were thinned by a tremendous enfilade fire from artillery and machine guns, they regained the sangars.  For several hours after eight o’clock this portion of the line was quieter, but the Turk was reorganising for a last effort.  A very brilliant defence had been made during the night of Beit Hannina by the 2/24th Londons, which battalion was commanded by a captain, the colonel and the majors being on the sick list.  The two companies in the line were attacked four times by superior numbers, the last assault being delivered by more than five hundred men, but the defenders stood like rocks, and though they had fifty per cent, of their number killed or wounded, and the Turks got close to the trenches, the enemy were crushingly defeated.

The morning lull was welcome.  Our troops got some rest though their vigilance was unrelaxed, and few imagined that the Turks had yet given up the attempt to reach Jerusalem.  We were ready to meet a fresh effort, but the strength with which it was delivered surprised everybody.  The Turk, it seemed, was prepared to stake everything on his last throw.  He knew quite early on that morning that his Caucasus Division could not carry out the role assigned to it.  General Chetwode had countered him by smashing in with his left with a beautiful weighty stroke precisely at the moment when the Turk had compromised himself elsewhere, and instead of being able to put in his reserves to support his main attack the enemy had to divert them to stave off an advance which, if unhindered, would threaten the vital communications of the attackers north of Jerusalem.

It was a remarkable situation, but all the finesse in the art of war was on one side.  Every message the Turkish Commander received from his right must have reported progress against him.  Each signal from the Jerusalem front must have been equally bitter, summing up want of progress and heavy losses.  With us, Time was a secondary factor; with the Turk, Time was the whole essence of the business, so he pledged his all on one tremendous final effort.  It was almost one o’clock when it started, and it was made against the whole front of our XXth Corps.  It was certainly made in unexpected strength and with a courage beyond praise.  The Turk threw himself forward to the assault with the violence of despair, and his impetuous onrush enabled him to get into some small elements of our front line; but counter-attacks immediately organised drove him out.  Over the greater portion of the front the advance was stopped dead, but in some places the enemy tried a whirlwind rush and used bomb against bomb.  He had met his match.