Wednesday 26th April 1916: The adjutant of 1st/5th Battalion
tells us that a column has returned to Shalufa today after a five day patrol
towards Turkish outposts in eastern Sinai.
The column concentrated at Wadi el Haj where the Bedfordshire Regiment
met elements of the Camel Corps, Royal Engineers and Royal Army Medical Corps.
A post was established at the wadi to protect camel convoys and a signal
station was set up to be in contact with Darb el Haj. Another post was set up
further east next day near a ruined chapel at Wadi el Tawal, just under half
way from Suez to the Turkish garrison at Nekhel. The post consisted of one
officer and sixty other ranks. The men were involved in prospecting for water
along with convoy protection duties. Trying to get further east was “very slow
and hard work for both horse and man owing to the undulating and drifted sand”
as the column commander reported.
The next day
the column met up with another column to reconnoitre further east. All patrols
sent out showed no sign of a Turk anywhere.
