the enemy had several very strong and heavily wired
redoubts in his front line, and of these, by far the most spectacular
was dug round a derelict tank of ours, lost in the second Gaza battle.
It was known to us as Tank Redoubt and lay opposite Abbas Apex in our
own line and some 1600 yards away. Several very successful raids had
been made on other of his strongholds and G.H.Q. detailed our battalion
for a similar attempt on Tank Redoubt. Such an operation required
skilful and exact preparation and very great accuracy. A scale model of
the redoubt was made near the bivouac area and the raiding party, 300
strong, under Major Findlay, began active rehearsals. The "Destruction
Party" were to form a spectacular feature of this raid. They were to
carry 6-feet tubes full of ammonal for blowing gaps in the wire. The
sappers, by using the mechanism of Mill's bombs, were able to devise a
method by which the Mill's lever was released and five seconds after the
tubes exploded. Hatchet men then were to rush in and clear the gaps. The
system seemed to work well in practice. The raid was to take place while
the Battalion was holding the line at Abbas Apex, and on August 5th
Colonel Morrison with the rest of the Battalion took over this sector
from the 4th R.S. Previously, parties of officers and men from the
raiding party had gone out on patrol with the Royal Scots in order to
familiarise themselves with the ground. On every occasion they met
strong Turkish patrols, who usually held some old British trenches, dug
by the Suffolks during the second Gaza battle, on a small ridge about
600 yards from Tank Redoubt, known as Suffolk Ridge. The first officer
we sent out to familiarise himself with the ground had a much more
exciting time than he bargained for, and only by being possessed of an
excellent sense of direction did he return to us. It was a fitting
introduction to what was in store for us in the No-Man's Land in front
of the Abbas Apex. The presence of a hostile patrol on the night of the
raid would jeopardise everything and so it was determined to make an
attempt to clear No Man's Land the night before. A patrol of two
officers and thirty other ranks accordingly got orders to move out to
the old British trenches to act as a decoy to entice the enemy to pursue
them towards our lines, while on the flank were to be stationed two
companies of another unit, whose orders were on hearing rapid fire
coming from the patrol to close with t