not done
sufficient fighting for one War, left to give a hand to their comrades in
France, as did the 74th, still acting as infantry, and all the remaining
divisions sent at least one brigade; large numbers of cavalry and artillery
also went overseas. Practically all the summer, therefore, was devoted to
re-organising the forces and training the levies from India. The principle
adopted in the infantry was to brigade one British battalion to every three
Indian battalions right through the divisions; and this acted very well
indeed, for the white troops provided just that leaven of steadiness
lacking in the young Indians. In the cavalry much the same principle was
adopted, but the artillery first tried the experiment of employing
Egyptians as drivers in the ammunition-waggon teams, retaining the British
drivers for the guns.

For a time all went well with the training of these Egyptians, until, as a
test of their efficiency, night operations were ordered, which included a
dash into a wadi and out the other side. This effort produced what can only
be described as a "shemozzle": horses, waggons, and men piled themselves up
in a hopeless tangle at the bottom of the wadi, and the night operations
came to an abrupt end. In the searching inquiry which followed it was
discovered by the medical authorities that less than twenty-five per cent.
of these Egyptians could see clearly at night, a further twenty-five per
cent. were stone-blind after sunset, and of the remainder, the most that
could be said was that they could just see in the dark and that was all!
When the weeding-out process was completed the British personnel returned
as lead-drivers; Indians were added to make up the numbers, and this
curious mixture acted satisfactorily.

A remarkable feature of the spring and summer was the gradual rise to power
of the Royal Air Force, culminating in complete supremacy over the Turks
immediately before and during the autumn campaign. Presumably a ship had at
last arrived with adequate machines, for all through the summer
long-distance bombing raids were undertaken with conspicuous success; and
for the first time our planes "had the wings" of the Turks. One great raid
was carried out after a report had been received that three German
divisions were on their way south from Constantinople to reinforce the
Turk. The trains containing two of the divisions were almost completely
destroyed before they reached Damascus; the third division