s would be obviated by a
long artillery preparation and by the newly arrived tanks which had
acquired a high reputation in France. Accordingly, the enemy positions
were shelled for two hours, and then the infantry advanced, preceded by
these tanks. But, alas, the tanks were few in number; some were soon put
out of action, or caught fire; and the hopes that they had raised were
disappointed. The infantry advanced over some 3,000 yards of perfectly
open plain, until they reached the enemy's uncut wire; here they were
mown down by the enemy's machine guns. That night, those that were able
to do so, crept back under cover of darkness to Mansura Ridge. The dead
lay where they fell, a gruesome spectacle, for over six months, until
buried by our own parties after the third battle of Gaza. Those that
returned were collected and reorganized at Mansura Ridge, and at once
commenced to dig in at this position. This was the night of the 19th
April. Next morning, the Turks came pouring out of their positions to
gloat over their success. By this time we had done little more than
scratch the surface; had the Turks closed to deliver a determined
counter-attack, they might have made matters distinctly uncomfortable.
As it was, they came out merely as spectators. Our guns opened upon them
and they withdrew. After this, our digging proceeded apace, and we soon
had a satisfactory position entrenched from Mansura to the sea.

There is a saying in the East that the British always come back, meaning
that reverses only make them more determined to try again and to
succeed. Thus did the British come back into the Soudan, and into the
Transvaal. Thus was the surrender of Kut wiped out by the capture of
Baghdad. And so were our losses at Gaza in this spring avenged by our
victory on these same battlefields in the following autumn. For the time
being, however, both sides settled down to the routine life of modern
trench warfare.

Now followed a complete reorganization of our army in Egypt. On the 28th
June, 1917, the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary
Force was taken over by General Sir Edmund Allenby, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. The
organization into an Eastern Force under a subordinate commander, which
had been instituted in the summer of 1916, was abolished, and the force
was organized in Corps. The strength of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force
was augmented, much artillery being added, besides three divisions of
infantry. The 10th (I