es. Each day saw a keener polish put on the weapon which
was so soon to be used. The strain was beginning to be felt when, on the
24th October, the guns on our whole front began the overture to the
third battle of Gaza.

[Illustration: OBSERVATION POST IN FRONT OF YAPTON POST.]

Following our custom we had been living in a nullah, but the first rain
of the season took us by surprise on 25th October, and the dry bed
became a stream and all the little cubby holes became full of water; the
lightning was amazingly brilliant and the roar of the thunder made the
bombardment sound tame in comparison. There was not a soul in the
Battalion but was soaked to the skin. It was a curious thing as the
conditions steadily got worse to hear the men instead of grousing
singing their favourite songs till day broke and a sunny morning dried
up everyone in a few hours.

CHAPTER XII

ADVANCE BEYOND GAZA. WADI HESI, SAUSAGE RIDGE, ESDUD, KUBEIBEH, NEBI
SAMWIL, TAHTA.

The 31st brought news of the success of the 20th Corps and the fall of
Beersheba. Preparations were made for removal and on the 1st of November
the Brigade went into Corps Reserve at Regent's Park. That night the
other two brigades of our Division and the 53rd Division went over the
top before midnight, and by dawn had taken the whole of the enemy's
front and support lines from Umbrella Hill to the sea. In so doing they
had bent the seaward end of his defence back on the town, but he was so
heavily echeloned far back along the shore, that it was not until the
7th that a passage could be cleared along the edge of the sea. During
those six days the Battalion lay in instant readiness to move. When it
did move the Turk was still in Gaza in considerable numbers, and when we
were as far north as Esdud we heard that certain strong points in his
line were still holding out. He had, however, began his retreat and we
knew that what we would have to deal with would be rear-guards, prepared
to sacrifice themselves to the last man to save their main body.

At eleven o'clock on the morning of the 7th the Brigade had been under
weigh for an hour and we were tramping over the uneven ground which
marked the site of the enemy's old front line, battered out of all shape
by seven days' artillery bombardment. The sand was more than ankle-deep
and the going heavy in the extreme. The day was hot and steel helmets
were never the lightest of head-gear. Still the men marched admirably
and