surrendered when they saw that they were surrounded. This made us sure
that the Turkish army could not be far away, but our aeroplanes
reported no signs of it. A few weeks later an attack was made by about
twenty thousand Turks on the Scottish regiment holding the line to the
north of us and we had a bit of a skirmish with their flank guard.
They surprised us completely; the fight was fought mostly in pyjamas on
our part, but we had little difficulty in driving them off. This raid
was some achievement and I take off my hat to the man who planned it.
They came across those many miles of desert without being seen,
bringing with them even six-inch guns. They bluffed our aeroplanes by
only travelling at night and hiding under sand-colored canvas in the
daytime. Their heavy transport was moved by laying a track in front of
it, taking it up behind as it passed on and putting it down in front
again.

We captured a lone Turk soldier nursing his blistered feet in the
desert and he was delighted to join us. We also brought in at the same
time a Bedouin who evidently thought we were some species of game, for
although he fired on us he had no love for his Turkish companion and
could not be persuaded to keep him company. The only request I heard
this Turk make was for one of our uniforms. He kept pointing out the
filth of his own clothes, so I had some water given to him to wash
them, but this did not satisfy him at all. It was not the cleanliness
of our uniforms he admired, but the cut and material. Perhaps this was
policy, for generally the Turkish prisoners would remark: "Englisher
very good--German damn bad!"

After this we returned to Ferry Post again and it was almost like going
home for we had daily swims in the canal and plenty of liquid
refreshment, the wet canteen doing a roaring trade. We were also able