Mughar was a great cavalry triumph, and the regiments which took part in it confirmed the good opinions formed of them in this theatre of war.  The Dorsets had already made a spirited charge against the Senussi in the Western Desert in 1916,[1] and having suffered from the white arm once those misguided Arabs never gave the cavalry another chance of getting near them.  The Bucks and Berks, too, had taken part in that swift and satisfactory campaign.  All three regiments on the following day were to make another charge, this time on one of the most famous sites in the battle history of Palestine.  The 6th Mounted Brigade moved no farther on the day of Mughar because the 22nd Mounted Brigade, when commencing an attack on Akir, the old Philistine city of Ekron, were counter-attacked on their left.  During the night, however, the Turks in Akir probably heard the full story of Mughar, and did not wait long for a similar action against them.  The 22nd Mounted Brigade drove them out early next morning, and they went rapidly away across the railway at Naaneh, leaving in our hands the railway guard of seventy men, and seeking the bold crest of Abu Shushe.  They moved, as I shall presently tell, out of the frying-pan into the fire.

[Footnote 1:  The Desert Campaigns:  Constable.]

The 155th Infantry which helped to finish up the Mughar business took a gun and fourteen machine guns.  Then with the remainder of the 52nd Division it had a few hours of hard-earned rest.  The Division had had a severe time, but the men bore their trials with the fortitude of their race and with a spirit which could not be beaten.  For several days, when water was holding up the cavalry, the Lowlanders kept ahead of the mounted troops, and one battalion fought and marched sixty-nine miles in seven days.  Their training was as complete as any infantry, even the regimental stretcher-bearers being taught the use of Lewis guns, and on more than one occasion the bearers went for the enemy with Mills bombs till a position was captured and they were required to tend the wounded.  A Stokes-gun crew found their weapon very useful in open warfare, and at one place where machine guns had got on to a large party of Turks and enclosed them in a box barrage, the Stokes gun searched every corner of the area and finished the whole party.  The losses inflicted by the Scots were exceptionally severe.  Farther eastwards on the 13th, the 75th Division had also been giving of its best.  The objective of this Division was the important Junction Station on the Turks’ Jaffa-Jerusalem railway, and a big step forward was made in the early afternoon by the overcoming of a stubborn resistance at Mesmiyeh, troops rushing the village from the south and capturing 292 prisoners and 7 machine guns.  The 234th Brigade began an advance on Junction Station during the night, but were strongly counter-attacked and had to halt till the morning, when at dawn they secured the best positions on the rolling downs west of the station,