ion
and stores at Ameidat, and with the remainder of the Anzac Division
reached Tel Abu Dilakh by the evening, and the Australian Mounted
Division filled the gap between the Anzacs and the Londoners, but
having been unable to water could not advance further. The 8th
November was a busy and brilliantly successful day. The Corps' effort
was to make a wide sweeping movement in order first to obtain the
valuable and urgently required water at Nejile, and then to push
across the hills and rolling downs to the country behind Gaza to
harass the enemy retreating from that town. The Turks had a big
rearguard south-west of Nejile and made a strong effort to delay the
capture of that place, the importance of which to us they realised
to the full, and they were prepared to sacrifice the whole of the
rearguard if they could hold us off the water for another twenty-four
hours. The pressure of the Anzac Division and the 7th Mounted Brigade
assisting it was too much for the enemy, who though holding on to the
hills very stoutly till the last moment had to give way and leave the
water in our undisputed possession. The Sherwood Rangers and South
Notts Hussars were vigorously counter-attacked at Mudweiweh, but they
severely handled the enemy, who retired a much weakened body.

By the evening the Anzacs held the country from Nejile to the north
bank of the wadi Jemmameh, having captured 300 prisoners and two guns.
The Australian Mounted Division made an excellent advance round
the north side of Huj, which had been the Turkish VIIIth Army
Headquarters, and the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade was in touch
with the corps cavalry of XXIst Corps at Beit Hanun, while the 3rd
Australian Light Horse Brigade had taken prisoners and two of the
troublesome Austrian 5.9 howitzers.

It was the work of the 60th Division in the centre, however, which
was the outstanding feature of the day, though the Londoners readily
admitted that without the glorious charge of the Worcester and
Warwickshire Yeomanry in the afternoon they would not have been in the
neighbourhood of Huj when darkness fell. The 60th were in the centre,
sandwiched between the Anzacs and Australian Mounted Division, and
their allotted task was to clear the country between Sheria and Huj, a
distance of ten miles. The country was a series of billowy downs with
valleys seldom more than 1000 yards wide, and every yard of the way
was opposed by infantry and artillery. Considering the opposi