once more and to be able to have a sleep in the heat of the day, which at
this time was intense (in spite of the cold nights), was a treat enjoyed by
all.

Beersheba was very disappointing. Instead of being a town, as Europeans
understand that term, a place where one can buy such things as cigarettes
and something to eat, nothing at all was obtainable, and the only buildings
in it, that were not mud huts, were empty.[2]

During our stay at Beersheba, enemy planes, often flying quite low, paid us
several visits, for whose benefit one Sub-section always had its guns
mounted for anti-aircraft work. On one of these raids two men and several
animals, in an Australian Field Ambulance a couple of hundred yards from
the Squadron Camp, were killed. One man had a "narrow shave". He was
standing beside his horse when the plane appeared, and, for safety, he
jumped into a trench that happened to be at hand still holding the reins.
The animal was killed, but he himself escaped without a scratch!

FOOTNOTES:

[2] _Beersheba--"Well of the oath": See Genesis, chaps. xxi and xxvi,
v. 23 and 32._


THE COASTAL SECTOR.

To the 21st Infantry Corps in front of Gaza, had been given the task of
attracting enemy reserves to that neighbourhood, thus to lighten the task
of the troops on the right of the line, in the capture of Beersheba. On
October 27th, a bombardment of the elaborate Gaza defences had been