the Rushdi system by half-past two.  The Londoners then swung to the north and occupied the station at Sheria, while the dismounted yeomanry worked round farther east, taking a series of isolated trenches on the way, the Irish troops relieving the 60th in the captured trenches at Kauwukah.  The 60th Division, having possession of the larger part of Sheria, intended to attack the hill there at nightfall, and the attack was in preparation when an enemy dump exploded and a huge fire lighted up the whole district, so that all troops would have been exposed to the fire of the garrison on the hill.  General Shea therefore stopped the attack, but the hill was stormed at 4.30 next morning and carried at the point of the bayonet.  A bridgehead was then formed at Sheria, and the Londoners fought all day and stopped one counter-attack when it was within 200 yards of our line.  On that same morning the Irish troops had extended their gains westwards from the Rushdi system till they got to Hareira Tepe Redoubt, a high mound 500 yards across the top, which had been criss-crossed with trenches with wire hanging about some broken ground at the bottom.  Here there was a hot tussle, but the Irishmen valiantly pushed through and not only gave XXth Corps the whole of its objectives and completed the turn of the enemy’s left flank, but joined up with the XXIst Corps.  The working of XXth Corps’ scheme had again been admirable, and once more the staff work had enabled the movements to be timed perfectly.

The Desert Mounted Corps was thus able to draw up to Sheria in readiness to take up the pursuit and to get the water supply at Nejile.  This ended the XXth Corps’ task for a few days, though the 60th Division became temporarily attached to Desert Mounted Corps.  XXth Corps had nobly done its part.  The consummate ability, energy, and foresight of the corps commander had been supported throughout by the skill of divisional and brigade commanders.  For the men no praise could be too high.  The attention given to their training was well repaid.  They bore the strain of long marches on hard food and a small allowance of water in a way that proved their physique to be only matched by their courage, and that was of a high order.  Their discipline was admirable, their determination alike in attack and defence strong and well sustained.  To say they were equal to the finest troops in the world might lay one open to a charge of exaggeration when it was impossible to get a fair ground of comparison, seeing the conditions of fighting on different fronts was so varied, but the trials through which the troops of XXth Corps passed up to the end of the first week of November, and their magnificent accomplishments by the end of the year, make me doubt whether any other corps possessed finer soldierly qualities.  The men were indeed splendid.  The casualties sustained by the XXth Corps from October 31 to November 16 were:  killed, officers 63, other ranks 869; wounded, officers 198, other ranks 4246; missing, no officers, 108 other ranks—­a total of 261 officers and 5223 other ranks.