The second phase was to attack the enemy’s front-line system from El Arish Redoubt to the sea at Sea Post.  At 3 A.M., after the enemy guns had plentifully sprinkled Umbrella Hill and had given it up as irretrievably lost, we opened a ten-minutes’ intense bombardment of the front line, exactly as had been done on preceding mornings, but this time the 161st and 162nd Infantry Brigades followed up our shells and carried 3000 yards of trenches at once.  Three-quarters of an hour afterwards the 163rd Infantry Brigade tried to get the support trenches several hundred yards in rear, but the difficulties were too many and the effort failed.  Having secured Sea Post and Beach Post the 162nd Brigade completed the programme by advancing up the coast and capturing the ‘port’ of Gaza, Sheikh Hasan, with a considerable body of prisoners.

The enemy’s guns remained active until seven o’clock, when they reserved their fire till the afternoon.  Then a heavy counter-attack was seen to be developing by an aerial observer, whose timely warning enabled the big guns and warships to smash it up.  Another counter-attack against Sheikh Hasan was repulsed later in the day, and a third starting from Crested Rock which aimed at getting back El Burj trench was a complete failure.  After the second phase our troops buried 739 enemy dead.  Without doubt there were many others killed and wounded in the unsuccessful counter-attacks, particularly the first against Sheikh Hasan, when many heavy shells were seen to fall in the enemy’s ranks.  We took prisoners 26 officers, including two battalion commanders, and 418 other ranks.  Our casualties were 30 officers and 331 other ranks killed, 94 officers and 1869 other ranks wounded, and 10 officers and 362 other ranks missing.  Considering the enormous strength of the positions attacked, the numbers engaged, and the fact that we secured enemy front 5000 yards long and 3000 yards deep, the losses were not more severe than might have been expected.

The Turks clung to their trenches with a tenacity equal to that which characterised their defences on Gallipoli, and officer prisoners told us they had been ordered to hold Gaza at all costs.  That was good news, though even if they had got back to the wadi Hesi line it is doubtful if, when Sheria was taken, they could have done more than temporarily hold us up there.  During the next few days the work against the enemy’s right consisted of heavy bombardments on the line of hills running from the north-east to the south of Gaza, and on the prominent position of Sheikh Redwan, east of the port.  The enemy made some spirited replies, notably on the 4th, but his force in Gaza was getting shaken, and prisoners reluctantly admitted that the heavy naval shells taking them in flank and rear were affecting the moral of the troops.  The gunfire of Rear-Admiral Jackson’s fleet of H.M.S. Grafton, Raglan, Monitors 15, 29, 31, and 32, river-gunboats Ladybird