as as irritating as when the khamseen wind
blew. The two days' delay meant much in favour of the enemy, who was
enabled to move his troops as he desired, but it also permitted our
infantry to get some rest after their long marches, and supplies were
brought nearer the front. 'Rest' was only a comparative term. Brigades
were on the move each day in country which was one continual rise and
fall, with stony beds of wadis to check progress, without a tree to
lend a few moments' grateful relief from a burning sun, and nothing
but the rare sight of a squalid native hut to relieve the monotony of
a sun-dried desolate land.

The troops were remarkably cheerful. They were on their toes, as the
cavalry told them. They had drawn first blood profusely from the Turk
after many weary months of waiting and getting fit, and they knew that
those gaunt mountain ridges away on their right front held behind them
Bethlehem and Jerusalem, goals they desired to reach more than any
other prizes of war. They had seen the Turk, and had soundly thrashed
him out of trenches which the British could have held against a much
stronger force. Their confidence was based on the proof that they were
better men, and they were convinced that once they got the enemy into
the open their superiority would be still more marked. The events of
the next six weeks showed their estimate of the Turkish soldier was
justified.

The 53rd Division with the Imperial Camel Corps on its right moved to
Towal Abu Jerwal on November 1 to protect the flank guard of the XXth
Corps during the pending attack on the Kauwukah system. The infantry
had some fighting on that day, but it was mild compared with the
strenuous days before them. The 10th Division attacked Irgeig railway
station north-west of Beersheba and secured it, and waited there with
the 74th Division on its right while the Welsh Division went forward
to fight for Khuweilfeh on November 3. The Welshmen could not obtain
the whole of the position on that day, and it was not until the 6th
that it became theirs. Khuweilfeh is about ten miles due east of
Sheria, the same distance north of Beersheba, and some five miles west
of the Hebron road. It is in the hill country, difficult to approach,
with nothing in the nature of a road or track leading to it, and there
was no element in the position to suggest the prospect of an easy
capture. When General Mott advanced to these forbidding heights the
strength of the enemy in the