he Western Desert in 1916,[1] and having suffered from the
white arm once those misguided Arabs never gave the cavalry another
chance of getting near them. The Bucks and Berks, too, had taken part
in that swift and satisfactory campaign. All three regiments on the
following day were to make another charge, this time on one of the
most famous sites in the battle history of Palestine. The 6th Mounted
Brigade moved no farther on the day of Mughar because the 22nd Mounted
Brigade, when commencing an attack on Akir, the old Philistine city of
Ekron, were counter-attacked on their left. During the night, however,
the Turks in Akir probably heard the full story of Mughar, and did not
wait long for a similar action against them. The 22nd Mounted Brigade
drove them out early next morning, and they went rapidly away across
the railway at Naaneh, leaving in our hands the railway guard of
seventy men, and seeking the bold crest of Abu Shushe. They moved, as
I shall presently tell, out of the frying-pan into the fire.

[Footnote 1: _The Desert Campaigns_: Constable.]

The 155th Infantry which helped to finish up the Mughar business took
a gun and fourteen machine guns. Then with the remainder of the 52nd
Division it had a few hours of hard-earned rest. The Division had had
a severe time, but the men bore their trials with the fortitude of
their race and with a spirit which could not be beaten. For several
days, when water was holding up the cavalry, the Lowlanders kept ahead
of the mounted troops, and one battalion fought and marched sixty-nine
miles in seven days. Their training was as complete as any infantry,
even the regimental stretcher-bearers being taught the use of Lewis
guns, and on more than one occasion the bearers went for the enemy
with Mills bombs till a position was captured and they were required
to tend the wounded. A Stokes-gun crew found their weapon very useful
in open warfare, and at one place where machine guns had got on to a
large party of Turks and enclosed them in a box barrage, the Stokes
gun searched every corner of the area and finished the whole party.
The losses inflicted by the Scots were exceptionally severe. Farther
eastwards on the 13th, the 75th Division had also been giving of
its best. The objective of this Division was the important Junction
Station on the Turks' Jaffa-Jerusalem railway, and a big step forward
was made in the early afternoon by the overcoming of a stubborn
resistance at Mesmiy