erness
again, and the few natives hereabouts who had made large profits
from the sale of eggs, fruit, and vegetables looked disconsolate and
bewildered at the change, hoping and believing that the empty tents
merely denoted a temporary absence. But the great majority of the Army
never came that way again.

When the infantry started on the march, divisions and brigades had
allotted to them particular areas for their march routes, and all over
that country, where scarcely a tree or native hut existed to make
a landmark, there were dotted small arrow-pointed boards with the
direction 'A road,' 'B road,' 'Z road,' as the case might be. Marching
in the dark hours when a refreshing air succeeded the heat of the day,
the troops halted as soon as a purple flush threw into high relief the
southern end of the Judean hills, and they hid themselves in the wadis
and broken ground; and on one unit vacating a bivouac area it was
occupied by another, thus making the areas in which the troops rested
as few as possible.

The concentration was worked to a time-table. Not only were brigades
allotted certain marches each night, but they were given specified
times to cover certain distances, and these were arranged according to
the condition of the ground. In parts it was very broken and covered
with loose stones, and the pace of infantry by night was very slightly
more than one mile per hour. The routes for guns were not chosen
until the whole country had been reconnoitred, and it was a highly
creditable performance for artillery to get their field guns and
heavy howitzer batteries through to the time-table. But the clockwork
precision of the movements reflected even more highly on the staff
working out the details than on the infantry and artillery, and it may
be said with perfect truth that the staff made no miscalculation
or mistake. The XXth Corps staff maps and plans, and the details
accompanying them, were masterpieces of clearness and completeness.
The men who fought out the plans to a triumphant finish were glad to
recognise this perfection of staff work.[1]

[Footnote 1: See Appendix VI.]

CHAPTER VII

THE BEERSHEBA VICTORY

The XXth Corps began its movement on the night of 20-21st October.
The whole Corps was not on the march, but a sufficient force was sent
forward to form supply dumps and to store water at Esani for troops
covering Desert Mounted Corps engineers engaged on the development of
water at Khalasa and A