Diary of Trooper Ion Llewellyn Idriess-1917- Part 2

to send out a burial party to bury them again
’’’’ The Taubes are evidently not trying for
any iron crosses out here. They fly very high
and immediately our anti aircraft guns blaze
at them turn tail and clear out. It has
taken the English a long time to bring up 
anti aircraft guns it always does take them
a long time to do anything really sensible 
in the war game. In the beginning of the 
campaign the taubes used to do what they
liked with us for months, simply because 
the men running the show would not 
send us any anti aircraft guns. 12^th The
old Brigadier has had the whole Brigade 
lined up, and given us a hell of a lecture,
General Chetwode sent him a letter,
which said that the native population 
accused us of lifting up the clothes of their 
women, and stealing their fowls. If
this occurs again we are going to be 
sent back to guard lines of communication 
etc etc. It is all a lot of Bedouin lies
Anyway these people can do anything they 
like in the way of treachery to us, and we
cannot hit back at them. A lot of us 
think the explanation of the whole thing 
is this. We are just on the edge of
Palestine now, in exceedingly interesting
 

country. There are some famous
cities to be taken. We have got the
Turkish army running before us. Our
big generals now are all Englishmen
The English yeomanry Brigades are
always kept many miles in our rear

when any fighting is to be done, but

now that we have got the Turks 

running the big English Generals want

the Yeomanry to step in and take all 

the credit for the victorious campaign

The English are taking over everything,

they will not even let us run

our own post office, And everything

they put their clumsy hands on they

meddle up. 14^th March. Yesterday the regiment went

out to Wali Sheikh Nuran, on reconnaissance work.

That is the outpost to Shellal. The redoubts are

immensely strong, the trenches stretching for miles.

What on earth made the Turks leave such a great

position goodness only knows. It would have cost

us thousands of lives to take the place. Every little

hill is a fortress with the approaches to them

gentle rises and flats, with not a solitary stone

as cover. When I stood on top of Nuran and

for miles could see redoubts and trenches, with

the rocky hill of Shellah in the distance, I was

mighty glad the Turks had cleared out. From

Nuran they had every day watched our brigades

approach them over the flat country on

reconnaissance work, and I bet old Jacko in 

the trenches clicked his rifle bolt while waiting

for us to attack. Nuran itself is a small

hill and a Bedouin cemetery. But Jacko the 

Turk took no notice of that, dragging his winding

trenches in among the graves, and kicking the 

occupants out on the hill when they were in the 

road. Coming back we passed Raffa, and

rode over the big trenches where they had 

huddled the dead and covered them over. The

horses sank very deep in the soft loam. Curse

war. 15^th March Last night a raiding party of Turks came

to Khan Younis, rounded up flocks of sheep and

cattle, and drove them off before dawn. Of

course the Bedouins sent their Sheiks howling

to us for protection. Good luck to the 

game Jacko's who made the raid. Pity

they didn't cut the Bedouins throats while

they were at it. 19^th We are getting some wretchedly

petty rules and orders meted out to us. Each day

they bring in some petty thing that reduces us 

nearer and nearer to the level of the poor

devils of Tommies. The Tommies who follow up

behind us are treated not as men, but as

something servile that is to be kept down

with an iron hand, and yet be treated

with contempt. And at the next big battle

these same generals will be expecting us to

win them K.C.M.G's and D.S.O's. 22 March

We are in for something very big this time.

In a few hours all the troops mounted

troops move out, and in a long march

get right behind the Turks at Gaza, and

also I believe, cut the railway line. We

will be fair between and around many

thousands of Turks. The infantry will follow

us up. I wonder what the outcome will be.

24^th March We did not move out after al,l but

at half past two to morrow morning we

are moving out. The attack begins at dawn.

The Turks shelled the Third Brigade yesterday

and to day, while they were on a reconnaissance. 
The taubes were active to day. A

lot of our infantry has already moved

out. The Turks are in for a great
hiding. God help the poor devils of both

sides who are hit. 25^th March. We moved out

at 2.30 am this morning, and leaving the sea

behind us, marched over the three miles of sand-

hills and then on to the flat country towards 

Rafa. It was quite dark but soon the 

Brigade was in amongst the many little 

camp fires of Rafa, And then the nights

stillness was abruptly broken by unseen, 

peculiar noises all around us. an A

continuous squeaking and rattling,

the rattling of the caterpillar wheels of 

long lines of artillery moving along

beside us. And then in among the Tommy

artille infantry, the men in groups

among their innumerable twinkling

camp fires, having a frugal breakfast

before the long march ahead of them.

Then out again into the darkness

towards Khan Yumis, with the rumble

of artillery, and the hoarse shouts of

the ambulance men to their horses, all

around us, but unseen. Then over

Shellal the grey dawn broke, and

gradually the suns rays got warmer

and brighter, and we could see the 

columns of horsemen, of artillery and 

the long columns of infantry

marching side by side with our 

brigade, all making in the one 

direction, towards Gaza. About

10 am we pulled up at Belah 

and unsaddled. The New Zealand

Brigade was also there, and many Yeomanry.

Nothing happened for the rest of the day, until

about two hours before the sun went down.

Then the infantry began to arrive. Crowds of

us got on a little hill to watch them come

On our right was the sea. To our left for two

miles wide and about t eight long was a 

pretty grassy plain, and hemming the plain 

in to the sea was a crescent shaped line of

small hills. Right behind us, and directly facing

the advancing infantry, was the big rugged,

stern looking hill of Gaza that in so few hours was

to rain death into the khaki ranks that

now began to pour into the little plain. It 

was a grand sight, that infantry. They came 

in column upon column, brigade upon

brigade, division after division. And with

them in the vanguard were columns of 

mounted troops. And a little distance

away, travelling parallel with the other columns,
were great long columns of tra camels artillery, and 

transport and fighting  ^camel corps. And gradually

the first columns drew past us and up

the little plain towards the hill of Gaza, and 

behind them came marching columns of 

men so thick that they formed one great

mass of fighting men, British Infantry.

And behind them, stretching into the green

hills behind them until they were lost

in the great cloud of dust their tramping

feet made, were other long columns of

marching infantry. And still while 

the sun went down, the columns of

infantry still came marching out of the

dust cloud. And as if to flaunt the

sombre, grim looking hill that faced them

just a few miles away, their bands began 

to play, and the whole scene was pregnant

of majesty and power. That night we were

told we had to go out at two o'clock and

attack at dawn. And so, with the fighting

strength we had just seen that was to

work hand in hand with us, we fell

confident that we could push all Turkey

clean out of the world. And we lay down 

for the odd few hours rest before us. 27^th Mar

So much happened this day, that it would be

impossible to describe it all. I even if I was 

so inclined. Anyway the Brigade moved out

at 2.30 am, followed by other brigades, in a 

dense fog. Our part of the programme was

to get right behind Gaza, right to the sea

beach and come right round in a semi 
circle to the infantry. Gaza would thus be

completely surrounded and hemmed

into the sea. The infantry would give

us time to get to a certain point, then they

would just push in from their side and

attack. And so on through the dense fog we

went, stopping and stopping and starting

again, all in a damned miserable

ride. There was a great chance that we would

stumble on a Turkish redoubt, and a 
 

volley of rifle fire at point blank range

we expected any and every moment. But every

thing went well. and them quite suddenly, the

sun shone out, and in a few moments the fog

had cleared away, and we could see where 

we were. Away on our left were the

green clad rough hills of Gaza. And part

of the town itself hidden in among many

trees. But the hills around the town were

bare of all except grass, and the strong

redoubts of the Turks, We now started

to circle in behind Gaza to cut to the coast.

All were now listening for the first boom of

artillery, for soon the infantry would start

the attack. Then, just in front, came the familiar,

familiar crack, crack, ch crack, crack, plip, plop

plop, plop of rifles. Some Turkish patrol had 

brushed bumped our screen. The main

body halted, a couple of troops galloped

out into the firing, and in a few moments

the main body was moving on again, the 
Turkish patrol having been brushed out of

the way. Then on again for another hour,

the hills getting rougher as we neared

Gaza. Then overhead we heard that damned

old droning buzz-zz, and then the rattling

rat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, the soft lisping

zip, zip, zip zip, the little cloud of dust, but

of course long before all this we knew that

two blarsted taubes were emptying their machine

guns into us. A lot of us dismounted, and 

emptied our rifles and machine guns into them,

so that immediately the taubes rose higher

and higher and finally flew away, but

all through the morning they continually

came back with their machine guns, but as

they kept very high above us we took

mighty little notice of them. We were

all wondering why the bombardment was

so slow in starting. What was the delay 

in the attack. And then "Boom!"  A rushing,

tearing scream that grew and grew and 

ended "Crash!". A column of thick black smoke

and earth jumped from the ground and

spread out fanwise in f  only a

hundred yards in front of our nearest

troop. Fragments of the high explosive shell

splinters whined through the air and

hit the ground "thud". So it was "we" who 

were going to get shelled the first. It

was a splendid ranging shot. In front

of us was a plain two miles wide, with

not the slightest cover. I expected that

we would get hell in crossing that

flat such a great target as we were.

"We" formed into artillery formation, so that

the shells would do as little damage as

possible in case of a hit, and then at a

smart canter went across the flat for the

shelter of some small hills two miles away. 

"Boom". Instead of bursting amongst us, as

the ranging shot had let us to expect, the 

shell whistled clean overhead and

burst close to some yeomanry some four

hundred yards behind us. And all away

across the flat the shells burst well

behind us, mostly amongst the poor 

beggars of yeomanry. One direct hit

got one of their officers and eleven men.

Poor devils. Arrived behind the hills, we

pulled up and leisurely went across

another flat to some high hills along the 

beach. We could now see plainly a large

portion of Gaza, its white minarets

peeping among the trees which grow thickly

at least on this side of the town. We

reached the hills near the beach and

had then completely cut the Turks off

from retreat. About this time some

seventh L. Horse chaps brought in two of

the funniest little coaches I have ever

seen, each drawn by a pair of sweating

little ponies. The coaches held the Turkish

camp commodant with his staff, and 

riding around the coach was a picturesquely 
attired drab bodyguard. It appears that