, too,
with Kirin beer. Thus J.Y.'s last glimpse of him--for Fowke did not
return to the battalion--was a happy one.

These days were very wretched. Turkish camps are unbelievably filthy;
and flies swarmed on the battlefield. We salvaged some miles up beyond
Tekrit, with the results already stated. One of the two captured planes
was a recovered one of our own, with the enemy black painted over our
sign. We had a lot of very enjoyable destruction, including that of the
musketry school and barracks, four miles away.

Tekrit's chief fame is that Saladin was born just outside it. But it
was also an early Christian centre; the town wall is said to be partly
the old monastery wall. The town is built on cliffs, which tower very
steeply above the Tigris. The inhabitants were keen on trade, taking
anything 'not too hot or too heavy'; but were unpleasant and exorbitant
beyond any Arabs, even of Mesopotamia.

We now held both the Tigris and the Euphrates ends of the caravan route
to Hit. G.A. opined that we should drive the enemy in from both ends,
till both British forces were shelling each other. However, the Turk
ran some seventy miles farther; and our planes did great bombing raids
on their camp in the Jebel Hamrin, having the joy of using some of the
enemy's own bombs.

On the 8th I got a lift back to Samarra on a Ford, for the purpose of
sending up food and comforts to the battalion. This kindly purpose was
never fulfilled. I went sick, but had more sense than to go to hospital
this time; and the troops returned from Tekrit. The Leicestershires on
route put up a large hyena, but failed to run him down. My premature
return became a famous taunt. 'He deserted,' Diggins would say when
foiled in fair argument; 'deserted from Tekrit, deserted in face of the
enemy.'

The troops were back at Samarra by the 13th. 'Ah!' Busra surmised,
'they've had a bad knock. "Withdrawn on account of difficulty of
communications." We know that story.' It was as after the April
fighting, when the wildest distortions were believed down the line, and
when I was asked in confidence by an officer formerly with the
Leicestershires if it was true that his old regiment had lost eighteen
of our own guns.

Nearly every one was seedy for a while, with chills on the stomach and
sore feet; and a great wave of depression passed over the division. We
would have made any effort to hold Tekrit after our toil and losses.
But the Fords were needed for another