by some indignant
Londoners cautiously feeling their way out on a similar mission, and had
the pleasure of informing them that their beautiful patrol work was
rather a waste of labour.

On the 9th the 7th H.L.I, began the practice of turning the Turks out of
Burjaliye, a little cactus walled orchard perched on the top of the
southern ridge that bounded Kurd Valley. The Turks probably never had
more than a small post in the enclosure, but they were able to keep up a
good fire from their positions behind it and its daily capture caused an
enormous amount of noise, if little else. On the 12th "A" Company took
their turn in sending in the patrol amid a tremendous waste of
ammunition on both sides, our casualty being Lieut. J.S. Agnew, who was
hit in the arm and whose services we thus lost for several months. It
must be confessed that this daily repeated manoeuvre was generally
considered to be a sign that the Staff had finally and definitely lost
their wits, but it was really a scheme of deep cunning, as we afterwards
discovered. The Burjaliye ridge and the El Sire-Kurd Hill ridge on its
left, together with Happy Valley in between was the tract of country
with which we were most familiar. At the bottom of the valley ran a
large wadi, broadening out till it reached the Wadi Ghuzzeh a mile south
of the Red House. On its way it was joined by innumerable tributary
nullahs running down the sides of the two ridges and cutting them into a
range of minor peaks. The sides of these nullahs were sheer cliffs often
fifteen feet or more in depth so that they became really formidable
obstacles to progress, though excellent places for shelter from
artillery fire. They were the result, we supposed, of the sudden heavy
winter rainstorms rushing down the hill sides, but for 350 days out of
the 365 they were completely dry. During this time the Staff were not
idle. Pamphlets on the attack, written for trench warfare in France,
were liberally issued, and preliminary instructions to lessen the
contents of the final orders kept arriving daily. One's brain became
confused.

[Illustration: NATIVE GIRLS, BELAH.]

On April 16th all was ready and we left our outpost line and moved
forward for the ill-fated second battle. The ball was opened by "A"
Company, which in the afternoon of that day sent the usual daily patrol
into Burjaliye, covering it with Lewis guns and flank patrols and
suffering no casualties, but getting the recognised rise out of