Dr. Seitz, the Governor of German Southwest Africa, now opened communications with General Botha concerning a surrender, and received the Union officer's terms in the form of an ultimatum. Botha stated that he and his troops stood ready to fight, if need be, another battle, but his terms were accepted before the time limit he had fixed expired.



At two o'clock in the morning of July 9, 1915, at a spot called Kilometre 500, General Botha, Dr. Seitz the Governor, and Colonel Francke, commander of the German troops in Southwest Africa, signed the terms of capitulation. All the Germans surrendered unconditionally. Officers were released on parole, and were free to live where they pleased in the country. The regular troops were permitted to retain their rifles, but no ammunition, and were interned for the remainder of the war in charge of one of their officers. The Landwehr and Landsturm of the reserve forces were permitted to retain their horses, but no arms, and were released on parole, and could return to their homes.

The formal surrender of the prisoners was held at Otavi, July 11, 1915, where General Lukin who was in charge of the details took over 204 officers, and 3,293 of other ranks; thirty-seven field guns and twenty-two machine guns. By the conquest of German Southwest Africa 322,450 square miles of territory, 113,670 more miles than all Germany, came under the British flag.

The suppression of the rebellion at home, and the invasion and conquest of this large territory had been accomplished by the Union forces with comparatively small loss of life considering the great number of engagements that were fought in a most difficult country for military operations. The best estimate gives 1,612 for both campaigns. The killed numbered 406, of whom ninety-six were killed in action by the Germans and ninety-eight by the rebels, fifty-eight died of wounds, and 153 by disease, accident, and other causes, and 606 were taken prisoners. The losses to the rebels were 190 killed and between 300 and 350 wounded. The Germans lost 103 killed, and 195 wounded. Before the surrender the Union forces held 890 German prisoners in Southwest Africa.

While it is true that the Union troops greatly outnumbered the Germans, General Botha's conquest of the colony was none the less a brilliant military achievement. The most dangerous foe that the Union soldiers encountered was not the Germans, but the deadly climate; the stretches of burning desert veld from eighty to a hundred miles wide, that had to be crossed in a heat that rose at times to 120 deg. Fahrenheit in the shadow of the tents. All the supplies, the provisions for the men, and much of the water for their consumption had to be brought from Cape Town. The care taken in the commissariat department, and especially in the water supply, in a country where the enemy had polluted the wells, accounted for the general good health of the invading army. That 30,000 men should have been able to fight in such a difficult country for five months at a cost of less than 2,000 casualties was an experience rare in military annals, and reflects lasting credit on General Botha who planned the entire invasion.

The Germans, outmatched and outnumbered, avoided engagements whenever possible, but offered a stubborn resistance and fought with great bravery when there was no alternative. Once the Union forces were ready to advance, their rapid movements and forced marches took the Germans by surprise in the midst of their preparations, and baffled and bewildered them. Cut off entirely from help from the outside, and running short of ammunition which could not be replaced, their struggle could only result in one conclusion.



CHAPTER LXXIX

OTHER AFRICAN OPERATIONS

The fighting along the African coast during this period was minor but picturesque. On February 26, 1915, the British military authorities announced that the coast of German East Africa would be blockaded on February 28, four days being allowed for the departure of neutral vessels. Some minor successes, chiefly naval, were obtained by the British during the month of March, when they occupied Shirati on Lake Victoria Nyanza and established there a base for armed steamers.

It was here on March 6, 1915, that the Muanza, the only German armed steamer that remained on the lake, was destroyed by the British steamer Winifred.

In April, 1915, Major General Tighe, who had won distinction in the Indian Service, was appointed to command the British troops in German East Africa. During this month there was some desultory fighting along the edges of Kilmanjaro, and repeated but ineffectual attempts were made to cut the Uganda Railway line; otherwise there were no hostile movements worthy of note in this region.

On March 9, 1915, a German column, marching along the Maru River to invade the Karungu district on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria Nyanza, was defeated and scattered, after a short engagement, by a force of British troops under Colonel Hickson.

Along the region between the Uganda Railroad and the German frontier there were frequent skirmishes during May between British patrols and German troops, in which the losses were trifling on either side. The German forces had been operating for some time from the fortified port of Bukoba, and it was important to the future movements of the British that the place should be destroyed. On June 20 an expedition was dispatched by steamer from the British port at Kisumu, 240 miles away on the eastern shore; at the same time it was planned that British troops on the Kagora River were to cross the thirty miles that divided them from the German fortified port.

On June 25, 1915, Brigadier General J. A. Stewart, commanding detachments of the First Loyal North Lancashires, King's African Rifles, and the Twenty-fifth Royal Fusiliers reached Bukoba. The port was attacked by land and water. The British were in superior numbers, having only about 400 against them, but the Germans fought intrepidly, and their Arab allies showed great bravery. The British success was not easily won. The Germans lost most of their artillery and there were heavy casualties. The wireless station was ruined, boats in the harbor were sunk or captured, and the destruction wrought by the British on the port was complete.

The capture of Bukoba was important to the British, for as a direct result the Uganda borders were kept clear of the enemy for the greater part of the summer of 1915.

The German town of Sphynxhaven on the eastern shore of Lake Nyassa was attacked on May 30, 1915, by a British naval force under Lieutenant Commander Dennistoun, supported by field artillery and a landing party of King's African Rifles. During the sharp, short engagement that followed the place was bombarded from the water, the enemy was driven out, and great quantities of rifles, ammunition, and military stores fell to the British.

The climatic conditions in the low-lying Nyassaland and Uganda borders in the summertime caused the British soldiers more suffering and deaths than their enemies. Insect pests like the tsetse fly swarm around Lake Victoria Nyanza, while different fevers of peculiarly malignant varieties lie in wait to attack the European. There is the terrible sleeping sickness that spares neither white nor black race. The great lake cannot be bathed in without danger for its abounds in crocodiles and hippopotami.

Guerrilla warfare was kept up during most of the summer of 1915 along the northeastern borders of Rhodesia and in Nyassaland. On June 28 the Germans were driven off when they attacked in two bands on the Saisa River, near Abercorn. A month later, having gathered 2,000 men, they besieged the place for six days, when British reenforcements arriving they were driven off. During these skirmishes and engagements the Belgian troops were of great service to the British in defending the frontier between Lake Mweru and Lake Tanganyika, and especially the western shore of the latter lake.

It was in this summer of 1915, during the early days of July, that the German cruiser, the Koenigsberg, met her end. Late in October of 1914 she was in shelter at a point some distance up the Rufiji River, where the water was so shallow that a ship of ordinary draft could not approach. When the British discovered the location of the cruiser they sank a collier across the mouth of the river to prevent the German boat from reaching the sea. The Koenigsberg, surrounded by forests and thick jungle growth, was exactly located by British aircraft. On July 4, 1914, Vice Admiral King Hall, commander in chief of the Cape station, entered the river with the monitors Severn and Mersey and opened fire.

The crew of the Koenigsberg had been active in fortifying their position during the time the cruiser had been sheltering in the river. They had established shore batteries with German thoroughness that commanded all the turnings of the river, and there were observation towers from which they could get the range of any vessel attacking. The British could not get a clear view of the enemy because of the dense jungle, but their aeroplanes were of great service in directing the action of the guns. There was never any doubt of what the ultimate fate of the Koenigsberg would be.

On July 4, 1915, the British bombarded the cruiser for six hours, when she was seen to be on fire. The attack for some reason was not renewed until July 11, 1915, when the cruiser was found to be completely destroyed, whether as the result of the British shells or because she was blown up by her own crew was not discovered at the time. The annals of naval warfare offer no more curious story than this of the German cruiser, which lay for so many months helpless in a jungle river, surrounded by steaming swamps, while far beyond lay the longed-for open sea.



PART XII—WAR IN ARABIA, MESOPOTAMIA AND EGYPT



CHAPTER LXXX

MESOPOTAMIA AND ARABIA

The flames of war were sweeping across Mesopotamia and Arabia. In the last days of January, 1915, Lord Hardinge, Viceroy and Governor General of India, made a tour of the conquered territory around the Persian Gulf, and at Basra was received by the native community with an address of welcome, which expressed the hope of permanent British occupation.

Owing to the overflow of the Tigris and Euphrates in February and March, when the surrounding country is flooded, there was little fighting in those regions. But on March 3 the enemy appeared near Ahwaz, on the Karun River, where the British had a small garrison to protect the Anglo-Persian Oil Company's pipe line.

A contingent sent out from the town to discover the strength of the Turkish force, located them at Ghadir. The enemy was found to be about 12,000 strong, having been joined by a body of tribesmen from Arabia and Persia. As the British troops only numbered 1,000 men, there was imminent danger of them being cut off, and a hurried retreat was ordered. The Turks seemed determined that their enemy should not escape them, and used every effort to prevent a successful retreat. There was much hand-to-hand fighting before the British could struggle back to Ahwaz. As the Turks did not continue to attack it was to be supposed that they had lost heavily. The Anglo-Indian force had lost about 200. The colonel of the Seventh Rajputs was wounded, and four of their white officers were killed.

On this day, March 3, 1915, a body of British cavalry reconnoitering toward Nakaila, about twenty-five miles northwest of Basra, was attacked while on their way back to camp by some 1,500 mounted Turks. The British pretending to retire, maneuvered to lure them on to a position where they had concealed infantry with machine guns and artillery. The Turks, quite unsuspecting a ruse came on, were met by a withering fire from the guns that sent them shattered and broken flying back to Nakaila. In this little fight the British had four officers killed and several severely wounded.

Reenforcements had been sent from India in anticipation of the end of the flood season, and Ahwaz and Kurna were greatly strengthened. Lieutenant General Sir J. E. Nixon, K. C. B., accompanied the new troops, and on his arrival took command of the entire force of between 30,000 and 40,000 men.

The Turks, who had also been largely reenforced with soldiers probably from Bagdad, on April 11 attacked the three British positions at Kurna-Ahwaz and Shaiba, the last a fort protecting Basra. Kurna was bombarded for two days, with small result. A bridge across the Tigris was partly destroyed, but they inflicted no casualties. Guns from the shore and those in H.M.S. Odin did effective work in scattering such of the enemy as appeared in boats. At Ahwaz large bodies of hostile cavalry could be seen against the sky line surrounding the British positions, but they did not attack.



The main object of the Turks was evidently to capture Basra, their attempts on Kurna and Ahwaz being merely feints to keep the British occupied while they struck a real blow at Shaiba. On April 12, 1915, an action began that lasted three days—one of the most notable fights in the history of this campaign. The attacking force was estimated at between 18,000 and 22,000 men. Perhaps 11,000 were regular infantry and cavalry from Bagdad, and 12,000 irregular levies of Kurds and Arabs. The Turkish infantry after some irregular artillery fire, commanded by German officers, advanced in the early morning of the 12th toward the south-southwest, and west of the British lines. For three hours they were pressing forward, and then when the artillery fire fell off began to dig themselves in. An attack from the south was made in the afternoon, but was beaten off by the British before making much progress. The Turks were busy during the night of the 12th keeping up a spirited fire from rifles and machine guns, and by morning were found to have occupied some houses on a rising ground to the north of the British position. An Anglo-Indian force easily dislodged them from this place, and a counterattack made by the Turks from the west was repulsed with a loss to them of several hundred prisoners. The British also captured eighteen officers and two guns.

The British had repulsed all attacks, but the most difficult part of their task now lay before them, for the Turks were strongly intrenched near Basra some four miles from the British lines. On April 14, 1915, the Anglo-Indian force moved from camp toward Zobeir to the south, and driving off the Turks from their advanced position found themselves in front of their main lines. Some 15,000 Turkish soldiers and six big guns occupied well-concealed trenches in a tamarisk wood. The Anglo-Indian troops began their advance toward the enemy at 11.30 in the morning, and continued for five hours across a bare plain under a fierce sun and a pitiless heat. Not an enemy could be sighted, but a continuous fire, too accurate to be pleasant to the advancing host, came from the concealed trenches. At about 4.30 p. m. the 117th Mahrattas and Dorsets had led the way into the trenches, and, the whole line uniting in a great charge, the Turks were driven out at the point of the bayonet and dispersed. The Anglo-Indian troops however had purchased their victory dearly. There were some 700 casualties. Lieutenant Colonel H. L. Rosher of the Dorsets, Lieutenant Colonel T. A. Britten of the 110th Mahrattas, and Major J. C. M. Wheeler of the Seventh Lancers were among the seventeen British officers killed.

The routed Turks had fled toward Nakaila, and were vigorously pursued by the victors. They tried to escape by land and water. A dozen boat loads of fugitives were overhauled or sunk. The Turks lost about 2,500, of whom 700 were prisoners in British hands. Great quantities of stores, ammunition and guns were also captured. The region around Basra was now cleared of Turkish soldiers for a distance of fifty miles.

On April 17 the Anglo-Indian cavalry occupied Nakaila. The rout of the Turks was complete, and it was said that in their retreat they were attacked by their former allies the Arabs, who turned on them as soon as the tide of battle went against them.

During the greater part of the month of May the British were occupied in clearing the territory of the Turks that remained. At Kurna and Ahwaz and their neighborhood the enemy had gathered in sufficient numbers to give some trouble. A British contingent was dispatched to drive them out of the Ahwaz locality, but the Kharked River was in flood, and severe sand storms hindered progress, so that before the Turkish camp could be reached the enemy had vacated Persian soil and fallen back to Amara.

General Gorringe, who commanded the British troops, now set about punishing those tribes which had been assisting the enemy. Some surrendered and gave up a number of rifles and arms. Others were disposed to show resistance, but the British easily defeated them, cleared out their strongholds, and destroyed some of their property.

On May 31, 1915, the Turks had become threatening in the vicinity of Kurna, and a British expedition consisting of soldiers and sailors set out at 1.30 a. m. to attack them. By wading and in boats the British surprised the enemy's position, two miles from the town, and soon silenced his guns by superior artillery work. The heights were won by midday, and the Turks took to flight, leaving three guns and about 250 prisoners behind them. They retreated to Amara as the force from Ahwaz had done. Their flight was so precipitate, that tents were left standing, as they took to mahalas and steamers on the river to escape. The British naval flotilla carrying General Townshend and Sir Percy Cox, Chief British Resident of the Gulf, was in pursuit of the fleeing Turks. Their gunboat Marmaris was sunk, and the transport Masul captured. Two lighters containing field guns, mines, and military stores were also taken, and about 300 prisoners.

Amara, the important business town on the Tigris about sixty miles from Kurna to which the Turks had fled, surrendered to the British June 3, 1915, its garrison of 1,000 becoming prisoners of war. In the town and vicinity 80 officers and some 2,000 men were also captured, and large quantities of ammunition, 13 guns, 12 steel barges, and 4 river steamers.

The whole of the country between Amara and the sea was now in British hands, and the Turkish forces in Mesopotamia had been partly destroyed and so demoralized that it was unlikely that they would soon take the offensive again.

In the last weeks of July, 1915, they again became troublesome. On July 24 the British, under General Gorringe, advanced to attack Nasiriyeh. The town was shelled by gunboats, and after a prolonged struggle the enemy retired, and the British occupied the place on the following day. They had captured during the fight 1,000 prisoners and 13 guns, while the dead Turks numbered about 500. The British casualties were between 300 and 400. During this engagement the fiercest foe the British had to contend against was the excessive heat, which registered as high as 113, and caused great suffering and some deaths.

Along the Euphrates, between Sukh-es-Sheyukh and Nasiriyeh, operations now began that lasted for twenty days. The country around here is peculiarly difficult for military movements, presenting a network of marshes and canals. The Turks occupied intrenched positions at the entrance of Kut-el-Hai Channel on the main line of communication between the Tigris and Bagdad. A British force was dispatched from Kurna to attack these positions. The expedition was supported by extemporized gunboats, and took the waterway of the Euphrates and Hamar Lake. Their progress was fiercely opposed by the Turks, who hovered about their flanks. The river had overflowed it banks, and inundated the neighboring country so that marching was difficult. It was necessary to drag boats over the land in some places along the advance. But the British troops were successful when reaching their objective. One regiment outflanked the enemy's gun position on the right bank, and during the engagement the Turks lost 7 officers and 83 regular troops and Arabs. The British casualties were 109. There were 25 killed.



CHAPTER LXXXI

SYRIA AND EGYPT

After the declaration of war against Turkey, the allied war vessels were concentrated in the Levant and Red Sea to watch the coasts of southern Asia Minor, Syria, and Turkish Arabia. On the Syrian coast there was only one point where a naval force could effectively attack communications between Constantinople and the Turkish forces. This was the little town of Alexandretta, and the shore north to Payaz, a small village. The Turks, if they wished to reenforce their Syrian army must move their men, guns, and stores up a mountainous road over the Amanus from Baghche to Radju, or risk great losses by the coast route between Payaz and Alexandretta. The Turks took this chance, and were successful, for there was no allied warship in the Gulf of Alexandretta to oppose their progress. On December 17, 1914, H.M.S. Doris, a protected cruiser, appeared off Alexandretta and destroyed four bridges on the road and railway between that town and Payaz. The captain of the Doris sent an ultimatum to the Turkish commandant of Alexandretta demanding the surrender of the town, failing which he threatened bombardment of the place. To this the Turks paid no attention. A second ultimatum brought forth a telegraphic message from Djemal Pasha at Damascus, threatening to execute allied subjects interned in that city if any Ottoman noncombatants were killed at Alexandretta by the British guns. The captain of the Doris promptly replied that Djemal Pasha would be held responsible for the execution of allied subjects, if he dared to carry out what he proposed. Thanks to the influence brought to bear on the Porte by the American Embassy at Constantinople, the Ottoman military authorities in Syria became more reasonable, and finally agreed to blow up the two railway engines at Alexandretta themselves, much of the war material having been removed from the town while negotiations were pending.

During the first three months of 1915 there was only one fight of any importance on the coast of the Gulf of Alexandretta. On February 6 a landing party from H.M.S. Philomel was subjected to heavy fire from a concealed trench where eighty Turks were located. Six of the British and New Zealanders who formed the crew of the Philomel were wounded, three mortally. The cruiser promptly avenged their death by steaming in and opening a point-blank fire on the trenches with her 4.7-inch guns. More than fifty of the Turks were killed or badly wounded, the high-explosive shells shattering some to pieces. After this salutary lesson the Turks at Alexandretta did not seek any further encounters with the sailors of allied war vessels.

The British cruisers were late in arriving in the Gulf of Alexandretta, and had lost some opportunities to injure the enemy by their delay, but now they did valiant duty in preventing the Turks from sending any number of men or stores to Aleppo for the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, or the Egyptian border by the coast route, which would greatly have facilitated their movements. They were forced, owing to the vigilance of British warships, to send their troops and munitions over the Giaur Dagh by the pass called the Syrian Gates, between Cilicia and northern Syria, a rough, mountainous region, with bad roads, that made progress extremely difficult.

At the beginning of the allied operations against the Dardanelles, the observation of the Syrian coast was taken over entirely by the French fleet.

On April 19, 1915, the Turkish intrenchments at El Arish were bombarded by the French battleship St. Louis. The Turks had some fifteen or twenty field guns, and replied vigorously, but only one shell hit the battleship, which did no damage. The Turks suffered some losses. In the early part of May the big camp at Gaza, where numbers of Ottoman soldiers were gathered to be reviewed by Djemal Pasha, was shelled by the St. Louis, when some fifty Turks were killed by French shrapnel, and perhaps as many more wounded.

On April 29, 1915, the cruiser D'Entrecasteaux worked effectively on the Cilician coast, shelling the trenches at Taruss, while her hydroplane, dropping a bomb on the railway tracks, blew up trucks laden with high explosives and wrecked the railway station. On May 10 the Turks at El Arish were again shelled by the guns of the Jeanne D'Arc.

On Ascension Day, Alexandretta was the scene of some spirited work, in which the cruiser D'Estrees played the leading part. M. de la Passadiere, her commander, demanded of the Kaimakam that the German flag should be hauled down that was flying over the German Consulate. The Turkish commander sent no reply, and it was pretended that he was ill or absent. M. de la Passadiere having fixed a time limit when the flag must be hauled down, cleared his decks for action and trained the ship's guns on the consulate building. At the expiration of the time limit he opened fire, and the consulate was reduced to ruins. The only casualties were three Turkish soldiers, who, in spite of warning, had remained near the building.

The captain of the D'Estrees on May 14, 1915, destroyed a petrol depot which might be used to supply hostile submarines, and which contained over 1,000 cases. A few days earlier a much larger depot containing some 20,000 cases at Makri on the southern coast of Cilicia had been destroyed by the cruiser Jeanne D'Arc.



Budrum on the southwest coast of Asia Minor in the Gulf of Halicarnassus was bombarded for a serious act of Turkish treachery. The captain of the Dupleix had sent two boat crews to parley with the authorities, when they were fired upon by armed Turkish civilians and some soldiers. About twenty French soldiers were killed or captured as a result of this treacherous act, concerning which the Ottoman authorities published a communique in which they described the incident as the repulse of a landing force. The French losses were quickly avenged, for the Dupleix at once began a bombardment of the Moslem quarter of the town, and continued firing for three hours during which great damage was done.

Armed Turkish inhabitants perpetrated a similar outrage on boat parties on May 18, 1915, at Banias, near Latakia; a tug and a boat belonging to the D'Estrees were fired on from roofs and landing places while chasing a merchantman belonging to the enemy that was seeking refuge in the port. As a punishment for the treachery of the civilians, who had posed as peaceable inhabitants until the French boats came into port, part of the town was destroyed by the shells of the D'Estrees.

In February, 1915, toward the close of the month, in the Red Sea, the French armored cruiser Desaix landed a reconnoitering party near Akaba, and found the Turks occupying a neighboring village. After receiving reenforcements from the cruiser, the French sailors drove out the fifty or sixty Turks hiding among the houses of the village, killing and wounding a dozen of them, their only casualty being one man, who was slightly wounded. The Red Sea was now patrolled by vessels of the Indian Marine, which were frequently successful in making captures, and in removing mines from the Gulf of Akaba.

On March 21, 1915, H.M.S. Dufferin at Mutweilah on coast of Midian, where an old Turkish fort is located, was the victim of the white-flag trick. Through this treacherous act one British sailor was killed, and an officer and nine other men were wounded. In the middle of May, H.M.S. Northbrook captured a dhow, having on board six German officers belonging to the merchant marine, and ten men who were trying to reach one of the Turkish Red Sea ports to the north. In these waters and in the Levant there were many incidents of this character, insignificant in themselves, but important in the aggregate, since they kept the enemy worried, and created a wholesome fear of allied vigilance.

In the last week of January, 1915, the three Turkish columns advancing on Egypt, the northern marching toward Kantara, the central and main advance headed for Ismailia, and the southern, whose objective was Suez, had been located, and were under surveillance of allied aeroplanes. By January 26 advanced guards of the central and southern columns were discovered near the canal. The central column was at Moia Harab, and some thousand men were also discovered at Wadi Um Muksheib. The southern column was found to be located at Bir Mabeiuk. On this same date British troops engaged the northern Turkish column a few miles east of El Kantara, losing in the skirmish five men and one officer. It was now evident to the British that the Turks were about to begin the main attack on the canal. Consequently the Auckland and Canterbury Battalions were dispatched to Ismailia; the Otago and Wellington Battalions were sent to El Kubri, and the New Zealand Infantry Brigade was sent up by rail from Cairo.

While this was transpiring on land, H.M.S. Ocean, Swiftsure, Clio, and Minerva joined the French warship D'Entrecasteaux and H.M.S. Hardinge and two torpedo boats already stationed in the canal. For three or four days following there were numerous skirmishes between enemy outposts and British patrols, the most effective work being wrought by allied aeroplanes and hydroplanes, which dropped bombs on the Turks as they swept over them and killed many camels and men. Lieutenant Patridge of the Indian Army Reserve of Officers and a French pilot lost their machine outside the British lines through the engine breaking down, and on returning to camp at night were shot and killed by a British picket.

On February 1, 1915, Djemel Pasha's main force occupied Katayib el Kheil, some low hills east of the southern end of Lake Timsah. The Turkish commander had every reason to feel satisfied with the progress he made in bringing his army across the desert in good condition, and with only the loss of a few deserters from among the irregulars. As many Tripolitan, Algerian, and Indian pilgrims had been forced to join the army by the persuasion of the leaders of the irregular troops, the Turkish force had increased in numbers.

Djemel Pasha's plan was to attack the canal with the main force, made up of the Twenty-fifth Division, and all, or part of the Twenty-third Division, which were to force their way between Serapeum and Tussum, while his right wing by a feint attack was to hold the British force at the Ismailia Ferry bridgehead. El Kantara was to be attacked by the northern column, while at the same time to prevent reenforcements from arriving, a demonstration was to be made at Ferdan. The southern column was directed to carry out the same tactics at Kubri, near Suez, which, as was subsequently shown, they did most ineffectually.

In the morning of February 2, 1915, an Indian reconnoitering force met the Turks about four miles east of the Ismailia Ferry. In the desultory action that followed, the British troops tried ineffectually to draw the Turks within range of their main position, and a violent sand storm arising in the afternoon, the engagement ended. The Turks retired and intrenched themselves about 2-1/2 miles southeast of the Ferry post. On this same afternoon the Twenty-fifth Division of the Turkish army had arrived at a point within four or five miles of the canal. Their scouts were already established on the eastern bank, which is backed by trees, brushwood, and sand hills, affording excellent cover for infantry. A narrow sandy beach, not more than 9 feet wide extends along the foot of the eastern bank. The Turkish advance was made after night had set in, the Twenty-fifth Division, with pontoon companies and engineers of the Fourth and Fifth Army Corps, being first to reach the canal. They brought with them some twenty pontoons, and five or six rafts constructed out of kerosene cans fastened in wooden frames.

The first comers were followed by a part of the Seventy-fifth Regiment, old fighters from Tripoli and the Balkans; "Holy Warriors" as the Arabs called them. About 3 a. m. they had gained the openings along the canal bank, the most northerly of which being within a few hundred yards of the Tussum bridgehead. The remainder of the Seventy-fifth Regiment covered them from the left. Toward Serapeum, some distance south, the Seventy-fourth Regiment was stationed.

The night was dark and thickly clouded, and from the silence on the western bank of the canal the Turks must have believed it to be unoccupied. That they were entirely confident of success was shown in a letter afterward found on a dead Turkish officer and dated February 2. After describing the hard march across the desert, he concluded, "And to-morrow we shall be across the canal on our way to Cairo!"

The Turks crowded on the narrow strip of beach or in the gaps in the banks, and suffered heavily from the fire of this mountain battery. A number of their boats which left the shore were sunk. The Sixty-second Punjabis left their cover under a withering fire, and pluckily charged down the bank to repel the Turkish attempts to make a landing. Toward Tussum, farther south, a field battery belonging to the East Lancashire Division, supported by New Zealanders of the Canterbury Battalion, opened a rattling fire, to which the Turks immediately replied with machine guns and rifles. The small torpedo boat O-43 with its crew of thirteen now took part in the fray by dashing up the canal and landing a few men at a point south of Tussum.

At the first gray light of dawn the action became general, and fresh forces entered the conflict. The Turks on the eastern bank who had occupied the day line of the Tussum post now advanced, protected by artillery, against the bridgehead, while the Serapeum post was assailed by another body of troops. On the canal and Lake Timsah the allied warships opened fire, and continued it for some time. From the slopes of Katayib el Kheil three batteries of Turkish field guns replied, doing considerable damage to every visible target. But they had not taken careful observations of the British positions, and the carefully masked Territorial battery between Tussum and Serapeum was not discovered. This battery, aided by the New Zealanders, almost silenced the Turkish fire from the eastern bank, and enabled them to attend to the reserves of the enemy now seen advancing on the desert to the east. Four of the Territorial gunners were wounded by the Turkish batteries. A pontoon which the Turks had pushed across the canal in the dark was sunk, but until daybreak those who had engineered this work managed to keep afloat, and continued sniping with some damage to British artillery horses until they were rounded up and taken prisoners by some Indian cavalry.

THE END