as a fair football ground on which we got through an
inter-platoon American tournament, which kept everybody amused. There
used to be a great turn-out when the officers' team was due to
play--they occasionally won their matches. We also had a good 200
yards' range with sixteen targets, and carried out innumerable
experiments to decide upon the best methods of attack. We had
exhibitions of wire-cutting and smoke screens, bangalore torpedoes,
and many days of practising co-operation with aeroplanes. Very
frequent night marches by compass, combined with digging in, and
followed by an attack or advance at dawn. In fact, we were put through
a very practical training for the task which we were later to
undertake.

In order to minimise the chance of anything going wrong with the plans
for the concentration and attack on Beersheba, many officers were
given the chance of making a reconnaissance as near as possible to the
Turkish positions. This was done from Gamli, a place on the Wadi
Ghuzzeh about fifteen miles inland and about eleven from us. We rode
over there the night before, and in the early morning the cavalry
moved out and pushed their line within a mile or two of the Beersheba
defences. Covered by this, parties of officers rode out and
familiarised themselves with the sector in which their unit was to
operate, and they were thus able to hand in reports upon which Brigade
Staffs could allot concentration areas and routes.

At the moment of kicking off we were as well trained as we were ever
likely to be, and, what is more important, were very fit and full of
the offensive spirit. The concentration started on 25th October, when
we marched some six miles to Abu Sitta. Our transport establishment
had been very carefully thought out, and, though both animals and
vehicles were undoubtedly overloaded at the start, this soon rectified
itself, as consumable stores could not be replaced. We had one camel
per battalion for officers' mess, and he started out very fully laden.
He was a good deal less heavily loaded towards the end of the
operations. Next day we marched on beyond the Wadi at Gamli--a very
dusty and tiresome march--and were to have remained there throughout
the next day. Word came in, however, that the Turk was attacking our
outpost line at El Buggar, some ten miles out, and the Battalion had
to move off at a moment's notice about noon. The march through the
heat of the afternoon was most trying, and on arrival it w