WITH THE PALESTINE FORCES.

Bruce Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 51, 8 July 1918, Page 4

WITH THE PALESTINE FORCES.

LETTER FROM TROOPER GEORGE BAIN. FIGHT WITH TURKISH OUTPOST. , Trooper George Bain (son of Mr W. Bain, late baker at Balclutha but now of Onmaru), who left the Dominion with reinforcements for' the Otago Mounted 'Rifles 'operating in Palestine, writes as follows to an 'old 'Clutha j friend under date 'April 10: — j "I received your snapshots of the j Clutha Show, and must thank you very | much for them, as I could recognise a j good many familiar faces. I hope that i I have the luck to personally see the i next 'Clutha face, as this lighting is not | what it is cracked up to be. "Our squadron has been well 'smacked to log' since my last letter. In one. clay's fighting over the Jordan 67 of us dismounted for action, and at dusk only 25 were left to come out. 'lt rained shells and bullets all day, and we had to be 'on a ridge where we couldn't dig in. Yet people say, 'lf you I don't want to fight, go to Egypt!' Crossing the river Jordan was quite an easy matter, and we pushed the Turks about 20 'miles across Syria to a German town named Amman, garrisoning a large force of 'square heads,' who were heavily reinforced on our approach. Our objective was to blow up so many miles of the railway to Damascus, aiul we partly succeeded in 'our attempt. "This Easter will'long live in my memory. On Saturday our squadron had to take a position with fixed bayonets | in conjunction with the 'Camel Corps 1 and a Wellington squadron (the 9th).' | Auckland was in advance, and had to ! take the first hill, our objective being the second bill, both of which were carried without very severe casualties. It was a great sight, to see the men running into the face of machine gun and rifle fire. ' Jacko' hung on till the last moment, but tf think the final yell our boys gave 'put the wind' up him. Quite a number of prisoners were taken, and also machine guns. At daylight our possie got pretty warm, and we had to keep our heads down, as 'Jacko' fought like the devil, counter-attacking twice during the course of the day and getting to within a few yards of us on both occasions. !As the enemy retired they were simply mown down. '"Charlie Willocks was badly wounded, but I can't find out whether lie was taken out or not, for in some instances the wounded could not be taken out till after dark. Some say lie came out on a ' camel and others say he was buried the same night. As soon as it was dark the wounded were taken out and the burying party got to work. It consisted of members of different units, and they don't seem to know whom they buried, for everything had to be done in such a hurry or 'Jacko' would have had the whole lot of us. I had quite a lot of curios I collected the night before, but i as I did not see how I was to get out of the place with a whole skin I threw j them away rather than be taken a prisoner with them in my possession. i "C. McTntyrc, from Thornbury, was j killed, also YV. iMcXeil, from Milburn, in this scrap. A. Mutiimer, who used to be slaughtering at the south Otago Freezing "Works, was wounded- alongside me. Lieutenant Bern-man, our troop officer, was also killed, I being the only one out of our section to escape being a casualty."