dges were carpeted with
various wild flowers, mostly cyclamen and anemone. A mile or two took
us to the junction of the Wadis Sunt and Imaish, where we were within
a few hundred yards of the ledges where we had perched before taking
Zeitun Ridge, and there it began to rain in torrents. We continued
down the Sunt until we came to a rough path, made more or less
possible for traffic by the 10th Division, which led up to
Beit-ur-el-Tahta, in the neighbourhood of which the Brigade was to
bivouac. Next day we proceeded via the Wadi Melab to Beit Sira, and so
to our rest camp at Yalo.

[Illustration: Operations in PALESTINE 1917-18
_To face page_ 106]

CHAPTER V

PALESTINE--1918

From 4th January to 14th March when we went into the line at Khan Abu
Felah, we were employed continuously on road-making. The great
difficulty experienced in bringing supplies forward over the roadless
mountainous country, impassable to motors and often even to camels and
mules, made road-making an absolute necessity before any further
advance could take place. The only metalled roads were the
Jerusalem-Nablus road, running north from Jerusalem, and the
Jerusalem-Jaffa road, running west and north-west, passing Latron
about four miles from our camp at Yalo. The rest were mere donkey
tracks over cultivated unbottomed ground in the valleys, and winding
up wadis, over boulders, and through trees in the uplands and hills.

Yalo, the ancient Ajalon, a city of the tribe of Dan, was our camp
till 24th February. Brigade H.Q. were at the head of the next wadi to
us, and below them the Devons and Somersets, while we occupied the
other side of the ridge with the 229th Field Ambulance beyond us. The
Ayrs and Lanarks were in a separate camp at Amwas. When we arrived we
found a rocky barren hill--when we left, it was almost a garden city.
The only "houses" were Battalion H.Q. and the kitchens, but every two
or three had built a home for themselves out of stones and mud, roofed
with waterproof sheets, while JOCK'S LODGE, a company sergeants' mess,
was quite an architectural triumph. Paths lined with stones ran in all
directions, and almost every "villa" had its little garden of wild
flowers, chiefly scarlet anemones transplanted from the wadi. Below us
was the Valley of Ajalon, where Joshua defeated the kings of the
Amorites and the moon was stayed, a rich fertile plain stretching to
the hills which circled it on three sides. North-east we could see