ng fire
from Ras Ghannam, south of Beersheba, but this was silenced in time
to enable the brigade to assist in the occupation of Beersheba at
nightfall. The 4th Light Horse Brigade's captures in the charge were
58 officers, 1090 other ranks, and 10 field guns, and the total 'bag'
of the Desert Mounted Corps was 70 officers and 1458 other ranks.

The loss of Beersheba was a heavy blow to the Turk. Yet he did not
even then realise to the full the significance of our capture of the
town. He certainly failed to appreciate that we were to use it as
a jumping-off place to attack his main line from Gaza to Sheria by
rolling it up from left to right. In this plan there is no doubt that
General Allenby entirely deceived his enemy, for in the next few
days there was the best of evidence to show that General Kress von
Kressenstein believed we were going to advance from Beersheba to
Jerusalem up the Hebron road, and he made his dispositions to oppose
us here. It was not merely the moral effect of the loss of Beersheba
that disturbed the Turks; they had been driven out of a not
unimportant stronghold.

All through the many centuries since Abraham and his people led a
pastoral life near the wells, Beersheba had been a meanly appointed
place. There were no signs as far as I could see of any elaborate
ruins to indicate anything larger than a native settlement. Elsewhere
we saw crumbling walls of ancient castles and fortresses to tell of
conquerors and glories long since faded away, of relics of an age when
great captains led martial men into new worlds to conquer, of the
time when the Crusading spirit was abroad and the flower of Western
chivalry came East to hold the land for Christians. Here the native
quarter suggested that trade in Beersheba was purely local and not
ambitious, that it provided nothing for the world's commerce save a
few skins and hides, and that the inhabitants were content to live the
rude, simple lives of their forefathers. But the enterprising German
arrived, and you could tell by his work how he intended to compel a
change in the unchanging character of the people. He built a handsome
Mosque--but before he was driven out he wired and mined it for
destruction. He built a seat of government, a hospital, and a
barracks, all of them pretentious buildings for such a town, well
designed, constructed of stone with red-tiled roofs, and the gardens
were nicely laid out. There were a railway station and storehouses on