IN THE HOLY LAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 June 1917, Page 1

IN THE HOLY LAND.

With tha New Zealand iounteds. Trooper Alfred Ames of,. the N.Z, Mounted Rifßa, now engaged in business in Palestine, in a letter to hia father, Mr Jamas Ames of Wellington, writes chattily shout the campaign of which wh are hearing bo little, but about which rhmonr has bear, busy in England, to judge by recst t cable messagas “ yVe have just returned from Palestine (sounds funny, doesn’t it ?) after a three days’stunt in the saddle and experienced very cold weather. We crossed over the border in Palestine ct a place called Raf*, and got into good fertile country, with plenty of grass and stock it? tbs fields —a thing we lad not seen for many a long month. It was quite a treat to see decent coautry at er eo ranch Bandy defer I '. The some morning we

got into touch wivh tha Turks. They had taken up a great posit 02- —a good big hill, with trenches dug all round the bottom. We had to;snrrouud this position before our big guns opened fire. Then the word to fire was given and the bombardment started, All kinds of guns opened fire on them front the surrounding hill-tops, whilst our aeroplanes hovered overhead like hens watching their chickens, at the same time giving Monsieur Turk a few bombs. The Turks replied with machine-gun and r;fi ± firs. This lasted until 5p.m., when our mounted men

advanced on this strong position, and up went the- white flig ! The Turks are good fighters until you get near them. So long as they are in a trench they will fight like rats. We found a good many dead in the trenches, and a great many wounded. Our casualty list was not a very big one. Daring the bombardment oar troop (Wellington men) were on the side of the hill, about 1,000 yards away, and we put ■the lead in good and hard. I firod labout 70 rounds, and/the barrel of my tide bsoame quite hot with the exer* Lise it got. Only one of our troop got Ihit. I Now for a little incident which followed the capture cf this hill. About lalf-way between our position and Ihe enemy’s some of us came upon an officer’s dug-out, which had evidently belonged to . a Turkish officer. Into this several of us jumped, and were fortunate enough to discover it in a big box of battles of rum and wine, also biscuits. Although looting is forbidden we coaid not resist the temptation of having a taste, as we bad had a very hard day, and only a bit of bi-.cuit and o’neess to eat. You can imagine how a small decoction of wine did go, brides which we helped ourselves to eotne buily beef, which was slao very palatable. To wind up a very strenuous day our tjroop wob told off to escort Tutkish (with a few Geiniao) prisoner? 1 back to our lines, betwase 20 and 30 miles away. These prisoners numbsred about 1540. The Anstra'.iam

were on one side of them, and we were on fcbe other. The Turks seemed to be very poorly equipped, as regards clothing, srd some of them bad no boits at all. Oar camels carried the wounded. Some of these poor beggars must have had a very unpleasant trip, aa the camel is VBry rough to ride at the best of ‘imea, .and I dGn’t think I was ever eo tired-in my life as I was at the end of that journey- Our casualties in this action were afterwards estimated -at GOO.”