was to fall. In the early hours of October
27 he did make an attempt to interfere with our concentration, and
there was a spirited little action on our outpost line which had been
pushed out beyond the plain to a line of low hills near the wadi
Hanafish. The Turks in overwhelming force met a most stubborn defence
by the Middlesex Yeomanry, and if the enemy took these London yeomen
as an average sample of General Allenby's troops, this engagement must
have given them a foretaste of what was in store for them.

The Middlesex Yeomanry (the 1st County of London Yeomanry, to give
the regiment the name by which it is officially known, though the men
almost invariably use the much older Territorial title) and the 21st
Machine Gun Squadron, held the long ridge from El Buggar to hill 630.
There was a squadron dismounted on hill 630, three troops on hill 720,
the next and highest point on the ridge, and a post at El Buggar. At
four o'clock in the morning the latter post was fired on by a Turkish
cavalry patrol, and an hour later it was evident that the enemy
intended to try to drive us off the ridge, his occupation of which
would have given him the power to harass railway construction parties
by shell-fire, even if it did not entirely stop the work. Some 3000
Turkish infantry, 1200 cavalry, and twelve guns had advanced from the
Kauwukah system of defences to attack our outpost line on the ridge.
They heavily engaged hill 630, working round both flanks, and brought
heavy machine-gun and artillery fire to bear on the squadron holding
it. The Royal Flying Corps estimated that a force of 2000 men attacked
the garrison, which was completely cut off.

A squadron of the City of London Yeomanry sent to reinforce was held
up by a machine-gun barrage and had to withdraw. The garrison held
out magnificently all day in a support trench close behind the crest
against odds of twenty to one, and repeatedly beat off rushes,
although the bodies of dead Turks showed that they got as close as
forty yards from the defenders. Two officers were wounded, and four
other ranks killed and twelve wounded.

The attack on hill 720 was made by 1200 cavalry supported by a heavy
volume of shell and machine-gun fire. During the early morning two
desperate charges were beaten off, but in a third charge the enemy
gained possession of the hill after the detachment had held out for
six hours. All our officers were killed or wounded and all the men
were casualties