nt the enemy making any stand there. This force
reached the Wadi Hesi by evening, and succeeded in establishing itself
on the north bank in the face of considerable opposition from a Turkish
rearguard. Cavalry had already pushed on round the north of Gaza and
become engaged at Beit Hanun with an enemy rearguard which maintained
its position till night-fall." This brings our history down to the night
of November 7th/8th. By the morning of the 8th the enemy were in
retreat all along the line.

Meanwhile, what had been happening to our own party in the Apex? The
general plan of attack did not contemplate any advance from here.
Nevertheless, it was necessary that this portion of the line should be
firmly held, and it was more than likely that the enemy would try to
create a diversion by raiding this inviting salient. By the end of
October "liveliness" was increasing all round, and mutual bombardments
were growing more intense. Fortunately, a large number of the shells
fired by the enemy were "duds." We were puzzled at the time to know why
duds figured so largely in this and following bombardments; subsequent
inspection of the enemy trenches afforded an explanation. Great dumps of
ammunition had been formed by the enemy close to the guns, and these,
for safety and concealment, had been placed in deep dug-outs. On the
evening of the 27th October, a great thunderstorm burst over Gaza,
causing the enemy considerable damage, flooding the dug-outs, and
presumably damping the fuses and ruining their ammunition.

On the evening of the 3rd November, the enemy tried to create a
diversion by raiding the Apex. On this evening we were sitting quietly
having dinner in our headquarters dug-out, when sharp rifle fire was
heard from the front line of the battalion on our right. We walked out,
and saw a veritable Brock's Benefit display of Verey lights. A telephone
message from our front line informed us that a considerable party of the
enemy had crept quietly up, and were now prowling round our wire and
trying to pick a way through. A hot fire from rifles, Lewis guns and
machine guns, soon convinced the enemy of the uselessness of attempting,
without artillery preparation, a raid against an alert enemy well
entrenched with wire intact. They were beaten off, and withdrew to a
fold in the ground a couple of hundred yards out in No Man's Land, where
they were fired upon by our trench mortars. Nevertheless they managed
to rally, and came forwa