sualties that night were 2 officers and 7
other ranks killed, and 22 other ranks wounded, 3 of whom died of
wounds.

In the morning we expected orders to advance, but as soon as we could
use our glasses we found that we were far ahead of our neighbours, and
were, in fact, enfiladed from the Turkish positions on our left.
Fortunately we could get into cover by going about 100 yards round the
hill, but rations and supplies had to come across about 80 yards of
open, under machine-gun fire, and it was a marvel that no one was hit.
It was impossible to get out in front to see our next objective, as
the Turks had us well marked and machine guns opened on anyone who
exposed himself. We had the Brigade-Major with us, but were again out
of touch with Brigade, and Lieut.-Colonel Younger was again tackling
the dispositions for the next advance, when the Brigadier himself rode
up, very nearly getting sniped as he trotted in. After telling us
exactly what he thought of us for having chosen such an exposed place
for our headquarters, he got out his orders for the assault of
Beitania. There was really no choice as to who should go first this
time, as there was no time to reshuffle units, and they just had to go
over in the order in which they were at the time disposed.

This made us right leading battalion--objective Beitania--with the
Ayrs and Lanarks in close support. The left leading battalion--the
Somersets--were to make for Hill 500 about three-quarters of a mile
north of Beitania. The Devons were to advance in close support of the
Somersets, and we were given the K.S.L.I. from the 231st Brigade to
remain in reserve on Shafa, where Brigade H.Q. also remained. The left
battalion also had El Muntar as a further objective, so that the
Brigade, when finished, would be on a line running north and south to
the Wadi Kelt. We knew we should get a warm reception going over the
crest, as there were quite a number of machine guns in the village
and they were all laid on the crest. They also put over a lot of
shells while we were preparing to start but did not do much damage.

We got off the mark at 2 P.M. in four waves, and went at record speed
to the bottom of the ravine. One could hardly have believed that men
carrying Lewis guns could have covered the ground so fast. In this
case it was our salvation, as we not only got over before the whole of
the machine guns had got properly going, but most of the shelling also
fell behind us. Once