in the bottom we were quite safe from the machine
guns, and nearly so from the artillery. As it was we reorganised for
the attack in our own time and were very soon at the edge of the
village after a precipitous climb. Here we were held up for a short
time by fire from a spur to our right. The leading Company Commander,
Captain P. Campbell, A. & L.Y., of the supporting battalion, agreed to
take his own and another company to clear this spur. This movement was
rapidly and brilliantly carried out with the desired result, and in a
very short time we were in the village and through the far side,
holding the ridge to left and right, and in touch with our left
battalion. It was not until the following morning that we began to
count the spoils, which ran to about 150 prisoners, including a
battalion commander and nine machine guns. We buried about 80 Turks,
and there were a good many in odd places that we didn't find at the
time. That night we took up an outpost line east of the village, and
in the morning saw the 230th Brigade march across our front into Bireh
without firing a shot. So well, too, had the supply of ammunition
worked, that at the close of operations we had 50,000 rounds in
Beitania. We spent two days there clearing up the battlefield and
reorganising the companies. On the second night we were told that we
were to be taken out into reserve for a long and well-earned rest.

From St James's Park to Beitania the Battalion had been continuously
engaged in very strenuous operations, marching, fighting, or
road-making over the roughest of country, without roads or landmarks,
up precipitous hills, through boulder-strewn wadis, against an
obstinate and determined foe, never sure of the next meal, tired
almost beyond endurance and many almost bootless, in the worst of
weather, cold and wet, and only slightly less miserable than the
camels. And the result? The capture of Jerusalem and turning of the
Turkish left flank; a loss of prestige and a military disaster from
which they never recovered. We had taken part in most difficult and
arduous fighting in most difficult and arduous country; difficult
because of the badness of the maps, which made it almost impossible to
locate one's position or maintain touch, and arduous as only those
who know that rocky precipitous country can realise. For artillery it
was practically impossible, and though they did wonders in bringing
guns up over the roughest of roadless hills, the assi