IN THE DESERT.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 October 1916, Page 10

IN THE DESERT.

IXCJDEXTS OK Till': FKMITJ'XO. In :i letter to liis lather, dated August S, Trooper Cliff. Tate says:— .Our c;in)j) (you will lmve to guess the innio of it), is about 25 miles east of the Canal, and four to five miles from the eoast. The railhead here is more or less surrounded hy a cluster of camps, inhabited by the different regiments, of which there are a great number There are the New Zealanders, Australians, English Yeomanry and Mounted, with Scotch an<l English infantry and artillery, making a fair number, and you can imagine it is busy. Before the slap-up there must have been 3000 camels in use, but now there are many more.

l'or some tinie we have been more or less in touch with Turks, the strength of whom we were in ignorance. (The letter then closes for the time and is continued on Sunday, the 13th, five days later). Whilst writing' the letter we were called out at ten minutes! notice. Q , six miles distant, was occupied by the Turks 011 the morning of the 3rd, so that we were more or less ready for his attack, which came at 1 a.m. on. the 4th (a Friday, and a favorite day with the Turks). Of course, we have a circle of outer defences, but, as might have been expected, Joe attacked at the most unlikely and weakest place. At 4 a.m. our brigade' was rushed out to the first line of defence, where we found bullets and shrapnel already flying, and, to aid in our disoomforture, three aeroplanes were doing their best to blow up everything, by playing eye-drop with bombs. At this stage our particular little eamp was getting "beans," and it was lucky that we came out when we did. Quite a number left in camp were hit. Joe was attacking very vigorously, and at about 10 a.m. we dropped back to another ridf,>, wlieTe our position was consolidated. 'Up to now the regiment had taken no part in the firing, but wo here left our horses and took up our position in one long line of defence.

Canterbury and Auckland regiments from D here came in touch aiul connected with our Hank, having on tlhe way cut oir and taken prisoner 5(00 Turks. The Wellington Regiment had on their right the Royal Scots, Australian Light Horse, Yeomanry, more Australians, then the Auckland and Canterbury boys. On the left were tlie Tommies, in this position we hung on all day, being ■ ably .supported by the artillery, who, of course, had the range off "pat." The railhead and different camps were being heavily shelled and bombed, while 011 the other hand a monitor from the coast was playing "old Harry" with the Joes on our left front, l.ate in the afternoon we seemed to have .loc's measure. The night was ratfher "V|iiict, and we had time to occasionally close our eyes for short stretches.

At -h a.m. word iwas passed along that there was to be a general advance, and immediately afterwards, with fixed bayonets and in a long line, followed by supports, we left our cover. A short stretch was gained, and we lay low for a spell, while bullets and shells screamed over us. Then on again. Our regiment, and our squadron in particular, were taking an important part, and there is no doubt that generally it was the Mounted's day out. We had some 1000 yards to cover. With a whoop and a yell we had gained the lirst ridge. Contrary to expectations, though, Joe would not show light, and it was simply a case of yarding them up in hundreds. Then our horses were, brought up and our regiment had several hours' real sport. We had split up into somewhat small bands, and in one particular instance had rather a let-oil". Some eight of us were eyes out after a batch of '2O Turks with several camels and an officer in charge, w'hen over a ridge we came slap-bang almost on top of a battery of guns, supported by a fairly large party. Luckily they were as much surprised as we were, and, although they opened lire at point-blank range, none of our fellows was hit We managed to cut oil' the party with the camels, but the officer beat us by a neck. The camels, four in number, were carrying the officer's goods and chattels, and he must have been some "I'," as one of our chaps who escorted the camels to camp "t.'uck among other thing a real iron cross, a Khedive star (the latter being an important Turkish decoration), dress suits and uniforms, which showed tlhe enemy were confident of getting right through. According to prisoners' stories, this camp was supposed to be mostly of the dummy order, that is, a number of unoccupied tents for the purpose of appearing stronger than we were, and, in consequence, the strength was much un-der-estimated. They were led to believe that they would be held up perhaps for a couple of hours.

At 2 o'clock the different mounted brigades were massed and sent forward or Q . It was really a grand sight t6 see the different regiments manoeuvring to get into position at the gallop, and, carried away by the excitement of the moment, one felt like throwing one's hat into the air and yelling. The Australians on our flank went through one grove. Q consists merely of several groves of palms. It was at one time a large village. We had a stiff proposition in front of us, and dismounted for action at some distance. Our other flank made good, but a portion of out line was strongly held back, and we could not get into position for a decisive assault. With artillery playing on our horses and machine guns, and shrapnel sweeping our front, we hung oft till G o'clock. The wood on our front was simply lined with} machUnienguns, some 30 at least, and they spat out to some tune. The Yeomanry on our left were forced to 'retire, and this rather upset the apple-cart, and when 7 o'clock arrived we had to give up all hope of taking Q that night, and, under cover of darkness, we returned to our horses and made camp. We were all too tired to even sleep that night. We had been going eyes out for 48 hours under extreme circumstances with practically no water all day, and for myself I could not have bested a kiddie that night. On Sunday we were given a spell, Q ,by the way, was entered 'by our infantry unopposed at 1 p.m., the enemy making a well-planned and carelul retreat. They had on their way down to us evidently prepared for a retreat, as the country east was well prenarcd with defences.

U]> to this stage the regiment had remarkably few casualties, narrow escapes being the worst order of the day. Many horses were lost. J unearthed a bullet from the front of iny saddle blanket, which is six-fold. We-received Word that our brigade were to have two days' spell, the Turks in the meantime still moving away, having left Q to our men at 11 a.m. on the 7th. Then at the usual short notice everything went by I the board. On Tuesday morning our

troop went forward a.s an escort to a camel convoy with provisions for the advancing troops. Our squadron and 'regiment followed on with the brigade that evening, and continued on to .Hi vol A , where another of our brigades iwas in hot grips with .loey already. The X'ew Zealanders lost rather heavily that day, Wednesday. On Thursday our section, which had been attached temporarily to the A.S.C. as escort, went out to the front line with a convoy. In anticipation of "something doing" we worked an exchange with four tired chaps, and stayed with our squadron. We were out all day Friday, but no serious action took place. The Turks are again on the move, and there is no telling what may turn up next. Ido not think Joey will tackle the job again unless he receives reinforcements from 11 . Then he may sweep round and attack us from some other place. Dave Webster and Sid. James have both been wounded, but not seriously. I have several trophies, which are too big to post. At one place where wo captured a supply depot we unearthed seme splendid' niealie (like Ciennina), and a curious kind of fruit. Both were very acceptable and palatable. I am feeling O.K. now after our short spell.