shortage, which brought the scheme to failure, would not
have existed if we could have got possession of the town, which was well
supplied with wells. As we did not do so on the 26th it is difficult to
see how our Division could have been thrown into the fight on the 27th,
considering that there was not enough water for the troops already
engaged. Moreover, had the night march of the 26th to Inserrat been
continued as far as Gaza, we should hardly have deserved the name of
fresh troops by the morning of the 27th, and had our Division been used
there would have been practically no infantry reserve east of the canal,
and the risks of such a situation will be obvious to everybody.

CHAPTER X

SECOND BATTLE OF GAZA.

If the first battle of Gaza was a legitimate gamble--the second was
foredoomed to failure from the start. Given fair warning and three weeks
in which to strengthen their position--and probably no army in the world
can beat the Turks at spade work--given moreover a natural stronghold,
reinforcements and innumerable machine-guns, the enemy could certainly
withstand a frontal assault by the same troops as he had already beaten
off in a surprise attack, strengthened only by one newly formed
Division, while the great prolongation of the Turkish line to the west
made any turning movement out of the question. Our artillery was utterly
insufficient to deal with carefully constructed trenches among cactus
hedges, more terrible than barbed wire, of whose positions they were not
really certain, while our two trump cards, tanks and gas shell, were
certainly not sufficient to make up for other defects and to win us the
game.

Still all this is of course mere wisdom after the event. We certainly
did not believe ourselves preparing for a forlorn hope and we went into
the second battle in perfect confidence that we should be bivouacked
among the Gaza olive trees at its close.

[Illustration: TYPICAL SMALL NULLAH NEAR WADI GHUZZEH.]

There was, however, a good deal to be done first. On March 29th we
rested, and a welcome shift in the direction of the wind helped us to
get even with our thirst. The next day a supply of gas masks arrived, of
the old appalling flannel kind, which went all over the head, and
their mysteries were explained to us by Lieut. Gray, assisted by private
instruction from those who had served in France. On the 31st the
Battalion moved to a new bivouac area closer to the wadi, screened from
pr