Action in Palestine

Monday 1st April 1918

Once again today all is quiet on the Western Front. The 2nd Battalion remains in billets at Catigny-Arrest and has been training under Major R O Wynne, who has assumed command in the absence of Lieutenant-Colonel Poyntz who is in hospital. The 7th Battalion remains in billets at Gentelles but as dusk gathers they are on their way to the front line at Hangard.

6th Battalion is in the front line at Rossignol Wood near Couin. Given the numbers of our men who have been captured by the speed of the German advance it was with some satisfaction that the battalion bagged two of the enemy, caught out in no man's land. They have been sent to Brigade Headquarters for questioning.

In far away Palestine we have heard that yesterday 1st/5th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment came under attack yesterday at dusk. About 150 Turks in three waves crossed the crest of a hill and advanced down the slope towards the Bedfords' posts at Kurnet el Haramiyeh. They were immediately engaged by Lewis guns and eventually took up a line halfway down the hill.

From this position as darkness fell the Turks opened heavy fire on the Bedfords' post. Under cover of this fire a party of fifteen or twenty Turks crossed a wadi, or dry gully, and advanced against two of the battalion's sangars, defences of stones constructed above the surface of the ground as its rocky nature makes the digging of trenches impossible. Some sangars were bombed but the Turks were dispersed by a listening post, a few of remainder reached the battalion's barbed wire, but were bombed out. Patrols who immediately searched the slopes in front of the wire could find no trace of enemy dead.

Sources: X550/3/wd; X550/6/8; X550/7/1; X550/8/1