COLONIALS AT SINAI.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 March 1917, Page 3

COLONIALS AT SINAI.

OCCUPATION OF EL ARISH. The following letter received from Lieutenant C. J. Pearce, of Stratford, deals interestingly with the work or the New Zealanders on Sinai Peninsula. To-day I am doing aerial observation, that is' I am perched on the highest sandhill in the vicinity keeping my eyes skinned for hostile planes which have been most unwelcome in their atten* tions since our arrival here. Tliey have favored us with some moonlight visits disturbing our peaceful slumbers at scandalous hours. Below us to the north, across a narrow sirip of beach, lies the Mediterranean, brillintly beautiful with hue of indigo blue, with just the slightest suggestion of a. swell, and her rollers beating themselves to foam on the golden sands. A day of peace and quiet that is liable at any moment to be shattered by the crash of guns and bursting bombs, a day one of nature's masterpieces, too good to be spoiled by war. To the east and west and south stretches the illimitable sands of the Sinai, their monotony broken here and there by clusters of palms of richest emerald. To the east, in the middle distance, lies the village of El Arish in a sandy hollow, quiet and sleepy in the sunshine, the spire of the mosque rising straight and clear above the sand dunes. You will have seen by the papers that we occupied the village unopposed. For some time we had been working up to it near enough to strike a blow and get the whole force, and the Turks had been steadily reinforcing and we expected a good fight,, but 011 the l!)th December word came in that the enemy were evacuating, and p. flying column of mounted troops was sent ftoward to- try and pin the enemy to the ground till the infantry came up or to cut off the rear parties, so we made a rapid night march and occupied El Arish ■at dawn, but found the enemy had got clear away. The enemy had constructed fire trenches and redoubts of mud bricks in good positions. The country round the town is low, soft sandhills, but the position generally is not adaptable for defence except bv a very large force, which the enemy had not. Ilis force there was estimated at about

7000. The Tillage is the usual native type, but it' a good deal cleaner than most we have experienced ic , Egypt, •flie people seem a better class, except as regards "backsheesh," and in that respect are as bad as their brethren we have met 'hitherto. The population to-day is only a few hundreds, but in peace time is between 5000 and 6000. STORY OF THE BATTLE. On December 22 word came in that about 'JOOO Turks were entrenched at Magdhaba about 25 miles down the Wadi El Arisli, so, perforce, the mounted troops were despatched to clear it up. The Wadi is a broad dry river bed once occupied by what was known as the "River of Egypt," but now only contains ■ water during rainy seasons, one of which we have just had. We made the customary night inarch (night marches save the horses, avoid hostile aircraft observation, and give us a full day to fight- in) and reached our objective just after daylight. The position looked rather a formidable one consisting of a few low sand ridges in a wide plain, with a ridge of inaccessible mountains on the southern side. The enemy had established himself on the sand ridges, bvit owing to excellent engineer - ill" it was impossible to locate his trendies and redoubts with accuracy for our artillery, so we were unable to get full support from it. The enemy had two batteries, and these our guns soon silenced. We started in on foot across a flat as level as a table and worked up to the first ridge The battle progressed all day sr.d the '.roips on the flanks pushed i" and by 4 p.ni. we were ready to deliver the final charge, which we did, and as eooii as the bayonets started flashing Joe threw in the towel. The position was very strong, great earthworks being thrown ub and moiu under construction; also reservoirs of water. We returned to camp that night bringing our prisoners and spoil. Since them we have been camped on thL sea beach.

On the 24tli it started raining and kept going fir a fortnight, and tilings were very miserable. We had only light bivouacs that we erected ourselves and more often than not we got flooded out at night, as it knows how to rain aT.d blow' here; How\ver, the weather is £00(1 again, and we are enjoying the benefits of sea bathing. THE FIGHT AT "RAFA. Early in January the rumor went, round that another "stunt" was in view, and 011 the Bth we left for Kafa, "0 miles away, on the border. We rode it that night arriving jus., before daw,. As the sun rose we found we were on u wide cultivated plain peopled by the true Bedouins living in those vents we used to see in pictures. Into these tents crowd the family and all the stock that can get ill, so imagine the sweet (?) aromas. They are a wild untamed race, armed to the teeth with the most villainous looking weapons, and would shoot one for a shirt. As a matter of fact one of our boys who wandered away to investigate by himself w.ib killed by them and his hor=e stolen. Wo rounded up a lot of the men and held them as hostages while the light went on. We found the lurks nad occupied the only hill on the plain ami were firmly entrenched. 'I he hill had fine easy slopes with good fields of (ire, and'we had practically no cover to advance under, the force holding it was estimated at 1500, but proved to be 20(10. Anyway we pushed in, but progress was very slow, and at midday we captured an Assyrian officer who told us that 4000 reinforcements- were l on their way up. and at 3.30 p.in. these caw into view about eight mil away. The force generally had i , jgresseu as it ought to hive d' " a. J it was thought, in the face o' - new troops who "far outnumbcrc' • .'. isable to retire, so the order (■' gr.en, but the New Zealauders wre (.jo-e up to the trenches and .it ' -charged and carried trend' ■'Nf at t,le ' )n - v ' onet'.-i poi.j rig * to the crest. This 1 aced mos' of me posilion at oiu j l orev, » rr ' -" 1 other troons came back lid th<* If l position was won, thanks >[ f t], jiifieent dash of the MaoriI „ders. was a great piece of work in o'f of the strong position and (lie of our force. It is the strongest position I have seen since the Dardanelles, but the attribute of our success is that the Turks are thoroughly afraid of the cavalry who can fight so | well on foot.

PALESTINE ENTERED. The nearest enemy are now about 45 miles away so we shall probably have a quiet time tor a month till the railway pushes on. In this light we were the first troops to enter Palestine nnu

indications point to us penetrating still I further. Who knows, perhaps we shall j start on another crusade, the last and greatest of them all. Our casualties were heavier than we have experienced for some time, but considering the fierceness of the fight we got off remarkably light. Our artillery rendered great assistance and the aeroplanes distinguished themselves by flying very low and dropping bombs in the. enemy trenches. Just before we charged every rifle and machine gun opened life and the tops of the enemy trenches were just a smoking mass and not a Turk could lift his head and when we reached than we found the Joes crouching down like whipped puppies. Hostile aeroplanes kept dropping bombs all day trying to get our horses, but owing to the height they kept, up they did no damage. The reinforcements did not come up that night adn next day the Australians went out and rounded up a lot of their outposts and dispersed cavalry, aiid the enemy did a most, unsoldierly bunk. The boys and horses are well'and in great fettle, but there is much hard work ahead and we have yet to find the enemy in his strongest positions and in strong force. EUGBY UNION'S REGARD. The Rugby Union has sent the boys ft fine outfit of jersc-ys and pants and I can see them just below me going out to play in their new finery. We wish to express our greatest thanks for this thoughtfulness, for whenever New Zea■landers settle down it is not long before the leather is being kicked about. You may depend upon it that the amber and black won't be disgraced, for we have '■' some" team here. They are "tres inoutarde." The Jlaorilanders are the latest thing about in Rugby, and we have played every one we could and licked them all.