Diary of Trooper Ion Llewellyn Idriess-Aug 1916-Part 5

of the hidden sniper returned.
Three of our fellows
went into a big oasis on
their own, a very foolish
thing to do. We were getting
uneasy about them, when
they appeared from among
the palms, with a Bedouin
girl. She turned out to
be a Young Bedouin,
girl, of about seventeen
years of age, rather
pretty, very frightened,
very talkative, trying
very hard to tell us
which way the Turks
had "emsheed". Bob
Hanley took her back
to the regiment, with
our congratulations.
On we went again,
and about an hour

no cover on it whatever. A
mile or more away was a
very thick oasis, white
with shrapnel smoke, and
echoing to the sound of
rifle fire and machine
guns. To our right, in a
half circle around the
flat were small clumps
of palm trees, in between
being mounds of sand,
and thick stunted bushes,
which finally f verged
into the thick oasis fronting
us. Then word came
round that we were to
charge across the flat
and smash into the
big oasis. I am very
glad that the order to
charge was never given,
for to cross that level

later turned towards the
north west, so as to cut
the regiment, as we had
proved conclusively
that the Turks were
rapidly retreating and
a long way away. We
climbed a hill, and
could see across the
desert for miles, but
no sign of the Turks,
only desert and tracks,
tracks everywhere all
leading towards the east;
About an hour later
we suddenly spied on
a ridge, some men.
We scattered lively,
but after both parties
had skirmished about
a bit, we found that
they were a patrol

flat, in the face of that
hail of rifle, machine
gun and shrapnel fire,
would I believe have
been impossible, I do
not think it would
have been possible for
a man of us to have been
left alive. Then right
away to our left, we
saw dismounted men,
wearing helmets, taking
every advantage of
cover, running, firing,
lying down, jumping up
and running again,
towards the flat. I do
not know what regiment
they were, but they never
crossed the flat, later on
we saw they had to
retire. Then the orders 

under Mr Ridge Woods,
Below us, at the foot of
a hill, was a Turkish
camp. The patrol had
just captured a German
officer there, and some
few Turks who had not
been quick enough in
getting away. The other
patrol were all chewing
dates and some stuff
exactly like sheets of
brown paper, which
turned out to be apricot.
You can guess how
quickly we turned our
horses heads in the
direction of the abandoned
camp. There turned
out to be three hundred
bags of grain stacked
up, many bags of flour,

come to hand the horses over
to the horse holders. We 
handed our horses over to
Morry, who badly tried to
come with us, then the
troops, in their squadrons,
dismounted, lined up
Then single file, right turn,
and we filed off among
the sand dunes to the right.
It was fearfully hot
and we were very thirsty.
There were a few New
Zealanders, c near us, and
soon they started firing,
running, dropping down
firing, and running on
again. Presently we saw
it was a few snipers in 
some bushes ahead of us.
Odd bullets whizzed past
but it was so hot that

cases of tea, cases of
apricots, other stuffs,
and, most valuable of
all to us, hungry men
that we were, ten sacks
of splendid dates.  You
can guess how we
tore into those dates,
aftering first watering
our horses at the well.
We also drank a lot
of water from the well.
God is merciful, as
things have since been
proved, But those
dates? they were splendid.
What a great feed I had.
I filled up, then packed
the water bucket tight
with dates, many
pounds of them, to take
back to Bert and Morry

we just trudged on.  Then
suddenly the New Zealanders
all stood up and ran
forward firing.  Then from
a bush waved a white
rag, and three Turks,
in different bushes, stood
up with their arms raised.
We shouted out to the
New Zelanders to bayonet
them, but the New Zealanders
Just took them prisoners.
The sniper just kills as
many men as he can from
ambush, then when he is
completely surrounded,
and his enemies only a few
yards away, the throws up
his arms and expects mercy
It is not a fair fight.  He
should either fight to the
very last, or else clear

and Stan, and a great
roll of apricots.  They were
very heavy, x I felt
sorry for the poor horse,
but I was determined
to get those dates back
to camp somexxx how.
Then we went back
in search of the regiment,
and on the way found
the secret of the Turks
dragging their artillery
over those weary
miles of desert.  We
came on the road,
The wheel ruts were
about eighteen inches
wide, u two boards
laid down, and
packed in between
l was brambles from
the desert bushes, and

away before he xxxx is
taken prisoner.  Then on
again, to turning towards
the big oasis, over a small
patch of sand.  Immediately
we were all on the
clear sand there broke out
a perfect fusillade of close
range rifle fire.  We all
made a desperate rush
for the little sand clumps
in front.  My legs became
lead, the yards seemed
like miles, the hissing bullets
made the air seem full
of serpents.  Panting and
dead beat I flung myself
beside a sand clump,
with the fear of death
all through me.  One
poor fellow Just as he
reached cover spun

sand, all rammed so
hard that the two wheel
tracks were solid and
hard.  In some places
boards had been laid
in front of the gun
wheels, and then pulled
up and placed in front
of the wheels again. ......
AramAmara 18^th  So we went
in search of the regiment, the
sergt, major to report.  We cut
into the South, and found the
route  There was a column of men
marching there, and the sergt.,
major, thinking they were our
regiment, told us to wait until
he had found the Colonel.  We
drew into a small oasis, and
dismounted.  But the column
proved to be New Zealanders,
and they were all positive

round and round,
desperately hit.  Stan way
lying beside me, and we
got our breath while the
last of our fellows fell
behind cover.  That was
the heaviest fire, and the
closest range, of the whole
of the afternoons fight.  The
Turks who had fired on
us must have cleared
out ur immediately we
found cover, because we
could see nothing of them
when we came to look
round.  Then on again,
running low from sand
mound to sand mound,
from bush to bush, little
groups of three and four
men together, singly, and
in pairs.  Captain Bolingbroke

that our regiment had halted
at Oghratina.  This seemed very
strange to us, as the regiment
had led the way that day.  But
the sergt., major did not come
back, so we prepared for a
comfortable wait.  Men were
constantly passing by, but
they knew nothing of the
regiment.  An hour went by,
still the sergt., major had
not turned up.  We began to
think he had gone back,
and missed us in the oasis.
At last we determined to
go back. And what a
weary ride we had.  Mile
after mile, tired horses, tired
me.  We reached Oghratina,
and found that the regiment
had gone on.  The water at
Oghratina is very salty,

leading us on, splendidly.  We
learned that our officers
were grand men after during that
afternoons fighting.  Now
in between the sand mounds
and bushes were little
patches of bare sand, over
which we had to run, and
we straight away found
that the Turks had machine
guns trained on these bare
patches, and immediately a
man ran across he had
to run ax through a
spray of bullets, not
fired directly at him,
but straight across the
bare sand patch, so
that a man had to
run through the stream of bullets
to reach cover.  That is how
a lot of our men got hit.

and bad for the horses.  So
we went right back to
Quatia for decent water,
reached there as the sun
went down, watered the horses,
boiled our quarts, and had
a feed ourselves.  While there
a troop of English yeomanry,
came there, asked us if the
water was fit to drink,
watered their horses, and
sat down, looking very
dopy on it.  Their two
officers, typical English
officers came over and had
a yarn with us, and seemed
very decent fellows.
Soon we noticed the
Tommies were eating
nothing.  They had nothing
to eat.  They had
been wandering all over

We kept pushing the Turks
before us, they keeping at a
distance of a thousand to
eight hundred yards.  It was
fearfully thirsty work.  We
too The last little drop of
water in my water bottle
was boiling th hot.  We
took one little oasis, when
suddenly Bert Card xx
shouted out.  "A well,
heres water."  We all
turned, damn the Turks,
and turned for the well
There were a couple of
half filled Turkish water
bottles there, and the well
was full of ice cold,
beautiful clear water. I
filled my bottle and
drank it straight off. So
some of us got a drink,

the desert since the night
before, doing God knows
what.  Of course we
ransacked every old bag
we had, gave them all
the bully, biscuits, we
had, and I parted with
a big store of my
precious apricots and dates,
Between the lot of us, we
managed to scrape up
quite a respectable feed,
and the Tommies were very
grateful.  After a good
Smoke ho, we said "So
long" to the Tommies, and
went back to Oghratina,
where we camped until
2 in the morning.  Then
on again in the dark,
determined to catch up
with the regiment as

we went back to the
bushes around the well
and kept the Turks off while
the others got their drink.
Then we would go back
again.  The captain let us
stay here some time, until
we had all had a thorough
drink, got our br wind
back, and our water
bottles filled.  Then on
again, refreshed and
ready for any amount
of Turks.  We soon got in
a hot corner, and had to 
fight for a bit, little
groups of men lying
behind the sand mounds
and bushes, firing at the
Turks who were fighting
the same way.  The Turks
are splendid at this type of

quickly as possible.  After a
couple of hours, we
pushed down the steep
sides of a razorback,
and in the darkness saw
directly below us, a long
black winding column,
and heard the quiet
noises made by many
horses and waggons in
the yielding sand.  We
thought it was the Brigade
on the march, but it
turned out to be our
ammunition supply column
moving up in expectation
of a big fight on the
morrow.  This made us
push on doubly quick,
and soon we left the
slow moving column
behind.  The east was

fighting, it is their masterpiece.
I looked to my
left, across the open flat.
Our side were trying to
surround the Turks.  In
the bushes on the far side
of the flat I could see
little men running angd
and all along the edge
of the flat, like a white
vapor, was the smoke
from the bursting
Turkish shells.  Then over
the oasis where whe we
had left our horses
rose the smoke clouds
of shrapnel, and I knew
they were shelling our
horses.  A few stray horses
galloped away, but that
was all I could see.  Then
we were on again, straight