the supply depots
at Shellal and about Karm until the moment they were required to carry
supplies for the corps moving to attack.

It is not easy to convey to any one who has not seen an army on the
move what a vast amount of transport is required to provision two
corps. In France, where roads are numerous and in comparatively good
condition, the supply problem could be worked out to a nicety, but in
a roadless country where there was not a sound half-mile of track, and
where water had to be developed and every gallon was precious, the
question of supply needed most anxious consideration, and a big margin
had to be allowed for contingencies. It will give some idea of the
requirements when I state that for the supply of water alone the XXth
Corps had allotted to it 6000 camels and 73 lorries. To feed these
water camels alone needed a big convoy.

We got an impression of the might and majesty of an army in the field
as we saw it preparing to take the offensive. The camp of General
Headquarters where I was located was situated north of Rafa. The
railway ran on two sides of the camping ground, one line going to
Belah and the other stretching out to Shellal, where everything was in
readiness to extend the iron road to the north-east of Karm, on the
plain which, because the Turks enjoyed complete observation over it,
had hitherto been No Man's Land. We saw and heard the traffic on this
section of the line. It was enormous. Heavily laden trains ran night
and day with a mass of stores and supplies, with motor lorries, cars,
and tractors; and the ever-increasing volume of traffic told those of
us who knew nothing of the date of 'Zero day' that it was not far off.
The heaviest trains seemed to run at night, and the returning empty
trains were hurried forward at a speed suggesting the urgency of
clearing the line for a fully loaded train awaiting at Rafa the signal
to proceed with its valuable load to railhead. Perfect control not
only on the railway system but in the forward supply yards prevented
congestion, and when a train arrived at its destination and was split
up into several parts, well-drilled gangs of troops and Egyptian
labourers were allotted to each truck, and whether a lorry or a
tractor had to be unshipped and moved down a ramp, or a truck had to
be relieved of its ten tons of tibbin, boxes of biscuit and bully, or
of engineers' stores, the goods were cleared away from the vicinity of
the line with a celerity whi