The situation was not improved by the fact that all ration convoys
had broken down the day before owing to the slippery tracks, and we
had only the unexpired portion (_i.e._, breakfast) instead of two
days' ration plus the unexpired portion as we should have had, and as
the authorities no doubt thought we had. We had also no confidence
that those who were responsible for bringing up the overdue rations
had any idea where to look for us even if the weather improved
sufficiently to allow them to make use of the tracks. We understood
that we were in for a four days' push, and it looked like being a real
hungry one. This proved to be the case, as no rations reached us until
the end of the operations; but luckily they lasted only two days
instead of four.

Next morning, the 9th, just before dawn, someone came rattling down
the steep slope above us, and to our joy we found it was the
Brigade-Major coming to look for us, and that Brigade H.Q. was just
above us--"just above" being 600 feet up one of the steepest slopes
one could climb. However, we got up all right about 7 A.M. and managed
to get a bit of our precious food disposed of before we received
orders to move.

Our part in the assault of Jerusalem was to march with all speed to
take up a position on Tel-el-Ful, a hill some 2500 feet high, a mile
or so north of the town, so as to cut off the Turks from retreating up
the Nablus road. We were, as Divisional Reserve, carrying full
packs--not light fighting order--and it was an awful piece of country
to cross without even a track. We had first to climb down some 600
feet into the Beit Iksa Wadi; then up the precipitous face of El Burj
about 1000 feet from the bottom to the top; then a couple of
comparatively easy miles down into the Wadi Hannina, and up the other
side some 1200 feet to Tel-el-Ful. Our Battalion did not have to go
very far beyond the Wadi Hannina, but we certainly thought it quite
far enough. This was to be one of our worst nights, as it rained hard
and blew a gale, and we were on the exposed side of the hill; also, no
rations had arrived or were likely to arrive, nor was there any sign
of them when we started off on a further advance north the next
morning. However, we knew that Jerusalem had fallen, which cheered us
up and made us hopeful that the operations would last less than the
promised four days.

Our advance north was an attempt to get us into line with our own
people on Neby Samwil, which was