established 300 yards in front
of the enemy's trenches. Some heavy banks of cloud moved across the
sky when the Scottish Rifle Brigade assembled for the assault, but the
moon shed sufficient light at intervals to enable the Scots to file
through the gaps made in our wire and to form up on the tapes laid
outside. At 11 P.M. the 7th Scottish Rifles stormed Umbrella Hill with
the greatest gallantry. The first wave of some sixty-five officers and
men was blown up by four large contact mines and entirely destroyed.
The second wave passed over the bodies of their comrades without a
moment's check and, moving through the wire smashed by our artillery,
entered Umbrella Hill trenches and set about the Turks with their
bayonets. They had to clear a maze of trenches and dug-outs, but they
bombed out of existence the machine-gunners opposing them and had
settled the possession of Umbrella Hill in half an hour.

The 4th Royal Scots led the attack on El Arish Redoubt. It was a
bigger and noisier 'show' than the Royal Scots had had some months
before, when in a 'silent' raid they killed with hatchets only, for
the Scots had seen the condition of some of their dead left in Turkish
hands and were taking retribution. Not many Turks in El Arish Redoubt
lived to relate that night's story. The Scots were rapidly in the
redoubt and were rapidly through it, cleared up a nasty corner known
as the 'Little Devil,' and were just about to shelter from the shells
which were to answer their attack when they caught a brisk fire from a
Bedouin hut. A platoon leader disposed his men cleverly and rushed
the hut, killing everybody in it and capturing two machine guns. The
vigorous resistance of the Turks on Umbrella Hill and El Arish Redoubt
resulted in our having to bury over 350 enemy dead in these positions.

The second phase was to attack the enemy's front-line system from El
Arish Redoubt to the sea at Sea Post. At 3 A.M., after the enemy
guns had plentifully sprinkled Umbrella Hill and had given it up as
irretrievably lost, we opened a ten-minutes' intense bombardment of
the front line, exactly as had been done on preceding mornings, but
this time the 161st and 162nd Infantry Brigades followed up our shells
and carried 3000 yards of trenches at once. Three-quarters of an
hour afterwards the 163rd Infantry Brigade tried to get the support
trenches several hundred yards in rear, but the difficulties were too
many and the effort failed. Having secur