h and Katia was the best, and enjoyed
a Napoleonic tradition, but naval co-operation made its defence easy. A
central track ran from El Audjo at the end of the main Palestine railway
embankment to Bir Hassana, and might be used against Ismailia. A
southerly approach was possible through Akaba and Nekl, and thence by
the main pilgrims' road, the Darb El Haj, to Suez.

The Division was now to be employed in creating some of the new posts of
defence, by which all such dreams of attack were to be dispelled. The
strategy was passive, but it paved the way for the offensive undertaken
in the ensuing summer.

On the bitterly cold night of the 1st February 1916 we left Mena. Before
noon on the 2nd we reached Shallufa sidings. In the evening we crossed
the Canal, and bivouacked in gathering darkness on a desert site known
later as Shallufa Camp. The days of rest were over.

CHAPTER X

ON THE SUEZ CANAL

During February of this year the Battalion was engaged upon an inner
line of works within easy walking distance of the Canal. A semicircular
outpost line, which covered these works and the Brigade camp, was
occupied nightly, but there was no real danger of attack. Beyond the
outpost line a distant screen of posts, whose names recalled Lancashire,
were in course of construction.

Life under such conditions gave no scope for ideas. The men did set
tasks as fatigue work. There was no tactical training. Gangs drew a
chain ferry to and fro across the Canal, while Lieutenant A.N. Kay acted
as wharfmaster. Several days were given to moving camp a few hundred
yards north or south within a small area. Two detached posts were held
at this period. One far out among the rolling sandhills, skilfully laid
out by Captain A.H. Tinker, was known for a week or two as Ardwick, and
then abandoned. Another, very ably commanded by Captain C. Norbury, was
the far more fascinating blockhouse known as Gurkha Post, noted for its
bathing, fishing and agreeable remoteness from staff officers. It was
delightful to ride out from Shallufa camp along a track called "the
pilgrims' way" to so charming a spot for a swim in the Canal and
pleasures impossible on the dust-swept desert. A few hundred yards to
the north, a little white tower called Lonesome Post long flaunted in
red paint the Battalion's name and motto for the edification of passing
liners. What have become of like devices that were once deep cut on the
scarped cliff of Bruce's Ravine on