om the Sweet Water Canal, mixed with
alum, and pumped through settling tanks into filters. When it had passed
through these, it was pumped underneath the Suez Canal into reservoirs
on the eastern bank. Here it was chlorinated; and hence the water, now
fit for all purposes, was pumped forward to its destination. There being
no gradient to assist the natural flow of the water, it had to be pumped
forward by successive stages. The first stage was as far as Romani; when
working at greatest length the pumping stages numbered no less than
seventeen. At times, during the advance, the railway had to be called in
aid; and train-loads of water for the use of advanced troops were railed
from pipe-head up to rail-head. At some stages of the advance this
supply could be supplemented by local water, which, though generally
somewhat brackish, was employed for the horses, mules and camels. It was
even found to have no ill-effect upon the troops, if used for a limited
period, and if necessary precautions were taken. At other stages, where
water was non-existent, or rendered wholly unapproachable by enemy
dispositions, our force became entirely dependent upon the supply
delivered through the pipe-line. Ultimately, when we settled down to
protracted trench warfare before Gaza, this pipe-line was delivering a
constant supply of water into our trenches, distant some couple of
hundred miles from the banks of the Nile.

Kantara started upon a process of development worthy of the base of such
an expedition. Before the war, it had been little more than a small
Canal village, comprising a few huts. It eventually grew into an
important railway terminus with wharves and cranes, a railway ferry and
40 miles of sidings. Miles of first-class macadamized roads were made,
vast ordnance and supply dumps arose, and camps and depots were
established for man and beast. The scale on which this mushroom town
developed was stupendous.

Early in 1916, the Turks, relieved from imminent danger near home by our
evacuation of Gallipoli, came down again in force through Syria,
Palestine and the Desert, to attack us in Egypt. Our construction gangs,
engaged upon the new railway and upon the development of local water
supplies, were at this time covered by escorts, mainly of cavalry,
spread out upon a wide front. On the 23rd of April several thousand
Turks, operating in three columns, attacked our desert posts at
Oghratina, Katia and Dueidar respectively, the two fo