mp any time after 2 A.M. and not
getting back again until after midday; it was usually interesting for
the senior ranks, but intensely boring for everyone else. Luckily we
were able to fit in bathing, concerts, and sports, which kept everyone
cheery.

After a fortnight of this we found we were at last told off for a
useful job of work--digging a new line of trenches in the sandhills
facing Gaza, between Fusilier Ridge and Jones' Post, in front of those
on Samson's and Fusilier's Ridges, at that time held by the 54th
Division. We moved over the Wadi Ghuzzeh to Regent's Park, where we
camped right on the shore about an hour and a half's march from the
scene of our labours. After the second night it was decided that this
was too remote, and we moved up nearer our work. Here we stayed for a
week, with half of each battalion digging each night. It was a
tiresome job, as the sand was so soft that a very wide ditch had to be
dug and then faced with sandbags. The men were very quick about
getting down, and after the first night they were practically working
in safety for the remaining four or five days necessary to complete
the sandbag revetting. All bags used had to be double, as single ones
would not keep the sand in.

Our first night was a pretty jumpy business. We were somewhere about
500 yards from the Turk lines, and there was a bright moon, with the
result that he spotted something and gave us quite a bombardment. For
some time there was considerable doubt whether the work should be
attempted at all, but thanks largely to Lieut.-Colonel J. Gilmour, who
subsequently got a D.S.O. for his work that night, a good start was
made at the cost of a few casualties. The rest of the week passed
quietly, but we were quite glad at the end of it to be relieved by a
battalion of the Norfolk Regiment of another brigade, as the march
both ways, plus digging, was very hard work.

[Illustration: A PLATOON MESS, WADI ASHER.
_To face page 58_]

[Illustration: "C" COMPANY OFFICERS' MESS, WADI ASHER.
_To face page 58_]

We did not return to the camp we had left, but to the Wadi Selke, a
mile or two inland from Deir-el-Belah. The distance from the sea made
bathing a bit of a toil, but otherwise it was a good camp, especially
for the officers, whose bivouacs were in a fig grove which bore a very
heavy crop of excellent figs. We stayed here about seven weeks, the
longest spell we had in any one place, and made it into a good camp.
There w