is all rumours yet as to what has occurred at the oases away out on our left. The 5th Mounted Brigade (Yeomanry) the Warwicks, Worcesters, and Gloucesters, were stationed out there in the big Katia oasis area, their posts at the different oases at Romani, Katia, Oghratina and Hamisah, all a few miles apart. Five thousand Turks have attacked the scattered posts, simultaneously in the fog. The only thing certain is that of all the posts, the Scotty one at Bir-el-Dueidar is the only survivor. The others seem to be either annihilated, or their men scattered lost over the desert.
...The joy-spots of this old Bible desert are the oases. They seem to be about twenty-five to thirty miles apart, except when there are groups within a few miles of one another as in the huge Katia oasis area. Each little group of date-palms among the sandy hills shelters that most precious thing to man—water. It is in tiny wells which have been used since countless centuries before Moses.
12
April 25th—-Was on outpost duty last night—shivering. While still dark, an aeroplane buzzed overhead, flying east. It must have been arctic up there. ... We smiled last night. A dozen Bedouin women and children camped in their goatskin tents right against our regimental camp. Two of our men were ordered to take them into our camp lest they give our position away to their menfolk. But the women were more obstinate than mules—refused to come in. At last one of our fellows picked up a child and walked towards the camp. The mother cried pitifully and ran after him. The other soldier blocked her path with levelled bayonet, but she stood with her breast against the steel and tried to kiss his hands. Our fellows swore at the women and let them go.
...The Tommies really are fools. Some of the Arabs who were shot in the attack, were fraternizing with the camel-drivers the day before and cadging food from the Tommies. The prisoners say that some of the Arabs were living in the camp here days before the attack. One of our patrols found a dying Turkish officer miles out in the desert yesterday. He says that the force which attacked this post numbered seven hundred and fifty men.
No doubt the Tommies, or rather the Scotties, put up a desperate resistance. A few hours after the fight started a ‘plane swooped so low over the redoubt that the sand was whirled from below her propeller. The observer shouted “Hold on—the supports are coming!” then blazed into the Turks with the machine-gun. The Bedouins sprang up from the holes they had scooped in the sand and scattered wildly while the Scotties blazed at them. When the Turks saw C Squadron galloping close up with us, and the Scots infantry coming in the rear to their right and left flanks, they rushed back to their camels and fled. They had a 15lb field-gun that the ‘plane dropped a bomb on and put out of action. The Scotties swear by the ‘plane.
Evidently they were in desperate need at that moment. She had to fly so low in using her machine-gun that the Scotties in the redoubt could plainly hear the smack, smack, smack, of the Turkish bullets through her canvas wings. The ‘plane was badly damaged. The Turks drew their field-gun or guns by mules. Some of the mules shot were loaded with ammunition packed in splendidly-made iron boxes, eight shells to a box, each shell fitting into a groove. The shells were prettily made.
April 26th—We found ten more dead Turks out in the desert, dressed in their unusual yellow uniform with a red sash. ... There was a patrol of Worcestershire Yeomanry with the Scotties. ... Was on patrol again yesterday. We found a Yeomanry man lost in the desert with a lot of camel-drivers. He was one of the men who had got away from Katia: they were mad from thirst. We have found such a lot of them now, scattered all over the sands. And numbers of riderless horses have come into camp—they gallop for the water neighing like mad things. The men and horses we find now though, are dead. Now we know what really happened to the 6th Mounted Brigade. The men at Oghratina and Katia were destroyed. They were also pushed out of Romani and Hamisah. The brigade has lost six hundred men. After we relieved Dueidar and news of the disaster trickled in, the 6th and 7th Light Horse away back at Salhia on the Canal hurried to Romani by forced marches. They found that the Yeomanry at Oghratina and Katia had died hard. Numbers of men had been bayoneted in their blankets. But many others after the first surprise had burrowed holes in the sand and fought to the death. Beside each man was a little pile of empty cartridge-cases. The 6th and 7th Light Horse were pretty mad when they found some of the wounded Tommies had been slowly choked to death. The Bedouins had twisted wire around their throats. They got the wire, a thin wire that binds the bales of horse-fodder. They tore the clothes off the wounded, first sneering “Finish British! Turks Kantara! Turks Port Said! Turks Cairo!” When the 6th and 7th got there long after the fight, they found dead men and wounded, stragglers and horses scattered for miles over the sands. Away out at Oghratina, days afterward, they got some Yeomanry wounded, still alive.
The Yeomanry officers lived pretty well: they seem to have been the sons of wealthy families. Lord Elcho was one of the captured, so the survivors tell us. We haven’t seen a real lord yet.
...The horses are at last earning their feed. They stand the heavy patrol work splendidly. They are trained to the last sinew.
April 27th—Was on Listening Post last night—very cold. It is a nervy job, standing wrapped in a greatcoat, like a shrouded shadow that dare not move, staring out into the desert.
Our main outpost hill is three hundred and eighty-three, standing like a pyramid of sand three miles out from our Oasis camp.
...I am sitting on a warm sandhill free for four hours. Writing fills in time wonderfully. This sort of active service promises to be very interesting; so I’ll explain my theories even if only to myself. Twelve of us are up here on the peak of the world; four are down the hill in a sheltered spur with the horses. Stretching before us is a sea of sand peaks. At a surprising distance away over the hills we can plainly see the tracks of Australian horse patrols, or of Bedouin camelry. About six miles to our left are the 6th and 7th Light Horse by the Romani oasis. Three miles behind us is the dark green little patch which are the palms of Dueidar, where our regiment—no not rests—is ever ready.
Now, the prize of nations, at present, is the Suez Canal, about ten miles behind us. So we, that is, our outpost, are really guarding that hundred miles of waterway with its load of ships and all that it means. That sounds comical, but is true. If the Turks come, our job is to detect them miles away. We then helio the regiment, which turns out to fight after it has helioed Hill 70, which phones back to the Canal Army and instantly the fighting machinery of an army is set in motion. Meanwhile our outpost fights. If superior numbers drive us back on the regiment, the regiment fights. If numbers are still superior, the brigade fights. If the brigade, or what might be left of it is driven back on Hill 70, then the infantry fight. While we are fighting and holding back the enemy all we can, the army behind is rushing up reinforcements, for time means everything. If Hill 70 is captured then the whole army along the Canal fights. And if the army is pushed into the canal, then England loses the Canal, and all her army in Egypt, and all her stores and her ships. She loses all Egypt and her prestige, and perhaps the very war. So now, England, all your might and power and the lives of hundreds of thousands of men might well rest on this sun-browned outpost gazing away out across the desert.
So that’s that! I’ll have a smoke now: I reckon I’ve deserved it. And the old colonel has put some sort of a stunt across the canteen funds, so that we can have a plentiful supply of tobacco.
Afternoon—This morning I explained the fate of an army, or rather two armies, and of the Canal and Egypt and England. I reckon it was good work, considering I’m only Trooper 358. I’m off watch for another four hours, so I’ll explain a bit about the regiment. We are all concentrated in sections. A section is four men. A section lives together, eats together, sleeps together, fights together, and when a shell lands on it, dies together. A full troop of men has eight sections. There are four troops to a squadron, three squadrons to a regiment. I’m not going farther than the regiment. Our big world is the regiment and even then most of us don’t know intimately the men out of our own squadron. Our life is just concentrated in the “section.” We growl together, we swear together, we take one another’s blasted horses to water, we conspire against the damned troop-sergeant together, we growl against the war and we damn the officers up hill and down dale together; we do everything together—in fact, this whole blasted war is being fought in sections.