position, but their flanks were in jeopardy, for the Senussi still kept their semicircular formation, and their horns threatened envelopment. Tanner was obliged to leave a company to protect his right flank, and the reserve battalion of the column, the 1/6th Royal Scots, had to be put in to avert danger from the same quarter. [Illustration: SCENE OF EARLIER OPERATIONS NEAR MERSA MATRUH.] By 2.30 our infantry had broken into the main position, but the mounted troops on their left were less happily fated. They had been compelled to give ground, and were now nearly a thousand yards behind, so that Colonel Gordon had to detach two companies of the New Zealanders to assist the cavalry and protect his left rear. This proved sufficient, and by 4.30 the Senussi were in retreat, and their camp given to the flames. But the sun was now low in the west, our horses were too exhausted to pursue, and the baggage camels of the enemy were allowed to retire unmolested. Our troops were compelled to bivouac on the ground won—a comfortless bivouac, for it rained in sheets, and they had no supplies or blankets, seeing that the transport was bogged in the mud three miles west of Bir Shola. Mud, indeed, had been the trouble of the day. It had hindered the cavalry from giving due support to the infantry, and it had deprived the latter of the Royal Naval Armoured Car Division, which had been detailed to defend their right flank. The following morning the troops struggled through the quagmires to Bir Shola, and on the 25th, in better weather, returned to Matruh. [Sidenote: _Jan. 25._] The South Africans had come well out of their baptism of fire. They had lost in killed, one officer (Captain J. D. Walsh) and seven other ranks; one officer (Lieutenant W. G. Strannock) and two other ranks died of wounds; four officers and 102 other ranks were wounded. It must be remembered that no time to rest had been given them after a fatiguing voyage, and that they were already weary before the battle began. Yet all observers bore testimony to the “invincible dash and resolution of their attack.”[7] In that desert fighting we relied much upon the work of our airmen, and it is interesting to note that among the most brilliant members of the Royal Flying Corps attached to the Western Frontier Force was a South African, Lieutenant van Ryneveld. * * * * * The Western Frontier Force was now completely reconstituted. General Wallace’s health did not permit him to continue in the command, and his place was taken by Major-General W. E. Peyton, who had commanded the 2nd Mounted Division at Suvla Bay. The 2nd Mounted Brigade replaced the composite Yeomanry Brigade, and the place of the Sikhs and New Zealanders was filled by the South African Brigade, which by the middle of February had arrived in its entirety at Matruh. Sufficient camel transport had now been provided to make the columns really mobile, and to enable them to follow up any success.