TRENCH WARFARE
It was in the late summer of 1917 that the regiment with which I was
serving joined the Expeditionary Force. Coming from India, we landed at
Suez and were railed through at once to Kantara. This place we found a
hive of industry, as befitted the military base of so important an
expedition. Like other units similarly arriving from India, we were kept
here for a fortnight. This time was devoted to the equipping of the
battalion on the scale applicable to this country, with transport,
draught and riding animals, Lewis guns and such other equipment as we
required for the operations on which we were to embark.
Immediately we were ready to move, we were railed up to the Front, to
Belah, which, at that time, was railhead. This was our first experience
of travelling on the Kantara Military Railway, and is not likely to be
forgotten. The shortage of rolling stock available did not permit of
troops, or, at that time, even of officers accompanying troops,
travelling in passenger coaches. On the contrary, a number of open
trucks were adapted for troop traffic, being roofed over with a covering
affording protection from the sun but with sides left open. These trucks
had neither continuous brakes nor screw couplings. Our journey,
therefore, was enlivened by the frequent successful attempts of our
truck to overtake the truck ahead, followed by a difference of opinion
with the truck behind, a wavering between two opinions, and then another
mad plunge into the darkness in pursuit of the truck ahead, and the
next check brought about a repetition of this pleasing diversion from
sleep. If the writer of a recent popular song really believed that the
Sands of the Desert never grow cold, let him try travelling across them
by night in an open truck. The train was not furnished with that luxury
of modern travel, steam heating. For the men, a substitute was found by
adopting the method by which sheep are kept cosy on similar occasions,
that is, by packing into each truck a few more than it can accommodate.
The officers rolled themselves up in their valises, bruised every
protruding bone in their bodies, "and wished for the day."
On arrival at the Front, we moved first into a position in reserve near
the Wadi Ghuzzeh. As we crossed the summit of In Seirat Ridge, what a
view unfolded itself before our eyes! Before us lay the Plain of
Philistia, spreading from the sea to the Judæan Hills, to our left front
lay the white buildings of the town of Gaza, while, ever and anon, were
heard and seen the booming of cannon and the bursting of shell.
We were now put through a gradual process of acclimatization. Ensconced
in one of the offshoots of the Wadi Ghuzzeh well behind the front line,
we enjoyed safety from shelling. We were, however, sufficiently in the
picture to have guns constantly firing around us and aeroplanes flying
overhead, and could watch our friends being shelled in the front line
and the daily anti-aeroplane shoots, both by our own and by the enemy's
"Archies." Here we were able to carry out a certain amount of training,
and to organize the battalion upon the lines of the new "normal
formation," giving the platoon commander control over each kind of
weapon with which the infantry are armed--rifle, bayonet, bomb,
rifle-bomb and Lewis gun. Gas masks were issued, and all ranks were
instructed in their use. In a couple of weeks this training, or rather
adaptation of our previous training to the conditions of trench warfare
upon this front, had so far progressed that we could enter upon the next
stage of our acclimatization. Individual companies were now sent up
into the front line "for instruction." This consisted of their being
attached to other units that were garrisoning the front line. Our men
were posted in the trenches with men of such other units; and some of
the officers and men accompanied patrols into "No Man's Land." After
three weeks of acclimatization, we moved up to the front line and
ourselves took over a section of the defences. And here we remained
until after the Fall of Gaza.
The Turkish army at this time, as we have seen, held a strong position
from the sea at Gaza, roughly along the main Gaza-Beersheba road to
Beersheba. His force was on a wide front, the distance from Gaza to
Beersheba being about 30 miles. Gaza itself had been made into a strong
modern fortress, heavily entrenched and wired, offering every facility
for protracted defence. The civilian population had been evacuated. The
remainder of the enemy's line consisted originally of a series of strong
localities, which were known as the Sihan group of works, the Atawinah
group, the Baha group, the Abu Hareira-Arab el Teeaha trench system, and
finally, the works covering Beersheba. During the period from July to
October, the defences had been considerably strengthened, and these
strong localities had, by the end of October, been joined up to form a
practically continuous line from the sea to a point south of Sheria,
except for a gap of some 1,500 to 2,000 yards between Ali Muntar and the
Sihan group. The defensive works round Beersheba remained a detached
system, but had been improved and extended. A new railway had been made
from El Tine, just south of Junction Station on the Damascus-Beersheba
railway to Beit Hanun, just north of Gaza, with a subsidiary branch to
Huj, the latter intended to supply the centre of the defensive line. It
was evident, therefore, that the enemy was determined to make every
effort to maintain his position on the Gaza-Beersheba line.
The British force was extended on a front of 22 miles from the sea
opposite Gaza to Gamli. About 6 miles inland, the Wadi Ghuzzeh is joined
by a short tributary wadi, on the right bank, known as the Wadi
Nukhabir. The point at which this wadi commenced was about a mile or so
nearer to the enemy than the line of our positions opposite Gaza. Its
head-waters (to use an expression scarcely appropriate to a dry
watercourse) were within the apex of a =V=-shaped escarpment, the point of
the =V= protruding towards the enemy. The feature might be compared to a
heel-mark in soft ground. On the convex side were slight ridges with
gentle forward slopes; on the concave were steep escarpments. The ridges
of the =V= were known as Mansura and Sheikh Abbas Ridges respectively; the
point was merely known as "The Apex." Our trench system here ran along
the forward slopes of these ridges, a hundred yards or so below the
crest, whence the country fell towards the enemy in a gentle glacis
slope devoid of cover. Our reserves and our day positions were behind
the escarpment, where was excellent cover from hostile shelling. The
portion of the enemy's works in front of this sector was the Sihan
group, a strongly prepared position distant about a mile. The apex
itself formed a salient, necessary to hold since its Ridges would
otherwise have dominated our positions; but, though a salient, the
position was undoubtedly strong. The situation and the conformation of
the Apex, therefore, both invited attack and assisted defence. From the
sea to the Apex we had a continuous line of trenches. Beyond Sheikh
Abbas our defences consisted of a series of redoubts, our right flank
being to some extent in the air. Here, however, was a waterless desert,
so difficult to cross that this flank could be sufficiently protected by
cavalry patrols.
Considering that there was a war on, campaigning life on this front was
by no means uncomfortable. Those who had seen service in France bemoaned
the lack of comforts and amusements behind the line, and the absence of
home leave, those who had come from Salonica were congratulating
themselves on the exchange; while those of us who had been in
Mesopotamia during the bad times of 1916, considered ourselves in the
lap of luxury. Rations were good and plentiful and canteen well stocked.
The Turkish rations, on the other hand, were scanty and poor, with the
result that morale was low, discomfort rife, and desertions frequent. On
one occasion, when the enemy were making a raid upon our trenches, a
couple of Turks got into an empty bag where one of our men had left his
pack. The manner in which they pursued their advantage was by helping
themselves to his tin of bully beef and getting away with all speed. A
Turkish officer, who was subsequently taken prisoner, said, "If the
Turkish rations had been as good as yours, you would never have captured
Gaza."
The health of our troops, on the whole, was good. In so far as there was
sickness it consisted of a certain amount of dysentery, almost
unavoidable in an army in the Field, septic sores, which are unusually
rife, and a slight epidemic of sandfly fever. Foremost among the
inconveniences to be tolerated were the flies, which made it difficult
for the men to sleep by day, the time when they most need rest after
manning the trenches all night. Next to the flies came the dust. The
country, in which for the time we were making our home, consisted of
arable ground devoid of crops, and thoroughly cut up by the passing of
transport. A breeze, that blew daily without fail, served to raise a
fine impalpable dust that permeated everything. This powder dust made
marching difficult, but wise forethought caused galvanized iron netting
to be laid along all the principal routes, forming "wire roads" for the
use of light motor-cars and "foot-sloggers." If we grumbled at the dust,
we had, at this time at least, no cause to complain, like our brethren
in Flanders, of the mud. Taken all together, the morale was good and the
men distinctly happy.
Life in these days was not without its diversions and touches of humour.
A nice Roman tessellated pavement was unearthed near the Wadi Ghuzzeh,
at the place called Umm Jerar, which is associated with Abraham. Going
one day to look for it, I found a military policeman on duty within half
a mile of the spot. I said to him, "Can you tell me the way to the
tessellated pavement?" He looked at me vacantly for a minute and then
replied: "Is it the wire road that you happen to mean, sir?" On one
occasion, the General was going round the front line accompanied by the
Intelligence Officer (who is the Officer that selects the pass-word
which is changed daily) and by the C.O. of the unit in this sector.
Staying out rather later than they had intended, it was dusk or dark
when they approached one of the posts. The sentry challenged,
"Halt--hands up." Up went the General's hands in prompt compliance.
"Advance one, and give the countersign," continued the sentry. The
General turned to the Intelligence Officer, "What is the countersign
to-day?" said he. "Really I am afraid I have forgotten," replied the
Intelligence Officer, and both referred to the Colonel. "When I left my
headquarters, it had not yet come through," was his reply. The sentry
remained obdurate. Then followed explanations, and, after some parley
and identifications, the party were allowed to proceed. As they were
leaving, the General hurried again to the sentry, saying, "Well, my man,
you might just tell us now what the pass-word is." "I am sorry, sir,"
was his reply, "but I haven't the least idea."
About this time the spy peril was rather rife. We had orders not to
leave our lines without revolvers, for protection against assassination
by spies. To one particular "hush-hush" spot rode up a General with his
Staff Officer, both faultlessly attired, accompanied by the usual
Orderly. The General asked to be shown round, and his request was
conceded with the thoroughness and courtesy due to his high rank. His
inspection completed, the General expressed his thanks, and the party
rode away, never to be heard of again,--at least not in that capacity.
Shortly afterwards, a notorious spy was seen working as a coolie in the
Egyptian Labour Corps. Perhaps he was the General.
The monotony of trench life was varied by occasional raids into the
enemy trenches. Some very successful raids were carried out on the
enemy's defences near the sea, especially at Beach Post, and other
successful raids were made from the Apex upon the advanced trenches of
the Sihan group of works. Mutual bombardments frequently enlivened the
proceedings, the supremacy in which undoubtedly lay with our artillery.
These never allowed a day to pass without doing some firing, and they
had sniping guns ever ready to fire on any movement that might be seen
in enemy territory. The enemy guns, largely manned by Austrians,
reserved their fire for concentrated bombardments; evidently they were
less able to replenish their supplies of ammunition.
The sector of the front line which fell to our lot to hold was a portion
of the Apex. Our front line companies manned a continuous system of
trenches, while the reserve company and headquarters occupied dug-outs
dug into, or constructed with sand bags upon, the steep slopes of the
escarpment. There were deep tunnel dug-outs, extending into the bowels
of the earth, in the support area, but these were never used. In the
front line there were no such dug-outs, except for such purposes as
signal office and platoon head-quarters. In case of intense shelling,
the front line garrison, except sentries, could obtain fair cover behind
the traverses in the narrow trenches which connected up the wider and
more exposed fire bays. It is a debatable question whether deep dug-outs
in or near the front line are advisable. When the enemy shells
intensively, if he means business, his barrage is closely followed by
his infantry. When the barrage lifts, therefore, it is of vital
importance to man the fire-step immediately. It is not easy to turn a
large number of men quickly out of deep dug-outs which may thus prove
only a Fool's Paradise. In one of the raids made near the sea, our
infantry, following closely up to the barrage, caught the enemy taking
refuge in dug-outs, and had no difficulty in capturing or accounting for
the whole garrison of the raided trench. At the Apex we were three times
bombarded and raided. On each occasion the garrison merely took refuge
behind the traverses. Although they endured it, the bombardment was much
more uncomfortable here than if the men had been in good dug-outs; yet
they were able to man the trenches so quickly that in no case could the
enemy effect a lodgment, and in only one case did he even reach the
trench.
When we took over the Apex, the days of sporadic raids by us were past,
and all thought was concentrated on preparations for the great day that
was then imminent. On the other hand, there was great patrolling
activity. Our officers' patrols went out nightly into No Man's Land, and
brought back information as to enemy works in progress and activity in
their trenches. These patrols had many exciting experiences, and, in the
dark, frequently encountered patrols sent out by the enemy. Much useful
information was brought in by these patrols to the battalions holding
this sector of the line, especially during the first few days after the
commencement of the great offensive which resulted in the capture of
Gaza and Beersheba.
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