THE CLEARING OF SINAI

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 58, 6 September 1917, Page 8

THE CLEARING OF SINAI

ATTACK BY PIPE-LINES

BRILLIANT ORGANISATION.

(PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, 10th July.

A score or so of New Zealanders are mentioned by Sir Archibald Murray for their services in the operations between October and March which resulted in the complete clearing of the Peninsula of Sinai, which belongs to Egypt, but which had been for two years partially occupied by the Turks. '

The despatch says that to regain this peninsula, the true frontier of Egypt, hundreds of miles of road and railway had been built, hundreds of miles of water piping had been laid, filters capable of supplying 1,500,000 gallons of water a day, and reservoirs,.had been installed, and tons of stone transported from distant quarries. Kantara had been transformed from a small canal village into an important railway and water terminus, with wharves and cranes and a railway ferry; and the desert, till then almost destitute of human habitation, showed the successive marks of our advance in. the fshape of strong' positions firmly entrenched and protected by hundreds of miles "of barbed wire, of standing camps where troops could shelter in comfortable huts, of tanks and reservoirs, of railway stations and sidings, of aerodromes and of signal stations and wireless installations, by all of which the desert was subdued and made habitable, and adequate lines of communication established' between the advancing troops and their ever-receding base. . The railway, towards the end of October, had reached the neighbourhood of Bir Salmana, forty-five miles east of the' Suez Canal, and in" December, it was beyond Mazar, twenty-three miles further east.- The water supply was, indeed, a controlling factor. Until the pipe line reached Romani, the water for the advanced troops had to be brought up by rail in tank trucks and stored in improvised, tanks atl railway sidings. The troops had no\^ passed out of. the water-bearing Katia basis, and reached a tract in'which water was almost non-existent. With the first .large operation, the attack on El Arish, the water difficulty came into prominence. The enemy was disposed so as to cover all the water in the area,^and, if the' operation occupied two ""days, water would have to be carried in very large quantities on camels, so that an \ enormous reserve of water had to be accumulated at railhead. The water supply was not ready till 20th• December, and the Turks were thus able -to withdraw from El Arish, which we, occupied on the 21st. ■ VICTORY OF MAGDHABA. Two days later a flying column, consisting of Australian and New Zealand mounted troops and the Imperial Camel Corps, started for Magdhaba, where a Turkish force, thought to be the garrison of El Arish, had been located. A night march brought the column in eight, of the enemy's bivouac fires'. , "Between noon and 1.30 p.m. tha enemy's position was practically surrounded, but for some little time*it had been found increasingly difficult to make progress. In the meantime reports were received from the Field Squadron that no water could be found. Unless Magdhaba could be taken during the way, therefore, it was. probable that our troops wpuld'have to withdraw, as 'none of the horses had" been .watered since the evening of the ;22nd, and the nearest water, except that in the enemy's position, was at.El Arish. General Chauvel-reported the situationtq the Desert Column accordingly, and reV oeived orders to maintain' the attack.

"But before this communication arrived the situation had begun to^ improve. Some Australian mounted troops^ pressing in against 'the enemy's loft, captured a work to the west of Wadi el Arish. taking about IQO prisoners. At 2 p.m.,: two regiments of Hie Australian Light ■Horse, coming in from the north-east, were within 200 .yawls of the position, in close touch withvthe Imperial Camel Corps advancing from the north-west. A quarter of an hour later the attack of; a third regiment of this force was pressing heavily in the enemy, from the south. By 3 o'clock the New Zealand Mounted Rifles were within 600 yards of the enemy's trenches on the east." From this time forward the pressure on the enemy increased from all sides. .Before 3.30 the force from the Wadi and the Imperial Camel Corps attacked the second line of the . enemy's trenches, and at 4 o'clock the former carried one of the main redoubts, taking 130 prisoners, including the Turkish commander. Immediately after this, part of a Light Horse Regiment charged in from the south, mounted and with' fixed bayonets, and by 4.30 all organised resistance was over, and the enemy was surrendering everywhere. The total number of prisoners taken in this fine action was 1282, including some 50 wounded. Our own casualties were 12 officers and 134 other ranks killed and "wounded." ;