Diary of Trooper Ion Llewellyn Idriess-Oct 1916-Part 2

shelter of a ridge.
To our intense surprise
we were told not to go
into the firing line, as
the General had given:
the order to withdraw.
Our Battery was now
pelting the Turkish
redoubts madly but
getting no shells back
in reply. This made
us think the Turks had
no Field Artillery.
The firing away by
the Third Brigade
was very hot now. We
heard afterwards, that
Colonel Roysten, commanding
the third Brigade
had sent round word

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Turks were thickest

was a haze of shrapnel

smoke, from our guns

The shrapnel would

burst in quick succession

right above the Turks

they would run in all 

directions - though some

lay just where they

were. It th seemed

strange, lying where

we were and looking 

at our own shrapnel

bursting among the

Turks, with our own

guns blazing behind us.

But we had something

to do. The bushes at the

edge of the flat six

hundred yards away

were alive with

Turks, and their bullets

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and especially their

machine gun bullets

whipped the sand about

xx us and clipped the

twigs from the bushes

from behind which we

were lying. It was

always four or five

men firing from behind

each mound of sand

and bush, because in

between was bare

spaces of sand, which

was a continual dance

of spurting sand as the

machine guns played

on the bare spaces. Very

soon my ears were

ringing and ringing

and ringing again

from the concussion of

my mates rifles. We 

had to hold our rifles

close to one anothers

heads when firing from 

that he could take
the position but it
would mean the sacrifice
of an awful lot of men,
as the Turks were very
numerous in strongly
held positions, and
had countless machine
guns. General Chevral
sent back word to
withdraw. By this time:
our own fellows were
coming back from
firing line. Then
"Bang", above our heads,
a little to the right.
The Turks had sneaked
away an anti aircraft
gun somewhere and were
trying to bluff us that
they had artillery. They
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behind our little mound
Those Turks put up a
good fight, but they

must have had terrible
losses and gradually

they began to retire. We

fired until our rifles

were so hot it burnt

our hands to hold them.

The water in our bottles

burnt our throats to drink

Then we got the order to

advance on to a big

hill a little to the left

and link up with the

New Zealanders. We
occupied the hill quickly,

but it was awful the 

heat, the sand, the short

rushes which left a

man gasping for breath

and the bullets which

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the Turk turned on us
when he saw us in the
open, by jove, he did
send a rain of bullets.
The crown of the hill
was bare sand, there
was no cover until a
little way further on.
The Turkish bullets followed
us right up the hill
and just skimmed the
top, on a line with a
mans stomach. I managed
to reach the top, but
facing that bare patch of
sand was awful. A
mans feet seemed never
to move, the sand rose
up and down, and he
fell behind a bush with
a heaving chest and a
feeling that he would
never move again
even should the very 

only fired three or
four shots Necessarily 
the horses had a lot to
do with things. They
had not had water
since five O'clock the
afternoon before had
covered twenty five
miles of rough desert,
and had another twenty
five miles to go before.
they got another drink. I
think it was about eleven:
O’Clock when we all
withdrew,and began
the long, long ride back,
over the dreary hot san.
We had now drank
our own water and
were thirsty, but now
it was miles to go before
we got any more.

8
heavens open out 
and storm the earth
with Turkish bullets.
But only for a little

while. We were up again
and blazing away at the

men in the bushes on the

plain who were now

xxxxx running back and

back, further and further

in little groups and

little groups, then big

groups and bigger groups, 

until in front of us

their whole line broke

and away they went for

El Ab, lines and broken

groups of men bent low

to the earth. And we

gave them what they xx

we’re so fond of giving

us, a storm, continuous 

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vindictive storm of
bullets as they were
retiring. At last they
got to very long range
the bare sand  that
E surrounds EL Ab.
But they did not dare
to cross those terrible, long
patches of bare sand,
very extreme of rifle
range as it was. They
lay in the last circle of
bushes; and stayed there,
and the shrapnel
stayed there and encircled
the bushes with
death and hazy wreaths
of smoke. And so it
went on for a while,
and we could look
about us for a little.
Here and there, in
places, some of our
own poor chaps lay 

As we went along
before us stretched the
long ambulance column
a line of broad wheeled,
light sand carts many
stretcher many camels.
with a stretcher strapped
on either side and
two horses and mules
each drawing a light
wooden sledge over the
sand. Our casualties
were very slight, only a
few killed and wounded.
I pitied the dead lying
out there, but greatly 
envied the wounded
who no doubt were in
pain with their long
rough ride before
them, but after that
the hospital and a
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I saw some brave

deeds that day. In

the very thick of the

firing, with the bullets

whipping around their

feet, men would stagger

along the hills with that

worst of burdens, a badly

wounded man. There was

no cover for them, just a 

slow laborious walk

in the awful heat, a 

panting walk across those

patches of bullet whipped

sand. We got all our 

wounded to safety like

that. And then the

bullets freshened up,

showers of them came 

quicker and, to our

surprise we saw that

the Turks must have 

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been heavily reinforced.
They were running
towards us now, big
bodies of scattered men.
As they came their beaten
comrades kept up a
heavy covering fire,
which strengthened
and strengthened, until
again the air was alive
with a continuous stream
of hisses, the bushes were
cut and slashed and
twisted the plop plop plop
plop plop plop of landing
bullets among us, the
burst of Shrapnel making
a weirdly horrible song,
We fired and fired
until the rifles were too
hot to hold, until we
found we were very 

spell, and plenty of
Sleep, Sleep, Sleep. Then
came our own guns
with the second
brigade close behind
Going back we
followed along the
Turkish "road" following
the telegraph line, which
was comparatively easy
travelling. Through the
afternoon we caught
up with the fighting
camel corps. We were.
in a port of valley,
and looking back, what
a novel sight it was,
the slow travelling
red cross column the
batteries of guns with
their straining horses,

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short of ammunition.

Then the old major

gave the order "Fix bayonets, 

to repel the Turkish

charge. I know a queer

feeling ran through all

of us, as we lay over on

our side and wrenched

out our bayonets. There

was click, click, click

click, all along the

line as the bayonet

springs gripped fast

and looking to right

and left, among the

flash of the long bare

steel, a sort of drawn

angry look on the faces

of the men. We had

been giving and taking

death these hours and now 

10

the Turkish intention of
rushing our hill and 
getting to close quarters,
was quickly and surely
rousing the men to mad
anger. The drawing of
cold steel always does. I
looked well down the
slope of the hill. The
Turks were at the
bottom, but they had
stopped and were
furiously firing at us on
the crest. Would they
dare to climb the hill
in the face of our rifle
fire, could they ever
reach the top? We knew
the order to charge them
would be given as they
neared the top, and the
Turk, very brave man