s at the ford
by the river mouth two hours after we had taken the trenches. The
officers resisted and had to be killed. Two miles behind the river the
Lowlanders captured the whole garrison of a post near the sea, none
of whom had the slightest idea that the river had been crossed. An
officer commanding a battalion at Muannis was taken in his bed, whilst
another commanding officer had the surprise of his life on being
invited to put his hands up in his own house. He looked as if he had
just awakened from a nightmare. In one place some Turks on being
attacked with the bayonet shouted an alarm and one of the crossings
was shelled, but its position was immediately changed and the passage
of the river continued without interruption. The whole of the Turkish
system covering the river, trenches well concealed in the river
banks and in patches of cultivated land, were rushed in silence and
captured. Muannis was taken at the point of the bayonet, the strong
position at Hadrah was also carried in absolute silence, and at
daylight the whole line the Scots had set out to gain was won and the
assailants were digging themselves in. And the price of their victory?
The Scots had 8 officers and 93 other ranks casualties. They buried
over 100 Turkish dead and took 11 officers and 296 other ranks
prisoners, besides capturing ten machine guns.

The forcing of the passage of the Auja was a magnificent achievement,
planned with great ability by General Hill and carried out with that
skill and energy which the brigadiers, staff, and all ranks of the
Division showed throughout the campaign. One significant fact serves
to illustrate the Scots' discipline. Orders were that not a shot was
to be fired except by the guns and machine guns making their nightly
strafe. Death was to be dealt out with the bayonet, and though the
Lowlanders were engaged in a life and death struggle with the Turks,
not a single round of rifle ammunition was used by them till daylight
came, when, as a keen marksman said, they had some grand running-man
practice. During the day some batteries got to the north bank by way
of the ford, and two heavy pontoon bridges were constructed and a
barrel bridge, which had been put together in a wadi flowing into the
Auja, was floated down and placed in position. There was a good deal
of shelling by the Turks, but they fired at our new positions and
interfered but little with the bridge construction.

On the night of the 21st-22nd De