By nightfall our position all along the line was unfavourable. The left of the 54th Division was more or less in the air. We had, in several parts of the line, been forced off the lately won main ridges. We had lost 7000 men, and our troops were worn out by the dust and heat, and were once more short of water. The battle had to be admitted as a failure. The Tanks had been too few and of too old a type for the work they had been given. Their co-operation was, however, much appreciated, and they were considered to have given a good deal of protection to the infantry. It is interesting to note that by the time the battle was over these antiquated machines are said, on an average, each to have covered forty miles of country. _The Third Battle of Gaza_ The Second Battle of Gaza had been so completely unsuccessful that the troops who had been engaged in it had to be withdrawn from their advanced positions. The Tanks were concentrated in a fig grove to the rear. Here, no work being found for them, they stayed till October, being reinforced by three Mark IV. machines. General Allenby had now succeeded to the command, and there was to be another attack upon Gaza, for the town and its defences effectually barred our further advance along the coast or towards Jerusalem. We were this time to operate upon a still wider front. The usual shock troops, the same three Divisions and their eight Tanks, were to attack nearest the coast. Next to them, a mixed force of French, Italian and West Indian troops were to make feint raids near Outpost Hill. Opposite Gaza itself several cavalry Divisions, mounted and dismounted, were to attack, and from Hereira to Beersheba a synchronised assault was to be made by the Australians. The position was, in fact, to be turned by an extensive flanking movement. On October 23, 1917, the Tanks moved up to a new station on the beach. From here, on horseback and by boat, the new area was thoroughly reconnoitred. This was the special country of cactus hedge and strong mud bank, and in it had been dug a veritable labyrinth of trenches. It had been a country of small fig groves and of little irrigated gardens, and its close boundaries afforded unending cover to the enemy. However, it was divided into Tank sectors, and by dint of patient toil, the Tank Commanders at last formed a more or less coherent picture of the intricacies. Tank Officers and N.C.O.’s were attached to each Brigade with which they were to work, for ten days before the battle. Most of the Tanks were detailed to bring up R.E. stores, such as wire, pickets, shovels and sandbags for their infantry. These things they were to carry on their roofs.