ued the bombardment on the night of the 11th and were in action
most of the day on the 12th, shelling the Turkish positions north of
Jeddah, which we had located by glass and the co-operation of friendly
fishing-craft who gave us the direction by signal. During the morning
the Hejazis made an abortive and aimless attack along the beach north of
Jeddah, and so masked our own supporting fire, while the Turks gave them
more than they wanted.

By this time the senior ship and others had joined us, and the S.N.O.
approved of my landing with a party of Indian signallers to maintain
closer touch with their operations, provided that Arab headquarters
would guarantee our safety as regards their own people. This they were
unable to do.

The bombardment grew more and more strenuous and searching as other
ships joined in and our knowledge of the Turkish positions became more
accurate. On the 15th it culminated with the arrival of a seaplane
carrier and heavy bombing of the Ottoman trenches which our
flat-trajectory naval guns could hardly reach. The white flag went up
before sunset, and next day there were _pourparlers_ which led to an
unconditional surrender on June 17, 1916.

Mecca had fallen just before, and Taif surrendered soon after, leaving
Medina as the only important town still held by the Turks in the Hejaz.

We began pouring food and munitions into Jeddah as soon as it changed
hands; for the rest of this cruise my ship was a sort of
parcels-delivery van, and when the parcel happens to be an Egyptian
mountain battery its delivery is an undertaking.

My personal contact with the Turks and their ill-omened _jihad_ ended
soon after, as I was invalided from service afloat, but I kept in touch
as an Intelligence-wallah on the beach and followed the rest of it with
interest.

They got Holy War with a vengeance. The Sharif's sons (more especially
the Emirs Feisal and Abdullah, who had been trained at the Stamboul
Military Academy), ably assisted by zealous and skilled British officers
as mine-planters and aerial bombers, harried outlying posts and the
Hejaz railway line north of Medina incessantly.

The Turkish positions at Wejh fell to the Red Sea flotilla, reinforced
by the flagship. I should like to have been there, if only to have seen
the Admiral sail in to the proceedings with a revolver in his fist and
the _elan_ of a sub-lieutenant. The Hejazis failed to synchronise, as
usual, so the Navy dispensed with their sup