and woolly bears to disturb the new occupation.  But all went swimmingly.  It was true we had only captured the well-cracked shell of a town, but the taking of it was full of promise of greater things, and those of us who looked on the mutilated remnants of one of the world’s oldest cities felt we were indeed witnesses of the beginning of the downfall of the Turkish Empire.  Next morning the 75th Division captured Beer trenches and Tank and Atawineh Redoubts and linked up with the Irish Division of XXth Corps on its right.  They were shelled heavily, but it was the shelling of rearguards and not attackers, and soon after twelve o’clock we had the best of evidence that the Turks were saying good-bye to a neighbourhood they had long inhabited.  I was standing on Raspberry Hill, the battle headquarters of XXIst Corps, when I heard a terrific report.  Staff officers who were used to the visitations of aerial marauders came out of their shelters and searched the pearly vault of the heavens for Fritz.  No machine could be found.  Some one looking across the country towards Atawineh saw a huge mushroom-shaped cloud, and then we knew that one enormous dump at least contained no more projectiles to hold up an advance.  This ammunition store must have been eight miles away as the crow flies, but the noise of the explosion was so violent that it was a considerable time before some officers could be brought to believe an enemy plane had not laid an egg near us.  The blowing up of that dump was a signal that the Turk was off.

The Lowlanders had another very strenuous day in the sand-dune belt.  First of all they repulsed a strong counter-attack from the direction of Askalon.  Then the 155th Infantry Brigade went forward and, swinging to the right, drove the Turks off the rising ground north-west of Deir Sineid, the possession of which would determine the question whether the Turk could hold on in this quarter sufficiently long to enable him to get any of his material away by his railway and road.  The enemy put in a counter-attack of great violence and forced the Scots back.

The 157th Brigade in the early evening attacked the ridge and gained the whole of their objectives by eight o’clock.  There ensued some sanguinary struggles on this sandy ground during the night.  The Turks were determined to have possession of it and the Scots were willing to fight it out to a finish.  The first counter-attack in the dark hours drove the Lowlanders off, but they were shortly afterwards back on the hills again.  The Turks returned and pushed the Highland Light Infantry and Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders off a second time.  A third attack was delivered with splendid vigour and the enemy left many dead, but they renewed their efforts to get the commanding ground and succeeded once more.  The dogged Scots, however, were not to be denied.  They re-formed and swept up the heavy shifting sand, met the Turk on the top with a clash and knocked him down the reverse slope.  Soon afterwards there