Turkish defences, if one position was
captured it could immediately be enfiladed from another portion; and very
little was left to chance to make the place secure.

The 74th Division attacked the eastern and more vulnerable end first, and
with such amazing elan did they fight--and it was all the more remarkable
in that these troops were dismounted Yeomanry--that by the early afternoon
they had swept the Turks out of their trenches in this part of Kauwukah,
and were firmly established in what remained of the position. At the other
end of the ridge two more divisions were fighting towards a maze of wire,
which was rapidly being uprooted by the accurate and devastating fire of
our artillery. This was the heaviest bombardment of the battle; some of the
Turkish trenches were simply swept out of existence, and the defenders
irretrievably buried in the debris. One of the attacking divisions was
Irish, who as a pleasing change from road-making in that malarial hole,
Salonica, gave of their best with the bayonet, in which bright pastime they
were capably aided and abetted by the 60th Division. It is the fashion to
speak of successful military operations as being carried out "like
clockwork." If extreme dash and gallantry in the face of every obstacle
that brain of man could devise constitute the "clockwork," then the attack
that led to the capture of Kauwukah Ridge merits the above description.

I cannot write of the attack as an eye-witness but, months afterwards, I
saw the Turkish system of defences, and little imagination was needed to
picture the terrible struggle it must have been to take them by storm.

Late in the afternoon the two divisions had captured all their objectives
as far as, and including, Sheria railway-station. On the right flank, too,
where success was no less important, the troops had done their share; and
here in the hills north of Beersheba the fighting was terribly severe. It
is one thing to attack with numbers at least equal, if not superior, to
those of the enemy; it is quite another when the advantage of numbers lies
heavily with the enemy, and the attack has still to be made. This was the
predicament in which the Welshmen found themselves; they had not only to
prevent themselves from being cut off, but had to drive a vastly superior
force out of commanding positions they had taken, and not all the hammering
of the Turks could oust them permanently. It was attack and counter-attack
from one hill to a