ards
a defile, but rallied and came back, though when it reoccupied its
former line the Londoners had reached a point to enfilade it, and it
suffered heavily. We soon got this position, and then our troops,
ascending some spurs, poured a destructive fire into the defile and so
harassed the Turks re-forming for a counterattack as to render feeble
their efforts to regain what they had lost.

By eight o'clock we had taken the whole of the Talat ed Dumm position,
and long-range sniping throughout the day did not disturb our secure
possession of it. Immediately the heights were occupied the guns went
ahead to new points, and armoured cars left the road to try to find a
way to the south-east to protect the flank of the right column. They
had a troublesome journey. Some of the crews walked well ahead of the
cars to reconnoitre the tracks, and it speaks well for the efficiency
of the cars as well as for the pluck and cleverness of the drivers
that in crossing a mile or two of that terribly broken mountainous
country no car was overturned and all got back to the road without
mishap.

Throughout the night and during the greater part of the day of
February 20 the right column were fighting under many difficulties. In
their march from the hill of Muntar they had to travel over ground so
cracked and strewn with boulders that in many parts the brigade could
only proceed in single file. In some places the track chosen had a
huge cleft in the mountain on one side and a cliff face on the other.
It was a continual succession of watercourses and mountains, of uphill
and downhill travel over the most uneven surface in the blackness of
night, and it took nearly eight hours to march three miles. The nature
of the country was a very serious obstacle and the column was late in
deploying for attack. But bad as was the route the men had followed
during the night, it was easy as compared with the position they had
set out to carry. This was Jebel Ekteif, the southern end of the range
of hills of which Talat ed Dumm was the northern. Ekteif presented to
this column a face as precipitous as Gibraltar and perhaps half as
high. There was a ledge running round it about three-quarters of the
way from the top, and for hours one could see the Turks lying flat on
this rude path trying to pick off the intrepid climbers attempting a
precarious ascent. Some mountain guns suddenly ranged on the enemy on
this ledge, and, picking up the range with remarkable