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machine guns should go forward to give covering fire, and, supported
by the Berks battery R.H.A. from a good position half a mile west
of the railway, the Bucks Hussars were to deliver a mounted attack
against the hill, with the assistance on their left of two squadrons
of Berks Yeomanry. The Dorset Yeomanry were moved up to the red hill
of Melat into support.

At seven o'clock the attack started, the 22nd Mounted Brigade
operating on foot on the left. The Bucks Hussars, taking advantage of
all the dead ground, galloped about a mile and a half until they came
to a dip behind a gently rising mound, when, it being clear that the
enemy held the whole ridge in strength, Colonel Cripps signalled to
Brigade Headquarters at Melat for support. The Dorset Yeomanry moved
out to the right of the Bucks, and the latter then charged the hill a
little south of the village and captured it. It was a fine effort. The
sides of the hill were steep with shelves of rock, and the crest was a
mass of stones and boulders, while from some caves, one or two of them
quite big places, the Turks had machine guns in action. When the Bucks
were charging there was a good deal of machine-gun fire from the
right, but the Dorsets dealt with this very speedily, assisted by the
Berks battery which had also moved forward to a near position from
which they could command the ridge in flank. A hostile counter-attack
developed against the Dorsets, but this was crushed by the Berks
battery and some of the 52nd Division's guns. Two squadrons of the
Berks Yeomanry in the meantime had charged on the left of the Bucks
and secured the hill immediately to the south-east of Abu Shushe
village, and at nine o'clock the whole of this strong position was
in our hands, the brigade having sustained the extremely slight
casualties of three officers and thirty-four other ranks killed and
wounded. So small a cost of life was a wonderful tribute to good and
dashing leading, and furnished another example of cavalry's power when
moving rapidly in extended formation. To the infinite regret of the
brigade, indeed of the whole of General Allenby's Army, one of the
officers killed that day was the Hon. Neil Primrose, an intrepid
leader who, leaving the comfort and safety of a Ministerial
appointment, answered the call of duty to be with his squadron of the
Bucks Hussars. He was a fine soldier and a favourite among his men,
and he died as a good cavalryman would wish, shot through t