sion of XXth
Corps on its right. They were shelled heavily, but it was the shelling
of rearguards and not attackers, and soon after twelve o'clock we
had the best of evidence that the Turks were saying good-bye to a
neighbourhood they had long inhabited. I was standing on Raspberry
Hill, the battle headquarters of XXIst Corps, when I heard a terrific
report. Staff officers who were used to the visitations of aerial
marauders came out of their shelters and searched the pearly vault of
the heavens for Fritz. No machine could be found. Some one looking
across the country towards Atawineh saw a huge mushroom-shaped cloud,
and then we knew that one enormous dump at least contained no more
projectiles to hold up an advance. This ammunition store must have
been eight miles away as the crow flies, but the noise of the
explosion was so violent that it was a considerable time before some
officers could be brought to believe an enemy plane had not laid an
egg near us. The blowing up of that dump was a signal that the Turk
was off.

The Lowlanders had another very strenuous day in the sand-dune belt.
First of all they repulsed a strong counter-attack from the direction
of Askalon. Then the 155th Infantry Brigade went forward and, swinging
to the right, drove the Turks off the rising ground north-west of Deir
Sineid, the possession of which would determine the question whether
the Turk could hold on in this quarter sufficiently long to enable him
to get any of his material away by his railway and road. The enemy put
in a counter-attack of great violence and forced the Scots back.

The 157th Brigade in the early evening attacked the ridge and gained
the whole of their objectives by eight o'clock. There ensued some
sanguinary struggles on this sandy ground during the night. The Turks
were determined to have possession of it and the Scots were willing to
fight it out to a finish. The first counter-attack in the dark hours
drove the Lowlanders off, but they were shortly afterwards back on the
hills again. The Turks returned and pushed the Highland Light Infantry
and Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders off a second time. A third
attack was delivered with splendid vigour and the enemy left many
dead, but they renewed their efforts to get the commanding ground and
succeeded once more. The dogged Scots, however, were not to be denied.
They re-formed and swept up the heavy shifting sand, met the Turk on
the top with a clash and knocked him d