ishy propaganda was from time to time circulated
amongst those simple Anatolian peasants, whose sole desire was to return to
the meagre farms from which they had been dragged by the heavy hand of war.

In the wadi the engineers were incessantly trying to improve the
conditions. When the horses had been catered for, they constructed a small
dam across a portion of the watering-place and made a bathing-pool where
you could stand up to your middle in clear, cold water. As we were not
supposed to remove even our putties except for bathing, or washing clothes,
the pool was soon working overtime. On a broad, flat ledge jutting out into
the wadi the engineers made a place where you could wash your clothes, with
gutters and channels for carrying away the soapy water cut in the face of
the cliff. When this was done a powerful clothes-washing offensive was
begun, for few of us had more than one shirt and that, of course, was on
our backs. Of our socks it could be said that the welts were good; the toes
and heels had perished of overwork.

One of the few charitable things men ever said about the sun was that it
dried your clothes quickly; you could take your shirt off your back, wash
it, and in an hour or so put it on again, bone-dry. This was a
consideration in a place where, while your shirt was drying, you wore your
tunic over the bare skin and prayed that there would not be an alarm
turn-out for, at any rate, an hour. When supplies are scarce you cannot
afford to lose many articles of kit, nor can you call for an armistice
while you wait for your shirt to dry.

Elsewhere I have mentioned, perhaps too frequently, the remarkable speed
with which the railway followed the troops. On the fourth day after our
arrival, it reached Tel el Fara. This was the branch line running eastwards
across our flank from Khan Yunus to Shellal, on the extreme right. Just
below the Crusaders' hill the sides of the wadi sloped gently down and it
was possible to cross in comparative comfort. Here a group of engineers and
E.L.C. were working in a casual, aimless sort of way, apparently building a
bridge for the branch line. Turkish aircraft very soon found this party,
who, indeed, seemed anxious to advertise their efforts, and bombed it
incessantly with considerable success.

Every day joists and beams and stones went up in the air and every day,
when the strafe was ended, the E.L.C. put them back again and added a few
more. But the Turks were very pe