We started after dark and travelled, with no more than an occasional stop
for ten minutes, until about two o'clock the following afternoon. Then the
cavalry struck a strong Turkish outpost and had to beat them off before the
work of demolition could begin. One of our aeroplanes reconnoitred and came
back with the news that a viaduct might profitably be destroyed, and a
sixty-pounder battery, which had casually come up while we were waiting,
started leisurely to work and laid the bridge in ruins, after which they
dropped a few shells on a Turkish train farther down the line and
demolished that, which concluded their part in the entertainment. Then they
made tea, at which we looked with envious eyes, having tasted none for
thirty-six hours, limbered up their guns, and started back as casually as
they had come. It seemed to be a pleasant life in the "heavies."
As our brigade had succeeded in driving the Turkish cavalry back our guns
were not needed in support, so we watered the horses at a well eighty feet
deep and had to use reins and drag-ropes and anything else we could find in
order to reach the surface of the water with the canvas buckets. It was as
well that we had time on our hands, for the whole business took three
hours. Then _we_ had some tea. It was the only bright spot in what was for
us a very uninspiring day.
Meanwhile the raiders elsewhere had successfully reached their objectives.
Then the demolition parties put in some deadly work, and about eighteen
miles of Turkish railway scattered itself over the surrounding country.
This ended the menace of enemy reinforcements from the south, though Maan
itself hung out stubbornly for a long time against the repeated onslaughts
of the Arabs.
The journey back will not easily be forgotten by some of those who took
part in the raid. The Australians, having completed their work, started
back just before sunset. Moving more rapidly than we they were soon well
ahead; but their dust lingered and most of it settled on us. Later, other
parties, also ahead of us, came from other directions and added their
quantum. Ultimately we must have taken the dust spurned by the whole
division. It was indescribable in the wadi, where we arrived towards
midnight. The battery was cut in two by the last brigade of cavalry to
cross. One section crossed over safely, advanced a short distance and
waited for the other to make the journey. This, too, was accomplished,
after which the two sections tried to find each other in the clouds of
dust. For nearly two hours we rode round and round each other, hardly ever
out of earshot but unable to meet! This may sound incredible, but it is the
plain fact. Those who have tried even to cross the road in a London fog of
the old pea-soup variety will best appreciate our predicament.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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