ext day.

On being driven out of Beit Anan, the enemy retired up the neck of the
hill to a walled garden situated on its very point and commanding Beit
Anan, as well as the ridges running down from the garden itself. Later
in the day the Turks occupied also the crest to the north-east of Dukka,
from which a dropping machine-gun fire was kept up on the left of our
position. No. 1 company, now commanded by Lieut. M'Lellan, was sent
forward to the ridge, about 800 yards west of the enemy's position,
where they remained that day and next night. No. 2 company held the
front and left of the village. All day we could hear the thunder of the
artillery of the 75th Division far to the south-west of us, beyond the
hills, as they drove the Turks back on Jerusalem. Night fell with a
bitter wind blowing and a chill rain which penetrated to the bone and
tried No. 1 company to the limit of endurance. Tea and blankets were got
out to No. 2 company but, though several attempts were made, it was
impossible to get them to No. 1 company. For twenty hours those men, in
their tropical kit, endured the enemy's sniping and machine-gun firing,
and the bitter cold and hunger and misery, hearing in the early morning
the wind-borne chimes of the chapel bell in Kubeibeh calling the
brothers to matins, until dawn found many of them unable to speak.
During the night a squadron patrol of Hyderabad Lancers rode across the
hills from the 75th Division into our lines, a truly wonderful feat
across unknown country held by the enemy. At dawn the problem was, had
the enemy evacuated the garden. Lieut. Agnew, the scout officer, set out
to find out and C.Q.M.S. Kelly and Sergt. Black volunteered to accompany
him. This is one of the nastiest jobs one can be asked to do. If the
place is held the chances are against the first of the patrol returning
alive. No observation from without was possible as a high wall
surrounded the garden, which belonged to the Summer House of the Latin
Hospice of Emmaus. The wall was approached with some difficulty,
climbed, and only then was it certain that the Turk had gone and had
evacuated his stronghold. The Battalion then moved into the garden and
occupied Kubeibeh.

This village was mainly a colony of Franciscan brothers, Italian and
Spanish, who had a magnificent church and hospice and under whose shadow
the native houses were built. They welcomed us effusively and State
calls were exchanged by Colonel Morrison and the Brothe