RAILWAYS, ROADS, AND THE BASE
To ease the supply problem a spur line was laid from Rafa to Shellal,
on the wadi Ghuzze. In that way supplies, stores, and ammunition were
taken up to our right flank. Shellal was a position of great strategic
importance. At one time it appeared as if we should have to fight hard
to gain it. The Turks had cut an elaborate series of trenches on
Wali Sheikh Nuran, a hill covering Shellal, but they evacuated
this position before we made the first attack on Gaza, and left an
invaluable water supply in our hands.
At Shellal the stony bed of the wadi Ghuzze rests between high mud
banks which have been cut into fantastic shapes by the rushing waters
descending from the southern extremities of the Judean range of hills
during the winter rains. In the summer months, when the remainder
of the wadi bed is dry, there are bubbling springs of good water at
Shellal, and these have probably been continuously flowing for many
centuries, for close above the spot where the water issues Anzac
cavalry discovered a beautiful remnant of the mosaic flooring of an
ancient Christian church, which, raised on a hundred-feet mound, was
doubtless the centre of a colony of Christians, hundreds of years
before Crusaders were attracted to the Holy Land. Our engineers
harnessed that precious flow. A dam was put across the wadi bed and at
least a million gallons of crystal water were held up by it,
whilst the overflow went into shallow pools fringed with grass (a
delightfully refreshing sight in that arid country) from which horses
were watered. Pumping sets were installed at the reservoir and pipes
were laid towards Karm, and from these the Camel Transport Corps were
to fill fanatis--eight to twelve gallon tanks--for carriage of water
to troops on the move.
The railway staff, the department which arranged the making up and
running of trains, as well as the construction staff, had heavy
responsibilities. It was recognised early in 1917 that if we were to
crush the Turk out of the war, provision would have to be made for a
larger army than a single line from the Suez Canal could feed. It
was decided to double the track. The difficulties of the Director of
Railway Transport were enormous. There was great shortage of railway
material all over the world. Some very valuable cargoes were lost
through enemy action at sea, and we had to call for more from
different centres, and England deprived herself of rolling stock she
badly needed, to enable her flag of freedom to be carried (though it
was not to be hoisted) through the Holy Land. And incidentally I may
remark that, with the solitary exception of a dirty little piece of
Red Ensign I saw flying in the native quarter in Jerusalem, the only
British flag the people saw in Palestine and Syria was a miniature
Union Jack carried on the Commander-in-Chief's motor car and by his
standard-bearer when riding. Thus did the British Army play the game,
for some of the Allied susceptibilities might have been wounded if the
people had been told (though indeed they knew it) that they were under
the protection of the British flag. They had the most convincing
evidence, however, that they were under the staunch protection of the
British Army. The doubling of the railway track went on apace. To save
pressure at the Alexandria docks and on the Egyptian State railway,
which, giving some of its rolling stock and, I think, the whole of
its reserve of material for the use of the military line east of the
Canal, was worked to its utmost capacity, and also to economise
money by saving railway freights, wharves were built on the Canal at
Kantara, and as many as six ocean-going steamers could be unloaded
there at one time. By and by a railway bridge was thrown over the
Canal, and when the war was over through trains could be run from
Cairo to Jerusalem and Haifa. Kantara grew into a wonderful town with
several miles of Canal frontage, huge railway sidings and workshops,
enormous stores of rations for man and horse, medical supplies,
ordnance and ammunition dumps, etc. Probably the enemy knew all about
this vast base. Any one on any ship passing through the Canal could
see the place, and it is surprising, and it certainly points to a lack
of enterprise on the part of the Germans, that no attempt was made to
bomb Kantara by the super-Zeppelin which in November 1917 left its
Balkan base and got as far south as the region of Khartoum on its way
to East Africa, before being recalled by wireless. This same Zeppelin
was seen about forty miles from Port Said and a visit by it was
anticipated. Aeroplanes with experienced pilots and armed with the
latest anti-Zeppelin devices were stationed at Port Said and Aboukir
ready to ascend on any moonlight night when the hum of aerial motor
machinery could be heard. The super-Zeppelin never came and Kantara's
progress was unchecked.
The doubled railway track was laid as far as El Arish by the time
operations commenced, and this was a great aid to the railway staff.
Every engine and truck was used to its fullest capacity, and an
enormous amount of time was saved by the abolition of passing stations
for some ninety miles of the line's length. Railhead was at Deir el
Belah, about eight miles short of Gaza, and here troops and an army
of Egyptian labourers were working night and day, week in week out,
off-loading trucks with a speed that enabled the maximum amount of
service to be got out of rolling stock. There were large depôts down
the line too. At Rafa there was a big store of ammunition, and at
Shellal large quantities not only of supplies but of railway material
were piled up in readiness for pushing out railhead immediately the
advance began. A Decauville, or light, line ran out towards Gamli from
Shellal to make the supply system easier, and I remember seeing
some Indian pioneers lay about three miles of light railway with
astonishing rapidity the day after we took Beersheba. Every mile the
line advanced meant time saved in getting up supplies, and the radius
of action of lorries, horse, and camel transport was considerably
increased.
To supply the Gaza front we called in aid a small system of light
railways. From the railhead at Deir el Belah to the mouth of the wadi
Ghuzze, and from that point along the line of the wadi to various
places behind the line held by us, we had a total length of 21
kilometres of light railway. Before this railway got into full
operation horses had begun to lose condition, and during the summer
ammunition-column officers became very anxious about their horses. The
light railway was almost everywhere within range of the enemy's guns,
and in some places it was unavoidably exposed, particularly where it
ran on the banks of the wadi due south of Gaza. I recollect while the
track was being laid speaking to an Australian in charge of a gang of
natives preparing an earthwork, and asked why it was that a trench was
dug before earth was piled up. He pointed to the hill of Ali Muntar,
the most prominent feature in the enemy's system, and said that from
the Turks' observation post on that eminence every movement of the
labourers could be seen, and the men were often forced by gunfire to
the refuge of the trenches.
When the railway was in running order trains had to run the gauntlet
of shell-fire on this section on bright moonlight nights, and no
camouflage could hide them. But they worked through in a marvellously
orderly and efficient fashion, and on one day when our guns were
hungry this little line carried 850 tons of ammunition to the
batteries. The horses became fit and strong and were ready for the war
to be carried into open country. In christening their tiny puffing
locomotives the Tommy drivers showed their strong appreciation of
their comrades on the sea, and the 'Iron Duke' and 'Lion' were always
tuned up to haul a maximum load. But the pride of the engine yard was
the 'Jerusalem Cuckoo'--some prophetic eye must have seen its future
employment on the light line between Jerusalem and Ramallah--though in
popularity it was run close by the 'Bulfin-ch,' a play upon the
name of the Commander of the XXIst Corps, for which it did sterling
service.
The Navy formed part of the picture as well. Some small steamers of
1000 to 1500 tons burden came up from Port Said to a little cove north
of Belah to lighten the railway's task. They anchored about 150 yards
off shore and a crowd of boats passed backwards and forwards with
stores. These were carried up the beach to trucks on a line connected
with the supply depôts, and if you wished to see a busy scene where
slackers had no place the Belah beach gave it you. The Army tried all
sorts of boatmen and labourers. There were Kroo boys who found the
Mediterranean waters a comparative calm after the turbulent surf on
their own West African shore. The Maltese were not a success. The
Egyptians were, both here and almost everywhere else where their
services were called for. The best of all the fellows on this beach,
however, were the Raratongas from the Cook Islands, the islands from
which the Maoris originally came. They were first employed at El
Arish, where they made it a point of honour to get a job done well and
quickly, and, on a given day, it was found that thirty of them had
done as much labourers' work as 170 British soldiers. They were men of
fine physical strength and endurance, and some one who knew they had
the instincts of sportsmen, devised a simple plan to get the best out
of them. He presented a small flag to be won each day by the crew
accomplishing the best work with the boats. The result was amazing.
Every minute the boats were afloat the Raratongas strained their
muscles to win the day's competition, and when the day's task was
ended the victorious crew marched with their flag to their camp,
singing a weird song and as proud as champions. Some Raratongas worked
at ammunition dumps, and it was the boast of most of them that they
could carry four 60-pounder shells at a time. A few of these stalwart
men from Southern Seas received a promotion which made them the
most envied men of their race--they became loading numbers in heavy
howitzer batteries, fighting side by side with the Motherland gunners.
However well the Navy and all associated with it worked, only a very
small proportion of the Army's supplies was water borne. The great
bulk had to be carried by rail. Enormously long trains, most of them
hauled by London and South-Western locomotives, bore munitions, food
for men and animals, water, equipment, medical comforts, guns, wagons,
caterpillar tractors, motor cars, and other paraphernalia required for
the largest army which had ever operated about the town of Gaza in the
thousands of years of its history. The main line had thrown out from
it great tentacles embracing in their iron clasp vital centres for the
supply of our front, and over these spur lines the trains ran with
the regularity of British main-line expresses. Besides 96,000 actual
fighting men, there was a vast army of men behind the line, and there
were over 100,000 animals to be fed. There were 46,000 horses, 40,000
camels, 15,000 mules, and 3500 donkeys on Army work east of the
Canal, and not a man or beast went short of rations. We used to
think Kitchener's advance on Khartoum the perfection of military
organisation. Beside the Palestine expedition that Soudan campaign
fades into insignificance. In fighting men and labour corps, in
animals and the machinery of war, this Army was vastly larger and more
important, and the method by which it was brought to Palestine and was
supplied, and the low sick rate, constitute a tribute to the master
minds of the organisers. The Army had fresh meat, bread, and
vegetables in a country which under the lash of war yielded nothing,
but which under our rule in peace will furnish three times the produce
of the best of past years of plenty.
A not inconsiderable portion of the front line was supplied with Nile
water taken from a canal nearly two hundred miles away. But the Army
once at the front depended less upon the waters of that Father of
Rivers than it had to do in the long trek across the desert. Then all
drinking water came from the Nile. It flowed down the sweet-water
canal (if one may be pardoned for calling 'sweet' a volume of water
so charged with vegetable matter and bacteria that it was harmful for
white men even to wash in it), was filtered and siphoned under the
Suez Canal at Kantara, where it was chlorinated, and passed through
a big pipe line and pumped through in stages into Palestine. The
engineers set about improving all local resources over a wide stretch
of country which used to be regarded as waterless in summer. Many
water levels were tapped, and there was a fair yield. The engineers'
greatest task in moving with the Army during the advance was always
the provision of a water supply, and in developing it they conferred
on the natives a boon which should make them be remembered with
gratitude for many generations.
In the months preceding our attack Royal Engineers were also concerned
in improving the means of communication between railway depôts and the
front line. Before our arrival in this part of Southern Palestine,
wheeled traffic was almost unknown among the natives. There was not
one metalled roadway, and only comparatively light loads could be
transported in wheeled vehicles. The soil between Khan Yunus and Deir
el Belah, especially on the west of our railway line, was very sandy,
and after the winter rains had knitted it together it began to crumble
under the sun's heat, and it soon cut up badly when two or three
limbers had passed over it. The sandy earth was also a great nuisance
in the region between Khan Yunus and Shellal, but between Deir el
Belah and our Gaza front, excepting on the belt near the sea which was
composed of hillocks of sand precisely similar to the Sinai Desert,
the earth was firmer and yielded less to the grinding action of
wheels. For ordinary heavy military traffic the engineers made good
going by taking off about one foot of the top soil and banking it
on either side of the road. These tracks lasted very well, but they
required constant attention. Ambulances and light motor cars had
special arrangements made for them. Hundreds of miles of wire netting
were laid on sand in all directions, and these wire roads, which,
stretching across bright golden sand, appeared like black bands to
observers in aircraft, at first aroused much curiosity among enemy
airmen, and it was not until they had made out an ambulance convoy on
the move that they realised the purpose of the tracks.
The rabbit wire roads were a remarkable success. Motor wheels held
firmly to the surface, and when the roads were in good condition cars
could travel at high speed. Three or four widths of wire netting were
laced together, laid on the sand and pegged down. After a time loose
pockets of sand could not resist the weight of wheels and there became
many holes beneath the wire, and the jolting was a sore trial alike to
springs and to a passenger's temper. But here again constant attention
kept the roads in order, and if one could not describe travelling over
them as easy and comfortable they were at least sure, and one could
be certain of getting to a destination at an average speed of twelve
miles an hour. In sand the Ford cars have performed wonderful feats,
but remarkable as was the record of that cheap American car with
us--it helped us very considerably to win the war--you could never
tell within hours how long a journey would take off the wire roads.
Once leave the netting and you might with good luck and a skilful
driver get across the sand without much trouble, but it often meant
much bottom-gear work and a hot engine, and not infrequently the
digging out of wheels. The drivers used to try to keep to the tracks
made by other cars. These were never straight, and the swing from side
to side reminded you of your first ride on a camel's back. The wire
roads were a great help to us, and the officer who first thought out
the idea received our daily blessings. I do not know who he was, but I
was told the wire road scheme was the outcome of a device suggested
by a medical officer at Romani in 1916, when infantry could not march
much more than six miles a day through the sand. This officer made a
sort of wire moccasin which he attached to the boot and doubled the
marching powers of the soldier. A sample of those moccasins should
find a place in our War Museum.