TO HIS MOTHER.

I will use a spare hour to begin an account of our doings since I last
wrote, but I don't know when I shall be able to finish it, still less
when post it.

We left B. last Thursday morning and were told we should march sixteen
miles: we marched up the right bank, so our left flank was exposed to
the desert, and "D" Company did flank guard. My platoon formed the
outer screen and we marched strung out in single file. There were
cavalry patrols beyond us again, and anyway no Arab could come within
five miles without our seeing him, so our guarding was a sinecure.

We paraded as soon as it was light, at 7.15 a.m., but owing to the
transport delays, the column did not start till after 9.0. The
transport consists of: (a) ships and barges; (b) carts, mules and
camels. Each has its limitations. Ships tie you to the river-bank, so
every column must have some land transport. Camels can hardly move
after rain: they slip and split themselves. The carts are fearfully
held up by the innumerable ditches which are for draining the floods
back to the river. There are not nearly enough mules to go round and
they only carry 160lbs. each. So you can imagine our transport
difficulties. The country supplies neither food, fodder nor fuel. Our
firewood comes from India. If you leave the river you must carry every
drop of drinking water. So the transport line was three times as long
as the column itself, and moved more slowly.

Our new Brigadier turned up and proved to be a pleasant, sensible kind
of man, looking rather like Lord Derby. Having just come from France,
he keeps quite cool whatever we encounter. (P.S. We have had a new
Brigadier since this one, I haven't yet seen the present one.)

The march was slow and rough, as most of the ground was hard-baked
plough. The country was as level and bare as a table, bar the ditches,
and we hardly saw a human being all day. It took us till after 4 p.m.
to do our sixteen miles. About 2 p.m. we began to hear firing and see
shrapnel in the distance, and it soon became clear that we were
approaching a big battle. Consequently we had to push on beyond our
sixteen miles, and went on till Sunset. By this time we were all very
footsore and exhausted. The men had had no food since the night
before, the ration-cart having stuck in a ditch; and many of the
inexperienced ones had brought nothing with them. My leg held out
wonderfully well, and in fact has given me no trouble worth spea