e Wadi Ghuzzeh, and most of the officers got the chance of a
reconnaissance to a distance of about three miles beyond the wadi.

The country beyond was very much cut up with smaller wadis, which at
this time of year were a mass of wild flowers which grew most
luxuriantly, and would have been welcome in most herbaceous borders;
the anchusas--to name one--were several feet high, and covered with
brilliant blue blooms, but the brightest effect was that of fields of
mauve daisies. These grew as thick as poppies in Norfolk, and were
almost as bright. One had plenty of time to look about at all the
flowers, as there was practically no sign of a Turk, though, if one
went too near up to the top of the watershed, an odd sniper would let
off at one.

As the day for the advance drew near, all the troops told off for
battle surplus were sent back to Railhead and formed into a divisional
camp. Each battalion had to leave behind the following:--Either C.O.
or 2nd in Command, two of the four Company Commanders and two of the
four Company Sergeant-Majors, and a proportion of instructors in P.T.,
Lewis gun, musketry, gas, bombing, and signalling--in all, for a
battalion at full strength, 120 of all ranks, including all officers
above the number of 20.

This was the dustiest and dirtiest week of the whole year, the only
interest being the scraps of gossip which kept coming in, and from
which we pieced together the disastrous tale of the second battle of
Gaza. One could also ride up to the top of Raspberry Hill or Im Seirat
and see something for oneself, but usually any movement of troops was
invisible owing to clouds of dust.

The fact that our main outpost line was, after this battle, advanced
about live or six miles, was used to represent this battle as a
British victory, but, as a matter of fact, it was a victory which
failed to gain any main Turkish position. The positions which we held
at the end of the battle, to which we had retired after being stopped
at Ali-el-Muntar and Gaza itself, had been reached in the first
instance with very few casualties, and it was on the glacis between
these positions and the Turk that we suffered our main losses. This
glacis was destitute of any cover, and was dominated by the heights of
Ali-el-Muntar and the cactus hedges surrounding Gaza, and after many
gallant efforts this had to be abandoned to form a No-Man's-Land of a
mile or a mile and a half between ourselves and the Turk. On our left
in