TOWARDS JERUSALEM.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14363, 31 July 1917, Page 5

TOWARDS JERUSALEM.

BIG GAINS AGAINST HEAVY

ODDS.

The following account — considerably abridged — of .the operations before Gaza is from the Egyptian 'Mail. The expulsion of the Turks from Sinai, and the victories of Rafa and Magh'daba wero due, above all, to the splendid mobility of our mounted troops. While the infantry were for ever digging, and for over guarding and watching, they took no part m the actual fighting after the battle of Roman!. "Now, however, that the enemy has been pushed back to the GazaBeersheba line, the "infantry show" has returned. The "battle "before Gaza was a territorial infantry affair, aided, of course, by heavy artillery, by tanks, by men ou hordes, camels, and armored oars.

To facdlitat'o The concentration of infantry on the Palestine border, miles upon miles of military roads were constructer across the sands. Heavy guns were moved forward by the aid of teams of draught horses — 20 to a gun, sometimes — and a large supply of "'cater-"" pillars'" still further simplified the transport problem. And all the time, of course, the railway was being pushed forward, and was piling up stores and munitions to an extent that was simply bewildering. By the middle of March a powerful composite army had been concentrated oh the frontier, and a forward move began. Though the Turks had spentmonths m preparing a strong position at Weli Sheikh Nuran, they judged n prudent to retire to the Gaza line, and our first serious engagement came from a sudden sweep forward on tho night of March 25, m an . attempt to surprise and demoralise them. Unfortunately, dawn found us enveloped 1 m heavy mist. Though the English a,nd Welsh Territorials gallantly stormed a number of strong jxisitions m the face of a murderous fire from machine-guns, we had to slacken our pace, and realised only half of our over-night ambitions. Yet the fighting was ,both brilliant and bitter. While the infantry attacks were m progress, the enemy began to move heavy reinforcements from the north-east, * and the combined, doggedness and dash by which the mounted troops raced to meet these, and held them desperately till all the infantry objectives had been carried, have never been surpassed on any front. Tlie New Zealand Mounted Rifles and British Yeomany advanced across open ground to attack an enemy concealed m rifle-pits ad covered, by thick cactus hedges. Yet the position was quickly carried, and m spite of all obstacles the New Zealanders went on, rushed an enemy battery, captured two 4.2 Austrian howitzers and held them against all efforts of the enemy to recover them. To prevent the colonials from, carrying off their trophies the enemy posted a detachment m a house only a hundred yards away, but the Wellington men rushed the position, battered down the house, and having repulsed a determined rush of infantry at the point of the bayonet, carried off their prizes m triumph. Nor must the work of the armored cars be forgotten. From daylight till dark on the 26th the mounted men were most gallantly assisted by\a detachment of eight of these, and the task of with-, drawing by night was bith difficult and dangerous. Owing to the broken nature of tho country the cars could only crawl along at the rate, of a man walking, and when moring dame they f oud themselves m the midst of a brigade of Turkish infantry. Yet they successfully fought their way through, returning to our lines on the 27th, after a desperate 'battle against tremendous odds, m which, with trifling losses to themselves, they inflicted not less than three or four hundred casualties.

There can be -no doubt that but for the fog the whole Gaza position with its garrison would have fallen into our hands at this first . onslaught. As It was we^oaptiu^ed -900. prisoners, including Musa TJiasim Pasha, the commander, of the 53rd Division, with the whole of his staff, and inflicted besides some thousands o't casualties. We seized another fifteen miles of territory, and covered- the construction of the railway for a further considerable stage. The Wadi Ghuzzee was now our main forward position, while companies of - infantry were established m a number of commanding position above and beyond it.

For the next three weeks there was intense preparation on both sides. After enduring all the sand storms' of Sinai our army had entered a region of olives and almonds, of apricots, oranges, and pomegranates, and their ardor rose each hour. Then before daylight on April 17, the infantry moved out again, the mounted men as before far out to the right, and the artillery behind us roaring louder and louder as- the day advanced.

South-west and east of Gaza, and along the ridge running out to Beersheba the big. guns pounded the maze of trenches, a French warship and two monitors lending effective assistance on the flank. Then the territorials moved forward again, silently and steadily, and with perfect co-ordination. It was an action against a position so strong that once m ancient times it' defied! a besieging army for 21 years;. yet the advance continued. Wave after wave of territorials, accompanied by two tanks, advanced from ridge to ridge, while the mounted men protecting our' flank — Imperials, colonials; and men of the Camel Corps — showed' the utmost contempt for the murderous shell-fire for which they provided so tempting a target. The Australian and New Zealand horseholders were spotted m a wadi and immediately came under a terrific, hail of shrapnel. Yet they coolly moved their horses up and down, ignoring the Austrian gunners where they could not entirely elude them. Next night we dug m. We had not captured Gaza, but we had advanced to within 3000 yards of the city, and had . inflicted infinitely heavier casualties, than we had suffered, by digging m we established contact all along the line, and pinned the enemy to his positions. Within twenty- four hours we were as much at homr on the Gaza-Beersheba line as if no Turk at all were trying to eject us. Throughout the action our aerop'anes played a prominent part. and. "he d*ay after the fight scored a bigger unaided success than any recorded m history. On their way to attack Har-'.na four machines discovered an enemy force of 3000 infantry and 800 cavalry preparing a counter-attack on our rioht nftn?*;. Swooping down they dropped 18 bntr.hr?, all but one of -winch exploded .*.n the midst of dense masses of trcv«. doing such fearful execution that the panicfitricken survivors fled m tiisoraer to Sharia. Tliere is no other instance on record of the complete annihilation oi an attacking force by the unaided efforts of aircraft.