-trying to write; but I do not think it is often that they turn away
-unattended to. The Medical Blokes are just ... your friends, servants
-and comrades, the Medical Blokes.
-
-                                                               “LARRIE.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  CONVALESCENT
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  MOUNTING FIRST GUARD IN JERICHO
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  HALT AND REST
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  1. CHURCH AND TOMB OF THE VIRGIN
-
-  2. JAFFA GATE, JERUSALEM
-
-  3. CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, JERUSALEM
-
-  4. CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY, BETHLEHEM
-]
-
-
-
-
-                           The Signal Service
-
-
-Scattered throughout Egypt and Palestine and Syria, in the community of
-war-worn Australians, is a certain section known to the initiated as the
-Engineer Signal Service of the Australian Imperial Force in Egypt. To
-the casual Light Horseman they are “Sigs”—a vague and most inadequate
-designation. Little is known of the Engineer Signaller and his work by
-his brother of the Light Horse, whose one idea of signalling begins and
-ends with the Regimental signaller, a being who shares with him the
-pleasures and hardships of all stunts, but who is on a plane above,
-because no piquets and fatigues are his. At home, the popular conception
-of signalling is of a soldier standing on the last, lone, bullet-swept
-ridge, coolly flag-wagging a message which turns a forlorn hope into a
-brilliant victory, and earns for him Oblivion. Signalling, as the Signal
-Service know it, is far from being a flag-wagging occupation; they find
-themselves part of a well-planned business, which is based on
-efficiency, and conducted with that thoroughness for detail only to be
-found in an army.
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-“Sapper Smith, get your horse saddled up right away and report at the
-Signal office. You need not worry about your tea—I’ll see it is kept for
-you. You are only going to Romani.”
-
-The Squadron horses, after their first stunt on the desert of Sinai in
-April, ’16, had been off-saddled and fed at Hill 40, so the order came
-as a surprise.
-
-“Right-o! Corporal!”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The horse was soon saddled, and Smith reported at the Signal office at
-five o’clock.
-
-“What’s doing, Mac?”
-
-“Light Horse Brigade, Romani.” The signal-master read out the address as
-he handed over the despatch to Smith.
-
-“Where’s Romani, Mac?”
-
-Mac, the signal-master, came outside and pointed across an unbroken
-stretch of desert to the east.
-
-“About five miles in that direction, I think,” he replied. “Keep near
-the railway line and you’ll be pretty right.”
-
-Smith departed, and rode out into the gathering dusk of the East. He had
-never heard of Romani before, nor did he know how many miles he had to
-travel across this desert, where the Turk had been but a few hours ago,
-to reach the place; so he spurred his horse on over the heavy sand and
-covered four miles in quick time.
-
-“We ought to be there before dark.” He spoke to the horse rather than to
-himself. “We’ve covered a good four miles now.”
-
-He rode on over the level places, climbed the loose sand of the steep,
-razor-backed dunes, and slid down their opposite slopes to the level
-again, until another four miles had been crossed; yet he had not reached
-Romani. The darkness found him still pushing east over the toilsome,
-never-ending sand, with a set of new northern stars for guides.
-
-A desert dog started up at his horse’s feet, yelped away into the night,
-and threw the horse into a panic of fear; a stunted bush loomed in the
-darkness ahead and took on the shape of a crouching figure, sinister in
-the gloom. Here was a dilemma!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Shall I let the horse bolt while I try to loosen my rifle? or is it
-better to hang on to the horse and chance—ah! It is only a bush. Am I
-near Romani yet?”
-
-Eight more weary miles slipped slowly by, the sandhills pressed in on
-all sides, and ever the horse stumbled on gamely over loose sand and
-steep ridges.
-
-“Yes, it’s a light.”
-
-Smith swayed in the saddle and spoke again.
-
-“Hooray! I’ve arrived,” he said.
-
-Some time after ten o’clock a wearied despatch-rider came out of the
-night, handed in a despatch at its Romani address, obtained a receipt
-and departed. Next morning Smith reported to the signal-master and
-handed him the receipted slip for his despatch.
-
-“How far is it to Romani, Mac?” was all he remarked.
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-At Ed Dhaberiye, and at Tel Khuweilfeh, in the hills to the north-east
-of Bir el Saba, the fight waged hot during the first week of November,
-’17. That week is one to be remembered by the cable troop of the
-squadron; in it they knew no rest, for they worked night and day on the
-communications, and laid miles of cable to and from the Brigades.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  A SIGNAL OFFICE IN THE FIELD
-
-  _By T. H. Ivers_
-]
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Corporal Dawk!”
-
-“Here, sir,” responded Dawk from behind one of the cable-wagons where he
-had been trying to dispose of a hasty meal.
-
-“Hook in your team and get away to the 2nd Brigade with that line.”
-
-“Very good, sir.”
-
-Dawk turns to the drivers.
-
-“Get your horses in, Charlie; we’ve got another job. Hey! Gunner.”
-
-“What, again?” says Gunner, as he looks at his half-finished meal.
-
-“Come over, Baldy! Back, Ginger!”
-
-The polers are hooked up, and in a short space the wagon moves off to
-the Signal office for final instructions. Gunner jumps down from the
-body of the wagon, drags the end of the wire into the Signal office, and
-then mounts and pulls out over the hill.
-
-The wagon rolls steadily over the rocky hills, reeling out the cable as
-it proceeds. Darkness settles down, but this does not deter the cable
-detachment.
-
-“Whoa!” roars the lead driver as a wady-bed opens up below him in the
-darkness. “Steady with those horses behind—who’s in the pole?”
-
-“What’s the matter?” inquires Dawk, riding up to the leaders.
-
-“Oh, another wady; it looks pretty solid, too.”
-
-Dawk looks ahead, rides off to the right, and after a few minutes calls
-out directions to the drivers.
-
-“This way with that wagon; you can get across here.”
-
-Charlie swings his leaders round and heads for the spot where Dawk’s
-voice is heard. The wagon jolts over a rock, and lurches toward the wady
-so closely that a huge lump of earth detaches itself from the steep bank
-and rattles down on to the boulders beneath.
-
-“Get over to the right!” yells Gunner from the back of the wagon. “What
-the blazes are you drivers doing? You’ll have the whole box and dice in
-the wady in a minute!”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Get up, Tiger! Up, Ginger!”
-
-“Come over Baldy! Come over, you——!”
-
-The wagon draws away from the dangerous edge, swings round, and, with
-rattling and bumping, descends into the wady-bed in a cloud of dust. The
-horses bend their backs to the opposite bank and are urged up by the
-drivers, who have risen in the stirrups and are leaning over their
-necks. With a last effort the team pulls forward, the wagon jolts over
-the top, and then stops.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Harry, who was thrown from his seat at the back of the cable-wagon as it
-bumped the wady-bed, comes limping up the slope. As he climbs into his
-seat he makes a remark to Gunner.
-
-“That was a snifter!” he says.
-
-“My oath! a beaut.”
-
-More wady-beds open up, more detours are made, more dizzy descents and
-stiff ascents are negotiated, until, at last, the wagon draws in to
-Brigade Headquarters. The line is through, and everything is in
-readiness for the attack at dawn.
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-“When you’ve done with that pack-saddle, I want to ‘inergate’ a scheme
-with you.”
-
-“Yes, sir?”
-
-“This stunt is going to be a tough one, so I want you to see that all
-your pack-sets are in good-going order, and that those pack-saddles are
-fitted properly. Where are you putting the aerial load, Hook?”
-
-“Everything is ready now; I’m fixing this saddle for the masts.”
-
-“Right-o! And see that the farrier gets to work on those mules straight
-away.”
-
-“Yes, sir. Have you any idea when we move out?”
-
-“I’ve no idea; in about a week, possibly.”
-
-Hook busied himself with the pack-saddle, fixing gadgets here and
-knocking bits off there, until he had it to his satisfaction. All the
-technical equipment—wireless sets, cable gear, etc.—had to be converted
-for use on pack-saddles in this Amman business during March, ’18.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Six days later the Squadron moved out in the rain, wound its way through
-the Judean Hills, travelled over the Jordan Valley, crossed the river,
-and passed up into the hills of Moab.
-
-No wagons or wheeled transport of any kind could possibly traverse those
-tremendous hills, where the narrow track clung to the steep sides of the
-hills and threatened to fall away over precipices into rock-fanged
-valleys beneath. The rain poured down, and along the slippery track the
-column wended its way, toiling in single file up steep hills and down
-into precipitous valleys. The path became a river; water poured over the
-rocky sides of the hills and rushed into the valleys below. Everybody
-was wet through and greatcoats flapped soggily about weary legs;
-dripping horsemen led their horses and stumbled and splashed along the
-track; pack-horses and mules struggled and scrambled as their loads
-slipped; but the column pushed on and reached a position at Amman after
-two days and two nights of rain.
-
-“We cannot use the helios, and the cable is ‘dis’ somewhere back in the
-hills. Is the wireless set up yet?”
-
-Rip-p-p-p-p-p. Rip-p-p-p-rip-p-p-p-rip-p-p-p-rip-p-p-p-p-p-p.
-
-The crash of the transmitting sent echoes through the rain-sodden air
-and the singing spark sent its message through space, and then whined
-away into silence. The engine had “karked”—communication had ceased.
-
-No. A basket crate was brought from one of the packs, a message was
-written on a special form, of thin paper, and placed in a small
-aluminium tube; a carrier pigeon was taken from the crate, and released
-with the small tube containing the message attached to one of its legs.
-The bird circled round uncertainly for a few moments and then flew off
-in a straight line toward the leaden clouds in the West.
-
-Communication was still maintained.
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-[Illustration]
-
-These are but three incidents—three of many—which have happened in the
-Signal Service. The Service calls for initiative, coolness, and
-devotion; all these it has in its ranks. In the desert of Sinai, on the
-dusty stretches of Southern Palestine, on the plains of Philistia, in
-the hills of Judea—everywhere “east of the Canal”—the Signal Service has
-always maintained a high standard which has brought credit to itself,
-and to the Australian Imperial Force in Egypt.
-
-                                                          “ACK-VIC-ACK.”
-
-[Illustration: THE END]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                              Battle Song
-
-
- Silver and white are the planes aflight, and the guns are manifold,
- And hour and hour we gain that power which the Lords of war extolled
- When the wrath-fires flared, and the blades were bared, in the first red
-    tide that flowed.
-
- We’ve quelled the fears of the darkest years, and the vistas of remorse
- Grow less and less in the wilderness where the south wind gathers force,
- And a golden scope in the sun of hope rolls north of the Anzac Horse.
-
- When shrapnel breaks and the skyline quakes in the tempest loud and
-    long,
- We’ll gallop our files through the shell-torn aisles of a sadly shaken
-    throng,
- And the fire of hell will grandly swell to a martial storm of song.
-
- Swift as the tide then we shall ride for the goal that burns ahead—
- When night rolls round we’ll slumber sound where God’s sweet light is
-    shed,
- And the silver eyes of the cloudless skies will watch o’er the valiant
-    dead.
-
-                                                     “GERARDY.”
-
-
-
-
-                     The Little Bint of Wady Hanein
-
-
-Throughout the long campaign the fighting was fairly constant, but there
-were occasional brief seasons of rest, and the happiest of these were
-spent in the neighbourhood of the Jewish orchard settlements. The 1st
-Light Horse Brigade and the New Zealanders favoured Richon, where the
-wine vaults are said to be the largest in the world; and the Jewish
-girls are the prettiest in all Palestine. But the 2nd Brigade was loyal
-to modest little Wady Hanein. The three Jewish villages of Richon, Wady
-Hanein and Deiran stand about three miles apart in a rough line across
-the sandhills. Deiran, where the polyglot lassies were wooed by the
-troops associated with Desert Mounted Corps headquarters, is, like
-Richon, a large village, almost a town, with considerable social
-pretentions. There the Jews hold political meetings, and the girls dress
-with an eye on distant Paris. But Wady Hanein is demure—a true little
-Arcady set amidst hills and hollows beautiful and fragrant with orange
-groves and orchards of almonds. In the early spring the settlement was a
-glory of pink and white blossoms, and, later, its lanes were scented
-with the breath of the flowering oranges. As I write, the 2nd Brigade is
-in Wady Hanein for the last time, having come down from its strenuous
-work around Amman, across the Jordan; and the plump round oranges are
-coquetting between green and golden.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-It was from Wady Hanein that the Brigade moved out on the long trek
-across Judea and Jordan Valley and the Mountains of Moab for the first
-attack on Amman, in March, 1918. Nearly every Australian feigns
-qualification in his regard for the Jews in Palestine. But as the
-Regiments made ready for the road that morning it was pretty to see
-Jewish families visiting their favourite officers and men in the
-bustling camp, and wishing them God-speed with a sincerity and a touch
-of distress quite unmistakable. And all ranks rode to that bitter fight
-the stronger and better for those Jewish good wishes.
-
-The 2nd Brigade also chanced to be in the village in December of 1917,
-when Jerusalem was captured, and the citizens entertained the Brigadier
-and his officers at a feast, a speech-making and a dance. Proceedings
-were, for a time, somewhat formal and cold. The Brigadier and his senior
-officers sat at a central table in a large hall with the village fathers
-and notables. The girls, expectant, their toes tingling for the dance,
-sat stiffly in a row down one wall and the matrons along the other—a
-very convenient arrangement, because the dashing young Light Horse
-subalterns could seek a pretty partner without feeling obliged to ask
-for the programme of her elderly chaperon. The young men of the village
-stood with the junior officers of the Brigade at one end of the hall.
-
-The eloquence was terrific. The erudite village schoolmaster proposed
-the “Health of the King of England,” coupled with the name of the
-Brigadier, the British Army, the Australian Army, and the British
-universe generally. He spoke fluent and faultless Russian—or so it
-seemed to us. (Our linguistic attainments will startle Australians when
-we come home. There is not a man amongst us who cannot now say Bread and
-Wine and Darling, in all the languages of East and West.) He made happy
-reference to great British apostles of freedom, instancing Cromwell,
-Lord Byron, and Gladstone. He garbled the names, but we caught his
-drift; and, anxious to get in, we cheered tumultuously; and then, in an
-unhappy moment, some one on our side released the Brigade interpreter—a
-dusky fellow of dubious nationality—who rose eagerly to make the meaning
-of the village schoolmaster a little clearer to us. His success was
-indifferent, but he brought down the house with references to Lord
-Cromwell, Mr. Byron, and Sir Gladstone.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Then the Brigadier hopped up to respond. He was at his best. He referred
-to the joy which we, as Christians, experienced in driving the infidel
-from the Holy Land, and then, after an apt allusion to the Crusaders and
-King Richard, he became so eloquent and forceful, and slammed the table
-so hard, that all the village matrons gave play to their religious and
-patriotic feelings in subdued but prolific tears; which, when you
-consider that they did not know a word of English, was a unique
-testimonial to the eloquence and dominating personality of our versatile
-Brigadier. And then came the swelling triumphant peroration in which the
-“Old Brig.,” declared that “Palestine had been conquered and Jerusalem
-delivered by the help of God, but mainly by the might of the British
-Army.” After that we danced, and very gay it was, despite our unanimous
-opinion that speaking Russian was an easy task, compared with attempting
-correctly to foot a Russian measure with a pretty Jewish maiden. To be
-honest, it was a dumb show; but eyes were eloquent.
-
-But we have been a long time coming to the story of the Little Bint. She
-was one of many of her unhappy kind in Palestine. In that country, as in
-all the East, the rich know no compassion for the poor. If you starve it
-is the will of God and no concern of the more fortunate. That
-interference with the ways of Allah is the cardinal sin is a
-satisfactory article in the creed of the rich in Palestine. So the poor
-starve, unsuccoured, about the doors of the wealthy.
-
-The Little Bint of Wady Hanein was first seen slinking around the
-outskirts of Brigade headquarters. She was a wretched little Arab of
-seven or eight years, clad only in a tattered filthy shirt which came to
-her knees; with matted verminous hair, sparkling black eyes and a
-pitifully skinny little body. She sneaked round the lines at meal time,
-pouncing like a hungry dog on empty bully tins and jam tins, scooping
-out the remnants with a deft forefinger and flashing happy smiles as she
-put the finger to her mouth. The men were quick to notice, and soon the
-Bint had ten times more than she could eat. But she did not thrive. The
-vermin on her wretched body, and her unsheltered winter nights, kept her
-thin and miserable.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The grooms and batmen on Brigade conferred on the subject of the Bint
-and her future. The ringleader, whom we shall call Pine, a groom whose
-Regimental reputation was far from the best, led a deputation,
-accompanied by the interpreter and the Bint, up to the Bey, a fat Arab
-with a comfortable home and substantial wealth. Pine was forceful and
-the interpreter glib and honest. But the sleek Bey was obdurate. “There
-are many such,” he said suavely and finally, disowning any
-responsibility for the Little Bint, and he was not at all moved at the
-nasty reflections which the outspoken Pine cast upon his mother as the
-deputation withdrew. The missionaries returned to camp, baffled but not
-defeated. “We’ll adopt the little beggar ourselves,” declared Pine, “and
-take her on as a blasted mascot.” And they did. The preliminary work was
-decided. First the Bint must, as they say in plain army English, be
-“deloused” and bathed. Nobody wanted the job. But Pine was determined to
-see it through, and with the Brigade Major’s batman he cut the Bint’s
-hair, disinfected her and scrubbed her until her dusky colour was in
-danger. Other clumsy but Christian fingers cut up shirts and made her
-clothes; the remainder contrived a bivvy in which she was to sleep. And
-the Little Bint of Wady Hanein waxed fat and happy, and was a touch of
-soft femininity and a source of much delight to Brigade headquarters.
-
-Then came marching orders for Amman. You occasionally find Arab boys
-travelling with the Light Horse, keen little beggars who act as cooks’
-offsiders and batmen’s batmen, and officers smile and sympathetically
-shut their eyes to it. But it was clear that the sprightly little
-black-eyed Bint could not be taken out over the mountains into the
-bitter cold and bloody fighting at Amman. So Pine sought the Padre, and
-the Padre went off twelve miles to Jaffa and talked to the Mother
-Superior at the convent. Next day the Brigadier lent his car, and
-Pine—his leggings gleaming and spurs shining, and amusingly
-self-conscious—accompanied the Bint to Jaffa, and handed her over to the
-kindly nuns. Perhaps, as he left her, he gave her a big brotherly kiss
-and a trooper’s rough benediction; but probably he was too shy. I do not
-know.
-
-                                                         “CAMP FOLLOWER”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  BRIG.-GENERAL RYRIE INSPECTS THE “BULLY”
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  BRIG.-GENERAL COX ON RIVER JORDAN
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  A WALLAD OF PALESTINE
-]
-
-
-
-
-                              Algy, Misfit
-
-
-“Hullo, old chappa!”
-
-It was Algy, an old camp acquaintance from Australia, whom I hadn’t seen
-before over this way. By his greeting, you will probably be able to
-imagine Algy; yet, with all his “haw-haw,” when you got to know him, he
-was quite the opposite to what was suggested by his manner of speech.
-
-He had the habit of unbosoming himself to everybody regarding his
-career, past, present and future, so when I met him, I knew that I would
-get the whole story of his army life. And I did.
-
-“How have I been getting on? Top hole. The only thing is that my failure
-to rise in the army worries my mater. With my brains, or at least the
-brains mater believes I possess, I was expected to rise in big leaps.
-But the only rise I’ve made has been from my blankets in the morning,
-and then, too, only by the greatest effort. Awful bore, old chappa,
-these early reveilles.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“I try to explain to mater why it is that I am still ‘just merely one of
-the men,’ and seek to console her by quoting that well-known pictorial
-post card, ‘We can’t all be officers; somebody’s got to do the work.’
-You know, the poor old lady believes in me so much that she lives in the
-hope of some day seeing me wearing a whole string of ribbons on my bally
-chest. No hope. You know, some people have most peculiar ideas regarding
-the military. They talk about ribbons as if the military were in the
-habit of issuing such things in lieu of something—say as a sort of
-consolation when the rations are short. If they did, well, I’d be
-wearing all the variegated colours of the bally rainbow.
-
-“I’ve had a most varied career in the army. I was originally in the
-infantry—a private. You see, I started right at the bottom of the
-ladder, scorning all offers of assistance to get a commission. I was
-quite determined to go right up the ladder by my own unaided efforts.
-Eh, gad, I was an egotistical ass, that’s what I was. I never for one
-moment imagined that the rungs of the ladder leading to stripes and
-stars were so wide apart.
-
-“But about the infantry. Goodness, shall I ever forget the beastly
-infantry. The unnecessary walking, and the enormous packs one had to
-carry, and the really rude sergeant-major, who always roared at me when
-on parade because I could not execute the fantastic movements he
-insisted upon—really, when I think about it I shudder. I always did my
-best, but marching used to make me _so_ exhausted, and I never _could_
-succeed in keeping in step with the other fellows.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Finding the infantry uncongenial, I concluded that if I HAD to be a
-soldier I might as well sit down to the bally job, so I got a transfer
-to the mounted. I had never ridden a horse other than that of a
-merry-go-round, but I was satisfied that I could master the art. I’ve
-got a different idea now. I was quite all right while the animal walked,
-but when it trotted, oh, goodness me, I could never harmonize with the
-beast.
-
-“Ultimately, I came over here with a unit which did not use horses and
-was not required to do much, if any, walking. At least, that is what
-they said, though I should have thought at the time how the unit was to
-move itself. Maybe, the authorities, when I left, were contemplating
-providing privates with motor-cars. I’ve found out, since I’ve been
-here, how the unit moves itself. Don’t do any walking? Well, look here,
-if there is a piece of accessible ground in Palestine, and not
-forgetting Syria, that I haven’t trampled on trudging behind
-heavily-laden G.S. wagons and limbers in the course of many and frequent
-camp shiftings, I’d like to find it and have it photographed.”
-
-With a “Cheeryo,” Algy was gone.
-
-                                                              “BILLZAC.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                               Palestine
-
-
-[Illustration: Via Dolorosa]
-
-                  A league-long line of mountains:
-                    Some fertile plains:
-                  Bright, rippling, purling fountains,
-                    After the rains.
-                  Vast valleys, lorn and lonely;
-                    Smiling and green:
-                  Dead cities, telling only
-                    What might have been.
-
-[Illustration: “Tower of the Forty”]
-
-                      A weary, stricken people,
-                        So long enslaved;
-                      A spire and broken steeple,
-                        By lanes ill-paved:
-                      A thousand superstitions;
-                        A hundred creeds;
-                      The beggars’ vain petitions
-                        That no one heeds.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  MOSQUE OF OMAR
-]
-
-                      A field of poppies blazing:
-                        Orchids new-born:
-                      A wealth of flowers amazing
-                        Fringing the corn:
-                      A line of camels stringing
-                        Across the brae:
-                      The skylark sweetly singing,
-                        To welcome day.
-
-                      A home of races, mingled
-                        Gentile and Jew:
-                      Women with veilèd faces:
-                        Rogues, not a few.
-                      A Sacred Land, and Holy:
-                        Beersheba to Dan;
-                      Where once a King so lowly
-                        Lived as a man.
-
-                      A land of milk and honey,
-                        In Moses’ day:
-                      A place of paper money
-                        Since Abdul’s sway:
-                      A prophets’ land and sages’,
-                        By right divine:
-                      The heir of all the Ages,
-                        Poor Palestine!!
-
-                                “TROOPER BLUEGUM.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  SOME SOUVENIR
-
-  (AN AUSTRALIAN TROOPER WITH GERMAN HELMET)
-
-  _By James McBey. British Official Artist_
-]
-
-
-
-
-                           The Camel Brigade
-
-
-There are, maybe, ten thousand Australians who will never see a map of
-Egypt or Palestine, never hear of the Great War, never sing or listen to
-a Christmas Carol, and, perhaps, never even boil a billy, without
-thinking of camels.
-
-Nor is it altogether surprising; for camels played so prominent a part
-in their lives in the days of Armageddon. They lived on camels; they
-always slept near, and often on camels; and camels carried their tucker,
-their water, their clothes, their blankets. The last thing they saw as
-they fell asleep at night was a string of long-necked camels silhouetted
-against the bare horizon. The first thing they heard after reveille was
-the raucous noise of a camel lifting up its voice in the wilderness.
-Nothing but camel, day and night, from the Senussi stunt to the
-Jerusalem-Jericho-Jordan scrapping.
-
-None of us really liked our camels. Frankly, most of us loathed them.
-They were a necessary evil. In a desert campaign they were
-indispensable: so they were tolerated. But for many, many months the
-Cameleers cursed them without ceasing for the vilest, stupidest,
-craziest beasts that ever cumbered the earth.
-
-Then, suddenly—it was about midsummer, 1918—we began to realize some of
-the many virtues of the much-maligned camel. We remembered that even on
-the scorching sands of Sinai, we were rarely short of water. We reminded
-each other that, while Light Horsemen shivered on the freezing Judean
-Hills, we snuggled cosily ’neath a bivvy and four blankets. We thought
-of all the little extra canteen delicacies we had carried in our
-capacious saddle-bags. And we talked about the good times we had at the
-camel sports with Horace, and Mange Dressing and Starlight.
-
-The reason for this _volte-face_, this sudden revulsion of feeling in
-favour of the camel, lay in the fact that our camels were to be taken
-away from us. We were to be transformed into cavalry for that Big Push
-which we hoped would result in the smashing of the Turkish Army. And
-remembering the comparative luxury of the Cameleer’s life, we tried to
-make the _amende honorable_ and say kind things of and to our old
-_hooshtas_.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  THE MIDDAY HALT
-]
-
-The Australian Camel Corps was formed early in 1916, when the Senussi
-became troublesome. Four companies of infantry just back from Gallipoli
-formed the nucleus of the corps. They proved a most valuable asset, so
-more were demanded. But it was not certain that a sufficient number of
-Australians could be provided, so the 2nd Battalion was composed of
-English and Scotch Territorials, and the force became known as the
-Imperial Camel Corps. Later, a third Battalion was made up of
-Australians and New Zealanders, and, at the end of the year, a fourth
-Battalion, of Australians.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  BRIG.-GENERAL G L. SMITH, V.C., M.C.
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  OUR WATER SUPPLY
-]
-
-The Camel Corps was handicapped because of the general ignorance
-concerning it. The A.I.F. in Sinai knew little of it; Australia knew
-less. Often it was confused with and mistaken for the Camel Transport
-Corps, a valuable unit, which has done splendid work, but is not a
-fighting unit like the I.C.C. The members of the Imperial Camel Corps
-had all left their parent Regiments, and so, for a long time, missed
-those welcome parcels that the different Comfort Funds so generously
-sent to the boys. Later, however, the A.I.F. Comforts took a kindly
-interest in the poor Cameleers—and the Cameleers were unfeignedly
-grateful.
-
-Coming back to Egypt from the Western Desert, the Cameleers spelled
-awhile, then moved over the Canal to Sinai and participated in the
-Romani-Bir-el-Abd fighting. Then came the big trek east towards El Arish
-with its attendant patrols and skirmishes. When Abdul bolted from El
-Arish the Army followed, the Light Horse and the Camel Corps in the van.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Maghdaba and Rafa followed, two of the most picturesque and decisive
-battles of the campaign; and in each the Camel Corps distinguished
-itself greatly. Then on to Khan Yunis—where lived Delilah of old—and
-then to historic Gaza: the lion in our path. The story of the three
-battles of Gaza has already been told. There is no need to recapitulate
-here the part played by the Camelry in those engagements, save to
-mention that in the second battle the I.C.C. rushed and captured their
-objective, suffering about 75 per cent. casualties; while in the third,
-and victorious, battle, they held the line at Kouelphi and Ras el Nagb
-in face of heavy counter-attacks.
-
-The army had now turned the corner, and, under General Allenby’s
-inspiring leadership, the Camel Brigade pushed north with the remainder
-of the force until Jerusalem was captured. Then the army settled down in
-the stalemate line of trenches stretching from just north of Jaffa to
-the Jordan near Jericho; by which time the Cameleers had suffered so
-many casualties, and the camels were in such deplorable condition, that
-they were sent back to Rafa to recuperate—and hold a sports meeting.
-
-Mention should be made of the Hong Kong-Singapore Indian Mounted
-Battery, known to the Camel Corps as “The Bing Boys.” These Indian
-soldiers participated in all the fighting in Palestine.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  WATERING TIME, CAMEL BRIGADE
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  “PREPARE TO MOUNT”
-]
-
-In March, 1918, the Camel Corps trekked through Palestine to Richon,
-where they sampled the wine of the country. Then, after the rains, they
-ploughed their way through mud and slush and wire to Bethlehem. From the
-wintry heights of Judea they descended by way of Jericho to the
-midsummer of the Jordan Valley and on to Amman. Much has been written
-about the adventure, or misadventure, into the hills of Moab. Never will
-the Cameleers forget that night journey over slippery goat-tracks to Es
-Salt. Never before or since was there ever such a journey. Hour after
-hour the cavalcade struggled onward and upward, crawling round ugly
-devil’s-elbows on mountain tracks, slipping and floundering in the mud.
-Time and again camels would collapse, bogged and helpless, and some
-toppled over the precipice. But the Brigade got to Amman and blew up the
-Hedjaz Railway.
-
-Back to the Jordan Valley again, the prey of snakes and scorpions and
-spiders, mosquitos and flies and Turkish shells—but the mosquitos were
-the worst. Scores and scores of men went sick with malaria, which
-recurred during subsequent operations. The last big scrap of the I.C.C.
-was the defence of Musallabeh, which the Turks attacked with grim
-determination. In spite of very heavy casualties, the Cameleers held on
-and beat off the enemy. Because of this gallant defence, General Allenby
-decreed that henceforth Musallabeh should be called “The Camel’s Hump.”
-
-With Sinai far behind and well-watered country ahead, it was seen that
-the Camel Brigade had outlived its usefulness. So, in May, the Cameleers
-returned westward towards Jaffa, handed over their camels, and were
-mounted on horses and armed with swords for the Big Push.
-
-                                                      “TROOPER BLUEGUM.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  PORTION OF CONVOY OF 8,000 CAMELS BEARING SUPPLIES ON THE PHILISTINE
-    PLAIN
-
-  _Australian Official Photograph_
-]
-
-
-
-
-                                RESTING
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-There’s a delightful sound about that little word “Rest.” It conjures up
-delicious visions of breakfast in bed, scrambled eggs on toast, lying
-about in the sun, nice books to read, etc., etc., as the imagination
-wills. Now, we didn’t expect all these things, but when we got the word,
-“The regiment is going for a rest behind the lines,” everybody’s ears
-pricked up, and we were all on the _qui vive_ for the few days
-following.
-
-Sure enough, we moved out all right, and camped one moonlight night on a
-gently-sloping plateau to the west of the hills, taking up our abode
-comfortably in bell tents, six of us to a tent. We’d had a long day, so
-soon turned in and slept the sleep of the conscienceless. Behold us next
-morning, at that cold, cheerless grey hour which just precedes the dawn,
-lying in various picturesque attitudes, with the cold wind playing on
-us, as yet untouched by the sun’s compensating warmth. A bugle gave out
-its brass-mouthed message, and one of those necessary evils known as
-corporals invited us to “turn out and fall in.” Now, it was the witching
-hour of 4 a.m., and we didn’t like “turning out” or “falling in,” or any
-kindred mysterious movement; but necessity knows no law, so, to the
-accompaniment of many an ungracious “Blarst the war,” “What sort of a
-rest is this?” we crawled out of bed, dressed, and wended our weary way
-to the stables.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  BEDOUINS CAPTURED AT HASSANIYA
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  STREET MARKET, JERUSALEM
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  BEDOUIN VILLAGE
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  TURKISH PRISONERS, NABLUS
-]
-
-The next hour or two saw us busy among the horses—removing the
-superfluous dirt from their coats, cleaning up the stable lines, and
-watering and feeding our jaded mounts. We were then marched to the
-Q.M.’s to be issued with an extra blanket. In the usual way of Q.M.’s,
-this just allowed us back in time for six o’clock breakfast. During the
-meal they broke the news gently to us that there was a mounted parade at
-seven, to go through a “little training.” More grumbles, of course, but
-the time was too short to allow of any delay for grousing, so we got out
-for our “little training.” This delightful exercise consisted of a
-gruelling couple of hours in the sun, after which we had to groom and
-stable our horses, had a quarter of an hour’s “smoke-o,” and then the
-pleasure of lecture for half an hour or so.
-
-Dismissed to our tents, we distributed ourselves behind the covers of
-various journals—ranging, according to taste, from “War Cry” to the
-“Bulletin.” Hardly was our interest fixed, when there was borne in on
-our ears a stentorian cry which resolved itself into the voice of our
-two-bar artist yelling “Fall in for water!” and away we went again like
-lambs. A struggle with four horses, two on each side of you, and each
-couple desiring to go in a different direction, is not calculated to
-improve one’s temper; but we got the job done and returned for dinner.
-This meal was not the one of our dreams, but we settled down after it as
-though we’d lunched at “Shepheards,” and began to think that the “rest”
-part of the stunt was at hand. Then the orderly sergeant announced that
-there would be a grazing parade at two o’clock. So out we all had to
-turn again and spend a couple of hours on the grassy slope a mile or so
-away, thinking sad thoughts and uttering strong utterances.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Back again, stable the horses, we finished just in time for tea, to
-which we did ample justice, and allowed ourselves to drift into a better
-frame of mind. After tea we at last settled down in our tents, and had
-just dealt the cards for a quiet game of poker, when, lo and behold! the
-orderly corporal looked in and said, quite pleasantly and off-hand, too,
-“There will be an inspection at 9 a.m. to-morrow; all saddlery and gear
-to be cleaned and placed outside tents at 8 a.m.” Well, we looked at one
-another—we were past words. Slowly the hands were thrown in; more in
-sorrow than in anger we cleared the card-blanket away, and the last
-scene saw six queerly silent figures listlessly polishing up bits and
-stirrup irons and greasing leather gear, with the mutely suffering look
-in each face akin to the look of the dog which has just received a kick
-in the ribs as the grand finale to a series of ill-usages. So ended a
-day of rest. In that tent, that night, men went to bunk murmuring, “If
-this is rest, send us back to work.”
-
-                                                               “TRALAS.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                          THE MUKHTAR’S GOATS
-
-
-  Said Breezy Bob to Baldy Bill, “I’m giving you the oil;
-  There’s whips of blinking eatables on this ’ere virgin soil.
-  So what abart a forage hunt, me bold and noble chief?
-  It’s time we had some mutton now instead of bully-beef.”
-
-  Now, Baldy Bill was leader of an enterprising mess;
-  His cobbers all would back him up in deeds of wickedness.
-  So when Old Bob suggested that the gang should have a hunt
-  For tasty chops and cutlets, they agreed upon the stunt.
-
-  It happened that the n’th Light Horse were camping in a grove
-  Of olives, figs and oranges, the hedges interwove
-  With prickly pear grown very thick, and on the other side
-  The grazing land by cattle, sheep and goats was occupied.
-
-  An Arab Chief, or Mukhtar, was the owner of the flock,
-  Named “Abdul el Mahomed,” a monopolist in stock.
-  Now Baldy Bill and Breezy Bob were socialistic coves
-  Who spouted on equality amongst the olive groves.
-
-  And so in tones of ecstasy the plot was duly laid,
-  And in the hedge of prickly pear a hole was quickly made.
-  Then Bob and Baldy sallied forth—a ration bag of oats
-  Was carried by the doughty pair to snare the Mukhtar’s goats.
-
-  They crawled along in silence, seeking shade from tree to tree,
-  Until they came upon the flock all feeding peacefully.
-  The Mukhtar, squatting in the shade, engaged in silent thought,
-  Was dreaming of the prosperous times the “awful war” had brought.
-
-  Now, Baldy in the ration bag had made a little spout,
-  And as they crawled along the grass the oats were trickling out;
-  But as they neared the Mukhtar’s flock they rose upon their feet,
-  Salaamed in true Australian style, the pastoralist to greet.
-
-  In friendly pidgin-Arabic they talked a little while,
-  Then bade farewell to Abdul in the dinkum Aussie style;
-  And as they sauntered back to camp they noticed with a grin,
-  That Abdul’s goats had found the oats, and all were “wiring in.”
-
-  The feeding flock came slowly towards the hedge of prickly pear.
-  A fine big “billy” led the lot, quite eager for his share,
-  And as he wandered close enough the prickly pear to feel,
-  He “got it” quickly in the neck—a blade of polished steel.
-
-  Then Bill and Breezy dragged their prize into the Squadron’s lines,
-  Cut up the mass of quivering flesh in various designs.
-  With plenty swords available they soon got off the hide;
-  In less time than it takes to tell the billy-goat was fried.
-
-  That night the stew was “counted out” and mutton reigned instead,
-  And when old Abdul “counted in” his flock he hit his head
-  In anger, for he came upon the remnants of the oats
-  That Breezy Bob distributed to snare the Mukhtar’s goats.
-
-  Since then the Military Police are looking for a clue;
-  They never made enquiries about discarded stew,
-  Or else they might have found the truth; and Bill and Breezy gloat,
-  To tell the yarn in secrecy about the Mukhtar’s goat.
-
-                                                              “2469”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  BUYING ORANGES, JAFFA
-
-  _By W. O. David Barker_
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                               The Batman
-
-
-                              by W. M. W.
-
-                With “stand to Arms” at half past three,
-                  in cold and wet and misery,
-                Who brings a nice, warm cup of tea?
-                            “My Batman.”
-
-                Who knows the movement of all troops
-                  and brings the dinkum with my boots?
-                Who finds but never, never, loots.
-                            “My Batman.”
-
-                The last to sleep, the first to rise,
-                  who sorts the rumor as it flies,
-                and in a whisper puts me wise.
-                           “My Batman.”
-
-                Fount of all wisdom without doubt
-                  who knows just what we are about
-                but very seldom lets it out.
-                      The General’s Batman.
-
-
-
-
-                                Damascus
-
-
-The first charm of Damascus as a whole city lies in the contrast which
-those brown sandhills behind it make with the green strip of the Barada
-Valley. Journeying from Ludd through the monotony of lank, brown growth
-that straggles to the horizon from the road, you give up hope of ever
-seeing foliage again, until you pass El Kunneitra. Then you see the
-green of Barada; and it is the richer for the hills behind it—browner,
-more desolate by far, than any landscape skirting Galilee or the Jordan.
-Far up the clay feet of those rocky hills straggles the brown-and-white
-suburb of Salahiye, all square-built and flat-topped—from the distance
-like bricks inserted in the clay soil. The line of hills is cleft
-cleanly by the Pass, the scene of that hideous slaughter by our machine
-guns. If you climb into the fringe of Salahiye you see the curious shape
-of Damascus—a jagged comet-form, all the angles and serrations of the
-brown tail defined with unnatural clearness by the depth of the green
-about it. In the amorphous head are a few minarets—like jewels. In Cairo
-there are too many minarets as you look from the Bey’s Leap: they
-protrude like a porcupine’s quills. In Damascus the city’s flat
-brownness is just relieved by them. When we came to Damascus it was
-drought-stricken. Soon afterward, it rained torrentially for a day. Then
-the sun shone and drew from the city such colour as we never dreamed was
-there. Nor had we dreamed that the trees were dusty—so green they seemed
-after the southern country. But, washed, they helped to throw up the
-wonderful colour of “that great city,” as it is called in Scripture.
-
-It is a relief to be delivered from the sight of the everlasting
-cactus-hedge of the southern towns. The cactus does flourish in
-Damascus; but so thick is the foliage that it is lost in the mass. You
-cannot look down on Nazareth without being obsessed by the ubiquitous
-pest. You can look down on Damascus and be unconscious of it. It
-straggles about the leafy roads in patches beside the mud walls. That
-you can bear, because it does not rise above the all-enclosing foliage.
-
-The smells of Damascus you will remember for ever. Cairo is clean by
-comparison: the alleys of Cairo are not foul. The stinks of Damascus are
-literally overpowering. There is offal, refuse, foul puddles in every
-street of the Bazaars. The Abana is a foul river. “Are not Abana and
-Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel”? The
-answer is: Certainly not. There is an ill-kemptness about the place that
-carries Oriental slackness a bit too far. In the streets that thread the
-heart of the city are ruts and holes that break the springs of M.T.
-every day. The tramline protrudes eight inches. This gives rise to
-deadlocks in traffic that hold up movement for an hour. Incredibly
-narrow and tortuous are the highways of the city. The only decent road
-is that which skirts the fountained promenade near the Hedjaz Station. I
-am sure the Damascans look on this bit of orderliness as a Western
-intrusion; just as I am sure that if they found themselves in an English
-town guileless of smells they would call it insipid....
-
-In the bazaars there is a baffling complexity of colour, of race, of
-wares. The Mousky is less heterogeneous. In the Square, in the street
-which is called Strait, in the gold bazaar, grain bazaar, sweets bazaar,
-silk bazaar, you have all the various colour of tarbooshed Cairo, and
-more. Here the soldiers of the King of the Hedjaz throng; there is
-endless variety in their clothes and their flowing head-dress. The
-Moslem women, who veil their faces, affect far more variety than the
-Mohamedan women of Cairo, with their yashmaks. The French are here. The
-Australian hat and plume is everywhere. I never saw so great a number of
-Australian soldiers moving at random in any city. There is great
-jostling in these narrow streets, more than the normal jostling you get
-in any crowd.
-
-The dusty bazaars are in semi-darkness; their streets bear a covered
-roof of iron; they must get protection from rain. In Cairo all is open;
-for there it rains but rarely. Not only are the bazaar streets in Cairo
-without roofs that would stop a shower, but the shops, themselves, full
-of treasures. Here the rain comes in a deluge. From some of the street
-roofs the enemy had taken the iron for military use. What the state of
-these roofless streets will be when the rains come is sad to think. They
-will be flooded all winter.
-
-Except that there is greater diversity of peoples—both buyers and
-sellers—the bazaars of Damascus are much like those of the Mousky. There
-are the same well-defined areas for specific commodities; the same
-little cubicles for shops, where vendors squat and “reach for things”;
-there is the same voluble haggling—the same conversations carried on in
-tones that you would first mistake for quarrelsome; there are the same
-crying, peripatetic vendors of _limonade_, quoit-shaped cakes and
-toffee; the shoe-blacks are here, but they are ahead of Cairo, with
-their gongs to attract the uncleanly-shod. There is a more incessant
-stream of laden donkeys through the bazaars here. In Cairo the donkeys
-are chiefly for pleasure riding; here they are mercantile, over-laden
-with the striped sacks of grain and fabric. There are additions to the
-bazaars of Cairo in the goldsmiths’ bazaar, the sweets bazaar. The
-goldsmiths work with their blowpipes and tiny forges and tiny tools,
-moulding and fashioning. It is curious to see the workshop as part of
-the sale-shop. The belts, brooches, rings and trays exposed for sale in
-a showcase were made two yards away by that cunning Oriental fashioner
-squatting on his haunches. The sweets bazaar tempts you hideously.
-Eastern nutted sweets and Turkish-delight and toffees look as well as
-they taste. Mere assorted chocolates—such as you get at Groppi’s—are
-crude by comparison. There are great serpentine coils of Turkish-delight
-lurking in icing-sugar—nut toffee that is all nuts—none of your
-miserable paucity of nuts such as one gets in English almond-rock: nuts
-form the matrix here.... But enough of that; here, if ever, you are
-tempted to generate a liver the size of your hat.
-
-Public baths abound in the heart of the bazaars. Fronting the street is
-the final, open, divaned, cooling-off room—an amphitheatre of couches
-upholstered with a kind of gay-coloured towelling. A fountain plays in
-the midst. The bathed sit swaying in the ecstasy of reaction from the
-steam, with closed eyes. No Roman ever bathed more voluptuously. No one
-minds your going in nor your penetrating to the bowels of the
-establishment. Room after room you pass, with swinging doors; each is
-hotter than the last. In the last, and hottest room, the smell of man is
-overpowering; you hastily retrace your steps through the series of
-chambers and regain the comparative sweetness of the bazaars.
-
-Foul as this city may be, there is beauty in every foot of it. The
-beauty of Cairo lies rather in the view you get of “chunks” of it—the
-vista of the street, the space of a market-place, the mass of a mosque.
-Here the beauty lies in little pieces of wall, looked at minutely, in a
-tiny piece of domestic architecture. It is a beauty in colour rather
-than in form. Form in Cairo counts for much—in Damascus for almost
-nothing. Here there is dilapidation in a degree undreamt of in Cairo.
-But dilapidation does not necessarily make for beauty, though some
-people think it does. I believe the beauty of colour in Damascus lies in
-extreme age—in the mellowing of age. After Cairo, the intense antiquity
-of the older city—of every fragment of it—comes to you impressively. You
-feel the age of it as you pace every yard of its alleys. Cairo is
-comparatively modern, and comparatively garish. There is a fine, if
-filthy, harmony in Damascus.
-
-Intimate in the memory of most Light Horsemen will always be certain
-features of Damascus. Our men will not forget the Hedjaz Headquarters in
-the heart of the city, the German Club, the Local Resources Office, the
-filthy Turkish hospital, the English and French hospitals in the suburb,
-the littered railway station, the suburban roads, unspeakably rough and
-muddy, the afternoon perambulations of blatant under-dressed bints in
-gharries, the guards—on the aerodrome, on the Ottoman Bank, on the
-captured grain stores, on the captured guns—the plentiful lack of
-ordnance and canteen stores, the corpses of dogs and horses in open
-spaces, the multitudinous beggars, the exorbitant prices asked for
-German razors that cost their vendors nothing, the moderate cost of
-silver and brass ware, the Hedjaz recruiting processions, the glut of
-matches, the potency of arak, the cunning of the plausible
-English-speaking small boys, the puzzling complexity and fluctuation of
-the currency, the paucity of mails, the liberty and the usefulness of
-Turkish prisoners, the fitful and lawless discharge of firearms about
-the city all through the night, the suddenness with which sickness made
-its descent upon the apparently immune, the daily receipt and despatch
-to time-table of official mails by air, the dancing lights of Salahiye
-that burned till dawn....
-
-                                                                H. W. D.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                                Malaria
-
-
-              You, with your winding, creeping course,
-              What of the men of our Southern Horse?
-              Valley of night, with your wingèd pest,
-              What of our heroes now at rest,
-                    Down by your Dead, salt Sea?
-              What of the ones we have left behind?
-              What of these men of our kith and kind,
-                Nigh where your blood streams hiss?
-              Better the true and unerring shot!
-              Better the Death when their blood runs hot—
-                Than this,
-                            Malaria! Malaria!
-
-              You, with your agèd river’s flow,
-              What of our Riders laid below?
-              Valley of Death, with your torpid heat,
-              Look where your swirling hill streams meet,
-                    Down by your Dead, salt Sea!
-              Look to the ones on your mounded knoll!
-              Look to the ones of your chosen toll!
-                Those of your fevered kiss!
-              Better the blast of the rending shell!
-              Better the toll of the War God’s knell,
-                Than this,
-                            Malaria! Malaria!
-
-                                            “KOOLAWARRA.”
-
-
-
-
-                         Fall Out the 1914 Men
-
-
-After four years’ service, the remnants of the First and Second
-Contingents were assembled preparatory to return to Australia. Such a
-prolonged absence from their homes might have led one to expect a wild
-emotional outburst; but they received the tidings casually.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-As they fell into line to be farewelled by the Brigadier, they presented
-an inspiring sight; shoulder to shoulder, each man a history in himself;
-true mates, every one of them: their fellowship cemented by the blood of
-fallen comrades. Alert they stood, hardened by the privations and
-hardships of long years of campaigning, but—true test of manhood—ready
-to face it all over again if their principles were involved.
-
-As they waited for the “Old Man,” as the Brig. is affectionately termed,
-visions of the past began to take form before their eyes. Mine saw the
-silent, winding streams of human life, being hurried through the streets
-of sleeping cities on their way to grim, silent transports. No gay
-farewells, no playing of bands, no gathering of gaily-dressed crowds to
-wave them farewell on their way to foreign shores. As they strained
-their eyes for a last glimpse of their native land, many must have tried
-to visualize their return. None realized how or when, and many of the
-stout hearts on those sea-sprayed ships who gazed with loving eyes on
-their sunny land were saying the last farewell. Their graves are in
-strange lands, their deeds imperishable memories.
-
-“Boys”—it was the Old Man speaking—“we come together to say good-bye.”
-He outlined his association with the Brigade, and touched briefly on the
-outstanding incidents of its career. He humorously alluded to their
-“weakness” in a few respects, but he was proud to say that no man had
-ever complained of his punishment. Everybody had played the game, and
-his life was infinitely richer because of his association with them. He
-wished all a bright future, and they were never to forget him if they
-were ever in any difficulty.
-
-At the close of the homily, I am afraid, the etiquette of military
-discipline was violated in many ways. “Good old Brig., the whitest ever
-made,” and such-like remarks were punctuated by cheering and the waving
-of hats. A personal handshake with each man and wishes of “good luck”;
-and then came the farewells round the camp, when mates of years bade
-each other good-bye, and turned away.
-
-Friendship such as this will stand the test of time.
-
-                                                              “BATAGGI.”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  MRS. CHISHOLM’S CANTEEN AT KANTARA
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  BETHLEHEM
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  TROOPERS ENTERING JERICHO
-]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  DAMASCUS
-]
-
-
-
-
-                          “Old Horse o’ Mine”
-
-
-           Hoof-beats, that rang on the crowded street,
-             Had never beat unto me
-           All the wealth of the gold in your old black hide,
-             All the grit of your loyalty;
-           But deep in the sand of a lonely land,
-             Out on many a far flung trail,
-           Your old hoofs spoke of a heart you broke
-             For me, that _you_ might not fail.
-
-           Great eyes, that dusked in the green gums’ wave,
-             Though I recked not that you were there,
-           That danced or dulled at the whim mayhap
-             Of a fancy unaware—
-           How the mateship grew in the depths of you,
-             When the waste spread its gauntness wide.
-           How you parched with me, how you marched with me,
-             Through that Hell of a thirst denied.
-
-           Brave Soul that sprung in the colt of you,
-             Unguessed in the years far back,
-           Ere your Fate ran out from a land of streams
-             To the drought of a sun-blazed track—
-           For the days since seen, for the pals we’ve been,
-             When Old Time sees us through—
-           O! If then there be for the likes o’ me,
-             A Heav’n—it must hold you, too.
-
-                                                     T. V. B.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                        Concerning Machine Guns
-
-
-“Vickers Light Automatic, ·303,” so saith the machine gun handbook.
-Further on, it informs the reader that the gun weighs 38 lbs. when the
-water jacket is filled. These statements have been the subject of many
-bitter outbursts, and not a few have wondered whether they had a pair of
-scales at the War Office (this unfortunate institution is, of course,
-responsible for everything that goes wrong).
-
-There have been countless instances where a sweating, cursing Billjim,
-struggling up a scorching precipice with the said Vickers Light
-Automatic, would have betted all his deferred pay that it weighed at
-least ten times as much as the handbook implies. Even on such
-kindergarten exercises as gun drill, wonder has often been expressed
-that “they” had the blooming neck to print such a fib. Still another
-proof that the real weight greatly exceeds the official figures. Watch
-the hefty No. 2, capable of lifting an 18 pdr., as, after continuous
-firing, he gets the order, “Out of action!” In a flash, the pins are
-wrenched out, he seizes the smoking gun where the protecting piece of
-puttee, numnah pad or sock isn’t, and instantly drops the weapon to the
-ground. Isn’t that convincing?
-
-There are other minor details about the machine gun handbook that are
-apt to be misleading. It states that there is a No. 1, who is the boss
-and only carries the tripod—a flimsy toy of some 48 lbs. of brass and
-steel; next, a No. 2, who juggles with a Vickers Light Automatic; also a
-No. 3, who has nothing to do but carry a few boxes of ammunition, these
-being mere tin cases no bigger than the handbag he used to carry his
-pyjamas in, and containing only one belt; then there are a few other
-superfluous hangers-on; a No. 4, who aids the No. 3; a No. 5, who aids
-him; and so _ad infinitum_ down to that humble creature, the pack
-leader, who holds three horses during an action.
-
-Thus far, the handbook is perfect, photographic plates and all. Where
-the discrepancy comes in, is that there is no advice regarding a hitch.
-It has nothing to say about this: A person is observed toiling along
-with the tripod, a box of 250 cartridges hanging on each leg, straddled
-across his shoulders; some distance behind him wobbles another sagging
-individual, bearing the gun, more belt boxes, a pick and a shovel; while
-a third—sometimes—struggles on with still more belt boxes, range-finder,
-spare parts wallet, a can of water, steam escape tube, a bag to prevent
-dust at the gun’s muzzle, and a few other trifles; and down in some more
-or less protected hollow, three or four distracted pack leaders curse
-away their last remaining hope of salvation trying to keep untangled the
-twenty-odd hungry brutes that crane their necks to nibble at
-infinitesimal, dead grass stalks. Let us dismiss the handbook.
-
-The machine gun can be put to many uses. As a seat, it is admirable,
-also as a clothes horse for small gear; and as a horse rack, providing
-the animal doesn’t pull it over, it stands alone. It has also been known
-to remove Turkish folks from their ration strength—but accidents will
-happen.
-
-The gunner is at his best when using his gun as anti-aircraft. He
-reverses the position of the gun on the tripod in order to get a sharper
-angle, and lies down on his back beneath it, pillowing his shoulders on
-some soft substance, such as the spare parts box. The No. 2 crouches
-alongside to tuck in—at this angle—the reluctant belt; the Taube
-approaches at a reasonable altitude, and then ratta-tatta-tatta stutters
-the gun.
-
-A heartrending episode occurred in the Jordan Valley one morning. The
-guns, at the top of the precipitous cliffs lining the Jordan, were being
-snugly tucked away in their little dust-proof positions for the day,
-when sinister humming in the sky was heard. Out of the woolly, cumulus
-clouds a flock of Taubes dived and began their fell work. In a
-twinkling, the guns were violently slammed on the tripods, fresh, full
-belts rattled into the feed-blocks, and the gunners flopped into their
-positions, grimly inviting the visitors to come a bit closer and “have a
-fly.” They did, and answered the prompt leaden stream with their own
-guns.
-
-One gun had been firing merrily at the wheeling Taubes for some time
-when the prostrate, grim-jawed No. 1 uttered a wild, squealing yell, and
-writhed fearfully. “Good God, Percy is hit!” cried young Bobbie, the No.
-2, and he turned in alarm to his friend, who was out-writhing any live
-wire.
-
-The No. 1 gasped and stuttered in his agony, but managed to ejaculate:
-“Hit, be dinged! It’s the bloomin’ hot shells that trickled inside me
-shirt. Hop into ’em!”
-
-I give this illustration merely to show the risks attached to machine
-gunnery.
-
-The Machine Gun Squadron is regarded as a desirable unit. It has
-numerous advantages over the Regiments; notably, there are no duties or
-fatigues to speak of, except, perhaps, stables, watering, rations,
-cook’s, Q.M.’s, road-making, laying interminable miles of stones in
-line, whitewashing same, erecting this, that and the other, cleaning
-saddlery, polishing reluctant steel work, an odd guard or two (mostly
-odd), and a few other trifles, which the conscientious soldier performs
-with assiduity and alacrity.
-
-There is little else about machine guns to learn, they are so perfect
-that a machine gunner is now made in six weeks instead of six years.
-They have performed some remarkable work during the war, moral effect
-being one of their greatest assets—observe the sprightly vigour with
-which the officer inspecting outposts bounds away from the front of a
-machine gun position, where he has wandered by misadventure, when the
-man on guard sings out, “Machine gun here, Sir!”
-
-The boys will be sorry to say good-bye to their vicious, stuttering
-pets; and let us hope that, the guns, when they are returned to
-Ordnance, will cease to (metaphorically) curl their lips in disdain at
-their humble and erratic poor relations, the Hotchkiss rifles of the
-Regiments.
-
-                                                                 “SARG.”
-
-
-
-
-                               Delivered!
-
-
-              A wounded earth is free again,
-                The barriers of the East are down;
-              With many a mound above the slain,
-                The zones of battle, bare and brown,
-              Shall feel the tears of wintertide,
-                (War’s aftermath of sorrowing)
-              Till Nature heals their scars of pride
-                And flowers perfume a deathless spring.
-
-                                                “GERARDY.”
-
-[Illustration: FINISH]
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
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-  WHERE THE DEAD MEN LIE, AND OTHER POEMS. By Barcroft Boake, 4s. 6d.
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-  AT DAWN AND DUSK: Poems. By Victor J. Daley, 4s. 6d.
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-  THE SECRET KEY, AND OTHER POEMS. By G. Essex Evans, 4s. 6d.
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-    With coloured illustrations, 3s. 6d.
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-    and other illustrations, 3s. 6d.
-
-  GEM OF THE FLAT. A Story of Young Australians. By Constance Mackness.
-    With coloured and other illustrations, 3s. 6d.
-
-  DOT AND THE KANGAROO. By Ethel C. Pedley. Illustrated by F. P. Mahony.
-    3s. 6d.
-
-  CHRISTOPHER COCKLE’S AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCES. By J. R. Houlding (“Old
-    Boomerang”). 465 pages, 3s. 6d.
-
-  A BOOK OF AUSTRALIAN VERSE FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. Edited by Bertram
-    Stevens. With 14 portraits, 3s. 6d.
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-    etc. With 2 coloured and 12 other pictures. 8¾ × 5¾ inches, in
-    envelope ready for posting. 1s. 6d.
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-    8¾ × 5¾ inches, in envelope ready for posting, 1s. 6d.
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-    Smith, with appropriate quotations selected by Bertram Stevens. 7½ ×
-    5½ inches, 1s. 6d.
-
-  THE CITY OF RIDDLE-ME-REE: A Fairy Story in Verse. By Zora Cross,
-    author of “Songs of Love and Life.” With coloured and other
-    illustrations by Olive Crane, 7½ × 5½ inches. 1s. 6d.
-
-  BACKBONE: A BOUNCER FOR THE BLUES. Hints for the prevention of
-    Jelly-Spine Curvature and Mental Squint—A Straight-up Antidote for
-    the Blues and a Straight-Ahead Sure Cure for Grouch. New edition, to
-    which is added “A Message to Garcia.” 1s. 6d.
-
-  THE MUD LARKS. By Crosbie Garstin, Lieutenant, 1st King Edward’s
-    Horse. 1s. 3d.
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-    Garstin, 1s. 3d.
-
-  EXPLORATIONS IN CIVILIZATION. By Randolph Bedford, coloured cover, 1s.
-    6d.
-
-  BOXALL (G. E.), HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN BUSHRANGERS 390 pages, 4s.
-    6d.
-
-  CAMPBELL (Joseph), SIMPLE TESTS FOR MINERALS; or, Every Man his own
-    Analyst. Fourth edition, pocket size, cloth, round corners, 3s. 6d.
-
-  THE FARM GARDEN. By A. E. Cole (“Bouquet”). A Practical Handbook of
-    Australian Gardening, with about 100 illustrations. Cloth, 3s. 6d.
-
-  THE STATE AND FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONS OF AUSTRALIA: With a tabulated
-    comparison of the Federal Constitutions of the World. By K. R.
-    Cramp, M.A. Second edition, revised. With portraits and
-    illustrations, 3s. 6d.
-
-  HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. By
-    Arthur W. Jose, with 11 maps and 78 illustrations, 5s. School
-    edition, complete, 3s. 6d.
-
-  LIFE OF CAPTAIN MATTHEW FLINDERS, R.N. By Professor Ernest Scott. Over
-    500 pages, with 40 folding maps, full-page plates, and manuscripts
-    in facsimile, 21s.
-
-  THE BUTTERFLIES OF AUSTRALIA. By G. A. Waterhouse, B.Sc., F.E.S., and
-    G. Lyell, F.E.S. With four coloured and 39 other full-page plates,
-    and numerous figures in the text. 11 × 9 inches, 42s.
-
-              ANGUS & ROBERTSON LTD., Publishers, Sydney,
-              London Agents: The Oxford University Press.
-                        And at all Booksellers.
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-
-<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Australia in Palestine, by Various</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
-at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Australia in Palestine</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Various</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Editor: Henry Somer Gullett, Charles Barrett and David Crothers Barker</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 05, 2021 [eBook #64455]</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Richard Tonsing, MFR, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</div>
-
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUSTRALIA IN PALESTINE ***</div>
-
-<div class='tnotes covernote'>
-
-<p class='c000'><b>Transcriber’s Note:</b></p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='section ph1'>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c001'>
-    <div>AUSTRALIA IN PALESTINE</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_ii.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_iii'>iii</span>
-<img src='images/i_frontis.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>GENERAL SIR EDMUND H. ALLENBY, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='titlepage'>
-
-<div>
-  <h1 class='c002'>AUSTRALIA<br /> <span class='xlarge'>IN PALESTINE</span></h1>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_title.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c003'>
-    <div>SYDNEY</div>
-    <div><span class='large'>ANGUS &amp; ROBERTSON LTD.</span></div>
-    <div>89 CASTLEREAGH STREET</div>
-    <div>1919</div>
-    <div class='c004'><span class='small'><em>Nineteenth Thousand</em></span></div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c001'>
-    <div><span class='small'>Printed by</span></div>
-    <div><span class='small'>W. C. Penfold &amp; Co. Ltd., 183 Pitt Street, Sydney</span></div>
-    <div><span class='small'>London Agents: The Oxford University Press</span></div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c001'>
-    <div>TO THE MEMORY</div>
-    <div>OF</div>
-    <div>FALLEN COMRADES</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id003'>
-<img src='images/i_vi.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Editors’ Note</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_vii.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'>
-This book owes its publication to the warm interest
-taken in its initiation by a Committee comprised
-of the G.O.C., A.I.F., in Egypt; the G.O’s.C.
-Anzac and Australian Mounted Divisions and
-Brigades, and a number of other senior A.I.F.
-officers; and, later, to the generosity of the many
-contributors of paintings, sketches, photographs,
-verse and prose.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Australia in Palestine” is in no sense intended as a complete picture
-of the Australians’ part in the Great Campaign. It is merely a Soldiers’
-Book, produced almost entirely by soldiers in the field under active service
-conditions to send to their friends in Australia and abroad. An edition
-has also been published for sale to the general public, and any profits
-derived from it will go to one of the A.I.F. funds.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Thanks are due to our many contributors, and in particular to
-Mr. James McBey, the Official British Artist in Palestine, for his fine
-portrait of General Allenby (specially drawn for this book) and other
-sketches; to Captain Hodgkinson, British Press Officer, for permission to
-use many British official photographs; to Mr. Jeapes, British Official
-Cinema Photographer, for the loan of many snapshots; and to Sergeant
-E. A. Hodda, A.I.F., who took charge of the business arrangements,
-and to whose keen interest and ability our obligation is substantial.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>We have also to thank Major N. D. Barton, 7th A.L.H. Regiment,
-and Messrs. H. M. Somer and Sydney Ure Smith for the
-valuable assistance they have given as Committee of Publication in
-Australia.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='sc'>H. S. Gullett</span> } Editors.</div>
-      <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Chas. Barrett</span> }</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='sc'>David Barker</span>, Art Editor.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_ix'>ix</span></div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i_ix.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <h2 class='c005'>CONTENTS</h2>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<table class='table0' summary='CONTENTS'>
-<colgroup>
-<col width='92%' />
-<col width='7%' />
-</colgroup>
-  <tr>
-    <th class='c008'></th>
-    <th class='c009'><span class='small'>Page</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Preface (Lieut.-Gen. Sir H. G. Chauvel)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_xiii'>xiii</a>.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Fighting for Palestine (H. S. Gullett)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Anthem Bells (“Gerardy”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_60'>60</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Palestine Poppies (Charles Barrett)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_61'>61</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Farming in Arcady (H. S. G.)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Standing To (Brentomman)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Waler’s Story (E. L. D. Husband)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_71'>71</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Horses Stay Behind (“Trooper Bluegum”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>One Too Many (“Anon”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_79'>79</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Light That Failed (“Sarg”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_83'>83</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Night March (“Aram”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_87'>87</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Gloomy Outlook (“Aram”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_90'>90</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Reconciliation (“Gerardy”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_91'>91</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Mail Day (“Wil Cox”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_92'>92</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Day Over The Lines (H. Bowden Fletcher)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_94'>94</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Mounts and Remounts (“Acrabah”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_99'>99</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Concerning Medical Blokes (“Larrie”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_102'>102</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Signal Service (“Ack-Vic-Ack”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Battle Song (“Gerardy”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_114'>114</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Little Bint of Wady Hanein (“Camp Follower”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_115'>115</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Algy, Misfit (“Billzac”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_121'>121</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_x'>x</span>Palestine (“Trooper Bluegum”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Camel Brigade (“Trooper Bluegum”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_125'>125</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Resting (“Tralas”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_132'>132</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Mukhtar’s Goats (“2469”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_137'>137</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Batman (W. M. W.)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_139'>139</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Damascus (H. W. D.)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_140'>140</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Malaria (“Koolawarra”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_144'>144</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Fall Out The 1914 Men (“Bataggi”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_145'>145</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Old Horse o’ Mine (T. V. B.)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_149'>149</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Concerning Machine Guns (“Sarg”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_150'>150</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Delivered! (“Gerardy”)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_153'>153</a></td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id003'>
-<img src='images/i_x.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_xi'>xi</span></div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i_xi.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <h2 class='c005'>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<table class='table0' summary='ILLUSTRATIONS'>
-<colgroup>
-<col width='92%' />
-<col width='7%' />
-</colgroup>
-  <tr><th class='c010' colspan='2'>COLOUR PLATES</th></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <th class='c008'></th>
-    <th class='c009'><span class='small'>Page</span></th>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>General Sir Edmund H. H. Allenby, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_iii'>iii</a>.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Jerusalem, from below the Mount of Olives</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t4'>4</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Romani. Mount Royston in the distance</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t14'>14</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Magdhaba, showing the Wady Bed about one mile from Turkish buildings</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t26'>26</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Road to Jericho</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t38'>38</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Dead Sea (Sunrise)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t42'>42</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Australians on the Road to Jerusalem</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t50a'>30</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>An Australian Flying Squadron in Palestine</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t50b'>50</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Jaffa</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t54a'>54</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Australians prior to the fight for Nalin</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t54b'>54</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Anzac Ridge, Gaza</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t56'>56</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>National Types</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t70'>70</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Evening amongst the Judean Hills</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t78a'>78</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Camp in the Desert</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t78b'>78</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Got Him Cold</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t94'>94</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The End of the Scrap</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t96'>96</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Convalescent</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t106'>106</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Signal Office in the Field</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t110'>110</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Some Souvenir</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t124'>124</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Buying Oranges, Jaffa</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t138'>138</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr><th class='c010' colspan='2'>PHOTOGRAPHS, Etc.</th></tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Lieut.-General Sir H. G. Chauvel, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_xv'>xv</a>.</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Jaffa</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t4b'>4</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Map of Ottoman Empire</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t6'>6</a>–7</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Brief Halt Richly Earned</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_9'>9</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Jerusalem from the Air</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t9'>9</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Damascus from the Air</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_10'>10</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>3rd L.H. Camp at Belah</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t10'>10</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>In a Village Street</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t14b'>14</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Map of Northern Sinai</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t18'>18</a>–19</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Turks marching out of Jerusalem (1914)</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Gaza</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t23'>23</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Mount of Temptation</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_24'>24</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>All the World Over</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t24'>24</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Turkish Prisoners at Beersheba</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_29'>29</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Street Market, Jerusalem</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_29'>29</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Jericho, showing garden oasis</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_29'>29</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Light Horse crossing Jordan</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_29'>29</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>In the Jordan Valley</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Spring Water, Clear and Cold</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t30'>30</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Map of Palestine</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t34'>34</a>–35</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Ismailia</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t38b'>38</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>In the Jordan Valley</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_41'>41</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Shopping in Jericho</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_41'>41</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>“Baksheesh”</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_42'>42</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Meal outside the Bivvies</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t42b'>42</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Scotties on a Route March</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t42c'>42</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Major-Gen. Chaytor receives Arab Chiefs</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_46'>46</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Jerusalem</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t46b'>46</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Map of Syria</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a>–49</td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Orange Seller, Jaffa</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_53'>53</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>In the Shade</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t53'>53</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Village Well</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Native Plough and Team</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Harvest Time</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_65'>65</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Ploughing as of Old</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t65b'>65</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Native Stock</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t65c'>65</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'><span class='pageno' id='Page_xii'>xii</span>The Franciscan Monastery</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Lake of Tiberias</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t66b'>66</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Outposts</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_70'>70</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Jordan Valley Dust</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t70b'>70</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>5th L.H. Brigade entering Nablus</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Watering Horses, Es Salt</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t73'>73</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Horses Thirsty</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_74'>74</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Light Horsemen in Judean Hills</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t74'>74</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Wady Nimrin</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_81'>81</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Arab Agents</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_81'>81</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>German Prisoners in Jericho</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_81'>81</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Meal Time</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_82'>82</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>“She’s Boiling”</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t82'>82</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Defences in the Ghoraniyeh Bridgehead</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_85'>85</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Brickmaker</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t85'>85</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Typical Arab Village</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_86'>86</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>4th L.H. Brigade Watering Horses</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t86'>86</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Roman Fort, Jericho</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_88'>88</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Horses under cover</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A.L. Horse in Camp</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>2nd L.H. marching through Khan Yunis</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_89'>89</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Turkish Prisoners at Es Salt</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_97'>97</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Jericho</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t97'>97</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Nazareth from the Air</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_98'>98</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>“A Light Horse Type”</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_101'>101</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Mounting First Guard in Jericho</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_107'>107</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Halt and Rest</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t107'>107</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Church and Tomb of the Virgin</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_108'>108</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_108'>108</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_108'>108</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_108'>108</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Brig.-General Ryrie inspects the “Bully”</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_119'>119</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Brig.-General Cox on River Jordan</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t119'>119</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>A Wallad of Palestine</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_120'>120</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>“Tower of the Forty”</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Mosque of Omar</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_124'>124</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>The Midday Halt</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_126'>126</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Brig.-General C. L. Smith, V.C., M.C.</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_127'>127</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Our Water Supply</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t127'>127</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Watering Time, Camel Brigade</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_129'>129</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>“Prepare to Mount”</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t129'>129</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Camels bearing Supplies on the Philistine Plain</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_131'>131</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Bedouins Captured at Hassaniya</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Street Market, Jerusalem</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t133'>133</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Bedouin Village</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_134'>134</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Turkish Prisoners, Nablus</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t134'>134</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Mrs. Chisholm’s Canteen at Kantara</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_146'>146</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Bethlehem</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_147'>147</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Troopers entering Jericho</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_148'>148</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Damascus</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#t148'>148</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c008'>Finish</td>
-    <td class='c009'><a href='#Page_154'>154</a></td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_xiii'>xiii</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Preface</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_xiii.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'>
-“Australia in Palestine” should prove of great
-interest to the people of Australia, and especially to
-those whose lives have been spent outside the great
-cities, for it includes a record of the achievements of
-their “very own”—the horsemen of Australia, and
-of the Flying Corps and the Anzac Section of the
-Imperial Camel Corps, which were recruited from
-them, and co-operated with them in the greatest war yet known to
-history.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The Australian Light Horseman—and under this name I include the
-Field and Signal Engineers and Medical Services connected with him, who
-come from the same stock—is of a type peculiarly his own and has no
-counterpart that I know of except in his New Zealand brother. His
-fearlessness, initiative and endurance, and his adaptability to almost any task,
-are due to the adventurous life he leads in his own country, where he
-has been accustomed to long hours in the saddle, day and night, and to
-facing danger of all sorts from his earliest youth. Perhaps these qualities
-are inherited from his pioneer parents. His invariable good humour under
-the most adverse conditions comes from the good-fellowship and camaraderie
-which exists in the free and open life of the Australian Bush. His chivalry
-comes from the same source, and it is one of his strongest points. In other
-words, the life he has been accustomed to lead has fitted him to become,
-with training and discipline, second to no cavalry soldier in the world.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>As far as Australia is concerned, the Palestine Campaign may be said
-to have commenced with the crossing of the Suez Canal by the Anzac
-Mounted Division at Kantara on the 23rd April, 1916, to re-occupy Romani
-and the western end of the Katia Oasis Area. The mounted troops of
-Australia and New Zealand had already proved their extraordinary
-adaptability to circumstances as infantrymen in the hard school of Gallipoli,
-but it yet remained for them to show their value as cavalry. The occupation
-of Romani was followed by long and trying marches in the Desert of Sinai,
-during the hottest summer known in Egypt for many years, after an elusive
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_xiv'>xiv</span>enemy who did not appear in any force until July, 1916, when he advanced
-on Romani preparatory to his second attack on the Suez Canal. The
-disastrous defeat inflicted on the Turkish arms at Romani, and the pursuit
-which followed, not only demonstrated the inestimable value of the horsemen
-of Australasia as cavalrymen, but opened the way for the advance to the
-Eastern Frontier of Egypt which ended the enemy’s menace to Egypt.
-The systematic advance of the British Force from Romani to the Egyptian
-Border was covered by Australian and New Zealand horsemen, British
-Yeomanry and the Imperial Camel Corps, ably assisted by the reconnaissance
-of the R.F.C. and Australian Flying Corps. The victories of Magdhaba
-and Rafa completely cleared the enemy from Egyptian territory and opened
-the way for our advance into Palestine. The operations which began
-with the capture of Beersheba and concluded with the capture of Damascus
-and Aleppo, and eventually led to the complete surrender of the Turkish
-Forces, are dealt with in this volume, and I will say no more of them than
-that the brilliant part in those operations played by the Australian and New
-Zealand mounted troops has more than upheld the reputation they
-established on the battlefield of Romani.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The splendid record of the 1st Squadron of the Australian Flying Corps
-speaks for itself. It was formed in Egypt and has grown with the campaign
-to a state of efficiency which places it second to none of the same arm.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The casualties in action in this campaign have been light compared with
-the results achieved. In a very large measure this was due to the dash
-of the troops, which saved heavy losses on many occasions; but many
-brave fellows have given their lives through diseases contracted in areas
-which the exigencies of the service required to be occupied and fought in.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Before concluding, I would like to say a word for the Medical Services,
-which have endured the same hardships as the combatant arms, and always
-performed their duties cheerfully and efficiently under the most adverse
-conditions.</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id005'>
-<img src='images/i_xiv.jpg' alt='H.G. Chauvel.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_xv'>xv</span>
-<img src='images/i_xivf.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR H. G. CHAUVEL, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Fighting for Palestine<br /> <br /> <span class='large'>Three Years’ Campaigning</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>If the Turks had not aspired to the capture of the Suez Canal, and the
-reconquest of Egypt, they might still have been in quiet possession of
-the whole of Palestine. This campaign, so rich in brilliant exploits and so
-appealing to the imagination of the people of the world’s three greatest
-religions, was the direct result of Turkish aggression. Prompted by
-Germany, the Turk had, early in 1915, penetrated Central Sinai and,
-moving down the ancient route of the Wady Muksheib, attempted with a
-very inadequate force to cross and hold the Canal. He was easily driven
-off by a British force, which included a few Australian units. That was
-before our attack upon Gallipoli. It was not until the following year, when
-the heroic failure on the Peninsula had removed the menace to the heart
-of his Empire at Constantinople, that the enemy was able to attack Egypt
-with an army that gave him any promise of success.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>AROUND ROMANI</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>Soon after the return of the Australians from Gallipoli, in 1916, at a
-time when the future of the Light Horse, which had fought as infantry at
-Anzac, was in considerable doubt, the Turk appeared in strength in
-northern Sinai. Thirty or forty miles across the desert from Port Said,
-there is a widely-scattered area marked here and there by hods, or little
-palm groves, which tell of the presence of water at shallow depth. The
-Romani area, as it is generally called, has always been of prime
-importance to the armies which, since the dawn of history, have marched
-east and west across the Sinai Desert between Egypt and Syria and Persia,
-and lands even further afield. Napoleon rested there before that precarious
-leap at El Arish which nearly cost him his army. Ancient invaders of
-Egypt always refreshed their thirsty and desert-worn troops around Romani
-before sweeping down upon the rich prize of the Nile Delta.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>In 1916 the Turks began their forward operations by a raid in great
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>strength, which beat down the resistance of Yeomanry posts at Katia and
-Oghratina. At that time, the organization and training of the Anzac
-Mounted Division was being completed at Salhia, west of the Canal. The
-2nd Brigade, under Brigadier-General Ryrie, was immediately rushed out
-to Romani, where it was found that the enemy had temporarily withdrawn
-further east.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>THE TURKISH ADVANCE</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>Steps were taken at once by the British Command to make the Romani
-area secure. The remainder of the Anzac Mounted Division, commanded
-by Major-General Chauvel, went out in support of the 2nd Brigade;
-British infantry followed. The railway was pushed vigorously forward.
-The 1st and 2nd Light Horse Brigades, with their camp at Romani, were
-engaged in ceaseless reconnaissance in force. Taking the task alternately in
-24–hour shifts, they kept substantial touch with the enemy, who was all the
-while adding to his numbers, bringing up guns over the desert from
-El Arish, and pressing steadily onward. By the beginning of August a
-line of infantry strong posts extended at a right angle towards the north
-from the sea, covering Romani to the east. There we were invincible; so
-the Turk, moving swiftly and in strength, to the number of about 18,000,
-on the night of 3rd August attempted a great flanking movement past the
-south-western flank of the infantry line. His scheme was to drive in
-behind the infantry and Romani, cut our railway and other communications
-with the Canal, and envelop our entire forward force. Anticipating this
-move, however, General Chauvel had that night placed the 1st Light Horse
-Brigade, under the temporary command of Brigadier-General Meredith
-(General Cox being absent on sick leave in England), on a line of outposts
-joining up with the desert end of the infantry line, and thence swinging
-towards the Canal at a right angle. This disposition completely frustrated
-the enemy, and won us the battle of Romani.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>FIGHTING IN THE DARK</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>The Turkish vanguard reached the Light Horse posts soon after
-midnight and attacked immediately. For hours an extraordinary hand-to-hand
-fight was waged in the dark among the sand dunes. The Light Horse
-line, ten times outnumbered, was pressed steadily back, but maintained an
-unbroken front to the enemy host. Soon after dawn the 2nd Light Horse
-Brigade, temporarily commanded by Brigadier-General Royston, a South
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>African veteran (General Ryrie being absent on leave in England), was
-galloped forward in support and, dismounting, carried on the fight while
-the Regiments of the 1st Brigade passed through them to the rear for a brief
-breathing-space. All that day, the 4th August, the Turks gained ground
-on this flank, and at the same time kept our infantry in their posts by
-heavy shelling and a demonstration in strength from the east. A small
-number of infantry available was put in to support the Light Horse line,
-which, by nightfall, had been pushed back so close to the camp that
-some units were served with tea by the regimental cooks as they fought.
-But the end was now in sight. The New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade,
-and a Brigade of Yeomanry, both under Brigadier-General Chaytor,
-supported by a British infantry force, came swiftly down on the Turkish
-left flank, which was high in the air. By nightfall we knew that the
-battle of Romani was ours. At dawn next morning there was a slashing
-general attack with the bayonet. The enemy’s line broke, his retreat
-became a rout, and only the physical impossibility of getting speed out
-of our horses, many of which had been without water for nearly fifty
-hours, saved the whole Turkish army from destruction. The horses,
-burdened with an average load of 240 to 250 lbs., and often up to 280 lbs.,
-laboured gallantly, but slowly, over the deep, hot sand.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>KATIA</h3>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_003.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>Many thousands of prisoners, several guns, great quantities of
-munitions and other material were captured; but it was not until the
-retreating Turk had reached the large palm area around Katia, six miles
-away, and had been able to re-form his firing line in a reserve position
-there, that we were able to collect our scattered Brigades and give him
-fresh battle. The fight at Katia was drawn. On our side it was marked
-by a stirring charge of the 1st and 2nd Light Horse Brigades and the New
-Zealand Mounted Brigade, in an unbroken line across the sands. In the
-preceding weeks the horses had frequently been watered in the hod at
-Katia, and this, doubtless, contributed to the spirit they displayed in the
-charge. The three Brigades, however, which had the support of a Brigade
-of Yeomanry, were compelled by heavy fire from the enemy batteries to
-dismount and fight on foot. The 3rd Light Horse Brigade, under
-Brigadier-General Antill, which had undertaken a wide flanking movement
-on the south, was held up by the enemy in Hamisah, where, in a
-brilliant little engagement, they smashed the Turk and took 440 prisoners,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>with a trifling loss on our side. The delay, unfortunately, kept the 3rd
-Brigade off the Turkish left flank at Katia, and enabled him stoutly to
-resist the frontal assault of the Australians and New Zealanders. Towards
-nightfall the engagement was reluctantly broken off.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>BIR EL ABD</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>Touch was maintained with the retreating Turks, and, a few days later,
-the same Brigades again engaged them at Bir el Abd, some fifteen miles
-further east. Once more a gallant dismounted frontal attack was made by
-our forces, but again the 3rd Brigade on the flank was obstructed, and
-its enveloping mission frustrated. In the main fight, which was much
-hotter than that at Katia, our men pressed in close with the rifle. The
-Turk was strongly supported by guns and machine guns in a very
-advantageous defensive position, and the Australians and New Zealanders
-were unable to reach him with the bayonet. The engagement was marked
-by many splendid acts of heroism and self-sacrifice, but it was doomed
-to be indecisive. The Turks evacuated the position the following day
-and were pursued to the edge of the oasis area, withdrawing with the
-remnant of their shattered Romani army to the neighbourhood of El Arish,
-fifty miles away.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>After the fight at Bir el Abd there was ceaseless heavy reconnaissance
-and patrol work for the Light Horse, as the railroad, and with it the full
-strength of what was now an established British army of invasion, moved
-slowly, though inexorably, across the desert. On 21st December the Light
-Horse and Imperial Camel Corps entered El Arish and received a demonstrative
-greeting from the Arabs of that old village.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>ON THE FLANK</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>During these Romani operations, fraught with so much significance for
-Palestine and Egypt, the extreme right of the British line was entrusted to
-Colonel C. L. Smith, V.C., M.C., afterwards Commander of the Camel
-Brigade, who had under him a composite force made up of the 11th Light
-Horse Regiment, from Queensland, a London Regiment of Yeomanry
-and four companies of “Camels,” drawn from Australia, Scotland and
-Wales—a truly Imperial lot. A Turkish force, reported to be three
-thousand strong, was moving down from Magara in a south-westerly
-direction, with the intention of cutting in between Romani and the Canal.
-This estimate of enemy strength proved to be exaggerated, but our column
-had some sharp little fights against superior odds, and its work was warmly
-commended by the Commander-in-Chief. At Awedia the Camel companies
-went into action for the first time since their hurried formation;
-but as most of the Australians were old Light Horse and infantry veterans
-from Gallipoli, they were not strange to fire, and, like the remainder of
-the Australians fighting at Romani, they rejoiced in open warfare after the
-confined trench work of the Peninsula. A day or two later, the column
-fought sharply at Hilu and Baud, each time mauling the enemy severely
-and contributing substantially to the general disaster in store for the Turks.</p>
-
-<div id='t4'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_004fa.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>JERUSALEM, FROM BELOW THE MOUNT OF OLIVES<br /><br /><em>By Lieut. G. W. Lambert</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t4b'  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_004fb.jpg' alt='Jaffa' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>
-  <h3 class='c012'>MAGDHABA</h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>On the night of the 22nd December, the Anzac Mounted Division,
-made up of the 1st and 3rd Light Horse Brigades, commanded by
-Generals Cox and Royston, the New Zealand Brigade (General Chaytor),
-and the Imperial Camel Brigade (General Smith, V.C.) which included a
-majority of Australians, moved upon the Turkish post at Magdhaba,
-twenty-three miles away up the Wady El Arish. Again marching all
-night, they came at dawn within striking distance of the garrison settlement.
-Deploying swiftly, they soon had Magdhaba surrounded, and, galloping in
-as close as the Turkish fire, which came in strength from a number of
-well-concealed entrenched positions, permitted, dismounted and pressed
-forward in troop rushes with the bayonet.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The chief trouble for the Anzac Mounted Division at Magdhaba was the
-supply of water for the horses. If the Turks could not be smothered by
-nightfall, a withdrawal was imperative, for it was impossible to contemplate
-another day’s fighting with the horses still thirsty. In a country like this,
-where all the chargers are brought from far overseas, horseflesh must not
-be lightly thrown away. The struggle for Magdhaba was, therefore, as
-at Rafa a fortnight later, a struggle against time, a gamble against daylight.
-The Division, with the Imperial Camel Corps, fighting still under the able
-command of Major-General Chauvel, scored just on the call of time. As
-the day was closing vital Turkish strong posts fell almost simultaneously to
-our assaulting units on three sides of the settlement. In a wild rush the
-encircling troops overwhelmed the Turks, and met—with an extraordinary
-mingling of units coming in from every point—in the centre of the ring of
-battle. The survivors of the Turkish garrison, some 1250 officers and men,
-were made prisoners. Our total casualties were fewer than 150. Darkness
-fell swiftly, and, in the early hours of the night, there was an amazing scene
-as the prisoners were collected, and officers and men sought their units and
-searched for their led horses. Before midnight the Division was re-formed
-and, with the exception of a few squadrons left to clear the battle-ground
-and escort the wounded, our victorious little force was riding—for the second
-night in succession—back to water and rest at El Arish. As they tracked
-along in the darkness there were whole squadrons with not a man awake—a
-strange Christmas Eve!</p>
-
-<div id='t6'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>
-<img src='images/i_map1_alt.jpg' alt='OUTLINE MAP OF OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND ADJOINING COUNTRIES' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>
-  <h3 class='c012'>RAFA</h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>Next came Rafa. On the evening of 8th January the Anzac Mounted
-Division, made up of the Brigades which had fought a few days before
-at Magdhaba, strengthened by the Camel Brigade and a Brigade of
-Yeomanry, cleared camp near El Arish and, riding all night, appeared
-before Rafa at dawn. The Turks held a strongly entrenched position
-consisting of three main systems of redoubts with many outlying rifle-pits
-on high ground, culminating in a knoll. On this knoll was a solitary tree,
-visible for many miles; and this, roughly speaking, was our objective.
-As at Magdhaba, the enemy was rapidly surrounded by Brigades moving
-at the trot and the gallop. Then the horses were raced back to places of
-safety, and the circle closed in on foot. The ground was more open than
-at Magdhaba, and our advance lay up long, bare slopes, swept by enemy
-fire. All day the cordon drew closer. Again, until the last moment,
-there was uncertainty as to whether the Turk could be smashed before
-nightfall. Again our horses were without water. And again victory came
-at sundown; this time after a series of long, sustained charges with fixed
-bayonets in the face of expert Turkish riflemen and German machine
-gunners, shooting at their best over specially prepared zones of fire. Rafa
-was a grim, deadly fight, waged up to the moment when our exhausted, but
-still excited, troopers jumped down on the Turks in their trenches.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>That spirit of mercy which has distinguished so many Australian fights
-was shown here at its best. The Turks, who had shot at our men mercilessly
-and effectively until they charged home into the very trenches, then
-dropped their rifles and held out their hands—to have them warmly shaken
-by Australians! Such incidents, occurring frequently as they have in this
-campaign, may not be according to the rules of war, and the psychology
-disclosed may be difficult to follow; but the recollection of them, while it
-always moves our men who were concerned to shamefaced laughter, must
-clearly be a source of lasting gratification. At Rafa, practically every Turk
-who survived was made a prisoner, and we also secured many guns and
-much war material. Even in more marked degree than Magdhaba was
-Rafa placed to our credit at the eleventh hour, for not only was our force
-threatened by the lack of water and the approach of darkness, but heavy
-enemy reinforcements were rapidly approaching.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>
-<img src='images/i_009a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>A BRIEF HALT RICHLY EARNED</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t9'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_009b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>JERUSALEM FROM THE AIR</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>
-<img src='images/i_010a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>DAMASCUS FROM THE AIR</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t10'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_010b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>3rd L.H. CAMP AT BELAH, A FAVOURITE RESTING GROUND BY THE SEA SOUTH OF GAZA</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>This marked the passing of the desert. On the evening of the night
-march which brought us close to Rafa, our troops were still in the waste in
-which they had spent nearly a year without a glimpse of civilization or
-verdure. Travelling all night through the heavy sand, they came, just
-before dawn, on sounder going for their horses, and daylight showed them
-a wide, rolling landscape, gay with brilliant winter flowers—the fringe of
-Palestine.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>DESERT ADVENTURES</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>No survey, however incomplete, of this fine campaign should fail to
-mention the countless little desert expeditions in Western and Central Sinai,
-in the early days of the fighting. These had various purposes. Sometimes
-they were political, but more than once they led to sharp fighting. The first
-time Australians were actually engaged east of the Canal was when the 9th
-Light Horse Regiment (chiefly South Australians, with a few Victorians),
-by a long night march and clever manœuvre, swooped down and bagged
-the Turkish outpost garrison at Jifjafa. Then there was a fine dash by the
-11th Light Horse Regiment to Nekhl, the British pre-war administrative
-centre in Sinai. Later, two interesting expeditions were made up the Wady
-Muksheib, the ancient and central route across Sinai by which the Turks
-came in their feeble attack on the Canal, early in 1915. The drawback
-of that route was the shortage of water, and along the Wady bed some
-ancient power had excavated huge cisterns which filled during the rains.
-These cisterns are still intact. Once, the Light Horsemen pumped them
-out, and so closed the route for that season to the Turks; going out again,
-they sealed and covered them so as to make their rediscovery by the enemy
-very difficult.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Australian units from the Camel Brigade more than once rode across
-the desert to Akaba, at the head of the Persian Gulf. In October, 1916,
-a force marched thirty-five miles across the sandhills from Bayud to
-Maghara, and engaged in a vigorous reconnaissance in the foothills below
-the almost inaccessible, high-built Turkish garrison position. As an
-instance of the man-power and transport necessary to maintain a force in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>action on the desert for even a few days, the details of this little enterprise
-are remarkable. The column contained only 1100 rifles, and the operations
-covered but a few days; but no fewer than 7000 camels, 2300 horses and
-(including natives) 5000 men were employed to provide supplies of food
-and water for the force.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>All these little side-shows necessitated long night marches across
-countless desert hillocks. To the untrained eye, one square mile of country
-in Sinai is indistinguishable from any other square mile, even by daylight.
-At night all movement was by compass and the stars, and the task of our
-guides was complicated a hundredfold by the constant change of route
-imposed by the steepness of many of the sand dunes. Very early the
-Light Horseman displayed that apparently inborn sense of direction which,
-almost alone, would have made him famous in this campaign. After a brief
-trial, the native guides provided by the Imperial authorities were found to be
-too slow and uncertain, while, if the enemy was close, fear usually reduced
-them to a state of imbecility. As soon as this was recognized, the whole of
-the guiding was done by our own officers, many of whom developed a
-certainty of location, whatever the circumstances, which amounted almost
-to inspiration.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>FIRST GAZA</h3>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_012.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>Ten weeks after Rafa, on 26th March, came the first battle of Gaza.
-The scheme for the capture of this old gateway of Palestine proper was
-similar to that which succeeded so decisively at Rafa and Magdhaba. We
-were to move by night and envelop and isolate the town, with a view to its
-capture before the Turk could bring up reinforcements. But it was a
-far bigger enterprise than the two earlier raids. Modern Gaza is a fairly
-compact old town, which, before the war, contained 30,000 inhabitants.
-Most of the houses are of mud and straw, but there are also many
-substantial modern residences. The little city is graced by many mosques
-and minarets. Standing on a low hill on the inland edge of the wide belt
-of sand dunes, which, on this coast, everywhere fringe the Mediterranean,
-it is bounded on the north, east and south by an occasional fine orange
-grove, wide areas of olives and an intricate network of huge, sprawling
-cactus hedges surrounding hundreds of tiny fields. The Turks were soundly
-dug in, and well supported by many guns in commanding positions, while
-the irregular system of cactus hedges made an ideal barrier between them
-and the naked plain over which the attacking troops had to advance.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>Since Rafa a notable change had taken place in our force. The mounted
-troops had been reinforced by the arrival of large numbers of Yeomanry and,
-for the first time in the campaign, a substantial force of infantry was available
-for frontal attack. Marching in the darkness, part of our army surrounded
-Gaza, while a strong mounted force took up positions to the east and north
-to prevent the intervention of heavy Turkish reinforcements, which were
-within easy striking distance. British infantry attacked from the south and
-east. On their right flank was a Brigade of Yeomanry. Next came the
-New Zealanders, and on the extreme right, pushing in from the north, with
-their flank on the sea, was the 2nd Light Horse Brigade, with Brigadier-General
-Ryrie back in his old command. Unfortunately, a heavy morning
-fog prevented the infantry from getting into grips with the Turk in the
-earlier part of the day.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>AMONG THE CACTUS</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>The mounted troops, moving faster, galloped first through the scattered
-groves of olives and then pressed forward, still on their horses, amidst the
-maze of cactus hedges. For our men it was a wonderful day of detached,
-individual fighting. Exact conformity was impossible. Regiments and
-squadrons, and even troops, fought wild little hole-and-corner combats of
-their own. There was much excited steeplechasing over the cactus. At
-times, our men and the Turks fought each other from either side of a hedge
-a few paces in width, the enemy on foot and our troops firing from their
-horses. Then the Light Horse, dismounting, hacked their way through
-the cactus with their bayonets, and did effective work with the steel. Our
-machine gunners, advancing in rushes in front and to a flank of the 2nd
-Brigade, maintained a clever and deadly covering barrage.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The fighting was marked by countless fine incidents. One Light Horse
-squadron gallantly rushed an important Turkish observation post. The New
-Zealanders, assisted by a Light Horse troop, took a number of enemy guns.
-Swinging one of these round, and sighting through the open barrel at point
-blank range, they demolished with a single shot a stone house containing a
-number of troublesome Turkish riflemen. By nightfall, both the infantry
-and mounted troops had won into the outskirts of the town, and captured
-large numbers of prisoners. But the garrison was still strong, and heavy
-Turkish reinforcements were closing in rapidly from three directions. We
-had missed by a hairsbreadth. The fight was broken off and our men,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>suffering a sense of disappointment scarcely less than that felt at the
-evacuation of Gallipoli, were withdrawn.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>SECOND GAZA</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>Three weeks later, on 19th April, the second battle of Gaza was fought
-on a long line extending from the sea eastward towards Beersheba.
-The Australians fought dismounted out on the right flank, and the day was
-the bloodiest our men have known in their Palestine fighting. For many
-hours they pressed forward in thin lines, up long, bare slopes, in the face
-of heavy and well-directed high explosive, shrapnel, machine gun and rifle
-fire. In places they made substantial headway and bent the Turks back.
-At one point, since known to fame as “Tank Redoubt,” two Australian
-companies of the Camel Brigade, co-operating with the British infantry on
-their flank, won temporary possession of a main key in the enemy line.
-Many splendid deeds distinguished this day’s hard fighting; they will rank
-with the best performances of Australian infantry in the war, and the exploit
-of the “Camels” at the Tank Redoubt with the greatest achievements of
-British arms in any age. But the Turk, though badly shaken, stood firm.
-The simple fact was that, in this Gaza-Beersheba line, which lent itself
-admirably to stout defence, we had encountered enemy forces so superior
-in number and equipment, that further advance was, for the time, physically
-impossible.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>BEERSHEBA</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>Between then and the end of the following October, when the Turkish
-position was shattered, significant additions were made to our strength. We
-were reinforced by some Divisions of infantry, and many guns of different
-calibre, while the Desert Mounted Corps was formed from the old Desert
-Column, consisting of the Anzac and Australian Mounted Divisions, and
-a Yeomanry Division. During this period, too, General Allenby arrived
-from France as Commander-in-Chief. In the great attack which demolished
-the enemy’s strong defensive system on this line, the Turk was out-witted and
-outfought. By a wide detour, covering several days and notable for its long,
-exhausting marches, and the remarkable performances of the Engineers in
-the development of water in desert areas, the Anzac Mounted Division
-appeared as a bolt from the blue to the south-east of Beersheba, on the
-morning of 31st October. Beersheba marked the end of the Turkish line
-of defence. Seen from the surrounding hills, the scattered modern town,
-with its wide, dusty streets planted with straggling eucalyptus and pepper
-trees, is not unlike some western townships in Australia. It lies in a basin
-below the southern end of the Judean Range, and had been strongly fortified
-by the enemy. The attack from the south-east, however, was a complete
-surprise to the Turk.</p>
-<div id='t14'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_014fa.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>ROMANI. MOUNT ROYSTON IN THE DISTANCE<br /><br /><em>By Lieut. G. W. Lambert</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t14b'  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_014fb.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>IN A VILLAGE STREET</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>
-  <h3 class='c012'>GALLOPING THE TRENCHES</h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>In the early morning the New Zealanders moved swiftly to the assault
-of Tel es Saba, a formidable mound, bristling with machine guns and rifles.
-At the same time, the 1st Light Horse Brigade went in to the south
-on the New Zealanders’ left, while the 2nd Light Horse Brigade dashed
-away on a long gallop under heavy shell-fire, and took up a position to the
-north, to cut off the retreat of the Beersheba garrison along the road
-leading over the Central Range, through Hebron and Bethlehem, to Jerusalem.
-After very heavy fighting on foot, over broken ground, the New
-Zealanders, supported by the 1st Light Horse Brigade, scaled and captured
-Tel es Saba. The day was well advanced. Beersheba had not fallen, and
-it was patent that, if we relied upon a dismounted attack, the town would
-certainly resist until nightfall; which would have given the enemy an
-opportunity to adjust his forces and perhaps upset our whole offensive.
-Four miles away to the south-east, the Australian Mounted Division was in
-reserve, and, shortly before sunset, Brigadier-General Grant received orders
-to attack the town with the 4th Light Horse Brigade. Between him and
-Beersheba lay a definite system of strongly-held Turkish trenches. As it
-was recognized that time did not permit of a dismounted advance, the
-decision was made to go in mounted, at a gallop. This hazardous enterprise
-of galloping infantry into an entrenched position was entrusted to the
-4th Regiment, from Victoria, and the 12th Regiment, from New South
-Wales.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>A FAMOUS CHARGE</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>Moving off at a trot, and soon quickening the pace to a gallop, the
-regiments swept in a bee-line towards Beersheba. They were soon under
-heavy shell and machine gun fire, but this only served to speed
-the horsemen. Charging wildly down on the Turks, despite heavy rifle fire,
-leading troops of Light Horsemen jumped the advanced trenches at a gallop,
-going clean over the Turkish bayonets. Once within the enemy trench
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>system, part of the force dismounted, and, jumping down with their
-bayonets among the startled enemy, soon cleared the position. Meanwhile
-the mad gallop of the other squadrons was continued through enemy
-resistance into the very heart of the town. The Turks were thrown into
-hopeless disorder, and, believing that the handful of Australians formed but
-the advance guard of a great cavalry force, put up an indifferent fight.
-Upwards of 1100 were captured, but the darkness, which fell immediately
-after our horse clattered into the town, enabled many more to escape. Nine
-field guns and a large quantity of material fell into our hands. The Light
-Horsemen had charged with fixed bayonets, not that they could make any
-use of them on horseback, but for the moral effect upon the enemy. This
-magnificent enterprise, establishing as it did that Turkish nerves were not
-proof against a resolute body of galloping horse, led to highly important
-results in the Great Drive which followed. The Yeomanry, who were
-equipped with cavalry swords, a privilege not then enjoyed by any of the
-Australian Light Horse, routed greatly superior numbers of Turks in a
-series of charges which rank with the greatest performances of British
-regular cavalry.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>UP THE PHILISTINE PLAIN</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>A few days after Beersheba the Turkish line was broken by the infantry
-at Sheria, and again between Gaza and the sea. The mounted men were
-turned loose on the heels of the retreating enemy, and the wild stern chase
-was continued for nearly fifty miles. The speed of the horsemen was
-regulated chiefly by difficulties of transport and water supply; but all the
-way the Turk fought clever rear-guard actions, making therein especially
-effective use of his strong equipment of machine guns. The Australians’
-work was fast and bold throughout. There were scores of fights by night
-and day, which brought credit to the staff work and Brigade and Regimental
-fighting. Up till then it was the grandest cavalry drive in the war, and
-perhaps it has no equal in any campaign of the past. When the British
-forces came to a halt on a line running roughly from the coast a few miles
-north of Jaffa eastward to the mountains, the cessation of the pursuit was
-due not to enemy resistance, but to the impossibility, at that time, of
-extending our lines of communication any further. During this great
-cavalry drive, the Desert Mounted Corps, which embraced all the
-mounted troops, was under the command of Lieut.-General Sir H. G.
-Chauvel, who enjoys the distinction of being the first Australian to rise to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>the leadership of a Corps. And, with the 3rd Light Horse Brigade under
-General Wilson and the 4th under General Grant, the four Australian
-Mounted Brigades were, for the first time, all under Australian commands.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>JERUSALEM AND JERICHO</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>In the wars of the ancients, cavalry and chariots were always used
-down on the Philistine Plain, while the Judean Hills were regarded as
-practicable only for infantry. It is the same to-day. The Great Drive
-on the Plain finished, the British infantry, with Yeomanry dismounted,
-moved eastward through the narrow passes and up the harsh, rocky hillsides
-of Judea towards Jerusalem. The Turks stubbornly resisted our
-capture of the Holy City, and the fighting, at times, was bitter and bloody
-in the extreme. But the gallant little Londoners, to whom fell the honour
-of most of this significant advance, won their way steadily forward. Only
-one Light Horse Regiment, the Western Australians, played any immediate
-part in the operations which, on 9th December, culminated in the surrender
-of Jerusalem.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>A few weeks later, the 1st Light Horse Brigade and the New Zealanders
-marched secretly, at night, from Bethlehem by steep mountain tracks, and,
-co-operating with the 60th (London) Infantry Division, after a sharp fight
-at Nebi Musa captured Jericho. This exploit was distinguished, as the
-Anzacs’ work in the campaign has always been, by the remarkable work of
-our guides. A squadron of the 1st Brigade had the honour of being the
-first to enter the village; but the winning of the Jordan Valley, like the
-capture of Jerusalem, was, in the main, due to the solid fighting qualities of
-the men of London. To-day, all through the Judean Hills, you come upon
-little wooden crosses which tell of the spirit and self-sacrifice of our good
-ally, the fighting Cockney.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>AMMAN</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>A brief pause, and then, the Desert Mounted Corps Bridging Train
-(B Troop, Australian Engineers) having thrown the first bridge across the
-Jordan, the Anzac Mounted Division, together with the Imperial Camel
-Brigade and, once again, the Londoners, made their famous rush for the
-Hedjaz Railway, far out across Jordan to the east, where the Plateau of
-Moab begins to merge into the sand of the wide Arabian Desert. This
-expedition, which, so far as the Colonials were concerned, fell chiefly upon
-the 2nd Light Horse Brigade, the New Zealanders and the Camels, was
-perhaps the severest we had had since crossing the Canal. Rain fell
-almost unceasingly for many days. The mountain tracks were so narrow
-and broken that the Brigades, travelling only by night, moved in single file,
-leading their horses and camels. The weather was piercingly cold. Men
-were wet through for several days and nights in which they knew no sleep,
-and were almost ceaselessly engaged in heavy fighting. In these circumstances,
-the destruction of some miles of the railway, and the safe
-withdrawal of the force, was an especially good performance.</p>
-
-<div id='t18'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>
-<img src='images/i_map2_alt.jpg' alt='OUTLINE MAP OF NORTHERN SINAI' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>
-  <h3 class='c012'>ES SALT</h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>A few weeks later practically all the Australian mounted troops, with
-the exception of the Camels, again crossed the Jordan, and, cutting in
-behind the Turks after some rare mountaineering feats in the darkness,
-took possession of Es Salt, a considerable Turkish base. In this enterprise,
-the 3rd Light Horse Brigade particularly distinguished itself, the 8th
-Regiment of Victorians alone taking prisoners equal to at least twice their
-fighting strength. The same Regiment also captured thirty machine guns
-and large quantities of other war material.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>JORDAN VALLEY</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>During the spring and summer, which were spent in Jordan Valley,
-there were many highly successful little defensive fights. One of these, in
-which the Turkish attack fell mainly upon the 2nd Light Horse Regiment
-of Queenslanders, left nearly two hundred enemy dead within a few
-chains of our barbed wire. At about the same time, the foe assaulted the
-Musallabeh knoll, on the other side of the river, held by the 1st Battalion
-(Australians) of the Camel Brigade, and got to close quarters, in which
-bombs and bayonets, and even stones and hands were freely used on both
-sides. The Turks were beaten off with some hundreds of casualties.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>On 12th July, a day on which the shade temperature stood for hours at
-120 degrees, a stout attempt was made by a considerable force of German
-infantry against the 1st Light Horse Brigade under Brigadier-General Cox,
-on this same Musallabeh sector. Our line there was a series of small
-strong posts over a long and broken front. The Germans, advancing in the
-dark, penetrated between two of the posts, and actually reached the centre
-of our advanced position. A feature of this fight was that every little post,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>except one which was overwhelmed, successfully resisted the German
-attack, although all were surrounded and isolated for hours. In some,
-practically every officer and man became a casualty. The Germans were
-routed by a brilliant counter-attack of the 1st Light Horse Regiment (New
-South Wales), which was in reserve, and the affair cost the Germans 360
-prisoners and about 1,200 casualties. Our losses were slight. Troops from
-four States, Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales,
-shared in the victory. On the same day, also in Jordan Valley, a troop
-of Queenslanders, men from the 5th Light Horse Regiment, twice left their
-lines with bombs, and, surprising enemy forces many times their number,
-brought in forty-five prisoners, and they had killed and wounded as many
-more in the fight. The casualties suffered by the troop were one officer
-and two men slightly wounded. Two cars of No. 1 Australian Light Car
-Patrol also took part with the Imperial Service (Indian) Cavalry in a
-brilliant counter-attack east of the Jordan.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>PREPARING FOR DAMASCUS</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>The long, distressing summer in Jordan Valley died hard. In September,
-when the Anzac Mounted Division was there, the hottest days of the
-whole year were endured. The various mounted troops had held the
-Jordan sector in turn, those in reserve enjoying brief periods of rest on the
-bracing uplands about Solomon’s Pools, a little to the south of Jerusalem.
-There the sunny days were cool, and at night men who had known little
-sleep down on the Jordan rejoiced in the mountain mists and the unwonted
-comfort of their blankets.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>In the course of the year there had been another interesting change in
-the composition of General Allenby’s army. Many of the Yeomanry and
-British infantry had gone to other battle fronts, and in their place came
-one hundred thousand Indian horse and foot. Many of our Light Horsemen
-had fought beside the Gurkhas and other Indians on the Peninsula;
-some of us had seen the Indian cavalry in France in the early days of the
-war; but to most of the Australians the Indians were strangers. To-day,
-after a few months and a stirring campaign together, the bond between the
-two races is a remarkably strong one.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>AUSTRALIA’S NEW FRIENDS</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>The Australian soldier has, for a man of insular breeding, shown
-an extraordinary capacity for making friends. He has an easy way
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>with peoples of all races and colours. In France he is completely at his
-ease among the French peasantry; and he saunters through the Arab
-villages in Palestine as familiarly and as confidently as he used to walk the
-streets of his townships and cities at home. His old enemy the Turkish
-ranker is his admired personal friend. But the strong bond which sprang
-up so quickly between the Light Horseman and the Indians was perhaps
-the strangest of all his new war friendships. They were divided by colour,
-the language barrier was absolute, and, most unpromising of all, there was
-the barrier of caste, which prevented the devout Indian from sharing his
-rations, and so made little acts of camp hospitality impossible. But the
-barriers, although they seemed impassable, were miraculously surmounted.
-The Indians made no secret of their admiration of the Light Horseman as
-a past-master at the game of combined mounted and dismounted fighting,
-while the Australian was genuinely appreciative of the splendid soldierly
-qualities of the highly-trained regular Indian cavalry. Moreover, nearly all
-the Indians rode Australian horses!</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Every trooper in Palestine knew that a great campaign would be
-launched in the early autumn. General Allenby would, according to the
-camp-fire strategists, “hop in” during the brief season between the extreme
-heat and the beginning of the heavy rains in November. Further, the
-C. in C. would, in all probability, assail the enemy line at the full of the
-moon, so that we should have light for the great cavalry night marches
-that were anticipated. But it is doubtful whether any soldier in Palestine,
-who was not in the official secret, forecasted a scheme so bold as that
-General Allenby had resolved upon. Certainly, none dared to hope for a
-triumph so dazzlingly swift and complete.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>THE WONDERFUL FORTNIGHT</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>The great campaign opened at dawn on the morning of 19th September,
-1918. A fortnight after General Allenby flung his artillery bombardment at
-the enemy line, the great Turkish and German force in Western and Eastern
-Palestine had been destroyed, and our prisoners numbered 75,000. Of the
-4th, 7th, and 8th Turkish Armies south of Damascus only a few thousand
-foot-sore, hunted men escaped. Practically every gun, the great bulk of the
-machine guns, nearly all the small-arms, and transport, every aerodrome
-and its mechanical equipment and nearly every aeroplane, an intricate and
-widespread telephone and telegraph system, large dumps of munitions and
-every kind of supplies—all had, in fourteen swift and dramatic days, been
-stripped from an enemy who for four years had resisted our efforts to smash
-him. It was a military overthrow so sudden and so absolute that it is
-perhaps without parallel in the history of war. And it is still more
-remarkable because it was achieved at a cost so trifling.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>
-<img src='images/i_023a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>TURKS MARCHING OUT OF OLD CITY OF JERUSALEM AT BEGINNING OF WAR, 1914<br /><br /><span class='right'>(<em>Captured German Photograph</em>)</span></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t23'  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_023b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>GAZA</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>
-<img src='images/i_024a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>THE MOUNT OF TEMPTATION</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t24'  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_024b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>ALL THE WORLD OVER</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>It was a stupendous result, gained by a simple scheme. The
-strategy was strikingly bold, but perhaps the most impressive thing about
-General Allenby’s triumph was the superb manner in which his plan was
-carried through. The campaign went with a bang from the moment the
-line was broken until Damascus, more than 150 miles distant, was taken.
-It galloped all the way. There was never a moment’s indecision, never a
-semblance of fumbling. Here was a British Army at its best, every man
-efficient, every man enthusiastic.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The scheme was obviously the conception of a confident leader of horse.
-General Allenby is a cavalryman, and he had under his command the most
-powerful cavalry force in the war. And he knew the quality of his mounted
-men. All of the Australians and New Zealanders and Yeomanry had been
-in the sixty-mile drive from Gaza, of the previous year, and most of them
-had been in the saddle in Egypt and Palestine for two and a half years. The
-dashing Indian cavalry had been with him for many months and had given
-many examples of their speed and love of battle. Again and again in the
-summer their advanced patrols had galloped down bodies of Turks, and
-their terrible use of the lance in those little actions had a highly useful effect
-on Turkish nerves. The cavalry was General Allenby’s special weapon for
-the campaign, but in addition, he had a substantial and fit force of veteran
-infantry. He had, too, a particularly brilliant lot of airmen, and in his
-supply services he possessed a vast organization of railway, motor, camel,
-horse, mule and donkey transport, which was efficient and resourceful in
-the highest degree, and had already performed miracles.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Altogether the British Army of Palestine was, when the final campaign
-opened, as near to perfection as any force ever was. All ranks were
-veterans and all were animated by that spirit which every army feels when
-confident of victory and happy in its leaders.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>A BOLD SCHEME</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>This was the scheme. We faced the Turks on a fifty-mile line running
-from a point on the Mediterranean coast about twelve miles north of
-Jaffa south-eastward across the Plain of Sharon, thence eastward over the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>Mountains of Samaria at a height of 1500 to 2000 feet, falling to
-1000 feet below sea-level where it crossed the Jordan Valley, and
-terminating in the foothills of the Mountains of Gilead. The Sharon Plain
-sector was some fifteen miles in length, across Samaria fifteen miles, and
-the stretch in the Jordan Valley about eighteen. The Turkish position
-was a strong one. On Samaria, or the Central Palestine Range, south
-of Nablus, the enemy had ideal defensive country, rugged and broken,
-yet well served by rail—on the north-west to Haifa, and on the north-east
-across the Jordan at Beisan and by way of Damascus to Turkey; he had
-also good roads to Haifa and to Damascus by way of Nazareth.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>To push the Turk on the mountains by a frontal attack would have
-meant at best the gradual withdrawal of his forces. In Jordan Valley the
-enemy’s safety lay in the fact that his guns on the foothills of either side
-covered the limited ground which was practicable for horse and transport.
-And, even if we had galloped up Jordan Valley, it would have been
-extremely difficult from there to swing in behind the Turkish position on
-the Central Range. General Allenby took the Plain of Sharon for his great
-enterprise. Forty miles behind the Turkish position the Jordan Valley and
-the Plain of Sharon are joined to the Esdraelon Plain—the old Plain of
-Armageddon. In other words, the Jordan and Sharon and Esdraelon
-formed a half-circle round the main central Turkish position on the mountains.
-All the enemy lines of communication led across Esdraelon. If we
-could seize the Plain swiftly, cut the railways and hold the roads, the
-Turkish army west of the Jordan was in our hands. It was a scheme
-calculated to test the mettle of any army. If we were to succeed, every
-branch of the service had to show at its best. First our airmen had to destroy
-or drive off the German aeroplanes and so keep the enemy ignorant of
-our plans; then the artillery barrage had to make the way possible for our
-infantry; in its turn, the infantry had, in one rush, to drive a gap for our
-cavalry, and the cavalry, galloping through the gap, had to cover fifty miles
-and reach Esdraelon Plain on the night of the first day. Lastly, the cavalry
-must hold the communications they had cut, and to do so, they had to be fed.
-The transport necessary for feeding tens of thousands of men and horse had
-to travel almost as fast as the cavalry. The scheme had to go through to
-time-table or it might not go through at all. If the artillery had failed to do
-its work in a swift half-hour’s bombardment, or if the infantry had faltered,
-the enemy would have had time to redistribute his forces, and General
-Allenby might have been robbed of his victory.</p>
-
-<div id='t26'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_026fa.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>MAGDHABA, SHOWING THE WADY BED ABOUT ONE MILE FROM TURKISH BUILDINGS<br /><br /><span class='right'><em>By Lieut. G. W. Lambert</em></span></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_026fb.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>
-  <h3 class='c012'>CAMOUFLAGE</h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>General Allenby took no chances. He followed the sound principle of
-fighting under the best possible conditions. By the aid of clever and greatly
-successful bluff, the Commander-in-Chief delivered his smashing blow
-at an unexpected point of the Turkish line. The enemy was led to
-believe that the British offensive would fall on the eastern sector. While a
-huge force of cavalry, artillery and infantry was being smuggled by night
-marches to the Plain of Sharon on the west, active and amusing camouflage
-preparations were being made in the Jordan Valley. For instance, many
-dummy camps were brought into existence, and large numbers of realistic
-canvas horses were tethered in them. Mules drawing sledges were
-driven about in the dust to suggest heavy traffic. Fast’s Hotel at
-Jerusalem, then being conducted for officers by the Canteen Board, was
-ostentatiously emptied of its inmates, two sentry-boxes were placed at
-the entrance, and a whisper was started in the bazaars that the hotel
-would be General Allenby’s advanced headquarters during the coming
-offensive. Simultaneously, the Arabs east of the Jordan made realistic sham
-preparations for an attack on Amman, out on the Hedjaz. They put down
-a big base, engaged in bold reconnaissance, and cut the line between
-Amman and Damascus. The deception of the enemy was complete. We
-know now that he expected and prepared for the blow on the east, and
-was stiffening his defences there until a few hours before our bombardment
-opened on the west, near the Mediterranean.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The airmen materially assisted in this hoodwinking. During the eight
-weeks preceding the offensive, the German air service was practically driven
-out of the sky. Fifteen machines were destroyed or forced down and
-enemy aerodromes were bombed. So complete was our ascendancy that
-not an enemy plane was seen over the threatened sector for eight days
-before the offensive began.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Blind as to our movement of troops, and mistaken by fifty miles as
-to where his line was to be assailed, the enemy’s plight was further
-accentuated by the destruction of his communications on the very evening
-of the bombardment. Pulling out at night from their sham camp near
-Amman, the Arabs rushed away up north, and cut the railway and
-telegraph communications between Deraa and the great Turkish base at
-Damascus. This left the enemy on his whole front without supplies for the
-fight. Other telegraph lines further west were severed at the same time,
-and a bomb from an Australian plane on the night before our advance
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>destroyed his great forward telephone exchange at Nablus, which dislocated
-all his lateral communications. When our guns opened at dawn on
-19th September, the Turks were already in a desperate plight.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>THE NIGHT BEFORE</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>On the night before the bombardment there was an atmosphere of
-perfect confidence in our camp close behind the line. Every man was
-moved by the prospect of a successful adventure, which would
-give vast immediate results and have an incalculable influence on the
-world war. The tropical intensity of Jordan Valley, where the Australian
-Brigades, with one exception, and some of the British and Indian cavalry
-had spent the whole summer, had left its mark. We had suffered much
-from malaria and other fevers, which, it was feared, might recur when we
-moved into the cooler north. The horses were, if not in poor condition,
-certainly on the light side; but these things were forgotten as the critical
-day approached. The Australian Mounted Division, commanded by
-Major-General Hodgson, and now made up entirely of Light Horse,
-except for one dashing, picturesque regiment of French Colonial regulars,
-had recently been armed with swords. The period of training in the new
-arm was very brief—for many Regiments only a few hours; but the men
-taking very keenly to it, soon reached a high standard of efficiency. Every
-trooper was excited at the thought of a true cavalry charge. The Anzac
-Mounted Division was still in the line in Jordan Valley.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>During many nights before the push every road on the coastal sector
-was crowded with slow-moving, well-ordered traffic. By day all was normal,
-except for significant glimpses of camps in the wide olive groves around
-Ludd, and in the orchards and orange groves about Jaffa. But as darkness
-fell the whole countryside would become thronged with masses of horse and
-foot and guns, and every kind of transport, groping their way through blinding
-clouds of dust. The roads were impassable outside the organized columns;
-the night was loud with the shouts of drivers speaking divers languages.
-A few hours before the great push began this night traffic culminated in a
-general move northward, the cavalry moving up close behind the infantry,
-and the supplies following the cavalry. Every road was massed with
-motor-lorries and horse transport; every track with endless strings of camels.
-Each unit in the great army was pressing up as closely as possible to the
-starting gate.</p>
-
-<div id='t29'  class='figcenter id008'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>
-<img src='images/i_029.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>[top]<br />TURKISH PRISONERS AT BEERSHEBA<br /><br />[middle]<br />STREET MARKET, JERUSALEM<br /><br />Inset—JERICHO<br />Showing the pretty little Garden Oasis<br /><br />[bottom]<br />LIGHT HORSE CROSSING JORDAN</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>
-<img src='images/i_030a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>IN THE JORDAN VALLEY</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t30'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_030b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>SPRING WATER, CLEAR AND COLD</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>The bombardment opened at dawn, a heavy barrage. For half an hour
-the startled Turks were battered in their trenches. Then, abruptly, the
-bombardment ceased. “Now the infantry,” said a Brigadier of horse “and
-then!...”</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>THE ADVANCE</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>Our battalions leaped forward as the gunnery died away, and carried the
-Turkish trenches after a brief struggle. They simply overwhelmed the
-enemy riflemen, and even the German machine gunners and Austrian
-artillerymen, after a wild burst of bad shooting, were forced to flight or
-submission. Within half an hour the infantry had made a gap for the great
-force of Indian and Yeomanry cavalry waiting near the coast, and soon
-afterwards they opened another a few miles inland. The expectant horsemen
-jumped off like thoroughbreds from the barrier.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>THE GREAT RIDE BEGINS</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>They rode away in the sunrise, the advanced squadrons trotting out after
-the ground scouts, the flank patrols galloping wide; Brigade after Brigade
-rode out over the rolling sandhills. The men were eager, the horses fought
-for their heads. The swords of the Yeomanry flashed and Indian lances
-glinted from each successive skyline. It was like a war scene of the picture
-galleries. Quickening the pace, the Regiments raced on past our guns,
-most of which were already limbered-up for the pursuit. The infantry,
-busy with their prisoners, cheered them as they passed, and soon they were
-speeding down on Turks who had fled from the onslaught of the infantry.
-But their sport with sword and lance was brief. In this Sharon sector, the
-enemy had no forward reserves, no second-line trenches. The Turkish
-front here had depended for its safety on a one trench system. From the
-crossing of the trenches until they reached the Esdraelon Plain, late in the
-night, the cavalry encountered no resistance. Once or twice they sighted
-small bodies of the enemy and made for them at the gallop. But the
-Turks would not give battle. Before the campaign was three hours old
-there began the long series of almost bloodless surrenders which were to
-be the most amazing feature of the sleepless fortnight.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The perfection of our organization was revealed very early. The cavalry
-was scarcely clear of the trench system before scores of field guns were
-rumbling in their wake. And, pressing on after the artillery by many
-tracks, good and bad, went mile after mile of camels and wheeled transport.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>Where the cavalry went the supplies must follow; and the cavalry rode from
-forty to fifty miles between sunrise and midnight. With nothing to check
-them, their pace was controlled only by the endurance of their horses. The
-men rode light; they carried only one blanket, and that as a saddle-cloth.
-Tent sheets and waterproofs were forbidden. It was a wild ride against
-time. But horses were loaded with three days’ rations, and few carried less
-than 250lbs.—many of them more than 280lbs.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>ESDRAELON PLAIN</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>At dawn next morning the Yeomanry were across the Esdraelon Plain
-and in Nazareth, where they caught most of the garrison of 3000 and the
-whole population still in their beds. They secured the town at the expense
-of eighteen casualties. By noon the Esdraelon Plain was in our hands, and
-the Turkish Army in Western Palestine left without a line of communication
-or retreat, except at Beisan on the north-east corner of the trap; and
-the capture of Beisan was already assured. How completely the enemy
-was deceived, and how light were his forces on the sector broken for the
-cavalry, is shown by the fact that on the first day, although our horse
-travelled fully forty miles on a wide front, only 900 prisoners were taken by
-them. Next day, as the net closed round the forward enemy forces on the
-Central Range, and they attempted to retreat across the Esdraelon Plain,
-our cavalry took upwards of 12,000.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>DOOMED TURKISH ARMY</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>At the beginning of the second day, we contained the Turkish western
-army on the south, west and north. The Anzac Mounted Division, which
-is two-thirds Australian and the balance New Zealanders, and a light
-infantry force, all under Major-General Sir E. W. C. Chaytor, were moved
-up the Jordan Valley on the east of the Turks and so the net was
-completed. But the task of the Anzacs was difficult. Before they could
-move, the enemy guns dominating the narrow ground on either side of the
-river had to be silenced or shifted. This meant that the Turks had to begin
-their retreat on the Samarian Range before the Division could race them for
-the crossings. Not until the second day did this come about, and then the
-Anzacs, riding fast, closed the fords and the Turkish Western Army was
-doomed. Forty hours after the fight commenced, as the second day was
-closing, the enemy began to stream down the tracks leading on to the
-Esdraelon Plain from his forward mountain position. He had already
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>abandoned guns and transport, a tragedy which he owed mainly to the
-appalling havoc wrought with bombs and machine guns by our airmen.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>At dusk on the second day a large force was reported to be heading
-towards Jenin, on the northern edge of the Esdraelon Plain. General
-Chauvel, who was directing the battle from Megiddo (now Lejjun), the
-actual site of ancient Armageddon, at once ordered the 3rd Light Horse
-Brigade to move to the attack. An hour later, the Brigade had captured a
-mass of prisoners, who subsequently counted out at more than 7000; and
-we had the first evidence of the demoralization of the enemy. As the
-Brigade approached Jenin, with the 10th Light Horse Regiment (Western
-Australians) leading and the 9th (chiefly South Australians) working round
-to the rear of the village, the Turks ran out and surrendered in thousands.
-We had one officer and one man wounded. The only shots fired at us
-came from nine German riflemen, who fought to a finish, although two of
-our machine guns were laid on them at a range of sixty yards. The plan
-had put our troops into certain positions and the Turks, as at sham fight,
-recognizing the checkmate, were surrendering without bloodshed. Any
-resistance which followed on the long ride to Damascus came almost
-entirely from the Germans.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>CUT OFF</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>An endeavour has been made in the preceding pages to show how the
-galloping cavalry cordon was thrown round the main enemy position on
-the Samarian Range. Before the close of the second day, our horsemen,
-stoutly armed with machine guns and automatic rifles, in addition to
-rifle and sword and lance, and further strengthened by many batteries
-of horse artillery, held all the roads and railways behind the Turks and
-Germans. The enemy was practically cut off from supplies and retreat.
-Worse than that, he was already irretrievably smashed by the attack of the
-British and Indian infantry on his front. Recoiling from this blow, and
-hastening to reach the Esdraelon Plain before the cavalry completed the
-net, he was caught by our airmen in narrow mountain passes, subjected to
-terrible bombing and harassing machine gun fire, and forced to abandon
-most of his guns and transport. At the same time, the 5th Australian
-Light Horse Brigade under Brigadier-General Macarthur Onslow,
-accompanied by one regiment of French cavalry, was thrown in during the
-first day on his right flank, about halfway between the old front line and
-the Esdraelon Plain. The Australians, moving very fast, scattered with
-their swords a force several thousand strong north of Tul Keram and took
-two thousand prisoners. Then, riding all night, they cut the enemy frontline
-railway close behind Nablus. A few hours later, the Brigade captured
-Nablus itself.</p>
-
-<div id='t34'  class='figcenter id008'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>
-<img src='images/i_map3_alt.jpg' alt='OUTLINE MAP OF PALESTINE' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>
-  <h3 class='c012'>TERRIBLE AIR WORK</h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>But before this the airmen had commenced their work in the passes.
-When our infantry broke the enemy’s line on the Plain of Sharon, many
-thousands of Turks, who were on the foothills eastward of the gap our
-cavalry had galloped through, had endeavoured to swing round and retreat
-to the highlands of Samaria. But the movement was at once detected by the
-Australian airmen. The Turks, with their transport, were seen to be
-heading for a narrow defile leading up from Tul Keram to Anebta. Using
-their wireless, the airmen called up aerodromes where dozens of British and
-Australian pilots were awaiting the signal. The doomed column, extending
-over upwards of two miles, was deep in the pass when the first flight
-arrived with its bombs. Beginning on the leading troops and vehicles, the
-airmen, flying low, had, in a few minutes, blocked the narrow track. Pilot
-after pilot, flying in perfect order, dropped his bombs, and then, assisted
-by the observers, raked the unfortunate Turks with machine guns. Their
-ammunition exhausted, the airmen sped back to their aerodrome for more,
-and returned again to the slaughter. Some pilots made four trips on that
-day. While the airmen attacked the column, the 5th Light Horse Brigade
-came up over the hills on either side of the track, and caught the Turks
-with their swords as they attempted to escape. Blocked in front, the
-battered, distracted procession closed up and telescoped, and fires broke out
-among the massed and broken vehicles.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Still more appalling, because of the greater magnitude of the disaster,
-was the fate of a column between Balata and Fermeh on its way down
-the range towards Beisan, on the Jordan. Flying over Samaria, you
-appreciate the opportunities which this retreating army offered to the
-airmen. The stony hills are not so rugged as in Judea, but they are still
-too steep to permit masses of troops to move off the narrow roads. These
-roads wind along beside the wadies and are flanked nearly all the way by
-abrupt hillsides. The Balata column contained the bulk of the enemy’s
-forward transport. It stretched, slow-moving and in full view from the air,
-over seven or eight miles of the confined track. An Australian reconnaissance
-pilot sighted it soon after dawn and, an hour later, dozens of British and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>Australian bombers and machine gunners, flying within a few hundred feet
-of the ground, were smashing it to splinters. Again they began at the
-head, and forced the helpless drivers to pile up from the rear. For hours
-the bombing was continued. Here the airmen worked unaided by any
-other arm of the service, and they had wrecked or disabled the whole of
-the transport before the infantry came up from the south and took the
-dazed survivors. The broken material afterwards collected in the pass
-included 90 guns, 840 four-wheeled and 76 two-wheeled horse and cattle
-vehicles, 50 motor-lorries and a large number of miscellaneous transport,
-such as water carts and travelling kitchens. The horror of the scene
-during the bombardment and afterwards need not be dwelt upon. As the
-bombs rained down with pitiless regularity, scores of lorries and wagons
-were overturned and dashed to pieces as they went hurtling down into the
-rocky beds of the wadies. Included in the column were large formations
-of infantry, and these and the drivers, rushing from the track to escape the
-bombs, were shot down by airmen. These air attacks were repeated many
-times on a similar scale in the first two days.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>FINE STAFF WORK</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>Rarely have the various services of an army worked in such perfect
-accord. The infantry drove the enemy from his front, the Australian and
-French cavalry, at the same moment, struck from the flank at his very heart
-at Nablus; as he attempted to retreat in good order, the airmen wrecked him
-from the skies, and, in a few hours, turned his army into a shell-shocked
-rabble, with few guns or munitions, and little food. The wretched Turks,
-in their tens of thousands, urged on by officers, came at last to the outlets
-into the Esdraelon Plain. When first the cavalry galloped down upon them,
-and they surrendered in hordes without the least attempt at resistance, we
-were astonished. It was not until we learned what had happened in the
-mountains that we understood the tragic state of their morale.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The air force achieved a notable victory. They had not only inflicted
-very heavy losses, but had incalculably lessened the task of both our infantry
-and cavalry. They had prevented the Turk from fighting effective rear-guard
-actions against the pursuing infantry, and had hammered him so
-soundly that he was incapable of any attempt to burst through our cordon
-of cavalry. Without this help from the airmen, General Allenby must still
-have won a great victory; but it would have been much short of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>sensational one achieved. Progress must have been much slower, and our
-casualties heavier by many thousands.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Before the fight was two days old our aeroplanes were using aerodromes
-captured from the enemy. At one point on the march to Damascus, when
-we were a hundred miles from our starting-place, a number of airmen came
-up and established a flying ground abreast of our cavalry advance guard.
-Throughout the operations an air-post service was maintained between the
-leading troops and General Headquarters. An Australian Brigadier and a
-Colonel of the Light Horse, who were in hospital far down the line when
-the campaign opened, surprised their troops by alighting from aeroplanes in
-their midst, a hundred miles from our starting-point.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>GERMANS FIGHT WELL</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>The few thousand Germans who were with the Turkish 7th and 8th
-Armies west of the Jordan met the same fate as their allies; nearly all were
-destroyed or captured. But one must give the Germans credit for a stout
-resistance. Throughout, they fought resolutely to avert the great disaster,
-and if all of them did not continue the struggle to the death, it must be
-remembered that they were in a desperate situation. They handled
-nearly all of the hundreds of machine guns, which were the most formidable
-weapons possessed by the enemy. All the way to Damascus
-they fought stout rear-guard actions.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Having the great body of Turks on Samaria safe, and most of them
-already accounted for, General Allenby decided to clear Haifa; the operation
-demonstrated the relative morale of the Turks and Germans. A flying
-reconnaissance of armoured cars and smaller cars of the Light Car Patrol
-was pushed into the outskirts of the town. About three miles from the
-town our force saw the heads of a party of Turks in a strong redoubt two
-hundred yards from the road. The armoured cars halted and swept the
-Turkish parapet with their machine guns. The white flag was at once
-hoisted, and about eighty Turks came out without firing a shot. Two
-miles further on, the British came upon an Austrian battery of light field
-guns, supported by German machine gunners. Our little probing expedition
-was at once brought to a standstill, and was not sorry to pull out. Next day
-the Indians and Yeomanry, supported by horse artillery, rode into the town,
-and again the only opposition came from the Austrians and Germans.
-“We tried to cover the Turks’ retreat,” said a captured German officer, “but
-we expected them to do something, if only keep their heads. At last we
-decided they were not worth fighting for.”</p>
-
-<div id='t38'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_038fa.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic009'>
-<p>THE ROAD TO JERICHO<br /><br /><em>By Lieut. G. W. Lambert</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t38b'  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_038fb.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>ISMAILIA</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>
-  <h3 class='c012'>EAST OF JORDAN</h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>Before Haifa fell our troops were moving swiftly east of Jordan. A
-Division of Indian and Yeomanry cavalry crossed the Jordan about Beisan
-and rode eastward. Simultaneously, the Anzac Mounted Division forded
-and swam the river further to the south, and moved on Es Salt and Amman.
-The Australians and New Zealanders were familiar with the country. This
-was their third expedition to the Plateau of Moab and the heights of Gilead.
-They knew every goat-walk on the steep mountain side. This time they
-had come to stay; the Fourth Turkish Army on the East was to share the
-fate of the 7th and 8th Armies on Samaria. The tactics employed on both
-sides of the river were broadly similar. General Allenby depended for
-success upon the speed and stamina of his horses. Before the operations
-commenced, the Turk held a defensive position which was roughly an
-extension of his line west of the Jordan. He was strong in the foothills of
-Gilead; on the mountain he had his base at Es Salt, and at Amman he had
-a substantial force guarding a vital series of tunnels and viaducts on his
-Hedjaz railway. Beyond the railway the Eastern Palestine Range flattens
-out on the wide desert, which extends right across to the Euphrates. On
-the fringe of the desert was the Army of the Sherif of Mecca, a picturesque,
-galloping, thrusting, well-armed force. The Arabs harassed the Turk by
-day and night, repeatedly dashing in and cutting his railway and telegraph
-communications with Damascus. When attacked, they would fade away
-into the wide desert and leave the slow-footed Turk in the air. While the
-Anzacs marched upon Es Salt and Amman, the Arabs made a detour in the
-desert, appeared on the flank of the enemy north of Deraa, and cut the
-railway where the Hedjaz line junctions with the line which supplied the
-Turks west of the Jordan.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>THE RACE FOR DAMASCUS</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>Meanwhile the Indian and Yeomanry Division had crossed Eastern
-Palestine and reached Deraa, where it joined hands with the Arab army.
-Then the Arabs, the Indians and the Yeomanry sped on towards Damascus.
-There was still a chance of escape for some 20,000 Turks, who had moved
-northwards of Deraa before the arrival of our forces. These struggled
-gamely towards Damascus, hoping either to make a stand at that great base
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>or to escape by rail to the north. But General Chauvel still had in hand
-the Australian Mounted Division and a strong force of Indians and
-Yeomanry, which had returned to the Jordan after the capture of Haifa.
-With the Australians leading, he marched from Esdraelon Plain north-east
-across Jordan for Damascus. Then ensued one of the grand races
-of the war. Our tired horses were called upon for the heaviest work of the
-lightning campaign. Marching by Beisan, the 4th Light Horse Brigade,
-after a stiff fight—the most expensive cavalry fight in the campaign—took
-Semakh, and then, co-operating with the 3rd Brigade, which had come
-down from Nazareth, occupied Tiberias. After a day’s partial rest, during
-which our men swam and fished in the blue waters of Galilee, the Australian
-Division marched swiftly for the Jordan crossing, a few miles south of Lake
-Huleh. But the enemy was now seized of our intention, and the German
-machine gunners put up a fine resistance. Their stand at Semakh aimed
-at preventing us reaching Damascus before the 20,000 Turks, who were
-retreating from the direction of Deraa, and to give time for the removal of
-as many military stores as possible from the city. South of Lake Huleh, also,
-the Germans fought well and delayed us for a few hours. We then ran
-through as far as Kunneitra, but, a few miles further on, were again held up
-by machine guns and a field battery.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>GREAT-HEARTED HORSES</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>Our horses had covered, with marching and fighting, an average of thirty
-and forty miles a day. Thousands of Australian-bred animals must have
-covered some 400 miles in twelve days, a very fine performance when it is
-remembered that they carried a load exceeding an average of 250lbs. and
-had been on short rations. On our ride to Damascus, the excellent work
-of the staff was demonstrated again. As the advance guard of the 4th
-Light Horse Regiment (Victorian), travelling north-east, came within view
-of the green and generous plain of Damascus, we saw, some eight miles
-away on our right, and moving north-west, a great converging column
-of the fugitive Turks from Deraa. Nearly all of these were captured,
-the Germans once more fighting well with their machine guns. But even
-the Germans had now almost given up hope, and on this last day before
-Damascus, and in the two days which followed, they abandoned their
-machine guns, and fled at the galloping approach of the Australians.
-That evening many thousands of prisoners were captured by the 3rd and
-5th Australian Light Horse Brigades, and the city was enveloped.</p>
-
-<div id='t41'  class='figcenter id010'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>
-<img src='images/i_041.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>[top]<br />IN THE JORDAN VALLEY<br /><br />[bottom]<br />SHOPPING IN JERICHO</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>
-<img src='images/i_042a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>“BAKSHEESH”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t42b'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_042b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>A MEAL OUTSIDE THE BIVVIES</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t42'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_042fa.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic009'>
-<p>THE DEAD SEA (SUNRISE)<br /><br /><em>By Lieut. G. W. Lambert</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t42c'  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_042fb.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>SCOTTIES ON A ROUTE MARCH</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>
-  <h3 class='c012'>ABANA GORGE</h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>At dusk, in the Abana Pass, which leads out from Damascus towards
-Beirut, another disaster befell the enemy. Here, a column many miles in
-length was committed in a deep and narrow and singularly beautiful
-gorge. The floor of the gorge is less than a hundred yards across, and it
-is crowded with the Abana River—a rushing, mountain torrent,—a railway
-and a road. The river banks are overgrown with trees and bushes;
-the railway and road cross and re-cross the tumbling stream. On either
-side rise the gaunt cliffs of the desert. In this brief survey it is impossible
-to describe the fight between the long enemy column and the handful of
-dismounted Light Horsemen of the 3rd and 5th Brigades, who were perched
-in pockets of the cliffs on either side. The Germans, working their machine
-guns from the tops of motor wagons and lorries, fought to the death. Three
-hundred and seventy officers and men were killed, and fell among the dead
-and dying horses in the wild tumult of the chaotic column. We had scarcely
-a man hit. That ended the attempt to leave Damascus by the west; but
-the enemy was streaming out by the north along the road to Aleppo.
-Their run, however, was brief. Early next morning the 3rd Light Horse
-Brigade—the first force to enter Damascus—was in hot pursuit. The
-German machine gunners again attempted a rear-guard, but they could not
-withstand the charges of the elated Light Horsemen. Thousands of
-prisoners and hundreds of machine guns were taken by the Brigade.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>On the morning of 1st October a squadron of the 4th Light Horse
-Regiment received orders to patrol into the city. Winding along the
-crooked lanes between the irrigated orchards and gardens, it came upon
-the great Turkish barracks, swarming with troops. The Turks did not at
-once surrender, and the squadron leader, before attacking, awaited the
-arrival of the remainder of the Regiment. Then followed a fitting termination
-to the wonderful, and practically bloodless, British ride. A few hundred
-of the 4th Light Horse took nearly 12,000 prisoners in Damascus before
-noon, together with dozens of field pieces and scores of machine guns.
-Scarcely a shot was fired. There was no formal surrender; each body of
-men laid down its arms as the Australians rode up.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>EXULTANT ARABS</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>The Victorians entered the city and joined up with the exulting Arabs.
-These two forces, which had started hundreds of miles apart with two
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>mountain systems intervening, were mingled together in the midst of the
-swirling, madly-excited populace. To the Arab, Damascus was the
-dazzling prize, the promised reward. Here he was to proclaim and set
-up his government. Riding forth from his tent on the desert, or his little
-mud village, he was, in Damascus, the lord of a city of 250,000 souls—the
-oldest city in the world, and distinguished by the richness and strange
-character and beauty of its surroundings. Fired with pride, his long robes
-touched with brilliant patches of silk, he rode the streets on his sprightly
-desert horse, caparisoned with richly woven Persian saddle-bags. His
-scabbard of gold and silver flashed in the sunlight, and he fired his rifle
-freely at the skies. Ameer Feisal, the third son of the Sherif of Mecca,
-who was soon to be proclaimed the new ruler, rode into the city. The
-Arabs of the city gave an almost fanatical greeting to the Prince.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>THE GALLOP INTO DAMASCUS</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>Although the Victorians secured the great haul of prisoners, the first
-troops to enter Damascus were the Light Horsemen from Western
-Australia, who, also, had had the distinction of being the first mounted men
-to enter Jerusalem, in December. The Western Australians found their
-way into Damascus by accident, and their ride was one of the most dramatic
-and picturesque incidents of the campaign.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The 3rd Light Horse Brigade, to which the Western Australians belong,
-spent the night in the Abana Gorge, a few miles from Damascus, to the
-west along the Beirut Road. Brigadier-General Wilson was under orders
-to move at dawn and seize the road leading from the city northward
-towards Aleppo. It was hoped that a track would be found around the
-outskirts of the town, but this proved impracticable. The Brigade, therefore,
-with a troop of scouts leading, and the Western Australians following, came
-down the Abana Gorge, clearing a track through the shambles of dead
-Turks and Germans and hundreds of camels and horses, heaped on the
-road in the fighting of the evening before. It soon became plain to the
-officer second in command of the Western Australians, who was riding
-ahead with the scouts, that the only way to the Aleppo road lay through the
-heart of Damascus. The city had not surrendered, and he did not know
-how many of the enemy it contained. But he decided on the bold course,
-and pressed on. As the scouts passed the outskirts of the city, riding a
-narrow road with the river on one side and a prolonged, mud-built garden
-wall on the other, there was a sudden burst of Turkish rifle fire. No one
-was hit, and the officer in command, checking the scouts until the advanced
-squadron of Western Australians came up, ordered drawn swords, and
-dashed on at a gallop. Across the river, two or three hundred yards away,
-were thousands of Turks at the barracks. For a moment, the enemy
-decision was in the balance. But the sight of the great Australian horses
-coming at a gallop (the Turks and natives never ceased to marvel at the
-size of our horses), the flashing swords, and the ring of shoes upon the
-metal, turned the scale. “The shooting by the Turks,” said one of our
-officers, “gave way, in a second, to the clapping of hands by the citizens.”</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>
-<img src='images/i_045.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>
-<img src='images/i_046a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>MAJOR-GEN. CHAYTOR RECEIVES A DEPUTATION OF ARAB CHIEFS NEAR AMMAN</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t46b'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_046b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>JERUSALEM</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>The Australians rode hard, scattering the excited people from their track.
-The firing increased, but its character had changed. The shots were now
-coming from native Arabs, who were expressing their feelings, in the popular
-Arab way, by blazing at the heavens. Across the river ahead, in front of
-the large new Town Hall, a huge crowd was assembled, and clattering over
-a bridge, the cavalry pulled up at the steps of the building. Instantly, there
-were hundreds of eager horse-holders, and an intense demonstration of
-goodwill. The East was greeting the victors of the day. Three officers, all
-carrying their revolvers, entered the building, and demanded the civil governor.
-They were at once taken upstairs to that personage, a trim, little middle-aged
-Turk, who greeted them with complete calm and much dignity, and begged
-to know their wishes. He was told that a great British force of cavalry
-was entering the town, and that he would be held responsible for good order
-and the protection of property; the shooting in the streets must instantly
-cease. The Governor replied that there was nothing to fear from the civil
-population, that the shooting was merely the expression of an excess of
-feeling, and that the British wishes would be respected in every way.
-He then begged the Australian officers to accept his hospitality.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>A reliable guide was obtained and the party hurried forward. As the
-Australians continued their ride through the city they received the honours
-traditionally lavished on conquerors. The stalls were emptied of their
-incomparable grapes and pomegranates, which were handed up to the
-passing horsemen. Crowds hung to their stirrups and ran along with their
-hands on the bridle reins. They were smothered with perfumes. Every man
-who smoked enjoyed a gift cigar. Dark-eyed women and pretty girls
-appeared in every window, some of them the wives, doubtless, of Turkish
-soldiers, timidly, and showing no pleasure; others boldly waved their hands,
-smiled their welcome, and threw down scents and other favours.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>
-<img src='images/i_map4_alt.jpg' alt='OUTLINE MAP OF SYRIA' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>
-  <h3 class='c012'>VETERANS</h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>It was a wonderful hour for our young Australian countrymen. But
-the long war had made them into reserved men of the world, and the streets
-of old Damascus were but a stage in the long path of the war. They rode,
-very dusty and unshaved, their big hats battered and drooping, through
-the tumultuous populace of the oldest city in the world, with the same easy,
-casual bearing, and the same quiet self-confidence that are their distinctive
-characteristic on their country tracks at home. They ate their grapes and
-smoked their cigars, and missed no pretty eyes at the windows; but they
-displayed no excitement or elation. They had become true soldiers of
-fortune. And their long-tailed horses, at home now, like their owners, on
-any road in any country, saw nothing in the shouting mob or banging rifles,
-or the narrow ways and many colours of the bazaars, to cause them once to
-start, shy, or even cock an ear. The 3rd Brigade rode out to a series of ugly,
-but highly successful, actions with stout rear-guards of German machine
-gunners. Few men, in any age, have passed through twenty-four more
-adventurous and gratifying hours than they during this first day around
-Damascus.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>BEAUTIFUL DAMASCUS</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>The district of Damascus is an irrigation settlement on a vast scale, set in
-the midst of comparative desert. So rich and close are the orchards, and so
-tall the plantations of poplars and other decorative trees, that, looking over
-the city from the neighbouring hills, all you see of the city of 250,000 people
-are the stately minarets of its many mosques and the roofs of the larger
-residences of the rich. Immediately to the west of the town rises the bare,
-glaring mountain side, and to the east and north and south of the green
-expanse of gardens you ride out upon the harsh and treeless plain.
-Damascus owes all its wealth, even its very existence, to the torrential
-Abana River, which, surging down from Anti-Lebanon, bursts from the
-mountain gorge on to the plain and, splitting up into several beautiful
-streams, has made a rural paradise on the edge of the Arabian wilderness.</p>
-
-<div id='t50a'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_050fa.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>AUSTRALIANS ON THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t50b'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_050fb.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>AN AUSTRALIAN FLYING SQUADRON IN PALESTINE<br /><br /><span class='right'><em>Photos, in colour by Capt. Frank Hurley</em></span></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>In Palestine the troops looked in vain for the Promised Land “flowing
-with milk and honey.” The Plain of Philistia was fertile, but apart from the
-few Jewish and German colonies, and the orange groves about Jaffa, it was,
-with all its natural possibilities, a land bare and neglected, a reproachful
-ghost of a great life that is gone. But Damascus was a prize worth the
-winning. Here, after nearly three years of desert and exhausted, unfruitful
-regions, was an area good to look upon, and teeming with an active people.
-Few of us were sorry that we had at last outrun our supplies, or rather,
-that the huge capture of prisoners had somewhat strained the wonderful
-commissariat which had so gallantly kept at the heels of the galloping
-cavalry, and that a brief halt was necessary for the Australian Mounted
-Division. For a month some of the Regiments were in camps in the gardens
-around the city, and man and horse never accepted rest more gratefully.
-After thirteen days on bully and biscuit, it was good to know fresh meat
-and bread again; the mutton was of the best, and the bread, if dark and
-coarse and heavy, was still a long way ahead of biscuit. We were too late
-for the famous Damascus apricots, but there were grapes for the multitude,
-and pears and apples and pomegranates, and, also, raisins and other dried
-fruits and specialties in Eastern sweetmeats. Best of all, every camp was
-within sight and sound of many running waters.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Noisy little streams crossed our path a hundred times a day. Follow
-one along, and it suddenly disappeared into an underground passage, to
-burst forth like a spring a hundred yards away. In the streets, many of the
-gutters are river-fed waterways, and, to reduce the dust, the tired civic
-authorities block the drains and cause an effective little flood, which is
-extended by boys splashing with their hands. You buy grapes at the stalls,
-and carry them a few yards to dip into the waters of a mountain stream.
-But Damascus is dirty and insanitary. Without the purge of the Abana
-waters, flushing through it and under it, the city would die of its filth in a
-single summer. And even with its beautiful streams it proved a false friend
-to great numbers of Australians. The Australian Mounted division suffered
-more sickness in the Damascus area than anywhere else in the campaign.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>THE ANZACS’ PART</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>In most of the operations which cleared Sinai and Palestine of the
-Turk, the lead was entrusted to the veterans of the Anzac Mounted
-Division. In this last and greatest campaign of all, the Division found
-itself away from the spectacular side of the enterprise. A trusty mounted
-Division was needed for the subsidiary, but highly important, work on
-Moab and Gilead, east of Jordan, and the choice fell upon the Anzacs.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The Australians and New Zealanders complained about their luck.
-But their task made one strong appeal to them. Twice before they had
-been across the Jordan, and twice they had returned leaving not a few of
-their men in enemy graves. The two great raids over the river, early in the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>year, were brilliantly successful, as raids. Each time our purpose was
-achieved. But each time our men broke off the fight strongly against their
-inclination, and prayed for the day when they would get orders to go over
-and see the job through, and stay. Old Amman, the ancient Philadelphia,
-was especially coveted by our men. There, in March, 1918, we had fought
-for days over sodden ground in extreme winter weather and come away,
-the railway having been well broken, just after the New Zealanders had
-won into the town. This time, Australians and New Zealanders competed,
-in a sporting way, for first entry, and the 5th Light Horse Regiment,
-from Queensland, narrowly gained the honour.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>At the outset, the Anzacs, and the small infantry force operating with
-them, made up chiefly of the Jewish Battalion, the British West Indians
-and troops from India proper, had no chance of breaking out of our bridgeheads
-east of the river. Their orders were to keep in very close and firm
-touch with the enemy, and to demolish him as soon as he began to withdraw
-in consequence of his defeat on Samaria. Also, this Jordan Valley force
-was to push northwards up the Valley, and complete the cordon round the
-two Turkish armies on Samaria. Both missions were admirably accomplished.
-While the New Zealanders and infantry were advancing up the
-Valley, the Australians were probing the strongly entrenched and wired
-positions along the Moab and Gilead foothills, across the river. As soon
-as the Turk moved the two Australian Brigades pounced upon his rear-guard,
-and fought him as he climbed the narrow wady tracks up on to the
-tableland. Meanwhile, the New Zealanders, crossing away to the north at
-Jisr el Darnie, ascended the goat-track which leads from there to Es Salt,
-and, for the third time in the campaign, that old stone-built town was in
-Australasian hands.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>All the way our men had evidence of the success of the British bluff.
-The Turks’ defences on the foothills, and higher up, were particularly
-strong. Had our main attack gone that way, the fight would have been
-very bitter, with the enemy in a strong natural position. But now the
-Turks were compelled to abandon their stronghold because of their disaster
-in the west, and, also, because the Arabs had broken their communications
-to the north, and were joining hands with a British and Indian cavalry
-Division right across those communications. As the Australians passed
-Shunet Nimrin, they discovered a long-range navy gun lying on its side, a
-piece known to them as “Nimrin Nellie” and “Jericho Jane,” with which
-the Turk had often made our camps near Jericho dusty and unpleasant.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>
-<img src='images/i_053a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>ORANGE SELLER, JAFFA</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t53'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_053b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>IN THE SHADE</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t54'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>
-<img src='images/i_054a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>[top]<br />THE VILLAGE WELL<br /><br />[bottom]<br />NATIVE PLOUGH AND TEAM</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_054b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div id='t54a'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_054fa.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>JAFFA</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t54b'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_054fb.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>AUSTRALIANS PRIOR TO THE FIGHT FOR HEIGHTS OF NALIN<br /><br /><span class='right'><em>Photos, in colour by Capt. Frank Hurley</em></span></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>
-  <h3 class='c012'>AMMAN CAPTURED</h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>It was not until our men were far across the tableland, and close to
-Amman, that the enemy showed fight. There our advance guard came
-under machine gun fire; but the Division’s rapid advance on the town
-was not stayed. As the scene of the severe March fighting came into
-view the Australians appreciated the disaster which had so suddenly fallen
-upon the Turkish arms. In March, the only possible approaches to
-Amman led through hurricanes of machine gun fire, together with shells
-from several field batteries. But now, the broken foe, although he fought
-gamely at this particular spot, was quickly out-witted and out-classed by
-Light Horse manoeuvre, and soon the Australians, after trifling casualties,
-were riding in the streets of the squalid modern village, and marvelling at
-the glory of the ancient Roman amphitheatre. Contact with the Roman in
-this hour of our triumph did us good. It subdued our vanity. In these
-far outposts of the old Roman Empire, on the very edge of the barbarian
-desert, the massiveness of the stone-work and the fine quality of the
-decorative carving proclaimed to the least imaginative mind the culture
-and mighty physical achievements of our great rivals in the task of Empire
-building. “The splendour that was Rome” is told far more convincingly
-in distant Amman and Baalbek than in the ruins of Rome itself.</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_055.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>The Australians took 350 prisoners in Amman, and the New Zealanders
-another good bag as the Turks attempted to escape to the north. But the
-chief, and by far the most amusing, exploit of the Anzacs’ campaign, fell
-to the 2nd Light Horse Brigade under General Ryrie, at Ziza, about
-twenty miles to the south. News came through that a large Turkish force,
-which had been far to the south on the Hedjaz railway at Maan, was in
-an entrenched position at Ziza, and a regiment of Queenslanders rode
-down to spy out the land and, if possible, to smash them. The C.O.
-reported that he was in touch with 5000 Turks, who wished to capitulate,
-but they would not lay down their arms until they were sure that a great
-force of hostile Arabs, by whom they were surrounded, would be kept
-away from them. So the Colonel of the Queenslanders suggested that the
-whole Brigade should hurry down to assure the Turks of their safety.
-General Ryrie at once decided to go, and the twenty miles were covered in
-less than three hours.</p>
-
-<div>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>
-  <h3 class='c012'>ARABS AND TURKS</h3>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>The Brigade arrived shortly before dark, and an extraordinary situation
-was discovered. The Turks were in a strongly defended position around
-the village. They were made up, in the main, of Anatolians, regulars and
-the cream of the Ottoman army. Moreover, they were well armed and
-capable of a good fight. Our Brigade was not complete and was outnumbered
-by about ten to one. The Turkish commander rode out to meet
-the Australian Brigadier. “I will surrender,” he said, “if you will protect
-us against the Arabs.” “Certainly,” said the Brigadier. “The Arabs are
-our allies; if you surrender, you have nothing to fear.” But the Turkish
-leader would not be convinced, and he demanded that the Australian force
-should be greatly increased before his men gave up their arms. Otherwise,
-he would be pleased to fight. General Ryrie was anxious to complete the
-surrender and save casualties, and the Australians and Turks spent the
-night together in arms around the same camp fires!</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Next morning, the Turks laid down their arms and marched as prisoners
-to Amman. The incident was an interesting sidelight on the feeling of the
-Turk towards the Arabs, whom he has so long governed. But it is a
-highly significant fact that, in the long campaign, the Arabs took 17,000
-Turkish prisoners, and the Turks not a single Arab. To the Arab, the
-Turk has been an enemy in arms. To the Turk, the Arab has been a rebel,
-and deserving of a rebel’s fate.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Ziza practically finished the Anzacs’ brilliant little campaign. In all,
-some 11,000 prisoners were taken. The total battle casualties for the
-Division did not exceed a few score.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>THE TECHNICAL SERVICES</h3>
-
-<p class='c013'>The writer of this sketch has been obliged to keep severely to the work
-of the Force as a whole, and has recorded little or nothing of the great
-achievements of the many technical services, lacking which the victorious
-progress of the Light Horsemen would have been impossible. The
-performances of the Australian No. 1 Flying Corps Squadron, the first
-Commonwealth Flying Squadron engaged in the war, deserve a volume to
-themselves. Recruited chiefly from the Light Horse Regiments, both
-pilots and observers excelled in resource and daring, and in their golden
-chivalry to their foes, and in their many fine rescues of fallen comrades
-far behind the enemy lines, shone the spirit of Saladin and King Richard.
-They were the modern Knights of Palestine.</p>
-
-<div id='t56'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_056fa.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic009'>
-<p>ANZAC RIDGE, GAZA<br /><br /><em>By Lieut. G. W. Lambert</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_056fb.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>Then there were the Engineers (no attempt is made to place these
-services in order of merit—a hopeless task), who found us water at
-will, as with a magician’s wand, beneath the blistering sands of Sinai;
-who bridged the Jordan under heavy fire for the crossing to Moab, and
-who, so often, blew enemy railroads, bridges and viaducts heavenward.
-Working over every kind of country from the desert to the mountains, they
-won through because of their indomitable spirit, and their boundless gift
-for improvization.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>THE M.O.</h3>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_057.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>In the whole war there has not been a campaign which depended
-so much for its success upon the native wit of the individual. Conditions
-changed with dramatic suddenness from battle to battle. What served
-to-day, was useless to-morrow. As an example of this, take the superb
-work of our Medical Services. The Medical Officer was, all the way, a
-man of many inventions. In the desert the wounded were habitually
-carried on sledges made of sheets of galvanized iron, and, later, upon an
-improvement of this device; as the campaign progressed, they were borne
-on camels; and once, at least, in the mountains east of Jordan, they were
-carried lying flat on rough beds made of greatcoats on the backs of horses;
-and as the road improved, they were carried in two-wheeled sand-carts,
-in ordinary G.S. wagons and every kind of motor. The Light Horse
-galloped, and those who would serve them must gallop too. The almost
-miraculous rapidity and efficiency with which the Medical Units would
-establish their various stations and communications, at the very heels of
-a fight, distant perhaps a hundred swiftly-covered miles from railhead,
-made them worthy peers of the sparkling horsemen. And, thanks to the
-establishment of the mobile operating theatre—a veritable galloping
-machine, like the rest of the force—under a gifted surgeon, it was possible
-for the most intricate skull and abdominal operations to be carried out at
-the edge of the zone of fire. All honour to our doctors and their devoted
-staffs! And especially dear in the memory of Light Horsemen will always
-be the mounted stretcher-bearers. No wounded man was beyond their
-gallant reach.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Of the Light Horseman’s debt to the Nursing Sisters this narrative will
-not dare an estimate. As long as memory lasts, every officer and man will
-think with deep gratitude of the sustained, self-sacrificing devotion of these
-noble Australian women. Fighting in this alien and uncivilized land,
-thousands of young Australians for years never spoke to a British woman,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>except when in hospital. What the ever-ready sympathy and helpful
-friendship of the Sisters meant to them only these lonely soldiers could
-tell.</p>
-
-<h3 class='c012'>THE A.S.C.</h3>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_058a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c013'>The supreme masters of improvization were the officers and men who
-handled the supplies. Not only the Australians, but the whole of the
-Imperial Cavalry—the greatest mounted force in the war under a single
-command—led by General Chauvel, depended for their rations upon the
-distinguished ability of the Queensland Colonel who was responsible for
-the direction of the supply and transport for mounted corps in the Desert.
-A cavalry force requires about four times the quantity of supplies which
-suffices for infantry, and, on occasions, it travels four times as fast. During
-the ride to Damascus, the horsemen, more than once, covered sixty miles
-in twenty-four hours; and on the whole advance, no man or horse went
-short of a mobile ration. British railways, captured Turkish railways and
-rolling-stock, motor-lorries, four-wheeled G.S. wagons, two-wheeled limbers
-(their off-side horses carrying pack-saddles, so that, if the vehicle failed, the
-load could be transferred), camels in tens of thousands, countless mules and
-donkeys—the interminable, sleepless procession on the roads during General
-Chauvel’s final triumph was a fitting culmination to the great transport
-record from the Canal onward.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Of our Australian machine gunners and signallers, and of the model
-Veterinary Service, which cared for our sick and wounded walers as
-promptly and faithfully as the Medical people cared for the men, and of
-the British batteries of Horse Artillery, which unfailingly advanced to
-extreme limits with their guns and shot so unerringly (never was man so
-welcome as a galloping gunner in a sticky dismounted fight)—of all these,
-it is enough to say that without them Palestine could not be ours to-day.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_058b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>The fighting ceased for the Australians early in October, with the capture
-of Damascus and Amman, though No. 1 Australian Light Car Patrol (Captain
-James), accompanying the 5th Cavalry Division, took a prominent part
-in the capture of Aleppo, and in the pursuit of the Turko-German forces
-north of that city. The final campaign yielded prodigious results at a
-trifling cost in battle casualties. Of the 75,000 prisoners made by
-General Allenby’s Army, more than 40,000 were taken by the Australian
-and Anzac Mounted Divisions. The losses in killed and wounded,
-in the two Divisions, were nominal. Unfortunately, however, the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>Force then suffered the worst spell of sickness it had known since leaving
-Australia. The terrible ordeal of Jordan Valley during the summer took its
-suspended toll. Malaria ran like wildfire through the regiments, and
-there was also much acute influenza with pneumonia following, sandfly
-fever, and other more or less serious diseases peculiar to the Holy Land.
-Many brave men, who had survived four years of hard fighting and
-extremely rough living, lost their lives by sickness in the moment of victory.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The Australian Mounted Division was pushing on from Damascus
-towards the country north of Aleppo, and the armistice was signed as they
-reached Homs, which marked the northern limit attained by the Light
-Horsemen.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>To-day, the force asks only one question: “Who goes Home—and
-when?”</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id005'>
-<img src='images/i_059a.jpg' alt='H. S. Gullett.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='clear'>
-
-<div class='lg-container-l'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><em>Palestine, December, 1918.</em></div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_059b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Anthem Bells</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c014'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Heard ye the bells, the chapel bells,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Pealing in Bethlehem?</div>
-      <div class='line'>The vibrant swells, the solemn knells,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>On the eve of a requiem?</div>
-      <div class='line'>Saw ye the trees</div>
-      <div class='line'>When the gentle breeze</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Caressed the leaves of them?</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Heard ye the guns, the distant guns,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>That thundered down the vale,</div>
-      <div class='line'>When comrades strode the mountain road</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>To brave the battle gale?...</div>
-      <div class='line'>O, see the worn, returning men whose march no fire could stem,</div>
-      <div class='line'>And hear their song as they surge along</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>The road to Bethlehem!</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>O, hear the hoofs, the iron hoofs,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Falling in Bethlehem,</div>
-      <div class='line'>While sunlight flames on the ruddy roofs</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>In the hills of Jerusalem!</div>
-      <div class='line'>And if you’ve crossed the wilderness by well and palmy hod,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Pray heed the bells, the heavenly bells,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>That call the folk to God.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line in36'>“GERARDY.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Palestine Poppies</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_061.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'>
-From the hills to the sea, a scarlet trail of flowers in
-the spring, when the little grey larks are singing
-and all the low country is green with barley. Wild
-flowers everywhere, yellow and purple and butterfly-blue—but
-the poppy is our choice. It glows on
-Australian graves in the plains and down by the sea
-where the surf croons all day long; it makes beautiful
-old battle-grounds, and flakes the wady’s brown
-banks with scarlet. The blood-red poppy is
-Palestine’s flower. At the wind’s touch petals fall from the slender stems
-to lie softly in the grass, as if some rare and lovely bird had shed its
-plumage there. The red poppy is our flower of War, and in the tranquil
-days of Peace will be our flower of Memory.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Among the sea-dunes white lilies grow, and they, too, will have power
-to win us memories of Palestine, unclouded by sorrow; memories of the
-blue Mediterranean, serene as a summer sky, or flinging ramparts of foam
-alongshore. When we camped at Malala or Marakeb beach, heeding all
-day the call of the surf, the land wind bore to us faintly the scent of
-blossoms unseen. A colour, then, and a fragrance of flowers are the gifts
-we shall take overseas. One will bring memories tinged with sadness;
-the other of golden hours.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Palestine is a wild garden in spring. Many plants blossom on through
-the summer, fading at last in the season of mists, when dawn comes veiled
-like a bride and the earth is pearled with dew. In spring, when the wattles
-shower gold on our streams, Palestine poppies are blooming. From the
-white sea-dunes to the long blue hills the land is alight with flowers. And
-all the larks of the world and all the butterflies seem to be gathered there.
-Over every blossom some bird is singing or a butterfly floating on sunlit
-wings. A murmur of bees in convolvulus bells; grasshoppers leaping over
-the tall grass; wagtails gleaning in sheltered places; white vultures high
-in the blue; and kestrels hovering over the barley, keen-eyed for prey.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>Those long rides across the plains, before the Turks were driven back
-to the hill country, were wonderful. Our horses breasted a green sea of
-barley, and it was hard to urge them on. Often we drew rein to look at
-leisure on the earth’s green mantle inwrought with flowers. The plains
-and the valleys were beautiful. We rode inland along the blue ways of
-Dawn, rode on till noon, then, after rest, took the sunset trail, when cloud
-shadows were skimming over the earth. We gazed at the purple ranges
-and wondered what lay beyond. Under the stars we slept well.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>One ride I remember more vividly than all others. We started at
-sunrise from Belah, rode through a village, and came to a place of little hills
-whose slopes were bare of trees. Here the Bedouins had pitched their
-tents, some on the hills and some in the valleys, singly or in groups. When
-we cantered past men came from the tents to look at us, and children
-followed after, wailing for backsheesh. The women remained at their
-tasks. Dogs barked at our horses’ hoofs till their masters cursed them,
-when they slunk back snarling. We travelled on, with Fara on our left—a
-great grey bulk against the sky—coming at length to old pasture-lands that
-War had restored to Nature. Where dust had lain deep, and all plant life
-had perished under the feet of an army, Nature had won loveliness, healing
-earth’s wounds with grasses and flowers. It seemed an idle dream that the
-red tide of war had surged where poppies flamed in the sun and the
-little speedwell’s eyes of blue shone amid the grass.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Far as our vision ranged the land was bright with flowers—tulips, blue
-salvias, scarlet pimpernels, asphodels, white daisies, anemones, and lilies
-swaying on tall stems; hollows brimming with sunshine and pink with
-cyclamens; acres of red poppies set in emerald; sky-coloured lupines; a
-green knoll fringed with “pheasant’s eye”; and away to the west a long,
-brown field flaked with white convolvulus flowers.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>For a mile we rode along the wady, seeking vainly an easy descent for
-the horses. Every cleft was starred with flowers; over the ledges melon
-plants trailed, making caves of tiny crevices haunted by lizards and spiders.
-Down a steep track we rode carelessly, letting our eyes dwell on blossoms
-and giving the horses free rein. We won to the other side safely, then on
-again through flower-land, with the white tents of the Camel Corps gleaming
-afar at Shellal. A long, glad ride from dawn till dusk across the plains in
-spring.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>When we carried war to the Judean hills we found wild beauty there;
-flowers among the terraced hills and olive trees in the valleys. Pink hollyhocks
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>grew on the heights along the Jerusalem road. The valleys were
-gardens. Gehenna’s goat-tracks, winding among old tombs, were bordered
-with scarlet poppies.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Wild flowers are Palestine’s glory. No one has named them all. From
-Dan to Beersheba, among the hills of Moab and Judea, on the wide plain
-of Esdraelon, on Hermon and Tabor, in Gilead and Bashan; everywhere
-in Palestine Spring casts down her kindling buds. We have seen them all
-in our long campaign, and out of the shining company have chosen two
-for remembrance: the little red poppy (symbol of sleep), and the lily that
-grows by the sea.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>CHARLES BARRETT.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id003'>
-<img src='images/i_063.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Farming in Arcady</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Up in fanatical, uncorrupted old Hebron, where, happily, the cheap
-tourists are afraid to venture, you see the rude but expert craftsman
-making the plough. Seated in his gloomy little recess, hewn out of the
-stone of the hillside, he works swiftly with toes and fingers. Seizing a
-rough bent branch of an olive tree, he stands it up and grasps the lower
-end firmly with his deft and supple toes. The pieces fly. Slashing and
-turning, he lops the smaller limbs, hacks it here and prunes it there, and, in
-a few minutes, flings it aside complete, except for the steel tip which plays
-the part of the share.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>For a few shillings the plough is bought by the Bedouin. The selection
-of the land for cultivation is equally simple. Over most of the Palestine
-we covered, there is little regularity in the tenure of the small holder. The
-Sheik of the village has a loose control over a wide area, for which he
-pays tribute and taxes in grain to the Turk. The Bedouin is granted a
-plot the size of which is according to his capacity to cultivate and his
-inclination to work. He is rarely ambitious, and always lazy. If he has
-more than one wife, or has children of a working and a hungry age, he will
-extend his area. But, like the piece of glass bottle in Grimm’s fairy tale,
-he loves best just to lie about and glitter in the sun. That is better than
-any exceptional success as a farmer.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>As a cultivator he has complete confidence in Allah. He has never
-heard of artificial manures, or of the rotation of crops; he rarely troubles to
-irrigate even when water is available. Here, as all over the Eastern Turkish
-Empire, there is fertile land for every inhabitant, and to spare. So the
-Bedouin roams wide with his plough. He crops here this year, and next
-year tries a patch a few miles away, which has been resting for a season
-or two under the thin native grasses. His selection made, he appears at
-dawn one morning, riding on his mournful ass and carrying his plough in
-front of him. Or perhaps he rides one of his little black oxen and leads
-the ass; or he may ride either the ass or the oxen and lead a horse or
-camel. The point is, that he always rides and carries the plough, and that
-his wife, if she is in attendance, always walks and carries half-a-hundred-weight of something on her head. It is a significant commentary upon
-his neighbours that he always brings his plough home at night.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>
-<img src='images/i_065a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>HARVEST TIME</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t65b'  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i_065b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>PLOUGHING AS OF OLD</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t65c'  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i_065c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>NATIVE STOCK</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>
-<img src='images/i_066a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>THE FRANCISCAN MONASTERY</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t66b'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_066b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>LAKE OF TIBERIAS</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>In his team he seldom drives two of a kind. It is a cow and a donkey,
-or a scabby, bony ghost of a pony and a camel. You can yoke them as you
-please. Palestine is a land that knows no shame, and so the horse does
-not rebel at being harnessed with a cow. Lazy as he is, the Bedouin is
-always up at dawn. At dusk he goes to his mat to sleep; he cannot read,
-and the villages burn no night-lights.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Cleverly holding his simple plough upright with one hand, he pelts
-clods at the team or wields a long goad with the other. Up and down he
-scratches little gutters a few inches apart, his camel towering ludicrously
-above his ass. Usually, he sows his seeds in strips before the plough. He
-rarely harrows and never rolls, but sometimes he shows a sense of the value
-of fallow by ploughing twice. The rest he leaves to Allah.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Sometimes, in the spring, he will pluck the wild turnip and radish and
-other tares from the growing corn. As a rule he prefers to sit in his
-coloured rags in the pleasant sunshine. Or he may go off to Jaffa with
-his asses and his women, and traffic in oranges. Then you see him, with
-both asses and women brutally overloaded, goading the donkey, or perhaps
-astride behind the burden of fruit, as the little long-eared slave totters along
-the tracks. The women, like the asses, never protest. The man is master.
-It is the way of the East.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The beautiful lilies and poppies vanish as summer comes upon the
-rolling, treeless plain. The corn ripens and harvesting begins. Machinery
-plays as little part here to-day as it did among the “alien corn” near
-Bethlehem long ago, when pretty Ruth worked for Boaz. In Palestine the
-world has stood still for a thousand years or more, or when it moved it
-moved backward. Much of the barley and wheat is pulled up, roots and
-all, but some is cut with sickles. In each village there is a harvest floor—a
-patch of clean, hard ground, where each man builds his little stack and sees
-about the threshing.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Occasionally you see the flail at work, but it is not popular. To wield
-the flail is hard work. So the Bedouin employs his cattle, his wives
-and his children. He spreads the loose crop in a little circle about two feet
-deep. Donkeys and oxen and ponies are then tied together, from two to
-four abreast, and goaded round and round upon the straw. Sometimes the
-threshing is done by their hoofs alone; but often a rude wooden sledge is
-drawn after them. Time is of no concern. The cattle barely move; the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>owner sits with his friends under the shade of an olive tree, smoking many
-cigarettes and occasionally dreaming luxuriously over his hubble-bubble;
-pleasant breezes blow across from the gleaming Mediterranean. The season
-has been generous: Allah is good. Why hurry?</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The threshing finished, rough wooden forks are used to remove the
-coarsest straw, and then the winnowing begins. Day after day the harvest
-is thrown high into the air, and, slowly but surely, the chaff and dross are
-separated from the grain by the Mediterranean breezes.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Then the Turk comes—or he did before the war—and takes from thirty
-to sixty bushels out of every hundred! That is why the Bedouin is so fond
-of glinting in the sunshine, like the piece of glass bottle in the old fairy tale.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>H. S. G.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i_068.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span></div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_069.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>“Standing to.”</h2>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c014'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>W</span>hile the sleep-drunk world behind lies still abed,</div>
-      <div class='line'>And the dawn breath chills the smoking mists before,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Down the lines between in commune of the Dead,</div>
-      <div class='line'>There are eyes, that world of slumber watching o’er;</div>
-      <div class='line'>There are trenches darkly sheening readied steel,</div>
-      <div class='line'>There are orbs aglint, the darkness peering through;</div>
-      <div class='line'>And the shades of Night, the shades of Death scarce veil,</div>
-      <div class='line'>For the millions, to the Day, who’re “Standing to”</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“Standing to”—in grim attesting to a Thought,</div>
-      <div class='line'>By the scars that weal Earth’s Face from sea to sea</div>
-      <div class='line'>In the pride to set the need of Life at naught</div>
-      <div class='line'>For the will to live a fancied Destiny;</div>
-      <div class='line'>Waiting, watching, till the hour of dree be gone,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Or muezzin-guns roar forth their hate anew—</div>
-      <div class='line'>O! Well may the world of Slumber slumber on,</div>
-      <div class='line'>For those watchers of the Dawn, who’re “Standing to.”</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line in42'>BRENTOMMAN.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>
-<img src='images/i_070a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>OUTPOSTS</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t70b'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_070b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>JORDAN VALLEY DUST</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t70'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_070f.jpg' alt='DINNER GONG!' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span></div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_071.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <h2 class='c005'>A WALER’S STORY</h2>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_071.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'>
-Of my early life I remember but little. I have a dim
-recollection of golden sunlight, of wide-sweeping
-plains, of a huge dam down by a homestead, of
-tall trees like some I have seen around Jaffa, and
-others with golden blossom, and of a long trip in a
-railway truck to Homebush—ah! you know the
-place?—where I was sold.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Since I have been in the Army my comrades
-have often taunted me with not knowing on what
-station I was born, and have called me a town-bred scrub; but I cannot
-help that. I will not bore you with details of my early career at Surry
-Hills as a “week-end” horse (I was then owned by a prosperous butcher),
-nor will I inflict upon you my first impressions of Army life at Moore
-Park; but I must say that I was at Broadmeadows, learning “Sections
-right,” “Form troop,” and “Walk march,” before they would put me in a
-unit.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>On the 20th November, 1914, our troop was taken down to a big dock
-and put on board what our masters called a transport. (I have heard them
-call it a ship, a tub—and other names as occasion demanded). We horses
-had a rough time all the way across; and judging by the manner in which
-our masters cursed when they came to feed us and perform their stable
-duties, or to lead us about the decks for exercise, I think they had a rough
-time, too. I remember a remarkable incident on our deck when we were
-somewhere in the tropics. (If you know anything about the tropics and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>about ships, you will know how we and our masters existed). Ginger, who
-never wore anything to speak of except a pair of shorts, shoes, and a grin,
-looked after the horses on my off side; he also used to hitch baskets on to
-a long rope, which disappeared through the deck above. “Haul away!”
-was all he ever said, and the basket disappeared. Later, a voice would
-echo from above: “Under below!” and Ginger would stand well back
-until it landed again. One day when the rope slipped, the chap up above
-forgot to say “Under below,” and the big basket fell down on Ginger and
-extinguished him. When he got clear, his conversation with the chap on
-top was so unrestrained and vivid that three horses broke out of their
-stalls and tried to climb up on deck. I did not mind—I had often heard
-the expressions Ginger used.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>We reached Alexandria at last and were taken ashore. At first I
-thought that a peculiarity existed in the ground of Egypt, for it kept rocking
-and swaying under my feet like the movement of the ship; but this feeling
-went away in two or three days. We were taken to Gabbari, put into
-trucks, and rattled to Ma’adi, a pretty little suburb of Cairo. At Ma’adi we
-had plenty of feed, good stables which kept the sun off us during the day,
-and very little work while the boys were away at the Peninsula. Sometimes
-we went out on route marches and dummy stunts, and always on Sundays
-our masters used to take us out on to the desert behind the camp, to gallop
-us until we were tired. Those gallops were great sport. There would be
-horses all over the desert, some of them with riders clinging affectionately
-to their necks, others without riders, and all of them thoroughly enjoying
-the fun, and kicking their heels playfully into the air. We were at Ma’adi
-right up till February, 1916, and then we were pushed off to Serapeum and
-dumped in a camp close to the Canal. After the delights of Ma’adi,
-Serapeum came as a shock to me; and in a few days I was feeling very ill
-on account of the sand I had swallowed with my food. I could not stand,
-so I rolled about in agony. Up till then I had never had a day’s sickness,
-so this experience was quite a new one. The farrier-sergeant visited me on
-the evening of my collapse, administered a “ball” to me, and told Bill (my
-boss) that I would be all right in the morning. A lot he knew about horses!
-He ought never to have left that boot factory. He also told Bill to give me
-a bit more <em>berseem</em>. Bill stopped with me for a while, talking; then a
-whistle blew and he cleared out. “Good-night, Baldy” (that is the name
-I always got) he said as he departed, “you’ll be O.K. at reveille.” In the
-morning I was almost better, and by lunch time, when Bill gave me a big
-feed of <em>berseem</em> that he had pinched from somewhere, I was as good as
-ever again.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>
-<img src='images/i_073a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>5th LIGHT HORSE BRIGADE ENTERING NABLUS</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t73'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_073b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>WATERING HORSES, ES SALT</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>
-<img src='images/i_074a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>HORSES THIRSTY</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t74'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_074b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>LIGHT HORSEMEN IN JUDEAN HILLS, JAN., 1918</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>We had been at Serapeum only a few weeks when I was taken up to
-Salhia, where I was promoted on the strength (I think that is the term) of a
-new Squadron. Bill came with me, so I had no complaints to make—not
-even about the <em>tibbin</em>. Bill always was a good master, and he was never
-tired of looking after me. In heat, in dust, in mud; across the desert, over
-the plains, amongst the hills—anywhere at all—Bill always groomed me
-and saw that I got my full issue of tucker. We used to have long talks
-together; and I really think he understood what I had to say to him. He
-was always considerate in the way he loaded my saddle, and rather than
-sacrifice my bag of grain, he would dump his own gear. He could not do
-enough for me; and, believe me, I could not do enough for him. Unfortunately,
-all masters are not like Bill, or (pardon my vanity) all horses like
-Baldy.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>My first real stunt was from Salhia to Kantara across the desert; and I
-think that it will live as long in my memory as that Amman show. We
-travelled all night by short stages—Bill would ride for ten minutes, then
-walk beside me during the next ten, and then we rested for ten minutes.
-I had a fair load on the saddle, but this was Bill’s first desert stunt, too, and
-he had not realized exactly how severe desert stunts can be. After that he
-always let someone else have the heavy gear, while he looked after the light
-stuff. That was in April, 1916. The long months from then until March,
-1917, were one nightmare of bombs and sand, out of which our stunts—Romani,
-Bir el Abd, Mazar, Magdhaba, Rafa, and many minor ones—stood
-like the milestones I have seen along the roads at home. At the
-commencement of things in Sinai tucker was plentiful, and we waxed fat
-in the land and thrived on brackish water; now we no longer get the same
-amount—or so it seems—but the water is good. I did not notice the
-change until yesterday, when I had recourse to chew through my headrope
-so that I could visit the feed-heap while the piquet slept. Yet the change
-has been very gradual, and it has not been severe on me. I am still pretty
-sound in wind and limb, although I have seen old Bill look sorrowfully at
-me, and say, “Baldy, ten pounds of grain without fixings isn’t much to
-offer a man’s best cobber, is it? Never mind, old chap, we’re coping very
-well—very well, you and I.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Once Bill was away for seven days; and when he came back I noticed
-that he was stable-guard for a whole fortnight. I thought it rather good of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>Bill to look after the horses for such a long time without a break. I heard all
-about it afterwards. Bill and the sergeant—a big, ugly bloke like a Gyppo—were
-talking near me, and I overheard Bill’s final remark. “Yes,” he said,
-“I’d be a stableman for a month if I could get those three days in Cairo
-again.” Ah, Bill! what were you doing? While he was away in Cairo
-we had a little stunt to blow up a railway line; and because I was a good
-worker, the big Gyppo bloke passed me on for the occasion. The chap
-who rode me was a dopey kind of individual, and, although the stunt was
-only to occupy thirty hours, he loaded me up with all sorts of gear, and
-forgot my lunch-bag. We came home in the night time in a fog, tried to find
-Tel el Fara, and circled about all over the place until I got tired of it, and
-wanted to make for home and a feed; but my dopey rider kept with the
-column, refusing to be guided by me. On another stunt, I just side-stepped
-the “Killed in Action” return by a hair. Jacko sent across a few shells
-in our direction, and one of them landed right underneath a horse next to
-me and sent him West. Two others were as full of holes as a colander, but
-we got them home. Strangely, the horses on my side of the burst were
-untouched, and merely suffered from slight shock.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The summer of 1917 was what Bill called a “snifter”—he also called it
-other things. Day after day, on those wind-swept, dust-covered plains of
-Southern Palestine, we stood in the heat and sweated from sunrise to sunset;
-during the night we shivered with the cold, and were wet with the dew and
-mist. Then there came rumours of a big stunt. It was good to hear that a
-big stunt was at last spoken about, not only because we got more attention
-prior to it, but because we would be leaving these sun-baked plains behind,
-and doing something towards earning our <em>tibbin</em>. It was on 28th October
-that Bill loaded my saddle, and rode me away towards Beersheba with
-the Squadron. From there onwards to Jaffa we dodged shells and planes,
-and existed on a very scanty ration. (Even Bill complained now and
-again.) We went without water on more than one occasion for sixty hours
-on end; and we had many weary night marches. Just after we left Beersheba
-I lost a good pal. She was following the General’s car, and had a
-despatch-rider in the saddle; and while doing a stiff gallop she stumbled,
-fell, and rolled over—dead. I think her death was due to lack of water,
-since she had had none for three days. She was a dear old thing, and I have
-yarned away many an hour with her. She died as I would like to die—a
-soldier.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Winter caught us at Jaffa, and the rain came down unceasingly day and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>night. Here I had a lot of trouble with our labour corps—the mules.
-They were a hungry lot of cannibals, and, not being satisfied with a ration
-of grain, they used to break away from their lines at night and eat our rugs.
-Some of them even gnawed the hair and tail off a sick pal of mine—he did
-look a wreck in the morning! Another inconvenience was that I shivered
-so much that I always shook the rug off, no matter how careful Bill was
-about putting it on. The early part of 1918 was a time of wind, cold, rain,
-rocks and mud, and stunts amongst tremendous hills. We had a most
-exciting time then, and I often wonder how it was I kept out of hospital.
-Later on, when we stopped in the Valley, I tried to “swing it” a bit, and
-succeeded in bluffing the sergeant; but the vet knew too much for me, and
-so I remained. Fortunately, we moved back to Bethlehem, where the
-bracing hill air, and the sight of the olive trees, made a new horse of me.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Our last big stunt was rather pleasant, as well as most profitable.
-(Bill agreed with me in that.) We again went to Amman, and this time
-captured all the Jackos in that part of the world; it was quite a different
-affair from that first Amman stunt, when I slipped on the muddy track
-and almost went overboard into a wady some hundreds of feet below.
-After we had collected all the gear which Jacko had left behind, we turned
-our heads west, came through Jericho, and passed up into the hills. We
-stopped for a day at Jerusalem, and then travelled down to the coastal
-plains near Jaffa. We returned to Richon to recuperate, and to await
-further developments.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Now our masters are talking of going home, and I hear them
-whisper in the lines—“Yes, they’ll remain behind”—“Ah! They’ve done
-their work bravely and well”—“I wonder what will happen to them?”
-Bill is going home; to-day he came to me and told me so. “Good-bye,
-Baldy, old comrade. You’ve been a good pal to me,” he said; and then he
-was gone. Here at Richon I would like to stay with Bill, and end my
-days. Richon, with its trees, its vines, its orchards, recalls my early life in
-some strange way; its fertile fields and pleasant surroundings make the
-desert days seem but a bad dream of long ago; and in its shady lanes, the
-toilsome hills and the rain, and the dust of the Valley, are forgotten. But
-Bill is gone! I must stay behind! Let them shoot me—and quickly—for
-I would go to that land of eternal sunlight, there to wait until Bill calls to
-me.... Then together we shall gallop for ever over the plains.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>E. L. D. HUSBAND.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span></div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_078.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div>
-  <h2 class='c005'>THE HORSES STAY BEHIND</h2>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c014'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>I</span>n days to come we’ll wander west and cross the range again;</div>
-      <div class='line in2'><span class='large'>W</span>e’ll hear the bush birds singing in the green trees after rain;</div>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>W</span>e’ll canter through the Mitchell grass and breast the bracing wind:</div>
-      <div class='line in6'><span class='large'>B</span>ut we’ll have other horses. Our chargers stay behind.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>A</span>round the fire at night we’ll yarn about old Sinai;</div>
-      <div class='line in2'><span class='large'>W</span>e’ll fight our battles o’er again; and as the days go by</div>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>T</span>here’ll be old mates to greet us. The bush girls will be kind</div>
-      <div class='line in6'><span class='large'>S</span>till our thoughts will often wander to the horses left behind.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>I</span> don’t think I could stand the thought of my old fancy hack</div>
-      <div class='line in2'><span class='large'>J</span>ust crawling round old Cairo with a ’Gyppo on his back.</div>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>P</span>erhaps some English tourist out in Palestine may find</div>
-      <div class='line in6'><span class='large'>M</span>y broken-hearted waler with a wooden plough behind.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>N</span>o; I think I’d better shoot him and tell a little lie:—</div>
-      <div class='line in2'><span class='large'>“H</span>e floundered in a wombat hole and then lay down to die.”</div>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>M</span>ay be I’ll get court-martialled; but I’m damned if I’m inclined</div>
-      <div class='line in6'><span class='large'>T</span>o go back to Australia and leave my horse behind.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line in42'><em>Trooper Bluegum.</em></div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t78a'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_078fa.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>EVENING AMONGST THE JUDEAN HILLS</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t78b'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_078fb.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>A CAMP IN THE DESERT<br /><br /><span class='right'><em>Photos, in colour by Capt. Frank Hurley</em></span></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>One Too Many</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_079.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'>
-It was a hell of a night. Thunder enough to wake
-the “Jacko” dead, and raining fit to swamp old
-Solomon’s Pool. I was a good ten miles from
-camp, and it was with a dinkum bullocky’s curse
-that I swung into the saddle again and turned the
-pony’s nose for home. For about an hour we
-battled along, and then the supply dump at S——
-hove in sight. Glad of a brief respite, I guided him
-toward it, and for a few minutes we rested in the shelter of a huge stack of
-<em>tibbin</em>.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The rain had eased off, and for a brief second a sickly-looking moon
-gazed down on things earthly. That was what started the trouble.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>An Algerian guard was on duty, and, to the initiated, there is no need to
-say more than that. You might trick a Tommy or induce a Billjim to look
-the other way, but the man who beats an Algerian is going some.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>But, as I was saying, it was the moon that caused the trouble. When
-she took that peep from behind her cloud bank she gazed fair on to four
-shadowy figures, each surmounted by a bag of barley and a felt hat.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Chuckling a little, she dodged behind the clouds again; but it was too
-late. The mischief had been done, and in a trice the “shadowy figures”
-found themselves surrounded by about a dozen sons of the Sahara and a
-like number of business-like bayonets.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The result was a confused babble of voices for ten minutes, and then a
-procession to the Supply Officer’s tent. From where I was standing I
-could see and hear everything that passed, and everybody seemed to be
-trying to talk at once. As the “shadowy figures” could not speak a word
-of Arabic, and the Algerians vice versa, the result was laughable. But with
-the advent of the Supply Officer things took a different turn. He had been
-wakened from a sound sleep, and was arrayed in the pink pyjamas the girl
-had sent him, and a desire to be “firm in the matter.” He had no knowledge
-of Arabic, and was placing the “shadowy figures” under guard
-pending the arrival of an interpreter in the morning.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>That would have been serious for the said “shadowy figures,” so I
-decided to see whether I could help them at all. I had borrowed a cobber’s
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>flash civvy raincoat in the morning, and that and the Jacko pony I rode
-must have made the S.O. think I was an officer. Anyhow, he greeted me
-very decently; and when I told him I could yabber Arabic pretty fluently,
-he was more than delighted at my arrival.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Well, for a good ten minutes I did the interpreter stunt, and then I got
-him to dismiss the guard.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Then I opened the case for the defence. I pictured to him the love
-of the Colonial for his horse, the long night rides, and a dozen other pitiful
-things, and altogether put up such a beautiful tale that even old Judge
-Jeffreys would have had to declare the accused “Not guilty.” So the S.O.
-decided to give the “shadowy figures” a stern lecture, take their names and
-numbers, and refer the matter to their O.C. next morning. Forth came the
-note-book and down went the particulars. I am pretty hard in the dial, but
-I was glad he was not looking my way then. For every one of the four had
-a number with six figures in it and belonged to the 19th Light Horse
-Regiment, 9th Light Horse Brigade.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Luckily, he was a new man out, or the bluff wouldn’t have worked. But
-it did, and that was all that mattered then. He gave them the lecture,
-and in it repeated often, “I’ve been one too many for you fellows this time,
-what!”. Then he let them go, and as they left the tent the last one winked
-at me, and in that wink there was a world of mystery.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Five minutes later I was in the saddle again and thinking hard. I was
-wondering where the “shadowy figures” had left their horses, and whether
-they would bump further trouble on the way home. Then I remembered a
-young wady that runs by the side of the dump and turned the pony’s head
-toward it. Half-way to it, I met them coming back. But where there had
-been four “shadowy figures” there were SIX, and where there should have
-been four horses there were ten. And the spare nags were loaded heavily,
-too. The chap who gave me the wink told me the rest of the yarn, and
-here it is.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Two of them had acted as horse-holders while the other four had
-carried out the raiding part of the business. Three times they had
-returned without mishap, and it was on the fourth trip that the moon
-peeped out and made a mess of things.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>It started to rain again then, so we parted; they to their bivvies and I
-to a sharp trot home.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Two hours after the sun came up, the chap who was “one too many”
-rolled out of bed and prepared his report for the O.C. 19th Light Horse
-Regiment, 9th Light Horse Brigade.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“ANON”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t81'  class='figcenter id010'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>
-<img src='images/i_081.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>[top]<br />WADY NIMRIN<br />Along whose banks the A.L.H. had many sharp fights<br /><br />[middle]<br />ARAB AGENTS ARRIVING FROM A TRIP ACROSS THE DEAD SEA<br /><br />[bottom]<br />GERMAN PRISONERS IN JERICHO</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>
-<img src='images/i_082a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>MEAL TIME</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t82'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_082b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>“SHE’S BOILING”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>“The Light that Failed”<br /> <br /> <span class='small'>(And some that didn’t)</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Among the many examples of ingenuity displayed by Billjim on
-service, the manufacture of illuminants, if you will pardon the
-prolixity, shines out the most brilliantly. The Sun itself is considered to
-be a pretty perfect and economical source of light, but it is not infallible.
-The annoying habit it has of dodging off about sundown excludes it from
-the category of the perfectly perfect, and Billjim is forced to procure a
-substitute to enable him to relieve the tedium of his evenings with the
-exhilarating influence of two-up, poker, swapping yarns and other harmless
-pursuits.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The issue candle is, of course, the recognized form of illuminant; but by
-the time the Greatest, the Sub-Greatest, the Q-Emmer, the Orderly-Room
-Ogre and the Sigs get their cut, the stock is usually depleted to a mere
-skeleton of its former fat self, and the insignificant stump that is left to
-shed its radiance around the humble bivvies of the rank and file, is, as
-often as not, irretrievably lost to sight owing to the shortage of telescopes
-in the unit’s equipment. Hence the exercise of Billjim’s ingenuity.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Some devices were truly efficient, others resembled the seeds that fell
-on stony ground; while one I know of was positively dangerous. The
-one in question was disapproved of from its very inception. The wise ones
-shook their heads dubiously, and opined that it was sheer flying in the
-face of Providence to use one’s issue of rum for the sacrilegious purpose
-of making air-gas for a blooming light. After the explosion occurred,
-and the blasphemous one was struck off the strength, they said, “I told
-him so,” and everybody was satisfied.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The most popular form is the slush-light, which is simply composed of
-any old thing that will hold grease, and any kind of grease that will fit into
-it; first, a layer of sand or clay is dumped into the jam, milk, cigarette or
-other tin; then a wick made of “3 x 2,” or issue flannelette, wrapped
-around a thin pine stick, is stuck upright in the middle of the sand or clay;
-and finally the grease is introduced, the quantity being governed by the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>amount one has been able to acquire. It is on record that some chaps
-have had the effrontery to use dubbin, yes, “dubbin!” but, of course, this
-is not official, just common furphy.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Next to the slushie comes the bottle-o; but to employ this it is necessary
-to have the above-mentioned rarity, candle. For candle one is not
-wholly dependent on the “issue” brand, for it has been known to be
-purchaseable at the canteen—when those institutions are in the vicinity.
-Supposing the possession of candle to be an established and material fact,
-the next necessity is a clear-glass bottle; old lime-juice bottles are excellent,
-and they can be found outside any officers’ mess, or the messes of
-troopers who “did a trot.” The bottom of the bottle is knocked out by
-insistent but vigorous tapping with the marlin-spike of a jack-knife till a
-hole is broken through, and then the rest is chipped off in small instalments
-till the end is quite out. The candle is then pared at the bottom end to
-fit the slope of the bottle neck, and a deep groove gouged in it, the candle,
-to admit air. Apply a match to the candle, drop it into the inverted bottle,
-and there is your light. If it is not very windy, of course, all that is
-necessary is to drop some melted grease on someone else’s tin hat, and stick
-the candle in it; simple, isn’t it?</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>There are a few of the lesser Edisons who eliminate disturbance by
-wind by curling a legging around the candle; but only a very narrow chink
-of light exudes from its gaping edges, and the odour of singeing leather
-is not pleasant.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>One of the finest ideas was a combination of the slushie and the
-bottle-o. A squat chutney-bottle that fitted snugly into a toffee tin, was
-found, and the quality and steadiness of the light generated made drawn
-filament look painfully experimental. Some wire <em>tibbin</em> bands secure the
-“globe” to the body, at the same time forming a handle.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The designs, elaborations and embellishments of the original idea are
-practically numberless; they range from the primitive cremation of a religious
-aunt’s epistles and incriminating love effusions up to the princely slushie-cum-bottle-o;
-and they radiate in all classes of bivvies, and shed their
-glory on the tangle of the newly erected as brightly as on the white-stoned
-splendour of the resident.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>With these remarks, and any necessary apologies to the Dinkum Military
-Scribe, I shall leave them to shine on the just and the unjust, like their
-mighty lord, the Sun.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“SARG.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>
-<img src='images/i_085a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>DEFENCES IN THE GHORANIYEH BRIDGEHEAD</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t85'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_085b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>THE BRICKMAKER</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>
-<img src='images/i_086a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>A TYPICAL ARAB VILLAGE</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t86'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_086b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>4th LIGHT HORSE BRIGADE WATERING HORSES AT THE JORDAN</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>A Night March</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>At twilight, when the air is cool, we prepare for our second consecutive
-night march. Overcoats and mufflers are put on, saddles are inspected
-to see that all is secure. Later it will be too dark, and we too
-tired to attend to such matters.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>After a short wait we move off. Two to three hours steady plodding
-through the darkness, with the effects of fatigue scarcely noticeable. Then,
-suddenly, an utter weariness assails us, numbing limbs, distorting vision,
-and rendering minds a prey to tantalizing and disturbing thoughts—thoughts
-that mock and taunt; thoughts of feather beds and roaring fires; thoughts
-that accentuate our weariness and awake us to the realization of the cold.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>We ride, with drooping eyelids, a swaying body, and a precarious seat,
-surrendered to the inevitable.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The column halts, and simultaneously we fall forward on our horses’
-necks, hoping to ease our aching limbs. Hoping against hope to hear the
-order to dismount. A jerk, our horses move forward again, and disappointedly
-we resign ourselves to the further delusions of minds tortured
-from want of sleep.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Visions become distorted, we visualize the objects of our thoughts. A
-thought of water, and the road becomes a flowing stream. Thoughts of
-horses and trees, and in the darkness arises a village—a village that remains
-ever in the distance, and endures only so long as our thoughts are of villages.
-The horse ahead moves strangely; it appears to be dancing, and
-has taken unto itself the shape of a beast of prehistoric ages. By an
-effort of will we shake off this state of semi-somnolence, and, for a time,
-see things in their normal shapes again.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>At last, the order to dismount. Tumbling off we throw ourselves down
-at our horses’ feet, indifferent to our position and its possibilities. With
-heads pillowed on arms, water-bottles or haversacks, we endeavour to
-win a few minutes respite. Follows sleep and blissful unconsciousness,
-until friendly hands awake us, and wearily we rise to a repetition of the
-last hour. On moving off some walk and lead their horses, stepping out
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>briskly in an endeavour to dispel the ever-increasing drowsiness. It
-succeeds whilst walking, but a reaction sets in on regaining the saddle,
-leaving the walker in worse plight than ever.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>With nerves on edge, we curse the numerous and apparently purposeless
-halts, become uncomplimentary about our leaders, revile horses for jogging
-and stumbling, warn companions of the damage they are likely to do if
-they persist in being careless with their rifles. Cheerful and good-tempered
-soldiers are few at 03.00.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>And so on until we hail with relief the approach of dawn, which dispels
-the hallucinations of darkness.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“ARAM.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_088.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>ROMAN FORT, JERICHO</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t89'  class='figcenter id010'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>
-<img src='images/i_089.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>[top]<br />HORSES UNDER COVER<br /><br />[middle]<br />A. L. HORSE IN CAMP<br /><br />[bottom]<br />2nd A. L. H. MARCHING THROUGH KHAN YUNIS</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>A Gloomy Outlook</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>Amidst the universal joy—booming of guns, ringing of church bells,
-cheering, and the screeching of ships’ sirens—I am gloomy and ill at
-ease. I cannot share in the thanksgiving and tumultuous welcome of Peace;
-my mind is dark with foreboding, oppressed by thoughts of three things that
-have made so many happy lives miserable during the Great War.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>With the knowledge that huge stocks of dubbin, bully and biscuits are on
-hand, how can a chap be joyful? They must be disposed of—not cast into
-the incinerator—and thoughts of the woe that they will cause make me
-sorrowful.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The war has ended, and with it the need for dubbin. Stacks of the
-beastly stuff must be disposed of before we are demobilized. There is no
-market for it, and nobody would take it as a gift. Offer it to a Light
-Horseman or a driver, and you would see stars not of the firmament. But I’m
-sure that The Heads won’t let it be wasted. It’ll be read out in orders
-soon, that all saddlery and harness must be anointed with dubbin once daily
-and twice on Sundays. There’s a good time coming!</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Bully and biscuits are even dearer than dubbin to the granite hearts of
-Q.M.’s, but they’ll have to issue them now by the ton. Rapid consumption
-is the only way to get rid of the pyramids of B and B left on hand through
-Fritz throwing in the towel sooner than the Supply Office anticipated.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Army biscuits are beyond the capacity of Gyppos and Bedouin; if we
-strewed them broadcast over Palestine, they would lie there untouched, and
-ruin all agricultural prospects: even a stump-proof plough would crumple
-up if it struck an army biscuit. We can’t dump our stocks in the sea: think
-what would happen in a collision between a liner and an A. B.! No;
-we’ve got to eat the lot, empty every tin of bully and biscuits, and take the
-consequences like heroes.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“ARAM.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id011'>
-<a href='images/i_091a.jpg'><img src='images/i_map5a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /></a>
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p><em>FROM GENERAL CHAYTORS HDQTS.</em><br /><br /><em>After the Battle of BIR EL ABD</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id012'>
-<a href='images/i_091b.jpg'><img src='images/i_map5b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /></a>
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p><em>THE FIELD <span class='fss'>OF</span> BATTLE<br /><span class='small'>FOR</span><br />RICHON LE ZION</em><br /><br /><em>Morning 15th Nov</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id012'>
-<a href='images/i_091c.jpg'><img src='images/i_map5c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /></a>
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p><em>THE BATTLE of BEERSHEBA</em><br /><br /><em>Drawn for Anzac M<sup>td</sup> Div Hd Qts KHASHIM ZANA</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span></div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_091.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Reconciliation</h2>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c014'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Full many a time we’ve known the call to arms,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>The sudden storm&nbsp;... the aching aftermath,</div>
-      <div class='line'>When spent companions slumbered ’neath the palms,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>And wooden crosses marked the wake of wrath.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Full often have we saddled up and sped</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Over the sand, sweeping along at large,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Braving the fitful hurricanes of lead,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Galloping down resistance in the charge.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Mute sorrow and great hardship have been ours,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Long journeyings and escapades in force—</div>
-      <div class='line'>But have we not beheld the poppy-flowers</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Nodding in red confusion on our course?</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Yea, we have crossed the woeful waste of sand,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Left sorrow far behind; and we have heard</div>
-      <div class='line'>The skylarks carolling in the Holy Land,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Where flower and tree commune with bee and bird.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line in16'>“GERARDY.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span></div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_092.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Mail Day</h2>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>“The mail’s in!” The glad tidings are tossed from lip to lip and
-shouted down the lines, outstripping, and for the time suppressing,
-the current furphies, “Furlough to Australia,” “Peace Negotiations,” “A
-big Stunt,” and similar creations of the idle imaginative mind.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“There’s a mail in!”—A magic wand has been waved above the
-troops by an unseen hand and weariness and even sleep are banished from
-the war-worn soldiers. Even the sick are interested, and their eyes light
-up with an eager look of expectancy.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“There’s a mail in!” The chronic grouser forgets to grouse, the lead
-swinger lays aside the lead and, for the time, his petty pains, and they join
-the eager throng around the perspiring orderlies who are struggling with the
-jumbled mass of letters, papers and parcels, bringing chaos to order,
-sorting mail into squadrons and then into troops, ere it can be distributed.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>What a study are the faces of that watching throng; what a joyous
-gleam leaps into the sleep-laden eyes of a tired youngster who has caught
-a glimpse of a letter addressed in the well-known hand of the mother who
-waits at home.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>There is a youth just from school, who has not yet tasted the mad joy
-of battle, of a ding-dong mix up, when death shrieks through the air
-missing one by inches, by hairbreadths. Here, too, is the war-hardened
-warrior, who knew Anzac before the Suvla advance, who has met, fought
-and beaten the Turk from Romani to Jericho, the hero of a hundred fights,
-of scraps fought out on lonely patrol, that the world knows naught of,
-though to the individual they are more fraught with peril than a big
-battle.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>To soldiers mail day is a day of bliss. Recruit or warrior, their faces
-portray the emotions that are surging through their breasts. Their eyes
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>grow bright with eagerness as they watch the pile of mail assume shape
-and order under the deft hands of the postal orderlies.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Men moving out on outpost or patrol shout to their mates, “Get my
-mail, Jack,” “Get mine,” and ride off casting longing eyes at that waiting
-crowd; with joyful hearts they move out into the night, to outwit the
-enemy or return no more. But what care they—for it is mail day!</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Before dawn, outpost and patrol return, weary and with sleep-laden
-eyes. They off-saddle and picket their horses, and dash into the bivvies
-for their mail. Matches are struck surreptitiously, candles are lighted and
-hidden by blankets, for lights are forbidden when in touch with the enemy;
-and thus are the letters eagerly read. Often Billjim falls asleep from sheer
-exhaustion, the last letter still clutched in his hand, and dreams of his
-Australian home; the fragrance of gum and wattle blossom are wafted to
-him from overseas on the cool night breeze.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Mail day, the most joyous and most tragic in a soldier’s life, brings
-messages of love and trust from dear ones, messages of faith and praise
-from friends; and at times news that is sorrow-laden.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“WIL COX.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_093.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>A Day Over the Lines</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_094.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'>
-In the language of the Corps, “there was something doing,” for
-from dawn till dark machines had been coming and going on
-the aerodrome almost without a break; in fact, it was “some
-day.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Just as the first grey streaks of dawn crept over the horizon
-the roar of a couple of hostile aircraft patrol machines taking
-off woke an otherwise peaceful camp. An hour later the orderly
-officer was bustling round two more machines, which were to leave
-on the early morning reconnaissance of the country behind the actual
-scene of operations and along the Turkish lines of communication,
-to search for any signs of fresh concentrations or reinforcements being
-hurried up.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>At two hour intervals machines left in couples to patrol above our lines
-and prevent any possibility of Boche machines sneaking over, either to
-watch the movements of our troops or to bomb them; for, during a stunt,
-it was just as important for us to keep the Hun blind as to keep our own
-eyes well skinned.</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_094.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>To me fell the first patrol, and a call from the Orderly Officer at 3.30
-a.m. was not received with the utmost courtesy. After hot tea and toast
-by candle light, we scrambled into warm leather coats, woollen-lined boots,
-gloves and helmets, and climbed aboard. By the time I had inspected my
-guns and the usual contents of the cockpit, the engine was ticking over and
-we were ready to start. It was still dark enough,
-as we took off, for the pilot to need all his lamps
-alight to see the various instruments, and, as we
-climbed, the crisp morning air set our blood
-tingling with the joy of living. When above the
-clouds at about 8000 feet the first rays of the
-rising sun shot across the sky, and very shortly
-the clouds, which until then had been snowy
-white, were bathed in a crimson glow that held
-us spell-bound with its beauty. Primarily, the
-crests of those billowy mists were tipped as with a wand of fire whilst, as
-we ascended into space and the sun gradually rose above the horizon, the
-colour spread over that sea of cloud until it appeared
-like a stupendous stream of lava belched forth from
-some volcano which, after years of quiescence, had
-suddenly burst into activity.</p>
-
-<div id='t94'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_094f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic009'>
-<p>GOT HIM COLD<br /><br /><em>By Lieut. O. H. Coulson</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>
-<img src='images/i_095.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>I have seen many sunrises under varying conditions,
-sunrises at whose beauty I marvelled, but never before
-had I witnessed anything that could come within coo-ee
-of the riotous blaze of colour that lay spread beneath us,
-covering the Holy Land, as it were, with a cloth of gold.
-It disappeared from view, however, all too soon, for, as
-the sun gained in strength and we in height, the colour
-slowly faded from fiery brilliance to a delicate pink
-until, finally, the clouds once again showed up in all
-their glistening purity.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>It seemed impossible to realize, whilst nature was all aglow beneath us,
-that war was being waged with all its relentless cruelty, that guns
-were sending forth their messengers of death and pain, and, above all, that
-we, who had been privileged to witness the glory of God’s handiwork, were
-scanning the heavens for something in the way of Hun airmen to kill. To
-me it seemed a sacrilege that, on such a glorious day, hate should be
-animating the hearts of men, and that I should be a willing agent, eager for
-an opportunity of sending a fellow-mortal crashing to earth and death. The
-Hun, however, evidently deeming discretion the better part of valour, did
-not put in an appearance, and when, after three hours’ cruising up and down
-the lines, we returned to the aerodrome, I believe I was pleased that I had
-not been, by force of circumstances, compelled to share in sending some
-creature to meet his Maker.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>So, throughout the day, the work went on, and, as a Hun “bus” was
-reported to have bombed our troops in the early morning, every one of our
-machines thereafter carried four bombs to drop on any suitable target that
-offered itself.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Whilst on afternoon reconnaissance, the observer located a large body of
-enemy troops, and, immediately on receipt of his report, a bomb raid was
-ordered on which every available machine was to be sent. Luckily, I was
-detailed for escort duty, and it was a pleasant experience to watch the
-bombing machines assembling overhead, as they arrived from the different
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>aerodromes, and took up the allotted formation. About 5 p.m. the leader
-fired his light and thirty machines, like a flock of great birds, set off on their
-journey to play havoc with our old friend, the Turk. After dropping the
-bombs, all machines swooped down on the troops and used their spare
-machine gun ammunition in shooting them up and generally giving them a
-devil of a time.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>All good things come to an end, and, finally, we set out for home, which
-we reached just as the sun, a ball of fire, was sinking to rest. The machines,
-glistening white in the reflected sunlight, resembled a flock of swans coming
-home, as, in slow, stately circles, one by one, they glided to earth.
-The Mediterranean, as calm and unruffled as a mill-pond, reflected the glory
-of the sun until its surface glowed like a sheet of burnished gold. By the
-time we, as escort, had seen the last of our charges land in safety and
-commenced our own descent, the sun was well below the skyline, and the
-narrow ribbon of the pink afterglow that skirted the horizon was all that
-remained to remind us of the sun and its glory.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>H. BOWDEN FLETCHER.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i_096.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div id='t96'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_096f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic009'>
-<p>THE END OF THE SCRAP<br /><br /><em>By Lieut. O. H. Coulson</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>
-<img src='images/i_097a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>TURKISH PRISONERS AT ES SALT</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t97'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_097b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>JERICHO</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>
-<img src='images/i_098.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>NAZARETH FROM THE AIR</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Mounts and Remounts</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figright id013'>
-<img src='images/i_099a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_099.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'>
-On my arrival at the Unit, I considered myself fortunate
-when the corporal presented me with a fat, sleek
-remount, only lately up from the Base. My suspicions
-were not aroused until, preparing to mount, I discovered
-what an enormous supply of cameras the
-Troop possessed. All classes seemed to be represented,
-from the V.P.K. pip-squeak to the ponderous
-P.C. “Jericho Jane” variety. Maintaining a professional attitude, I
-mounted.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id013'>
-<img src='images/i_100a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>In my youthful days I’ve paid two shillings to see a horse perform
-evolutions and gyroscope stunts not to be compared with the tricks that
-animal unearthed. I had an irresistible tendency from the first to fall off
-over the place where, in normal times, his head and neck should have been.
-Finally, yielding to impulse, I descended to good Palestine mud amid the
-shrieks of an ill-mannered crowd. Some imbecile sauntered up and said,
-“By jove, matey, if you could only have stopped up another five secs. I
-would have had one of the best snaps in the Unit.” I wouldn’t trust my
-reply to a green envelope. The sergeant remarked that horsemanship
-didn’t seem to be my forte, so I informed him that my marching-in papers
-proclaimed me a flag-wagger, not a Bronco Buster.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id013'>
-<img src='images/i_100b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Right,” said he, “take Maaleesh.”</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id013'>
-<img src='images/i_099b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>I took him, for better or for worse, and went to make his acquaintance.
-That horse didn’t belie his name. Maaleeshness fairly radiated from him,
-from his huge, out-of-proportion head that an A.S.C. mule might envy, to
-his stump of a tail, the missing part of which had provided food for a hungry
-moke on the Jaffa stunt. What was left of it provided me with food for
-reflection.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>He wasn’t a bad horse. As the Troop farrier said, he had no vice in
-him. The trouble was, he was as devoid of energy or grey matter as he
-was of vice. He progressed at a lumbering shuffle, with his head low
-down after the manner of a cow-catcher on a locomotive. He had also
-acquired a taste for feed-bags, and was blessed with a very good appetite.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>Every time I fed him he disposed of <em>tibbin</em>, grain and nose-bag. The day
-before we went on the stunt Maaleesh contracted Spanish Influenza, and
-on the vet administering that panacea for all equine ailments, a ball,
-he barracked and refused to move.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Then I was handed over to the tender mercies of “Lofty.” The lancejack,
-who knew a bit about horses, confidently informed me that Lofty was
-one of those horses that never carry much condition, and he knew a horse
-at Cunnawulla.... I hastily agreed with him, especially the former part
-of his statement. We looked at Lofty, who favoured us with an apathetic
-stare. If the third generation theory is correct, Lofty’s granddad was a
-camel. Going through a neighbouring town I was No. 1 of the section, and
-being of a sensitive nature, it hurt me to see the people laugh; but Lofty
-appeared indifferent.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The first day out he chewed up two signal flags and all the straps on my
-mate’s gear. Half-way through the stunt he faced the East, struck a prayerful
-attitude and, with a don’t-give-a-hang-if-you-shoot-me-I-won’t-move
-expression in his eyes, prepared to rest. Our sergeant shot him, whereupon
-he displayed more agility than anyone had hitherto thought he possessed,
-and gambolled off over a ridge. A sympathetic New Zealander recaptured
-him, but took warning from the black looks and wild gesticulations of the
-mob. Shortly afterward a report was heard. Lofty’s soul had gone
-West. Visions of the photo I intended to send to my best girl, of my
-illustrious self mounted on a fiery charger, faded into oblivion; and as I
-transferred my trappings to a spare mule, I vaguely wondered, from force
-of habit, what characteristic and peculiarities my new mount possessed.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“ACRABAH.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_100c.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id003'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>
-<img src='images/i_101.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>“A LIGHT HORSE TYPE”<br /><br /><span class='right'><em>By W. O. David Barker</em></span></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Concerning Medical Blokes</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>The Army Medical Corps is a chain of many links. Let the lay mind
-which has condensed its conception of the Corps’ duties into “picking
-up the wounded,” reflect upon an interwoven organization of Base
-Hospitals, Convalescent Homes and Rest Camps; Auxiliary Hospitals,
-Isolation Hospitals and Dermatological Hospitals; Stationary Hospitals
-(which are liable to move about) and Casualty Clearing Hospitals—we are
-working up the chain from the back to the front—Motor Ambulance Units
-and Hospital Trains and Hospital Ships; Divisional Receiving Stations, Field
-Dental Units, Field Operating Units and Field Laboratories (these all hear
-the firing of the guns); Field Ambulances (which comprise within
-themselves Field Hospitals), Dressing Stations and Advanced Dressing
-Stations (these get bullets through their tents and shells in their bivvies);
-and, end of the chain, the Medical Blokes with the Regiments. They are
-the last link; they are the tip of the longest tentacle of the Medical octopus.
-Truly, modesty forbids me from adding that they are the sweetest violet in
-the bunch.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_102.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>The Medical Blokes are detailed from the Ambulance at the rate of an
-N.C.O. and one man to each Regiment. Thereafter they become part and
-parcel of that Regiment; live with it, move with it, minister to it; share
-its trials, troubles, tribulations, triumphs and rum issues. Nevertheless, in
-cold, official fact, they still belong to the Ambulance, being upon its
-supernumerary strength—“attached for duty and discipline to the Xth
-Regiment.” This little complication has its unsuspected advantages, for it
-sometimes breeds in the mind of an R.S.M. a shade of doubt as to exactly
-how far the Medical Blokes come within his jurisdiction, and he is
-constrained to permit them a certain independence of existence and
-exemption from routine. They obey “Reveille;” they approximate their
-appearance on the horse-lines, to groom, feed and water, as nearly to the
-Regimental schedule as the exigencies of the medical service permit; they
-generally manage to scratch an instant to be present at the cook-house at
-meal times; at the Quartermaster’s bivvy when he is doling out rations, and
-at the Orderly Room on pay-day. Their liabilities discharged, they are left
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>free to order their time as they please. They are usually to be found
-lurking in the medical tent, though they sometimes go to earth in a bivvy
-pitched somewhere in its vicinity.</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_103a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>In addition to the two above-mentioned stalwarts, the Regimental medical
-establishment carries a Medical Officer and an offsider, a trooper of the
-Regiment, detailed for the job, who, in course of time, is likely to become
-so imbued with the spirit of his surroundings that he is not to be
-distinguished from genuine Medical Blokes themselves. Nominally he is
-intended for water duties; to carry out daily at the area drinking-water
-supply the mysterious rite (known to the uninitiated as “chlorinating”
-and to the rank and file as “poisoning”) by which the further existence of
-cholera and other germs in the water is discouraged. He is the man
-responsible for making the water taste as if there were a very dead camel
-lying a hundred yards further up the stream whence it was drawn; while
-tea made with it always seems to have been cut with an oniony knife. Yet
-he deserves a certain amount of pity. If he over-chlorinates, the whole
-Brigade will blaspheme him and his activities; if he under-chlorinates,
-Medical Officers accuse him of encouraging epidemic; and the happy
-medium of chlorination is so deucedly elusive that he never strikes it!</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>By way of transport for their chattels the Medical Blokes have a cart,
-called Maltese, a square contrivance on two wheels and no springs, drawn
-by three horses abreast. You can pick it out on the road at the tail end of
-the Regimental transport in company with the water-cart. It is invariably
-overloaded with what looks like a lunatic’s purchases at a bargain auction
-sale—or somebody’s goods undergoing a back street removal—baskets,
-bottles, barrels, boxes, bedding, brushes, blankets, bivvies, buckets, to say
-nothing of all the things which begin with other letters of the alphabet.
-The driver of the cart is not a Medical Bloke; he is a Philistine from the
-transport lines.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_103b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>There are cinema-and-picture-nourished imaginations at Home who
-fancy war as one unending, crimson, bloody pageant of battle, whereas it
-is merely a different sort of humdrum existence from their own, with
-occasional violent patches of excitement. Also, they worship the A.M.C.
-man as the Red Cross Hero of the Piece, whereas&nbsp;... never mind.
-But you will grant me that, of all the A.M.C. personnel, the Medical Bloke
-gets nearest to the heroic rôle. He shares the hazards of a fighting unit;
-he is an all-but combatant. When the squadrons go out to fight he sloughs
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>all his bulky baggage, puts gauze, wool, bandages, iodine and scissors into
-his haversack, and follows. Comes at dawn—we have branded dawn for
-ever as the battle hour—a moment when a ragged, scattered line of men
-begin to walk forward up the gentle slope of a low ridge. This is attack.
-The split and scatter of shrapnel, the hiss-bang-crash of H.E., and z-z-z-en
-of flying fragments, make death a chance in the shallow gully. But the top
-of the ridge is the edge of open, machine gun-swept country. It is a
-hundred yards to the crest—and death for someone. This Medical Bloke,
-the wind well up, has shrunk himself into a crevice and waits for a call.
-He desires nothing better than to stay there. He watches the men walking
-up the slope—such everyday, wise, silly, plain, good, bad, smart, childish
-men—just simply walking up the slope. And in that moment our Medical
-Bloke realizes that they are better men than he, because they are walking
-up that slope of which <em>he</em> is afraid. Are they better? He is walking,
-rather slowly, up the slope now. He runs a few steps and drops behind
-cover on the crest, and waits for the need that will call him. Fate grants
-him a few minutes’ spell, and then puts him to the test. “Stretcher-bearers!”
-they cry to the left. The Medical Bloke can see two men
-bending over the third, and he faces one of those decisions which mould
-character. Quite properly, he may wait until they carry the man to him,
-behind cover (there are troopers whose hazardous duty it is to act as
-stretcher-bearers), or he may walk out and help. He walks out as steady
-as he can; it is quicker and&nbsp;... well, what peculiar right has a Medical
-Bloke to the safety of cover when the men are “out there”?</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_104a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>It is little enough can be done in action for the wounded; to cut away
-the blood-clotted clothing, to clap a rough dressing of iodine and gauze on
-the wound, or a crude splint on a smashed limb; to get the man to comparative
-cover, to rig some sort of a shade over him and to give him water;
-and then to wait—for the M.O. to come with the skill that soothes and the
-hypodermical needle of comfort. But the bitterest game of patience on
-earth is played when the tide of battle fails to flow onward, and the
-wounded lie all the livelong, sun-tormented day in the fire-swept zone,
-and the Medical Blokes can only watch and wait for nightfall to give safe-conduct
-to the ambulance carts or the camels, with great, unwieldy, white
-cacolets, which come to carry their poor shattered charges to sanctuary.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_104b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>Believe me, romantic reader, that I will now reveal the true <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">raison d’être</span></i>
-of Medical Blokes; the nature of their life-work, their excuse for existing.
-It is not, bless you, ministering to the wounded under fire. It <em>is</em> merely to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>bandage up septic sores and to distribute a variety of pills, most commonly
-known in the proportion of “two of these and one of those.”</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_105.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>The daily life of the Medical Bloke hinges on “Sick Parade.” It is the
-Daily Event. The M.O. sits enthroned in the Medical Tent. Orderly
-corporals present their list
-of competitors. One by
-one they enter and face
-the Presence. Pulses,
-tongues, throats, eyes,
-temperatures are submitted
-to scrutiny. The
-questing stethoscope
-roams over bared bosoms
-and backs. Each man
-speaks his piece—the
-most sick say least and
-the least sick say most, as
-a general rule.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Give him two of
-these and one of those,”
-prescribes the M.O., and
-the victim, a handful of
-tablets clutched in his fist,
-retires. The rewards to
-be gained by braving “Sick Parade” run up a scale from “Medicine
-and Duty,” through “Light Duty” and “Exempt Duty,” to “Evacuate,”
-which last is the coveted prize.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Go and get your gear together and be ready to go to the Ambulance,”
-directs the Medical Bloke, and the patient sees at once visions of the cushy
-comfort of a Base Hospital, wherein he may hope to wallow shortly. He
-has netted a trip!</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Medical Blokes have a restless job. Sickness and accidents call upon
-them at any time. Men drop into the Medical Tent at all hours of the
-day and night for “a couple of pills for a headache,” or something else.
-“Got any liniment?” is the next inquiry, followed by a request for eye-lotion.
-In this country a scratch or a graze does not heal in the course
-of things—it is just as likely to turn septic. Neglected, it spreads and
-develops initiative; it breaks out in fresh places without waiting for the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>skin to be knocked off. Hot foments and ointment dressings are the cure.
-Bandaged hands are the badge of the Palestine campaigner. Half the
-men, half the time, have either boils or septic sores. They meander into
-the Medical Tent in pairs, and out of hours, to get them bandaged. They
-are met there with scant courtesy—probably they are the umpteenth
-interruption to the letter which the Medical Bloke is trying to write; but I
-do not think it is often that they turn away unattended to. The Medical
-Blokes are just&nbsp;... your friends, servants and comrades, the Medical
-Blokes.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“LARRIE.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_106.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div id='t106'  class='figcenter id003'>
-<img src='images/i_106f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>CONVALESCENT</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>
-<img src='images/i_107a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>MOUNTING FIRST GUARD IN JERICHO</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t107'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_107b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>HALT AND REST</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>
-<img src='images/i_108.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic014'>
-<p>1. CHURCH AND TOMB OF THE VIRGIN<br /><br />2. JAFFA GATE, JERUSALEM<br /><br />3. CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, JERUSALEM<br /><br />4. CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY, BETHLEHEM</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>The Signal Service</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_109.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'>
-Scattered throughout Egypt and Palestine and
-Syria, in the community of war-worn Australians,
-is a certain section known to the initiated as the
-Engineer Signal Service of the Australian Imperial
-Force in Egypt. To the casual Light Horseman
-they are “Sigs”—a vague and most inadequate
-designation. Little is known of the Engineer
-Signaller and his work by his brother of the Light
-Horse, whose one idea of signalling begins and ends with the Regimental
-signaller, a being who shares with him the pleasures and hardships of all
-stunts, but who is on a plane above, because no piquets and fatigues are
-his. At home, the popular conception of signalling is of a soldier standing
-on the last, lone, bullet-swept ridge, coolly flag-wagging a message which
-turns a forlorn hope into a brilliant victory, and earns for him Oblivion.
-Signalling, as the Signal Service know it, is far from being a flag-wagging
-occupation; they find themselves part of a well-planned business, which is
-based on efficiency, and conducted with that thoroughness for detail only to
-be found in an army.</p>
-
-<hr class='c015' />
-
-<p class='c007'>“Sapper Smith, get your horse saddled up right away and report at the
-Signal office. You need not worry about your tea—I’ll see it is kept for
-you. You are only going to Romani.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The Squadron horses, after their first stunt on the desert of Sinai in
-April, ’16, had been off-saddled and fed at Hill 40, so the order came as a
-surprise.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Right-o! Corporal!”</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_109.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>The horse was soon saddled, and Smith reported at the Signal office at
-five o’clock.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“What’s doing, Mac?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Light Horse Brigade, Romani.” The signal-master read out the
-address as he handed over the despatch to Smith.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Where’s Romani, Mac?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>Mac, the signal-master, came outside and pointed across an unbroken
-stretch of desert to the east.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“About five miles in that direction, I think,” he replied. “Keep near
-the railway line and you’ll be pretty right.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Smith departed, and rode out into the gathering dusk of the East. He
-had never heard of Romani before, nor did he know how many miles he
-had to travel across this desert, where the Turk had been but a few hours
-ago, to reach the place; so he spurred his horse on over the heavy sand
-and covered four miles in quick time.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“We ought to be there before dark.” He spoke to the horse rather
-than to himself. “We’ve covered a good four miles now.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>He rode on over the level places, climbed the loose sand of the steep,
-razor-backed dunes, and slid down their opposite slopes to the level again,
-until another four miles had been crossed; yet he had not reached Romani.
-The darkness found him still pushing east over the toilsome, never-ending
-sand, with a set of new northern stars for guides.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>A desert dog started up at his horse’s feet, yelped away into the night,
-and threw the horse into a panic of fear; a stunted bush loomed in the
-darkness ahead and took on the shape of a crouching figure, sinister in the
-gloom. Here was a dilemma!</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_110.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Shall I let the horse bolt while I try to loosen my rifle? or
-is it better to hang on to the horse and chance—ah! It is only a
-bush. Am I near Romani yet?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Eight more weary miles slipped slowly by, the sandhills
-pressed in on all sides, and ever the horse stumbled on gamely
-over loose sand and steep ridges.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Yes, it’s a light.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Smith swayed in the saddle and spoke again.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Hooray! I’ve arrived,” he said.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Some time after ten o’clock a wearied despatch-rider came out of the
-night, handed in a despatch at its Romani address, obtained a receipt
-and departed. Next morning Smith reported to the signal-master and
-handed him the receipted slip for his despatch.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“How far is it to Romani, Mac?” was all he remarked.</p>
-
-<hr class='c015' />
-
-<p class='c007'>At Ed Dhaberiye, and at Tel Khuweilfeh, in the hills to the north-east of
-Bir el Saba, the fight waged hot during the first week of November, ’17.
-That week is one to be remembered by the cable troop of the squadron; in
-it they knew no rest, for they worked night and day on the communications,
-and laid miles of cable to and from the Brigades.</p>
-
-<div id='t110'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_110f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>A SIGNAL OFFICE IN THE FIELD<br /><br /><em>By T. H. Ivers</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>
-<img src='images/i_111a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Corporal Dawk!”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Here, sir,” responded Dawk from behind one of the cable-wagons
-where he had been trying to dispose of a hasty meal.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Hook in your team and get away to the 2nd Brigade with that line.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Very good, sir.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Dawk turns to the drivers.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Get your horses in, Charlie; we’ve got another job. Hey! Gunner.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“What, again?” says Gunner, as he looks at his half-finished meal.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Come over, Baldy! Back, Ginger!”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The polers are hooked up, and in a short space the wagon moves off to
-the Signal office for final instructions. Gunner jumps down from the body
-of the wagon, drags the end of the wire into the Signal office, and then
-mounts and pulls out over the hill.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The wagon rolls steadily over the rocky hills, reeling out the cable as it
-proceeds. Darkness settles down, but this does not deter the cable detachment.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Whoa!” roars the lead driver as a wady-bed opens up below him in the
-darkness. “Steady with those horses behind—who’s in the pole?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“What’s the matter?” inquires Dawk, riding up to the leaders.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Oh, another wady; it looks pretty solid, too.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Dawk looks ahead, rides off to the right, and after a few minutes calls
-out directions to the drivers.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“This way with that wagon; you can get across here.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Charlie swings his leaders round and heads for the spot where Dawk’s
-voice is heard. The wagon jolts over a rock, and lurches toward the wady
-so closely that a huge lump of earth detaches itself from the steep bank and
-rattles down on to the boulders beneath.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Get over to the right!” yells Gunner from the back of the wagon.
-“What the blazes are you drivers doing? You’ll have the whole box and
-dice in the wady in a minute!”</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_111b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Get up, Tiger! Up, Ginger!”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Come over Baldy! Come over, you——!”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The wagon draws away from the dangerous edge, swings round, and,
-with rattling and bumping, descends into the wady-bed in a cloud of dust.
-The horses bend their backs to the opposite bank and are urged up by the
-drivers, who have risen in the stirrups and are leaning over their necks.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>With a last effort the team pulls forward, the wagon jolts over the top, and
-then stops.</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_112a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>Harry, who was thrown from his seat at the back of the cable-wagon
-as it bumped the wady-bed, comes limping up the slope. As he climbs into
-his seat he makes a remark to Gunner.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“That was a snifter!” he says.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“My oath! a beaut.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>More wady-beds open up, more detours are made, more dizzy descents
-and stiff ascents are negotiated, until, at last, the wagon draws in to Brigade
-Headquarters. The line is through, and everything is in readiness for the
-attack at dawn.</p>
-
-<hr class='c015' />
-
-<p class='c007'>“When you’ve done with that pack-saddle, I want to ‘inergate’ a
-scheme with you.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Yes, sir?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“This stunt is going to be a tough one, so I want you to see that all
-your pack-sets are in good-going order, and that those pack-saddles are
-fitted properly. Where are you putting the aerial load, Hook?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Everything is ready now; I’m fixing this saddle for the masts.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Right-o! And see that the farrier gets to work on those mules
-straight away.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Yes, sir. Have you any idea when we move out?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“I’ve no idea; in about a week, possibly.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Hook busied himself with the pack-saddle, fixing gadgets here and
-knocking bits off there, until he had it to his satisfaction. All the technical
-equipment—wireless sets, cable gear, etc.—had to be converted for use on
-pack-saddles in this Amman business during March, ’18.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_112b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>Six days later the Squadron moved out in the rain, wound its way
-through the Judean Hills, travelled over the Jordan Valley, crossed the
-river, and passed up into the hills of Moab.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>No wagons or wheeled transport of any kind could possibly traverse
-those tremendous hills, where the narrow track clung to the steep sides of
-the hills and threatened to fall away over precipices into rock-fanged valleys
-beneath. The rain poured down, and along the slippery track the column
-wended its way, toiling in single file up steep hills and down into precipitous
-valleys. The path became a river; water poured over the rocky sides of the
-hills and rushed into the valleys below. Everybody was wet through and
-greatcoats flapped soggily about weary legs; dripping horsemen led
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>their horses and stumbled and splashed along the track; pack-horses and
-mules struggled and scrambled as their loads slipped; but the column
-pushed on and reached a position at Amman after two days and two nights
-of rain.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“We cannot use the helios, and the cable is ‘dis’ somewhere back in
-the hills. Is the wireless set up yet?”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Rip-p-p-p-p-p. Rip-p-p-p-rip-p-p-p-rip-p-p-p-rip-p-p-p-p-p-p.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The crash of the transmitting sent echoes through the rain-sodden air and
-the singing spark sent its message through space, and then whined away
-into silence. The engine had “karked”—communication had ceased.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>No. A basket crate was brought from one of the packs, a message was
-written on a special form, of thin paper, and placed in a small aluminium
-tube; a carrier pigeon was taken from the crate, and released with the
-small tube containing the message attached to one of its legs. The bird
-circled round uncertainly for a few moments and then flew off in a straight
-line toward the leaden clouds in the West.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Communication was still maintained.</p>
-
-<hr class='c015' />
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_113a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>These are but three incidents—three of many—which have happened in
-the Signal Service. The Service calls for initiative, coolness, and devotion;
-all these it has in its ranks. In the desert of Sinai, on the dusty stretches of
-Southern Palestine, on the plains of Philistia, in the hills of Judea—everywhere
-“east of the Canal”—the Signal Service has always maintained a
-high standard which has brought credit to itself, and to the Australian
-Imperial Force in Egypt.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“ACK-VIC-ACK.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_113b.jpg' alt='THE END' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span></div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_114.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Battle Song</h2>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c014'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Silver and white are the planes aflight, and the guns are manifold,</div>
-      <div class='line'>And hour and hour we gain that power which the Lords of war extolled</div>
-      <div class='line'>When the wrath-fires flared, and the blades were bared, in the first red tide that flowed.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>We’ve quelled the fears of the darkest years, and the vistas of remorse</div>
-      <div class='line'>Grow less and less in the wilderness where the south wind gathers force,</div>
-      <div class='line'>And a golden scope in the sun of hope rolls north of the Anzac Horse.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>When shrapnel breaks and the skyline quakes in the tempest loud and long,</div>
-      <div class='line'>We’ll gallop our files through the shell-torn aisles of a sadly shaken throng,</div>
-      <div class='line'>And the fire of hell will grandly swell to a martial storm of song.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Swift as the tide then we shall ride for the goal that burns ahead—</div>
-      <div class='line'>When night rolls round we’ll slumber sound where God’s sweet light is shed,</div>
-      <div class='line'>And the silver eyes of the cloudless skies will watch o’er the valiant dead.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line in52'>“GERARDY.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>The Little Bint of Wady Hanein</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_115.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'>
-Throughout the long campaign the fighting
-was fairly constant, but there were occasional
-brief seasons of rest, and the happiest of these
-were spent in the neighbourhood of the Jewish
-orchard settlements. The 1st Light Horse Brigade
-and the New Zealanders favoured Richon, where
-the wine vaults are said to be the largest in the
-world; and the Jewish girls are the prettiest in all
-Palestine. But the 2nd Brigade was loyal to modest little Wady Hanein.
-The three Jewish villages of Richon, Wady Hanein and Deiran stand about
-three miles apart in a rough line across the sandhills. Deiran, where the
-polyglot lassies were wooed by the troops associated with Desert Mounted
-Corps headquarters, is, like Richon, a large village, almost a town, with
-considerable social pretentions. There the Jews hold political meetings,
-and the girls dress with an eye on distant Paris. But Wady Hanein is
-demure—a true little Arcady set amidst hills and hollows beautiful and
-fragrant with orange groves and orchards of almonds. In the early spring
-the settlement was a glory of pink and white blossoms, and, later, its
-lanes were scented with the breath of the flowering oranges. As I
-write, the 2nd Brigade is in Wady Hanein for the last time, having come
-down from its strenuous work around Amman, across the Jordan; and
-the plump round oranges are coquetting between green and golden.</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_115.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>It was from Wady Hanein that the Brigade moved out on the long
-trek across Judea and Jordan Valley and the Mountains of Moab for the
-first attack on Amman, in March, 1918. Nearly every Australian feigns
-qualification in his regard for the Jews in Palestine. But as the Regiments
-made ready for the road that morning it was pretty to see Jewish families
-visiting their favourite officers and men in the bustling camp, and wishing
-them God-speed with a sincerity and a touch of distress quite unmistakable.
-And all ranks rode to that bitter fight the stronger and better for those
-Jewish good wishes.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>The 2nd Brigade also chanced to be in the village in December of 1917,
-when Jerusalem was captured, and the citizens entertained the Brigadier
-and his officers at a feast, a speech-making and a dance. Proceedings
-were, for a time, somewhat formal and cold. The Brigadier and his senior
-officers sat at a central table in a large hall with the village fathers and
-notables. The girls, expectant, their toes tingling for the dance, sat
-stiffly in a row down one wall and the matrons along the other—a very
-convenient arrangement, because the dashing young Light Horse subalterns
-could seek a pretty partner without feeling obliged to ask for the programme
-of her elderly chaperon. The young men of the village stood with the junior
-officers of the Brigade at one end of the hall.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The eloquence was terrific. The erudite village schoolmaster proposed
-the “Health of the King of England,” coupled with the name of the
-Brigadier, the British Army, the Australian Army, and the British universe
-generally. He spoke fluent and faultless Russian—or so it seemed to us.
-(Our linguistic attainments will startle Australians when we come home.
-There is not a man amongst us who cannot now say Bread and Wine and
-Darling, in all the languages of East and West.) He made happy reference
-to great British apostles of freedom, instancing Cromwell, Lord Byron, and
-Gladstone. He garbled the names, but we caught his drift; and, anxious
-to get in, we cheered tumultuously; and then, in an unhappy moment, some
-one on our side released the Brigade interpreter—a dusky fellow of dubious
-nationality—who rose eagerly to make the meaning of the village schoolmaster
-a little clearer to us. His success was indifferent, but he brought
-down the house with references to Lord Cromwell, Mr. Byron, and Sir
-Gladstone.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_116.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>Then the Brigadier hopped up to respond. He was at his best. He
-referred to the joy which we, as Christians, experienced in driving the
-infidel from the Holy Land, and then, after an apt allusion to the Crusaders
-and King Richard, he became so eloquent and forceful, and slammed the
-table so hard, that all the village matrons gave play to their religious and
-patriotic feelings in subdued but prolific tears; which, when you consider
-that they did not know a word of English, was a unique testimonial to the
-eloquence and dominating personality of our versatile Brigadier. And then
-came the swelling triumphant peroration in which the “Old Brig.,” declared
-that “Palestine had been conquered and Jerusalem delivered by the help of
-God, but mainly by the might of the British Army.” After that we danced,
-and very gay it was, despite our unanimous opinion that speaking Russian
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>was an easy task, compared with attempting correctly to foot a Russian
-measure with a pretty Jewish maiden. To be honest, it was a dumb show;
-but eyes were eloquent.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>But we have been a long time coming to the story of the Little Bint.
-She was one of many of her unhappy kind in Palestine. In that country,
-as in all the East, the rich know no compassion for the poor. If you starve
-it is the will of God and no concern of the more fortunate. That
-interference with the ways of Allah is the cardinal sin is a satisfactory
-article in the creed of the rich in Palestine. So the poor starve,
-unsuccoured, about the doors of the wealthy.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The Little Bint of Wady Hanein was first seen slinking around the outskirts
-of Brigade headquarters. She was a wretched little Arab of seven or
-eight years, clad only in a tattered filthy shirt which came to her knees; with
-matted verminous hair, sparkling black eyes and a pitifully skinny little body.
-She sneaked round the lines at meal time, pouncing like a hungry dog on
-empty bully tins and jam tins, scooping out the remnants with a deft forefinger
-and flashing happy smiles as she put the finger to her mouth. The
-men were quick to notice, and soon the Bint had ten times more than she
-could eat. But she did not thrive. The vermin on her wretched body, and
-her unsheltered winter nights, kept her thin and miserable.</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_117.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>The grooms and batmen on Brigade conferred on the subject of the Bint
-and her future. The ringleader, whom we shall call Pine, a groom whose
-Regimental reputation was far from the best, led a deputation, accompanied
-by the interpreter and the Bint, up to the Bey, a fat Arab with a comfortable
-home and substantial wealth. Pine was forceful and the interpreter glib
-and honest. But the sleek Bey was obdurate. “There are many such,”
-he said suavely and finally, disowning any responsibility for the Little Bint,
-and he was not at all moved at the nasty reflections which the outspoken
-Pine cast upon his mother as the deputation withdrew. The missionaries
-returned to camp, baffled but not defeated. “We’ll adopt the little beggar
-ourselves,” declared Pine, “and take her on as a blasted mascot.” And
-they did. The preliminary work was decided. First the Bint must, as
-they say in plain army English, be “deloused” and bathed. Nobody
-wanted the job. But Pine was determined to see it through, and with the
-Brigade Major’s batman he cut the Bint’s hair, disinfected her and scrubbed
-her until her dusky colour was in danger. Other clumsy but Christian
-fingers cut up shirts and made her clothes; the remainder contrived a bivvy
-in which she was to sleep. And the Little Bint of Wady Hanein waxed
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>fat and happy, and was a touch of soft femininity and a source of much
-delight to Brigade headquarters.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Then came marching orders for Amman. You occasionally find Arab
-boys travelling with the Light Horse, keen little beggars who act as cooks’
-offsiders and batmen’s batmen, and officers smile and sympathetically shut
-their eyes to it. But it was clear that the sprightly little black-eyed Bint
-could not be taken out over the mountains into the bitter cold and bloody
-fighting at Amman. So Pine sought the Padre, and the Padre went off
-twelve miles to Jaffa and talked to the Mother Superior at the convent.
-Next day the Brigadier lent his car, and Pine—his leggings gleaming and
-spurs shining, and amusingly self-conscious—accompanied the Bint to Jaffa,
-and handed her over to the kindly nuns. Perhaps, as he left her, he gave
-her a big brotherly kiss and a trooper’s rough benediction; but probably
-he was too shy. I do not know.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“CAMP FOLLOWER”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_118.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>
-<img src='images/i_119a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>BRIG.-GENERAL RYRIE INSPECTS THE “BULLY”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t119'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_119b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>BRIG.-GENERAL COX ON RIVER JORDAN</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id015'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>
-<img src='images/i_120.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>A WALLAD OF PALESTINE</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Algy, Misfit</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_121.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'>
-“Hullo, old chappa!”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>It was Algy, an old camp acquaintance from
-Australia, whom I hadn’t seen before over this
-way. By his greeting, you will probably be able
-to imagine Algy; yet, with all his “haw-haw,” when
-you got to know him, he was quite the opposite to
-what was suggested by his manner of speech.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>He had the habit of unbosoming himself to everybody regarding his
-career, past, present and future, so when I met him, I knew that I would
-get the whole story of his army life. And I did.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“How have I been getting on? Top hole. The only thing is that my
-failure to rise in the army worries my mater. With my brains, or at least
-the brains mater believes I possess, I was expected to rise in big leaps. But
-the only rise I’ve made has been from my blankets in the morning, and then,
-too, only by the greatest effort. Awful bore, old chappa, these early
-reveilles.</p>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_121.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>“I try to explain to mater why it is that I am still ‘just merely one of
-the men,’ and seek to console her by quoting that well-known pictorial post
-card, ‘We can’t all be officers; somebody’s got to do the work.’ You know,
-the poor old lady believes in me so much that she lives in the hope of some
-day seeing me wearing a whole string of ribbons on my bally chest. No
-hope. You know, some people have most peculiar ideas regarding the
-military. They talk about ribbons as if the military were in the habit of
-issuing such things in lieu of something—say as a sort of consolation when
-the rations are short. If they did, well, I’d be wearing all the variegated
-colours of the bally rainbow.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“I’ve had a most varied career in the army. I was originally in the
-infantry—a private. You see, I started right at the bottom of the ladder,
-scorning all offers of assistance to get a commission. I was quite determined
-to go right up the ladder by my own unaided efforts. Eh, gad, I was an
-egotistical ass, that’s what I was. I never for one moment imagined that
-the rungs of the ladder leading to stripes and stars were so wide apart.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>“But about the infantry. Goodness, shall I ever forget the beastly
-infantry. The unnecessary walking, and the enormous packs one had to
-carry, and the really rude sergeant-major, who always roared at me when
-on parade because I could not execute the fantastic movements he insisted
-upon—really, when I think about it I shudder. I always did my best, but
-marching used to make me <em>so</em> exhausted, and I never <em>could</em> succeed in
-keeping in step with the other fellows.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_122a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Finding the infantry uncongenial, I concluded that if I HAD to be a
-soldier I might as well sit down to the bally job, so I got a transfer to the
-mounted. I had never ridden a horse other than that of a merry-go-round,
-but I was satisfied that I could master the art. I’ve got a different idea
-now. I was quite all right while the animal walked, but when it trotted,
-oh, goodness me, I could never harmonize with the beast.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Ultimately, I came over here with a unit which did not use horses and
-was not required to do much, if any, walking. At least, that is what they
-said, though I should have thought at the time how the unit was to move
-itself. Maybe, the authorities, when I left, were contemplating providing
-privates with motor-cars. I’ve found out, since I’ve been here, how the unit
-moves itself. Don’t do any walking? Well, look here, if there is a piece of
-accessible ground in Palestine, and not forgetting Syria, that I haven’t
-trampled on trudging behind heavily-laden G.S. wagons and limbers in the
-course of many and frequent camp shiftings, I’d like to find it and have it
-photographed.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>With a “Cheeryo,” Algy was gone.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“BILLZAC.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_122b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Palestine</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_123a.jpg' alt='Via Dolorosa' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c014'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>A league-long line of mountains:</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Some fertile plains:</div>
-      <div class='line'>Bright, rippling, purling fountains,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>After the rains.</div>
-      <div class='line'>Vast valleys, lorn and lonely;</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Smiling and green:</div>
-      <div class='line'>Dead cities, telling only</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>What might have been.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<img src='images/i_123b.jpg' alt='“Tower of the Forty”' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c016'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>A weary, stricken people,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>So long enslaved;</div>
-      <div class='line'>A spire and broken steeple,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>By lanes ill-paved:</div>
-      <div class='line'>A thousand superstitions;</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>A hundred creeds;</div>
-      <div class='line'>The beggars’ vain petitions</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>That no one heeds.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figright id006'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>
-<img src='images/i_124a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>MOSQUE OF OMAR</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c016'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>A field of poppies blazing:</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Orchids new-born:</div>
-      <div class='line'>A wealth of flowers amazing</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Fringing the corn:</div>
-      <div class='line'>A line of camels stringing</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Across the brae:</div>
-      <div class='line'>The skylark sweetly singing,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>To welcome day.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>A home of races, mingled</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Gentile and Jew:</div>
-      <div class='line'>Women with veilèd faces:</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Rogues, not a few.</div>
-      <div class='line'>A Sacred Land, and Holy:</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Beersheba to Dan;</div>
-      <div class='line'>Where once a King so lowly</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Lived as a man.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>A land of milk and honey,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>In Moses’ day:</div>
-      <div class='line'>A place of paper money</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Since Abdul’s sway:</div>
-      <div class='line'>A prophets’ land and sages’,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>By right divine:</div>
-      <div class='line'>The heir of all the Ages,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Poor Palestine!!</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line in10'>“TROOPER BLUEGUM.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id003'>
-<img src='images/i_124b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div id='t124'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_124f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>SOME SOUVENIR<br /><br />(AN AUSTRALIAN TROOPER WITH GERMAN HELMET)<br /><br /><span class='right'><em>By James McBey. British Official Artist</em></span></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>The Camel Brigade</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_125.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'>
-There are, maybe, ten thousand Australians who
-will never see a map of Egypt or Palestine, never
-hear of the Great War, never sing or listen to
-a Christmas Carol, and, perhaps, never even boil
-a billy, without thinking of camels.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Nor is it altogether surprising; for camels
-played so prominent a part in their lives in the
-days of Armageddon. They lived on camels;
-they always slept near, and often on camels;
-and camels carried their tucker, their water, their
-clothes, their blankets. The last thing they saw
-as they fell asleep at night was a string of long-necked camels silhouetted
-against the bare horizon. The first thing they heard after reveille was the
-raucous noise of a camel lifting up its voice in the wilderness. Nothing but
-camel, day and night, from the Senussi stunt to the Jerusalem-Jericho-Jordan
-scrapping.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>None of us really liked our camels. Frankly, most of us loathed them.
-They were a necessary evil. In a desert campaign they were indispensable:
-so they were tolerated. But for many, many months the Cameleers cursed
-them without ceasing for the vilest, stupidest, craziest beasts that ever
-cumbered the earth.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Then, suddenly—it was about midsummer, 1918—we began to realize
-some of the many virtues of the much-maligned camel. We remembered
-that even on the scorching sands of Sinai, we were rarely short of water.
-We reminded each other that, while Light Horsemen shivered on the freezing
-Judean Hills, we snuggled cosily ’neath a bivvy and four blankets. We
-thought of all the little extra canteen delicacies we had carried in our
-capacious saddle-bags. And we talked about the good times we had at the
-camel sports with Horace, and Mange Dressing and Starlight.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The reason for this <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">volte-face</span></i>, this sudden revulsion of feeling in favour
-of the camel, lay in the fact that our camels were to be taken away from
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>us. We were to be transformed into cavalry for that Big Push which we
-hoped would result in the smashing of the Turkish Army. And remembering
-the comparative luxury of the Cameleer’s life, we tried to make the
-<i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">amende honorable</span></i> and say kind things of and to our old <em>hooshtas</em>.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_126.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>THE MIDDAY HALT</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>The Australian Camel Corps was formed early in 1916, when the
-Senussi became troublesome. Four companies of infantry just back from
-Gallipoli formed the nucleus of the corps. They proved a most valuable
-asset, so more were demanded. But it was not certain that a sufficient
-number of Australians could be provided, so the 2nd Battalion was composed
-of English and Scotch Territorials, and the force became known as
-the Imperial Camel Corps. Later, a third Battalion was made up of
-Australians and New Zealanders, and, at the end of the year, a fourth
-Battalion, of Australians.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>
-<img src='images/i_127a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>BRIG.-GENERAL G L. SMITH, V.C., M.C.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t127'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_127b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>OUR WATER SUPPLY</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>The Camel Corps was handicapped because of the general ignorance
-concerning it. The A.I.F. in Sinai knew little of it; Australia knew
-less. Often it was confused with and mistaken for the Camel Transport
-Corps, a valuable unit, which has done splendid work, but is not a fighting
-unit like the I.C.C. The members of the Imperial Camel Corps had all left
-their parent Regiments, and so, for a long time, missed those welcome
-parcels that the different Comfort Funds so generously sent to the boys.
-Later, however, the A.I.F. Comforts took a kindly interest in the poor
-Cameleers—and the Cameleers were unfeignedly grateful.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Coming back to Egypt from the Western Desert, the Cameleers spelled
-awhile, then moved over the Canal to Sinai and participated in the Romani-Bir-el-Abd
-fighting. Then came the big trek east towards El Arish with
-its attendant patrols and skirmishes. When Abdul bolted from El Arish
-the Army followed, the Light Horse and the Camel Corps in the van.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_128.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>Maghdaba and Rafa followed, two of the most picturesque and decisive
-battles of the campaign; and in each the Camel Corps distinguished
-itself greatly. Then on to Khan Yunis—where lived Delilah of old—and
-then to historic Gaza: the lion in our path. The story of the three battles
-of Gaza has already been told. There is no need to recapitulate here the
-part played by the Camelry in those engagements, save to mention that in
-the second battle the I.C.C. rushed and captured their objective, suffering
-about 75 per cent. casualties; while in the third, and victorious, battle, they
-held the line at Kouelphi and Ras el Nagb in face of heavy counter-attacks.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The army had now turned the corner, and, under General Allenby’s
-inspiring leadership, the Camel Brigade pushed north with the remainder of
-the force until Jerusalem was captured. Then the army settled down in the
-stalemate line of trenches stretching from just north of Jaffa to the Jordan
-near Jericho; by which time the Cameleers had suffered so many casualties,
-and the camels were in such deplorable condition, that they were sent back
-to Rafa to recuperate—and hold a sports meeting.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Mention should be made of the Hong Kong-Singapore Indian Mounted
-Battery, known to the Camel Corps as “The Bing Boys.” These Indian
-soldiers participated in all the fighting in Palestine.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>
-<img src='images/i_129a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>WATERING TIME, CAMEL BRIGADE</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t129'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_129b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>“PREPARE TO MOUNT”</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>In March, 1918, the Camel Corps trekked through Palestine to
-Richon, where they sampled the wine of the country. Then, after the
-rains, they ploughed their way through mud and slush and wire to
-Bethlehem. From the wintry heights of Judea they descended by way of
-Jericho to the midsummer of the Jordan Valley and on to Amman. Much
-has been written about the adventure, or misadventure, into the hills of
-Moab. Never will the Cameleers forget that night journey over slippery
-goat-tracks to Es Salt. Never before or since was there ever such a journey.
-Hour after hour the cavalcade struggled onward and upward, crawling
-round ugly devil’s-elbows on mountain tracks, slipping and floundering in
-the mud. Time and again camels would collapse, bogged and helpless,
-and some toppled over the precipice. But the Brigade got to Amman and
-blew up the Hedjaz Railway.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Back to the Jordan Valley again, the prey of snakes and scorpions and
-spiders, mosquitos and flies and Turkish shells—but the mosquitos were the
-worst. Scores and scores of men went sick with malaria, which recurred
-during subsequent operations. The last big scrap of the I.C.C. was the
-defence of Musallabeh, which the Turks attacked with grim determination.
-In spite of very heavy casualties, the Cameleers held on and beat off the
-enemy. Because of this gallant defence, General Allenby decreed that
-henceforth Musallabeh should be called “The Camel’s Hump.”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>With Sinai far behind and well-watered country ahead, it was seen that
-the Camel Brigade had outlived its usefulness. So, in May, the Cameleers
-returned westward towards Jaffa, handed over their camels, and were
-mounted on horses and armed with swords for the Big Push.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“TROOPER BLUEGUM.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_130.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>
-<img src='images/i_131.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>PORTION OF CONVOY OF 8,000 CAMELS BEARING SUPPLIES ON THE PHILISTINE PLAIN<br /><br /><span class='right'><em>Australian Official Photograph</em></span></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'><span class='under'>RESTING</span></h2>
-</div>
-<div  class='figleft id005'>
-<img src='images/i_132.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_132.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'>
-There’s a
-delightful
-sound about
-that little
-word “Rest.”
-It conjures up
-delicious visions
-of breakfast in bed, scrambled
-eggs on toast, lying about in the sun,
-nice books to read, etc., etc., as the
-imagination wills. Now, we didn’t
-expect all these things, but when we
-got the word, “The regiment is going
-for a rest behind the lines,” everybody’s
-ears pricked up, and we were
-all on the <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">qui vive</span></i> for the few days
-following.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Sure enough, we moved out all
-right, and camped one moonlight
-night on a gently-sloping plateau to
-the west of the hills, taking up our
-abode comfortably in bell tents, six of
-us to a tent. We’d had a long day,
-so soon turned in and slept the sleep
-of the conscienceless. Behold us next morning, at that cold, cheerless grey
-hour which just precedes the dawn, lying in various picturesque attitudes,
-with the cold wind playing on us, as yet untouched by the sun’s compensating
-warmth. A bugle gave out its brass-mouthed message, and one of
-those necessary evils known as corporals invited us to “turn out and fall
-in.” Now, it was the witching hour of 4 a.m., and we didn’t like “turning
-out” or “falling in,” or any kindred mysterious movement; but necessity
-knows no law, so, to the accompaniment of many an ungracious “Blarst
-the war,” “What sort of a rest is this?” we crawled out of bed, dressed,
-and wended our weary way to the stables.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>
-<img src='images/i_133a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>BEDOUINS CAPTURED AT HASSANIYA</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t133'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_133b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>STREET MARKET, JERUSALEM</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>
-<img src='images/i_134a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>BEDOUIN VILLAGE</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t134'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_134b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>TURKISH PRISONERS, NABLUS</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>The next hour or two saw us busy among the horses—removing the
-superfluous dirt from their coats, cleaning up the stable lines, and watering
-and feeding our jaded mounts. We were then marched to the Q.M.’s to
-be issued with an extra blanket. In the usual way of Q.M.’s, this just
-allowed us back in time for six o’clock breakfast. During the meal they
-broke the news gently to us that there was a mounted parade at seven, to go
-through a “little training.” More grumbles, of course, but the time was
-too short to allow of any delay for grousing, so we got out for our “little
-training.” This delightful exercise consisted of a gruelling couple of hours
-in the sun, after which we had to groom and stable our horses, had a
-quarter of an hour’s “smoke-o,” and then the pleasure of lecture for
-half an hour or so.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Dismissed to our tents, we distributed ourselves behind the covers of
-various journals—ranging, according to taste, from “War Cry” to the
-“Bulletin.” Hardly was our interest fixed, when there was borne in
-on our ears a stentorian cry which resolved itself into the voice of our two-bar
-artist yelling “Fall in for water!” and away we went again like lambs.
-A struggle with four horses, two on each side of you, and each couple
-desiring to go in a different direction, is not calculated to improve one’s
-temper; but we got the job done and returned for dinner. This meal was
-not the one of our dreams, but we settled down after it as though we’d
-lunched at “Shepheards,” and began to think that the “rest” part of the
-stunt was at hand. Then the orderly sergeant announced that there would
-be a grazing parade at two o’clock. So out we all had to turn again and
-spend a couple of hours on the grassy slope a mile or so away, thinking
-sad thoughts and uttering strong utterances.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_136a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>Back again, stable the horses, we finished just in time for tea, to which
-we did ample justice, and allowed ourselves to drift into a better frame of
-mind. After tea we at last settled down in our tents, and had just dealt
-the cards for a quiet game of poker, when, lo and behold! the orderly
-corporal looked in and said, quite pleasantly and off-hand, too, “There will
-be an inspection at 9 a.m. to-morrow; all saddlery and gear to be cleaned
-and placed outside tents at 8 a.m.” Well, we looked at one another—we
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>were past words. Slowly the hands were thrown in; more in sorrow
-than in anger we cleared the card-blanket away, and the last scene saw six
-queerly silent figures listlessly polishing up bits and
-stirrup irons and greasing leather gear, with the
-mutely suffering look in each face akin to the look of
-the dog which has just received a kick in the ribs as the
-grand finale to a series of ill-usages. So ended a day
-of rest. In that tent, that night, men went to bunk
-murmuring, “If this is rest, send us back to work.”</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“TRALAS.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_136b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span></div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_137.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div>
-  <h2 class='c005'>THE MUKHTAR’S GOATS</h2>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c014'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>S</span>aid Breezy Bob to Baldy Bill, “I’m giving you the oil;</div>
-      <div class='line'>There’s whips of blinking eatables on this ’ere virgin soil.</div>
-      <div class='line'>So what abart a forage hunt, me bold and noble chief?</div>
-      <div class='line'>It’s time we had some mutton now instead of bully-beef.”</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Now, Baldy Bill was leader of an enterprising mess;</div>
-      <div class='line'>His cobbers all would back him up in deeds of wickedness.</div>
-      <div class='line'>So when Old Bob suggested that the gang should have a hunt</div>
-      <div class='line'>For tasty chops and cutlets, they agreed upon the stunt.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>It happened that the n’th Light Horse were camping in a grove</div>
-      <div class='line'>Of olives, figs and oranges, the hedges interwove</div>
-      <div class='line'>With prickly pear grown very thick, and on the other side</div>
-      <div class='line'>The grazing land by cattle, sheep and goats was occupied.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>An Arab Chief, or Mukhtar, was the owner of the flock,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Named “Abdul el Mahomed,” a monopolist in stock.</div>
-      <div class='line'>Now Baldy Bill and Breezy Bob were socialistic coves</div>
-      <div class='line'>Who spouted on equality amongst the olive groves.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>And so in tones of ecstasy the plot was duly laid,</div>
-      <div class='line'>And in the hedge of prickly pear a hole was quickly made.</div>
-      <div class='line'>Then Bob and Baldy sallied forth—a ration bag of oats</div>
-      <div class='line'>Was carried by the doughty pair to snare the Mukhtar’s goats.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>They crawled along in silence, seeking shade from tree to tree,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Until they came upon the flock all feeding peacefully.</div>
-      <div class='line'>The Mukhtar, squatting in the shade, engaged in silent thought,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Was dreaming of the prosperous times the “awful war” had brought.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Now, Baldy in the ration bag had made a little spout,</div>
-      <div class='line'>And as they crawled along the grass the oats were trickling out;</div>
-      <div class='line'>But as they neared the Mukhtar’s flock they rose upon their feet,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Salaamed in true Australian style, the pastoralist to greet.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>In friendly pidgin-Arabic they talked a little while,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Then bade farewell to Abdul in the dinkum Aussie style;</div>
-      <div class='line'>And as they sauntered back to camp they noticed with a grin,</div>
-      <div class='line'>That Abdul’s goats had found the oats, and all were “wiring in.”</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>The feeding flock came slowly towards the hedge of prickly pear.</div>
-      <div class='line'>A fine big “billy” led the lot, quite eager for his share,</div>
-      <div class='line'>And as he wandered close enough the prickly pear to feel,</div>
-      <div class='line'>He “got it” quickly in the neck—a blade of polished steel.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Then Bill and Breezy dragged their prize into the Squadron’s lines,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Cut up the mass of quivering flesh in various designs.</div>
-      <div class='line'>With plenty swords available they soon got off the hide;</div>
-      <div class='line'>In less time than it takes to tell the billy-goat was fried.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>That night the stew was “counted out” and mutton reigned instead,</div>
-      <div class='line'>And when old Abdul “counted in” his flock he hit his head</div>
-      <div class='line'>In anger, for he came upon the remnants of the oats</div>
-      <div class='line'>That Breezy Bob distributed to snare the Mukhtar’s goats.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Since then the Military Police are looking for a clue;</div>
-      <div class='line'>They never made enquiries about discarded stew,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Or else they might have found the truth; and Bill and Breezy gloat,</div>
-      <div class='line'>To tell the yarn in secrecy about the Mukhtar’s goat.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line in60'>“2469”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t138'  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_138f.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic009'>
-<p>BUYING ORANGES, JAFFA<br /><br /><em>By W. O. David Barker</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span></div>
-<div class='chapter'>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id008'>
-<img src='images/i_139.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div>
-  <h2 class='c005'>The Batman</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c003'>
-    <div>by W. M. W.</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c016'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>W</span>ith “stand to Arms” at half past three,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>in cold and wet and misery,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Who brings a nice, warm cup of tea?</div>
-      <div class='line in12'>“My Batman.”</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>W</span>ho knows the movement of all troops</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>and brings the dinkum with my boots?</div>
-      <div class='line'>Who finds but never, never, loots.</div>
-      <div class='line in12'>“My Batman.”</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>T</span>he last to sleep, the first to rise,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>who sorts the rumor as it flies,</div>
-      <div class='line'>and in a whisper puts me wise.</div>
-      <div class='line in11'>“My Batman.”</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>F</span>ount of all wisdom without doubt</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>who knows just what we are about</div>
-      <div class='line'>but very seldom lets it out.</div>
-      <div class='line in6'>The General’s Batman.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Damascus</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>The first charm of Damascus as a whole city lies in the contrast which
-those brown sandhills behind it make with the green strip of the
-Barada Valley. Journeying from Ludd through the monotony of lank,
-brown growth that straggles to the horizon from the road, you give up hope
-of ever seeing foliage again, until you pass El Kunneitra. Then you see the
-green of Barada; and it is the richer for the hills behind it—browner, more
-desolate by far, than any landscape skirting Galilee or the Jordan. Far up
-the clay feet of those rocky hills straggles the brown-and-white suburb of
-Salahiye, all square-built and flat-topped—from the distance like bricks
-inserted in the clay soil. The line of hills is cleft cleanly by the Pass, the
-scene of that hideous slaughter by our machine guns. If you climb into
-the fringe of Salahiye you see the curious shape of Damascus—a jagged
-comet-form, all the angles and serrations of the brown tail defined with
-unnatural clearness by the depth of the green about it. In the amorphous
-head are a few minarets—like jewels. In Cairo there are too many minarets
-as you look from the Bey’s Leap: they protrude like a porcupine’s quills.
-In Damascus the city’s flat brownness is just relieved by them. When we
-came to Damascus it was drought-stricken. Soon afterward, it rained
-torrentially for a day. Then the sun shone and drew from the city such
-colour as we never dreamed was there. Nor had we dreamed that the
-trees were dusty—so green they seemed after the southern country. But,
-washed, they helped to throw up the wonderful colour of “that great city,”
-as it is called in Scripture.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>It is a relief to be delivered from the sight of the everlasting cactus-hedge
-of the southern towns. The cactus does flourish in Damascus; but so thick
-is the foliage that it is lost in the mass. You cannot look down on Nazareth
-without being obsessed by the ubiquitous pest. You can look down on
-Damascus and be unconscious of it. It straggles about the leafy roads in
-patches beside the mud walls. That you can bear, because it does not rise
-above the all-enclosing foliage.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The smells of Damascus you will remember for ever. Cairo is clean by
-comparison: the alleys of Cairo are not foul. The stinks of Damascus are
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>literally overpowering. There is offal, refuse, foul puddles in every street of
-the Bazaars. The Abana is a foul river. “Are not Abana and Pharpar,
-rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel”? The answer is:
-Certainly not. There is an ill-kemptness about the place that carries Oriental
-slackness a bit too far. In the streets that thread the heart of the city are
-ruts and holes that break the springs of M.T. every day. The tramline
-protrudes eight inches. This gives rise to deadlocks in traffic that hold up
-movement for an hour. Incredibly narrow and tortuous are the highways
-of the city. The only decent road is that which skirts the fountained
-promenade near the Hedjaz Station. I am sure the Damascans look on this
-bit of orderliness as a Western intrusion; just as I am sure that if they
-found themselves in an English town guileless of smells they would call it
-insipid....</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>In the bazaars there is a baffling complexity of colour, of race, of wares.
-The Mousky is less heterogeneous. In the Square, in the street which is
-called Strait, in the gold bazaar, grain bazaar, sweets bazaar, silk bazaar,
-you have all the various colour of tarbooshed Cairo, and more. Here the
-soldiers of the King of the Hedjaz throng; there is endless variety in their
-clothes and their flowing head-dress. The Moslem women, who veil their
-faces, affect far more variety than the Mohamedan women of Cairo, with
-their yashmaks. The French are here. The Australian hat and plume is
-everywhere. I never saw so great a number of Australian soldiers moving
-at random in any city. There is great jostling in these narrow streets, more
-than the normal jostling you get in any crowd.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The dusty bazaars are in semi-darkness; their streets bear a covered
-roof of iron; they must get protection from rain. In Cairo all is open; for
-there it rains but rarely. Not only are the bazaar streets in Cairo without
-roofs that would stop a shower, but the shops, themselves, full of treasures.
-Here the rain comes in a deluge. From some of the street roofs the
-enemy had taken the iron for military use. What the state of these
-roofless streets will be when the rains come is sad to think. They will be
-flooded all winter.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Except that there is greater diversity of peoples—both buyers and sellers—the
-bazaars of Damascus are much like those of the Mousky. There are
-the same well-defined areas for specific commodities; the same little cubicles
-for shops, where vendors squat and “reach for things”; there is the same
-voluble haggling—the same conversations carried on in tones that you would
-first mistake for quarrelsome; there are the same crying, peripatetic vendors
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>of <em>limonade</em>, quoit-shaped cakes and toffee; the shoe-blacks are here, but
-they are ahead of Cairo, with their gongs to attract the uncleanly-shod.
-There is a more incessant stream of laden donkeys through the bazaars
-here. In Cairo the donkeys are chiefly for pleasure riding; here they are
-mercantile, over-laden with the striped sacks of grain and fabric. There are
-additions to the bazaars of Cairo in the goldsmiths’ bazaar, the sweets
-bazaar. The goldsmiths work with their blowpipes and tiny forges and tiny
-tools, moulding and fashioning. It is curious to see the workshop as part
-of the sale-shop. The belts, brooches, rings and trays exposed for sale in a
-showcase were made two yards away by that cunning Oriental fashioner
-squatting on his haunches. The sweets bazaar tempts you hideously.
-Eastern nutted sweets and Turkish-delight and toffees look as well as they
-taste. Mere assorted chocolates—such as you get at Groppi’s—are crude
-by comparison. There are great serpentine coils of Turkish-delight lurking
-in icing-sugar—nut toffee that is all nuts—none of your miserable paucity of
-nuts such as one gets in English almond-rock: nuts form the matrix here....
-But enough of that; here, if ever, you are tempted to generate a
-liver the size of your hat.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Public baths abound in the heart of the bazaars. Fronting the street is
-the final, open, divaned, cooling-off room—an amphitheatre of couches
-upholstered with a kind of gay-coloured towelling. A fountain plays in the
-midst. The bathed sit swaying in the ecstasy of reaction from the steam,
-with closed eyes. No Roman ever bathed more voluptuously. No one
-minds your going in nor your penetrating to the bowels of the establishment.
-Room after room you pass, with swinging doors; each is hotter than the last.
-In the last, and hottest room, the smell of man is overpowering; you
-hastily retrace your steps through the series of chambers and regain the
-comparative sweetness of the bazaars.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Foul as this city may be, there is beauty in every foot of it. The
-beauty of Cairo lies rather in the view you get of “chunks” of it—the
-vista of the street, the space of a market-place, the mass of a mosque.
-Here the beauty lies in little pieces of wall, looked at minutely, in a tiny
-piece of domestic architecture. It is a beauty in colour rather than in form.
-Form in Cairo counts for much—in Damascus for almost nothing. Here
-there is dilapidation in a degree undreamt of in Cairo. But dilapidation
-does not necessarily make for beauty, though some people think it does. I
-believe the beauty of colour in Damascus lies in extreme age—in the mellowing
-of age. After Cairo, the intense antiquity of the older city—of every
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>fragment of it—comes to you impressively. You feel the age of it as you
-pace every yard of its alleys. Cairo is comparatively modern, and comparatively
-garish. There is a fine, if filthy, harmony in Damascus.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Intimate in the memory of most Light Horsemen will always be certain
-features of Damascus. Our men will not forget the Hedjaz Headquarters
-in the heart of the city, the German Club, the Local Resources Office, the
-filthy Turkish hospital, the English and French hospitals in the suburb, the
-littered railway station, the suburban roads, unspeakably rough and muddy,
-the afternoon perambulations of blatant under-dressed bints in gharries, the
-guards—on the aerodrome, on the Ottoman Bank, on the captured grain
-stores, on the captured guns—the plentiful lack of ordnance and canteen
-stores, the corpses of dogs and horses in open spaces, the multitudinous
-beggars, the exorbitant prices asked for German razors that cost their
-vendors nothing, the moderate cost of silver and brass ware, the Hedjaz
-recruiting processions, the glut of matches, the potency of arak, the cunning
-of the plausible English-speaking small boys, the puzzling complexity and
-fluctuation of the currency, the paucity of mails, the liberty and the usefulness
-of Turkish prisoners, the fitful and lawless discharge of firearms
-about the city all through the night, the suddenness with which sickness
-made its descent upon the apparently immune, the daily receipt and
-despatch to time-table of official mails by air, the dancing lights of Salahiye
-that burned till dawn....</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>H. W. D.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_143.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Malaria</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='c006'>
-  <img class='drop-capi' src='images/di_144.jpg' width='100' alt='' />
-</div><p class='drop-capi_8'></p>
-<div class='lg-container-b c016'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>Y</span>ou, with your winding, creeping course,</div>
-      <div class='line'>What of the men of our Southern Horse?</div>
-      <div class='line'>Valley of night, with your wingèd pest,</div>
-      <div class='line'>What of our heroes now at rest,</div>
-      <div class='line in6'>Down by your Dead, salt Sea?</div>
-      <div class='line'>What of the ones we have left behind?</div>
-      <div class='line'>What of these men of our kith and kind,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Nigh where your blood streams hiss?</div>
-      <div class='line'>Better the true and unerring shot!</div>
-      <div class='line'>Better the Death when their blood runs hot—</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Than this,</div>
-      <div class='line in14'>Malaria! Malaria!</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>You, with your agèd river’s flow,</div>
-      <div class='line'>What of our Riders laid below?</div>
-      <div class='line'>Valley of Death, with your torpid heat,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Look where your swirling hill streams meet,</div>
-      <div class='line in6'>Down by your Dead, salt Sea!</div>
-      <div class='line'>Look to the ones on your mounded knoll!</div>
-      <div class='line'>Look to the ones of your chosen toll!</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Those of your fevered kiss!</div>
-      <div class='line'>Better the blast of the rending shell!</div>
-      <div class='line'>Better the toll of the War God’s knell,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Than this,</div>
-      <div class='line in14'>Malaria! Malaria!</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line in30'>“KOOLAWARRA.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Fall Out the 1914 Men</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='drop-capa0_0_6 c011'>After four years’ service, the remnants of the First and Second
-Contingents were assembled preparatory to return to Australia.
-Such a prolonged absence from their homes might have led one to expect
-a wild emotional outburst; but they received the tidings casually.</p>
-
-<div  class='figleft id006'>
-<img src='images/i_145.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<p class='c007'>As they fell into line to be farewelled by the Brigadier, they presented
-an inspiring sight; shoulder to shoulder, each man a history in himself; true
-mates, every one of them: their fellowship cemented by the blood of fallen
-comrades. Alert they stood, hardened by the privations and hardships of
-long years of campaigning, but—true test
-of manhood—ready to face it all over
-again if their principles were involved.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>As they waited for the “Old Man,” as
-the Brig. is affectionately termed, visions of
-the past began to take form before their
-eyes. Mine saw the silent, winding streams
-of human life, being hurried through the
-streets of sleeping cities on their way to grim, silent
-transports. No gay farewells, no playing of bands, no
-gathering of gaily-dressed crowds to wave them farewell
-on their way to foreign shores. As they strained their
-eyes for a last glimpse of their native land, many must
-have tried to visualize their return. None realized how
-or when, and many of the stout hearts on those sea-sprayed
-ships who gazed with loving eyes on their
-sunny land were saying the last farewell. Their graves
-are in strange lands, their deeds imperishable memories.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>“Boys”—it was the Old Man speaking—“we come
-together to say good-bye.” He outlined his association
-with the Brigade, and touched briefly on the
-outstanding incidents of its career. He humorously
-alluded to their “weakness” in a few respects, but
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>he was proud to say that no man had ever complained of his punishment.
-Everybody had played the game, and his life was infinitely richer because
-of his association with them. He wished all a bright future, and they
-were never to forget him if they were ever in any difficulty.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>At the close of the homily, I am afraid, the etiquette of military discipline
-was violated in many ways. “Good old Brig., the whitest ever made,” and
-such-like remarks were punctuated by cheering and the waving of hats. A
-personal handshake with each man and wishes of “good luck”; and
-then came the farewells round the camp, when mates of years bade each
-other good-bye, and turned away.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Friendship such as this will stand the test of time.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“BATAGGI.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id004'>
-<img src='images/i_146.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>MRS. CHISHOLM’S CANTEEN AT KANTARA</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>
-<img src='images/i_147.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>BETHLEHEM</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>
-<img src='images/i_148a.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>TROOPERS ENTERING JERICHO</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div id='t148'  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_148b.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic002'>
-<p>DAMASCUS</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>“Old Horse o’ Mine”</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c014'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'><span class='large'>H</span>oof-beats, that rang on the crowded street,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Had never beat unto me</div>
-      <div class='line'>All the wealth of the gold in your old black hide,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>All the grit of your loyalty;</div>
-      <div class='line'>But deep in the sand of a lonely land,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Out on many a far flung trail,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Your old hoofs spoke of a heart you broke</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>For me, that <em>you</em> might not fail.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Great eyes, that dusked in the green gums’ wave,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Though I recked not that you were there,</div>
-      <div class='line'>That danced or dulled at the whim mayhap</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Of a fancy unaware—</div>
-      <div class='line'>How the mateship grew in the depths of you,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>When the waste spread its gauntness wide.</div>
-      <div class='line'>How you parched with me, how you marched with me,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Through that Hell of a thirst denied.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>Brave Soul that sprung in the colt of you,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>Unguessed in the years far back,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Ere your Fate ran out from a land of streams</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>To the drought of a sun-blazed track—</div>
-      <div class='line'>For the days since seen, for the pals we’ve been,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>When Old Time sees us through—</div>
-      <div class='line'>O! If then there be for the likes o’ me,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>A Heav’n—it must hold you, too.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line in42'>T. V. B.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id007'>
-<img src='images/i_149.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Concerning Machine Guns</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c006'><span class='large'>“V</span>ickers Light Automatic, ·303,” so saith the machine gun handbook.
-Further on, it informs the reader that the gun weighs 38 lbs. when
-the water jacket is filled. These statements have been the subject of many
-bitter outbursts, and not a few have wondered whether they had a pair
-of scales at the War Office (this unfortunate institution is, of course,
-responsible for everything that goes wrong).</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>There have been countless instances where a sweating, cursing
-Billjim, struggling up a scorching precipice with the said Vickers Light
-Automatic, would have betted all his deferred pay that it weighed at
-least ten times as much as the handbook implies. Even on such
-kindergarten exercises as gun drill, wonder has often been expressed that
-“they” had the blooming neck to print such a fib. Still another proof
-that the real weight greatly exceeds the official figures. Watch the hefty
-No. 2, capable of lifting an 18 pdr., as, after continuous firing, he gets the
-order, “Out of action!” In a flash, the pins are wrenched out, he seizes
-the smoking gun where the protecting piece of puttee, numnah pad or
-sock isn’t, and instantly drops the weapon to the ground. Isn’t that
-convincing?</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>There are other minor details about the machine gun handbook that
-are apt to be misleading. It states that there is a No. 1, who is the boss
-and only carries the tripod—a flimsy toy of some 48 lbs. of brass and
-steel; next, a No. 2, who juggles with a Vickers Light Automatic; also a
-No. 3, who has nothing to do but carry a few boxes of ammunition, these
-being mere tin cases no bigger than the handbag he used to carry his
-pyjamas in, and containing only one belt; then there are a few other
-superfluous hangers-on; a No. 4, who aids the No. 3; a No. 5, who aids
-him; and so <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">ad infinitum</span></i> down to that humble creature, the pack leader, who
-holds three horses during an action.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>Thus far, the handbook is perfect, photographic plates and all.
-Where the discrepancy comes in, is that there is no advice regarding a
-hitch. It has nothing to say about this: A person is observed toiling
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>along with the tripod, a box of 250 cartridges hanging on each leg, straddled
-across his shoulders; some distance behind him wobbles another sagging
-individual, bearing the gun, more belt boxes, a pick and a shovel; while
-a third—sometimes—struggles on with still more belt boxes, range-finder,
-spare parts wallet, a can of water, steam escape tube, a bag to prevent dust
-at the gun’s muzzle, and a few other trifles; and down in some more or
-less protected hollow, three or four distracted pack leaders curse away
-their last remaining hope of salvation trying to keep untangled the twenty-odd
-hungry brutes that crane their necks to nibble at infinitesimal, dead
-grass stalks. Let us dismiss the handbook.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The machine gun can be put to many uses. As a seat, it is admirable,
-also as a clothes horse for small gear; and as a horse rack, providing the
-animal doesn’t pull it over, it stands alone. It has also been known to
-remove Turkish folks from their ration strength—but accidents will happen.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The gunner is at his best when using his gun as anti-aircraft. He
-reverses the position of the gun on the tripod in order to get a sharper
-angle, and lies down on his back beneath it, pillowing his shoulders on
-some soft substance, such as the spare parts box. The No. 2 crouches
-alongside to tuck in—at this angle—the reluctant belt; the Taube
-approaches at a reasonable altitude, and then ratta-tatta-tatta stutters the
-gun.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>A heartrending episode occurred in the Jordan Valley one morning.
-The guns, at the top of the precipitous cliffs lining the Jordan, were being
-snugly tucked away in their little dust-proof positions for the day, when
-sinister humming in the sky was heard. Out of the woolly, cumulus clouds
-a flock of Taubes dived and began their fell work. In a twinkling,
-the guns were violently slammed on the tripods, fresh, full belts rattled
-into the feed-blocks, and the gunners flopped into their positions, grimly
-inviting the visitors to come a bit closer and “have a fly.” They did,
-and answered the prompt leaden stream with their own guns.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>One gun had been firing merrily at the wheeling Taubes for some time
-when the prostrate, grim-jawed No. 1 uttered a wild, squealing yell, and
-writhed fearfully. “Good God, Percy is hit!” cried young Bobbie, the
-No. 2, and he turned in alarm to his friend, who was out-writhing any
-live wire.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The No. 1 gasped and stuttered in his agony, but managed to
-ejaculate: “Hit, be dinged! It’s the bloomin’ hot shells that trickled
-inside me shirt. Hop into ’em!”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>I give this illustration merely to show the risks attached to machine
-gunnery.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The Machine Gun Squadron is regarded as a desirable unit. It has
-numerous advantages over the Regiments; notably, there are no duties
-or fatigues to speak of, except, perhaps, stables, watering, rations, cook’s,
-Q.M.’s, road-making, laying interminable miles of stones in line, whitewashing
-same, erecting this, that and the other, cleaning saddlery,
-polishing reluctant steel work, an odd guard or two (mostly odd), and a
-few other trifles, which the conscientious soldier performs with assiduity
-and alacrity.</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>There is little else about machine guns to learn, they are so perfect that
-a machine gunner is now made in six weeks instead of six years. They
-have performed some remarkable work during the war, moral effect being
-one of their greatest assets—observe the sprightly vigour with which the
-officer inspecting outposts bounds away from the front of a machine gun
-position, where he has wandered by misadventure, when the man on
-guard sings out, “Machine gun here, Sir!”</p>
-
-<p class='c007'>The boys will be sorry to say good-bye to their vicious, stuttering pets;
-and let us hope that, the guns, when they are returned to Ordnance, will
-cease to (metaphorically) curl their lips in disdain at their humble and
-erratic poor relations, the Hotchkiss rifles of the Regiments.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>“SARG.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>
-  <h2 class='c005'>Delivered!</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c014'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>A wounded earth is free again,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>The barriers of the East are down;</div>
-      <div class='line'>With many a mound above the slain,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>The zones of battle, bare and brown,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Shall feel the tears of wintertide,</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>(War’s aftermath of sorrowing)</div>
-      <div class='line'>Till Nature heals their scars of pride</div>
-      <div class='line in2'>And flowers perfume a deathless spring.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line in34'>“GERARDY.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>
-<img src='images/i_154.jpg' alt='FINISH' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c004' />
-</div>
-<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span></div>
-<div class='section ph2'>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c001'>
-    <div><em>ANGUS &amp; ROBERTSON’S AUSTRALIAN PUBLICATIONS.</em></div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class='c017'>THE ART OF ARTHUR STREETON. Edited by Sydney Ure Smith, Bertram Stevens
-and C. Lloyd Jones, with critical and biographical articles by P. G. Konody, Julian Ashton
-and Lionel Lindsay. With coloured reproductions of 35 of Streeton’s best landscapes and
-20 others in black-and-white, 10¼ × 8¾ inches, 42s.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r c018'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>[<em>Ready in October.</em></div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE ART OF CONRAD MARTENS. Edited by Lionel Lindsay, assisted by
-G. V. F. Mann, Director of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales. With
-reproductions of 60 of Martens’ pictures, mostly in colour, 10¼ × 8¾ inches, 42s.</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-r c018'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>[<em>In preparation.</em></div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE ART OF J. J. HILDER. Edited by Sydney Ure Smith, with a Life of Hilder by
-Bertram Stevens, and contributions by Julian Ashton and Harry Julius. With reproductions
-of 36 of Hilder’s pictures in colour and 20 in black-and-white, 10¼ × 8¾ inches, 42s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>SELECTED POEMS OF HENRY LAWSON. Selected and carefully revised by
-Mr. Lawson, and containing several new poems, wholly printed from new type, with
-portrait in colour, and 9 full-page illustrations by Percy Leason. 9½ × 7¼ inches, 12s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE IN AUSTRALIA. Special Number of Art in
-Australia. Edited by Sydney Ure Smith and Bertram Stevens, in collaboration with
-W. Hardy Wilson. With 5 articles by leading Australian Architects and 47 full-page
-illustrations, 11¼ × 9 inches, 21s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>ART IN AUSTRALIA, No. VI. With reproductions of War Pictures by Sir Wm.
-Orpen, R.A., Fred Leist, H. Power, C. Bryant, Will Dyson and Bombardier Waller;
-colour plates by Mr. and Mrs. Spencer Macky, Frances Hodgkins (N.Z.), Cumbrae Stewart,
-Hilda Rix-Nicholas, Percy Leason, Hans Heysen, Howard Ashton and W. B. McInnes,
-and of two etchings by Norman Lindsay. The Articles include one by P. G. Konody on
-Sir Wm. Orpen, R.A., and one by Charles Marriott on Will Dyson’s War Pictures,
-10 × 7½ inches, 7s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>ART IN AUSTRALIA, No. V. With 13 coloured and 10 other plates, by Rupert Bunny,
-Bernard Hall, M. J. McNally, Eliot Gruner, Hayley Lever, H. Van Raalte, W. Hardy
-Wilson, Thea Proctor, Will Ashton and others, also a number of interesting articles. 10 × 7½
-inches, 7s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE MAGIC PUDDING. A story in Prose and Verse, by Norman Lindsay. Illustrated by
-him in 100 pictures, mostly full-page, 11½ × 9 inches, 21s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE POETICAL WORKS OF HENRY KENDALL. Enlarged edition, with
-biographical note by Bertram Stevens, and portrait, 6s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE LILT OF LIFE: New Poems. By Zora Cross, author of “Songs of Love and Life.” 5s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>SONGS OF LOVE AND LIFE. By Zora Cross. Fourth edition, with portrait, 5s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>AN IRISH HEART: Poems. By David McKee Wright. With portrait, 5s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE PASSIONATE HEART: Poems. By Mary Gilmore, author of “Marri’d,” etc. With
-portrait, 5s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'><span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>SONGS OF A CAMPAIGN. By Leon Gellert. New edition, with 25 additional poems and
-16 pictures by Norman Lindsay, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE AUSTRALIAN, AND OTHER VERSES. By Will H. Ogilvie. With frontispiece,
-title-page and jacket in colour, by Hal Gye, 4s. 6d. Pocket edition, complete, 4s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE CHANT OF DOOM, AND OTHER VERSES. By C. J. Brennan. With
-portrait, 3s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>DIGGER SMITH. A New Volume of Poems. By C. J. Dennis. With frontispiece, title-page
-and jacket in colour, and 13 full-page illustrations, by Hal Gye, 4s. 6d. Pocket edition,
-complete, 4s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>BACKBLOCK BALLADS AND LATER VERSES. By C. J. Dennis. New Edition,
-revised, with 16 new pieces, wholly printed from new type, with frontispiece, title-page and
-jacket in colour, by Hal Gye, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE SONGS OF A SENTIMENTAL BLOKE. By C. J. Dennis. With frontispiece,
-title-page and jacket in colour, and other illustrations by Hal Gye, 4s. 6d. Pocket edition,
-complete, 4s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>DOREEN: A Sequel to The Sentimental Bloke. With coloured and other illustrations by Hal
-Gye. In envelope ready for posting, 1s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE MOODS OF GINGER MICK. By C. J. Dennis. With frontispiece, title-page and
-jacket in colour, and other illustrations by Hal Gye, 4s. 6d. Pocket edition, complete, 4s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE GLUGS OF GOSH. By C. J. Dennis. With frontispiece, title-page and jacket in
-colour, and other illustrations by Hal Gye, 4s. 6d. Pocket edition, complete, 4s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>SALTBUSH BILL, J.P., AND OTHER VERSES. By A. B. Paterson. With coloured
-frontispiece, title-page and jacket by Lionel Lindsay, 4s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER, AND OTHER VERSES. By A. B. Paterson.
-New edition, with coloured frontispiece, title-page and jacket by Norman Lindsay, 4s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>RIO GRANDE, AND OTHER VERSES. By A. B. Paterson. New edition, with
-coloured frontispiece, title-page and jacket by Hal Gye, 4s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>WHERE THE DEAD MEN LIE, AND OTHER POEMS. By Barcroft Boake, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>AT DAWN AND DUSK: Poems. By Victor J. Daley, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>WINE AND ROSES: Poems. By Victor J. Daley, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE SECRET KEY, AND OTHER POEMS. By G. Essex Evans, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>HOW HE DIED, AND OTHER POEMS. By John Farrell, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>WHEN THE WORLD WAS WIDE, AND OTHER VERSES. By Henry Lawson
-4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>VERSES, POPULAR AND HUMOROUS. By Henry Lawson, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'><span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>WHEN I WAS KING AND OTHER VERSES. By Henry Lawson, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE THREE KINGS, AND OTHER VERSES. By Will Lawson, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>FAIR GIRLS AND GRAY HORSES: Poems. By Will H. Ogilvie, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>HEARTS OF GOLD: Poems. By Will H. Ogilvie, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>POETICAL WORKS OF BRUNTON STEPHENS, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF AUSTRALIAN VERSE, edited by Bertram Stevens,
-4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>CHILDREN OF THE BUSH: Stories. By Henry Lawson, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>JOE WILSON AND HIS MATES: Stories. By Henry Lawson, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>ON THE TRACK AND OVER THE SLIPRAILS. By Henry Lawson, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>WHILE THE BILLY BOILS: Stories. By Henry Lawson, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THREE ELEPHANT POWER, AND OTHER STORIES. By A. B. Paterson,
-author of “The Man from Snowy River,” etc., 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>TALES OF SNUGGLEPOT AND CUDDLEPIE, AND THEIR ADVENTURES
-WONDERFUL. By May Gibbs, author of “Wattle Babies,” “Gum-Blossom Babies,”
-“Gum-Nut Babies,” etc. With 23 coloured and other plates and many pen drawings in the
-text. 10 × 7½ inches, 5s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>BUSHLAND STORIES. By Amy Eleanor Mack, author of “A Bush Calendar.” With
-coloured illustrations, 3s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>SCRIBBLING SUE, AND OTHER STORIES. By Amy Eleanor Mack. With coloured
-and other illustrations, 3s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>GEM OF THE FLAT. A Story of Young Australians. By Constance Mackness. With
-coloured and other illustrations, 3s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>DOT AND THE KANGAROO. By Ethel C. Pedley. Illustrated by F. P. Mahony. 3s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>CHRISTOPHER COCKLE’S AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCES. By J. R. Houlding
-(“Old Boomerang”). 465 pages, 3s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>A BOOK OF AUSTRALIAN VERSE FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. Edited by
-Bertram Stevens. With 14 portraits, 3s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>BORONIA BABIES. By May Gibbs, author of “Snugglepot and Cuddlepie,” etc. With
-2 coloured and 12 other pictures. 8¾ × 5¾ inches, in envelope ready for posting. 1s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>WATTLE BABIES. By May Gibbs. With 2 coloured and 12 other pictures, 8¾ × 5¾
-inches, in envelope ready for posting, 1s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>GUM-BLOSSOM BABIES. By May Gibbs. With 2 coloured and 12 other pictures,
-8¾ × 5¾ inches, in envelope ready for posting, 1s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'><span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>GUM-NUT BABIES. By May Gibbs. With 2 coloured and 12 other pictures, 8¾ × 5¾
-inches, in envelope ready for posting, 1s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE CHARM OF SYDNEY. 22 coloured and other illustrations by Sydney Ure Smith,
-with appropriate quotations selected by Bertram Stevens. 7½ × 5½ inches, 1s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE CITY OF RIDDLE-ME-REE: A Fairy Story in Verse. By Zora Cross, author
-of “Songs of Love and Life.” With coloured and other illustrations by Olive Crane, 7½ ×
-5½ inches. 1s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>BACKBONE: A BOUNCER FOR THE BLUES. Hints for the prevention of Jelly-Spine
-Curvature and Mental Squint—A Straight-up Antidote for the Blues and a Straight-Ahead
-Sure Cure for Grouch. New edition, to which is added “A Message to Garcia.”
-1s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE MUD LARKS. By Crosbie Garstin, Lieutenant, 1st King Edward’s Horse. 1s. 3d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE MUD LARKS AGAIN. A New Volume of Humorous Stories by Crosbie Garstin,
-1s. 3d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>EXPLORATIONS IN CIVILIZATION. By Randolph Bedford, coloured cover, 1s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>BOXALL (G. E.), HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN BUSHRANGERS
-390 pages, 4s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>CAMPBELL (Joseph), SIMPLE TESTS FOR MINERALS; or, Every Man his
-own Analyst. Fourth edition, pocket size, cloth, round corners, 3s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE FARM GARDEN. By A. E. Cole (“Bouquet”). A Practical Handbook of
-Australian Gardening, with about 100 illustrations. Cloth, 3s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE STATE AND FEDERAL CONSTITUTIONS OF AUSTRALIA: With
-a tabulated comparison of the Federal Constitutions of the World. By K. R. Cramp, M.A.
-Second edition, revised. With portraits and illustrations, 3s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>HISTORY OF AUSTRALASIA: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. By
-Arthur W. Jose, with 11 maps and 78 illustrations, 5s. School edition, complete, 3s. 6d.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>LIFE OF CAPTAIN MATTHEW FLINDERS, R.N. By Professor Ernest Scott.
-Over 500 pages, with 40 folding maps, full-page plates, and manuscripts in facsimile, 21s.</p>
-
-<p class='c019'>THE BUTTERFLIES OF AUSTRALIA. By G. A. Waterhouse, B.Sc., F.E.S., and
-G. Lyell, F.E.S. With four coloured and 39 other full-page plates, and numerous figures in
-the text. 11 × 9 inches, 42s.</p>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-  <div class='nf-center'>
-    <div>ANGUS &amp; ROBERTSON LTD., Publishers, Sydney,</div>
-    <div>London Agents: The Oxford University Press.</div>
-    <div>And at all Booksellers.</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c004' />
-</div>
-<div class='tnotes'>
-
-<div class='section ph2'>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c0'>
-<div class='nf-center c001'>
-    <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
- <ol class='ol_1 c003'>
-    <li>P. <a href='#t29'>29</a>, <a href='#t41'>41</a>, <a href='#t54'>54</a>, <a href='#t81'>81</a> &amp; <a href='#t89'>89</a>, added reference text in 
-    brackets to captions.
-
-    </li>
-    <li>Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
-
-    </li>
-    <li>Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.
-    </li>
-  </ol>
-
-</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUSTRALIA IN PALESTINE ***</div>
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