Diary of Trooper Ion Llewellyn Idriess-1917- Part 4

gardens of fig trees, and every where troops, troops
troops, Australian Light. Horse, New Zealand Mounted
Rifles, mounted Yeomanry, and British infantry,
some at camp for a few hours, others going to and
coming from the firing line. And just such a
little distance away, is the crackle of rifle fire and
the stutter of machine guns. Men are dying close
by on this beautiful morning, men are writhing
in agony on the bright green grass of the Holy Land,
Neither side are attacking, a just having breathing 
time and gathering their strength in fresh reinforcements 
for the great struggle that is shortly to
come. Our infantry failed in their attacks, but only on
the English generals are to blame. No doubt they have
their reasons for their different movements, but those
reasons lost the day, for the time being at least.
And now many more men must die before
we take Gaza. And to think a that an Australian
Brigade and the New Zealand Brigade, just a
thin, thin, scattered line of fierce fighting men,
got right in behind Gaza, right in up into the
house through the park and into the houses of
the town, tore two guns from the Turks and in
random play turned them down a street of
the town, and laughed to see the guns jump in
the air when fired, it makes a man cry tears
of blood. Just a few scattered little groups
of men, right into the vitals of the Turks
routing them, getting within close rifle range

of their big guns which we could see firing and
spreading death through the ranks of the Tommies.
But it was too late, darkness came on the order
came to retire. What a sneer of fate it was that
that fog came in the morning and delayed
all operations. But two more short hours of
daylight, and Gaza would have been ours. 3^rd
April. Yesterday the anti aircraft guns had some
great blazing away at the tanks. One in particular 
was very daring, circling again and
again over our great camp, with the
shrapnel puffs in circles bursting all around
her. But she made off at great speed when
one of our fighting planes came straight at
her. It is very seldom we see one of our
machines go for a taube. I think the
taubes must have greater speed, or something
superior in their fighting powers to the great
majority of our machines, even yet. This
morning we had the practical result of
the taubes visit. Our camp is on a hill by the
six beach, and to the south spread the
hills and big flats on which rest the
great flat. Just at breakfast time the
Turkish guns began to speak, and over
the flat above an infantry and artillery
camp burst shrapnel And now our
guns are replying and an artillery 

duel is in progress. And yet there is great
wrath in our camp, because we have to
polish up our stirup irons and bits, which
have been through all service for nearly
three years now, and never yet been polished, 
just because our big English general
says we look nicer and more efficient
with all our accoutrements nice and
bright. And we are sitting on our rumps
cleaning rusty stirrup irons, and cursing
and looking down on the flat where the
bursting shrapnel takes the life from our
men, and bitterly wondering and wondering
if England really does want to win the
war. And Gaza has developed into a
great sit down battle with so far the
luck greatly to the Turkish side. Gaza
should have been shattered in one day.
In the next big attack we have got
two great surprises for the Turks, and
Gaza must fall, but Gaza should
have fallen long ago with a third of the
casualties which it has already cost. And
the guns are speaking, speaking, and we
are cleaning stirrup irons. 5^th We saw a copy
of the Egyptian Gazette to-day. In great big headlines
read Defeat of 20,000 Turks near at "Gaza" etc etc
Why can't the English speak the truth. How 

can we believe what our papers say of the
victories in France, when we see such an
account as this of a battle in which we took part.
We know that it was no victory. If the people
at home were only told the full truth of our
victories and reverses, they would understand
that this is verily a war to the death, and that if
we do not win we must go under. 6^th Our
section has been split up, Stan, Morry, Bert
and I scattered all over the troop. We have
been close mates for many months, fought
side by side and now in the g opening
phases of a great battle our off bastards of
officers separate us. 6^th It appears now that
the Tommies lost a great many of their officers
machine guns during the attack. Forty two
is supposed to be the number. That is an
awful loss,.... Strange that the Taubes are
never hit by our anti aircraft guns. Goodness
knows how many pounds sterling are thrown
into the sky every day by our gunners, and
yet I have never seen a taube hit. The
guns are modern and very powerful but the
taubes are never brought down. 7^th March
No doubt they are rubbing the dirt into us
four. The sergeant has just detailed me to do
a weeks guard duty down at the dump, "because
I am sick", he says. Just when the new attack is 

coming off. It is a dirty sort of way of driving a
man from the regiment. 8^th March. There are fourteen 
of us on this job. We are camped away
from the regiment, and are preventing the
Bedouin men and women and children from
robbing the stacks of grain. This morning there
were two hundred of them all attempting to
rush the big stacks of grain. They would
come from all sides. While we were driving
off one lot, fifty others would be among
the stacks behind us, ripping up the grain
sacks and carrying off the grain as fast as
their legs and arms would let thm. And
these are the people that the British
commander is so anxious to protect and
penalises us rough brutal Australians in
doing it. They snipe our wounded and dig
up our dead and steal everything they can lay
their hands on. But far worse than this they
are spies. They spy for the Turks and Turkish
and German spies dress up in their clothes
and are at perfect liberty to wander all
through the camp. These grain dumps are
what our horses are depending on if we
get in a tight corner. If we are cut off
out in front and anything happens to our
grain supplies, then these dumps must he
used. But a great many of the bottom bays
have been slit open and their contents stolen 

by these Bedouins. So the bags will be
empty, and our horses, already on short
rations, in case of dire in necessity will
starve, and that will mean the loss of
thousands of horses and men. And yet we
are warned to leave all Bedouins strictly
alone. We are knocking these thieves about a
bit and that is keeping them back a little.
We won't see possible starvation and
disaster brought to our horses for all the
English generals in the world, not if we
can help it. This is a great camp a grand
camp. Last night I stood on a bit of a
hill, and looked over the low bare hills
and flats towards the sea. And all was a
myriad of camp fires, like a blaze of the stars
of heaven much enlarged, bright little fires
everywhere the twinkling of the camp fires
of a great army. And strange, all just
within reach of the Turkish guns. This
morning one of the usual lovely mornings
of Palestine, as far as the eye can see are
groups of many thousands of horses of
mules, many batteries of artillery scattered
everywhere, many motor tractors and
armored cars, and aeroplanes and strings
of thousands upon thousands of camels, and
great camps of men, and the sea, and
very close against the sand hills of the shore 

stick up the funnels and masts of the little
steamboats that bring us supplies and close
by the the railway that has followed us
all across the desert and into the HolyLand
with such marvellous speed, and near
the sea shore the oasis and big water
pond of Belah, with its many watering
troughs, and there are many, many other
things beside, and over all the great
floating cloud of fine dust that is made
by the intricate movement of a great army.
Where only a few days ago were bright
green fields and hills is now dust, dust,
dust. And just a few, few miles away
are the Turks, and the unbroken redoubts of Gaza
But now we no longer look on our
grand army as invincible. Take Gaza we
know we b will, and I suppose Beersheba
and Jerusalem too. But what will be the
cost. The Turk held our army back at
Gaza, and now he has been reinforced
by many more thousands of fighting men
and he has had precious days in which
to strengthen his redoubts and build new
ones. Smash him up we will, but it
should have been done in the first day. The
Tommies tell us that one of their Brigades
lost all its machine guns, forty two is 

supposed to be the number. If old
Jacks turns those guns on us, together
with his own then he will be a hard nut
to crack without a doubt. Oh for just
two more short hours of daylight on
that first short day. Verily Allah must
have stood by his Turks when he
brought down the heavy, dense fog that
lasted so long. And to think of the poor
little Tommies marching steadily, without
one waver up that terrible slope of Ali
Mentar through hell all in vain. 9^th This
old day is going the same as the others, slow
and monotonous. It is pretty miserable
now that Stan and Morry and I are split
up, 9^th or 10^th March. The dump has been shifted now to
Rail Head. There do not appear to be any Bedouin thieves
here yet. When the grain stacks were removed
yesterday there were a great many bags empty, the
bags having been ripped open and the contents
stolen. Some of the ASC chaps told me that when
the grain waggons were passing through Khan
Junns, the Bedouins used to run alongside and
rip open the bags with their knives, the contents
of course falling out as the waggon went
along. Things got so bad that they had to drive
clear of the village altogether. Now what would
the Germans do to a hostile population like that
Instead of the English gloved hand it 

would be the German mailed fist with a
vengeance. And it is the fist that wins the war
not milk and water methods. About 11^th March. These A
S.C chaps have splendid jobs and no mistake.
One lot camped next us yesterday, and I heard the
men grumbling because they might not get their tents
erected in time to sleep in that night. Great Caesar
Great Caesar! Sleep in tents. They all have the best
of tucker, plenty of it and mostly there are niggers
hanging round their camps to do odd jobs for a bit
of mungaree. They have none of the weary, weary
night jobs, the long spells of bully beef and biscuit,
and the long, deadly wearying sides of the ordinary
soldier. Also they are free from all accursed
regimental business which is the worst of the lot.
There is a rumble of guns out in front and
the rattle of rifle fire. 12^th March. There was heavy
rifle fire out in front last night. This morning the
ambulance brought in some wounded. Early this
morning the taubes bombed our aviation tents at
Rafa, killing some of our men and wounding others.
Two bombs were dropped on our aviation camp
a little distance away, but though fragments of
a bomb blew through a tent, no damage was
done. ... There is an odd rumble of guns out in front.
13^th Last night there was very heavy bombing on
the trenches at Gaza. Though we don't know for
certain, we put it down to our aeroplanes 

getting more than even for the bombing of
Rafa. ... All day long there has been odd gun
fire, rifle fire out in front, the usual
mounted patrols chasing enemy patrols, and
of course in the air the nearly always
present taube, with the long trail of
shrapnel puffs from our anti aircraft guns
following it up. The taubes are very game
now, and don't appear to take much
notice of our anti aircraft guns. 14^th
This morning I was lying nicely under my old
blanket, half asleep and half awake, waiting
for the usual energetic cuss to finish cooking
the breakfast, when dinly Boo-oo-oom! and
three seconds after an ever increasing, increasing
"Wheeze-ze-ze-ze-ze-ze-ze "Crash!" and the
whine of flying fragments of high explosive shell
very close. Naturally I got out of bed and put
my boots on. Then she came again, the deep
echoing boom, the crescendo scream of the
nearing shell, the tearing crash, the great
cloud of thick black smoke and earth, the
whistling past of fragments of a big high
explosive shell. Then she came again. Old
Jacks had a big gun trained right on the
very heart of our camp. Now right where
we are is rail head, surrounded by great
stacks of food stuffs and horse fodder, Here