rast with some other marches strengthened
our belief that, given a good meal before starting, proper halts every
hour, and above all, marching not in the breathless humid hours of the
morning but in the drier afternoon, after the breeze had sprung up, we
could cover considerable distances without loss.

We found our old camp standing, and the men gladly renewed acquaintance
with the few little comforts they had left behind in their packs, while
the officers revelled in regained valises and there was much very
necessary bathing. "C" Company went out to No. 11 Redoubt, far the best
of the line, as it was right on the sea and just in front of some old
ruins which yielded a number of interesting things in the way of coins,
lamps, pottery and the like. We never could find out who had lived
there, but there must have been a town of some importance to judge by
the size and solidity of some of the foundations. Probably it was a
Greek or Greco-Roman Colony. A week later the post was taken over by two
platoons of men who were unfit for heavy marching and who formed part of
a newly constituted Brigade Details Company, a formation which gave us a
chance of sparing many who were physically unable to stand the heavy
strain of infantry work in the desert.

We remained at Mahamdiya till August 26th, occupying the inner picket
line at night, and training by day. On that date the Brigade moved to er
Rabah, a large palm grove, a mile or so north of Katia, which it closely
resembled. After reveille at 3.45 a.m., and breakfast at 4.30, the
Battalion moved off at six, reaching er Rabah at 11, but not being able
to move into its bivouac area till 1 p.m., after which camels had to be
unloaded, fires lit and dixies boiled before tea could be served to the
men. The march was extremely trying, the nights at this season being
very wet, and the hours before midday a torment of damp heat. Several
men collapsed as they marched, suffering from a kind of heat-stroke. It
was in this march that an unnamed hero "was three times sick in the
presence of the G.O.C."--an act of courage immortalised in a Brigade
order, of which the writer still possesses a treasured copy.

At Rabah we occupied an area some little way from the trees, but we came
out provided with one blanket per man and sticks with which we could rig
up bivouacs. Two poles were stuck up in the sand with a guy rope
attached to a peg to keep each in position. They stood a blanket length
apart a