Through Palestine with the Twentieth Machine Gun SquadronUnknown
History
Through Palestine with the Twentieth Machine Gun Squadron
Unknown
Great Britain. Army. Machine Gun Squadron, 20th -- History; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
In these circumstances, it was not a _very_ smart Squadron that paraded
that night, but its spirit would require a lot of beating! The _route_ lay
past Yazur, on the Jaffa road, to Ramleh, which town they were approaching
as day broke, and Ludd[14] could also be seen. The latter town will be
remembered by all who had occasion to go to Egypt for leave or to take a
course of instruction, also by reinforcements who joined the Squadron about
this time, as it was the British railhead; the journey from here to Kantara
on the Suez Canal being accomplished overnight. From Ludd, also, there is a
branch line to Jerusalem, and a narrow gauge railway to Sarona. At Ramleh,
turning off the road to the right, and passing Lieut. Price's grave, we
halted, off-saddled, watered and fed. At 14.00 a further march, arriving at
the water troughs east of Latron at 17.00, camping for the night further up
the road. Fairly on the way to the famous Jordan Valley, ill-accounts of
which they had often heard, we were soon to find that these reports had not
been at all exaggerated!
The next morning (June 30th), the road in front being very steep, rising
continually, with often a drop of several hundred feet on either side,
units started at half-hour intervals.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] _Ludd was the birthplace of St. George, the Patron Saint of
England. A church built here, after his martyrdom, was destroyed on the
approach of the First Crusaders. It was re-built, however, but was
destroyed again by order of Saladin in A.D. 1191. Of this church, two
apses, two bays and the crypt still remain, and to-day the eastern end
has been restored by the Greeks, while the western end is used as a
mosque! In the crypt (belonging to the Greeks) is shown the Tomb of St.
George.
Ludd = Lod of the Scriptures, a city of Benjamin, see I Chron. viii,
12; Neh. xi, 35; Ezra ii, 33; Acts ix, 32._
AN EXCITING MARCH ALONG THE EDGE OF PRECIPICES.
The necessity of this soon became evident. The road was crowded with motors
of all kinds, and it was by no means a joke to ride a restive horse while
leading an obstinate mule, along the brink of a precipice! At 13.00 Enab
was reached, where the Squadron was allotted its ground, rather stony, but
next to the water troughs, which, however, saved a lot of work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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