ost flat plain through which the wadi Ghuzze
runs. All the observation was in enemy possession, and to attack over
this ground would have been inviting disaster. There was little fear
that the Turks would attack us across this wide range of No Man's
Land, for we held secure control of the curiously shaped heaps of
broken earth about Shellal, and the conical hill at Fara gave an
uninterrupted view for several miles northward and eastward. The
position was very different about Beersheba. If we secured that place
with its water supply, and in this dry country the battle really
amounted to a fight for water, we should be attacking from high ground
and against positions which had not been prepared on so formidable
a scale as elsewhere, with the prospect of compelling the enemy to
abandon the remainder of the line for fear of being enveloped by
mounted troops moving behind his weakened left. That, in brief
outline, was the gist of General Chetwode's report, and with its full
acceptance began the preparations for the advance. These preparations
took several months to complete, and they were as thorough as the
energy of a capable staff could make them.

CHAPTER IV

TRAINING THE ARMY

Those of us who were fortunate enough to witness the nature of the
preparations for the first of General Allenby's great and triumphant
moves in Palestine can speak of the debt Britain and her Allies owe
not merely to the Commander-in-Chief and his Headquarters Staff,
but to the three Corps Commanders, the Divisional Commanders, the
Brigadiers, and the officers responsible for transport, artillery,
engineer, and the other services. The Army had to be put on an
altogether different footing from that which had twice failed to drive
the Turks from Gaza. It serves nothing to ignore the fact that the
moral of the troops was not high in the weeks following the second
failure. They had to be tuned up and trained for a big task. They knew
the Turk was turning his natural advantages of ground about Gaza into
a veritable fortress, and that if their next effort was to meet with
more success than their last, they had to learn all that experience on
the Western Front had taught as to systems of trench warfare.

And, more than that, they had to prepare to apply the art of open
warfare to the full extent of their powers.

A couple of months before General Allenby took over command, General
Chetwode had taken in hand the question of training, and in em