RETURN OF THE ANZACS.
About this time the battalion was inspected by the G.O.C. Lines of
Communication, and the following is what he wrote of the impression we
made on him:
HEADQUARTERS,
PALESTINE LINES OF COMMUNICATION,
8TH JANUARY, 1919.
I was very glad to inspect your battalion and I was much struck
with the soldierly appearance presented by the men.
(Signed) E. W. BROADBENT,
General Officer Commanding P.L. of C.
Isolated as we were on the edge of the desert we found life at Rafa
somewhat dull and dreary. Sandstorms were the bane of one's life there;
a "Khamsin" or hot wind would blow for days at a time, enveloping the
place in a cloud of fine sand and making life one long misery while it
lasted. One's eyes, nose, and throat got choked up, while every morsel
of food was full of grit. "Khamsin" is Arabic for fifty; the hot wind is
supposed to blow for that number of days but, thank Heaven, it rarely
lasted more than a week on end at Rafa.
There were no other troops in the place to vary the deadly monotony.
True, there were some Engineers of the Railway Operating Division, but
we found them somewhat selfish, for although they had an excellent
Concert Hall they refused our Concert Party permission to use it. Even
at Rafa the few underlings on the Staff took their cue from above and
did what they could to make our life as uncomfortable as possible, until
they came to know us better.
It can be imagined, therefore, with what joyful feelings we saw our old
friends of the Anzac Division march into Rafa and make it their
headquarters.
Since we had parted from the Anzacs in Gilead we had seen nothing of
them, but we knew that they had been camped in the green fields and
pleasant pastures surrounding the Jewish Colony of Richon-le-Zion. The
slings and arrows of misfortunes removed them from these sylvan
surroundings, but whatever ill wind blew them to Rafa it was a godsend
for us.
In these piping days of Peace, now that we were among our old friends
once more, there was horse-racing, hunting, tournaments and boxing
galore, while an enterprising kinema man came and photographed camp
scenes and groups of officers and men.
In the sand dunes around Rafa many ancient coins were to be found, and
General Chaytor himself could always be relied on to head a hunt for
these and other relics of antiquity. We never failed to find some
objects of interest--bits of glazed pottery, glass, beads, pins,
bangles, rings, etc. Every time there was a storm the top sand would get
blown away and we could always go and make fresh finds in the ground we
had already explored, and great was the competition as to who should
discover the best specimens.
[Illustration: GROUP OF OFFICERS AT RAFA]
The General had the eye of a lynx for such things, and it was rarely
indeed that anyone else had a look in while he was to the fore. He
discovered some very beautiful old mosaics buried at Shellal, and these
he had carefully sketched and artistically coloured, exactly as they
were in the original. I was very pleased when he kindly presented me
with a copy.
The rolling downs round about us were dotted here and there with the
graves of fallen Australian and New Zealand soldiers, and, riding as I
often did with General Chaytor, he would explain the operations which
took place when the British first entered Palestine at this point. He
gave me many vivid descriptions of the part which his Brigade had taken
in the overthrow of the Turks at the Battle of Rafa.
The General had a very narrow escape on that occasion. In the middle of
the battle, when he was galloping from one position to another, attended
only by his orderly, he came suddenly upon a concealed trench full of
Turks. Fortunately they thought he was at the head of a Squadron, so
threw up their hands and surrendered. The General left his orderly to
march off the prisoners and galloped on to conduct the fight elsewhere.
We motored over to Gaza once and spent a most interesting day there.
From Ali Muntar, a hill to the east of the town, which had been the
General's headquarters in the first battle of Gaza, he described the
whole situation. From this point almost every bit of Gaza and the
surrounding country could easily be seen.
It will be remembered that at the first battle we claimed a victory
which history has not since been able to verify, for we retired in hot
haste on Rafa; but it is said that, if there had only been a little more
push and go in the high command that day, Gaza would have been ours.
As a matter of fact it was ours at one time, for part of General
Chaytor's brigade was right in the town, where they captured some
hundreds of prisoners and a couple of guns which they turned on the
Turks in Gaza with considerable effect, sighting their strange new
pieces at point blank range by peeping through the bore of the guns.
The Turks were everywhere beginning to throw up the sponge, when, alas,
the British Force was suddenly ordered to retire because a Turkish
relieving column was seen approaching in the distance; but if only the
British Division, which all this time had been held in reserve, had been
thrust forward to intercept this column, tired, thirsty, and done up as
it was, we could, no doubt, have shattered it and won a complete
victory.
General Chaytor was ordered to retire somewhat early in the afternoon,
but, as he had a squadron right in the town, and many wounded men in
advanced positions, he waited until nightfall before withdrawing, taking
with him all his wounded, and also the Turkish prisoners and captured
guns. No matter who had the "wind up" that day, it certainly was not
General Chaytor or his Brigade.
The second battle of Gaza was, of course, a terrible fiasco, in which we
were repulsed and lost thousands of men to no purpose.
On another occasion I motored, with Colonel Croll, R.A.M.C., of the
Anzacs, to Beersheba. It was at this point that General Allenby made a
successful thrust when he first took command in Palestine, and from that
day to this he has never looked back. The Anzacs and the Australian
Mounted Division in this attack made a wide turning movement, outflanked
Beersheba, burst suddenly in upon Tel el Saba, some three miles to the
east of it, galloped the Turkish trenches, and poured into Beersheba at
one end in a whirlwind of dust and storm while the Turks skedaddled out
of it as fast as ever they could run from the other end, and made for
the shelter of the foothills towards Hebron.
The New Zealanders say that they were responsible for the capture of Tel
el Saba, for it was they who outflanked it; while the Australians
assured me that it was they who had stormed it at a mad gallop. At all
events it was a decisive victory for the Australians and New Zealanders
(for both took part in it), and as fine a piece of mounted work as had
been done so far during the war. Dash, energy, and initiative were shown
in a very high degree by all ranks engaged.
In the little cemetery at Beersheba I visited the grave of Major
Markwell, one of the bravest officers who fell that day.
We also paid a visit to the site of Old Beersheba, and were greatly
interested in peering down into the well dug at this celebrated place by
the Patriarch Abraham.
From Beersheba we motored to Gaza along the former Turkish front; every
inch of the way had been fortified and turned into a maze of trenches,
with formidable redoubts here and there throughout the line.
Once Beersheba was captured, the heart was taken out of the Turkish
resistance, though they put up some stiff fighting before they were
dislodged, especially at Atawineh, a strong redoubt near the centre of
the position.
After the capture of Beersheba, Lieutenant-Colonel S. F. Newcombe,
D.S.O., R.E., dashed northwards with part of the Camel Corps, to cut off
the Turks retreating on the Beersheba-Hebron Road. He reached a point
within a few miles of the latter place, but was surrounded by six
battalions of the enemy. He held out gallantly for three days; but at
last, when he had exhausted all his ammunition and suffered heavy
casualties, he was obliged to surrender.
Fate holds in its lap many surprises. If Colonel Newcombe had not been
captured that day he would undoubtedly, with ordinary luck, have won
distinction and rank, but there was another and better prize awaiting
him at Constantinople, for, while he was a prisoner and convalescing in
that city, he met a charming young lady who, at great personal risk,
helped him to escape from the clutches of the Turk, and afterwards
became his wife.