as well as to the fire of eight field guns and three 5.9 howitzers worked at the highest pressure.  The gunners were nearly all Germans and Austrians and they fought well.  They splashed the valley with shrapnel, and during the few moments’ lull when the yeomanry were lost to view behind the mound they set their shell fuses at zero to make them burst at the mouth of the guns and act as case shot.  They tore some gaps in the yeomen’s ranks, but nothing could stop that charge.  The Midlanders rode straight at the guns and sabred every artilleryman at his piece.  The Londoners say they heard all the guns stop dead at the same moment and they knew they had been silenced in true Balaclava style.  Having wiped out the batteries the yeomen again answered the call of their leader and swept up a ridge to deal effectively with three machine guns, and having used the white arm against their crews the guns were turned on to the retreating Turks and decimated their ranks.  This charge was witnessed by General Shea, and I know it is his opinion that it was executed with the greatest gallantry and elan, and was worthy of the best traditions of British cavalry.  The yeomanry lost about twenty-five per cent. of their number in casualties, but their action was worth the price, for they completely broke up the enemy resistance and enabled the London Division to push straight through to Huj.  The Warwick and Worcester Yeomanry received the personal congratulations of the Commander-in-Chief, and General Shea was also thanked by General Allenby.

During this day General Shea accomplished what probably no other Divisional Commander did in this war.  When out scouting in a light armoured car he was within 500 yards of a big ammunition dump which was blown up.  He saw the three men who had destroyed it running away, and he chased them into a wadi and machine-gunned them.  They held up their hands and were astonished to find they had surrendered to a General.  These men were captured in the nick of time.  But for the appearance of General Shea they would have destroyed another dump, which we captured intact.

I was with the Division the night after they had taken Huj.  It was their first day of rest for some time, but the men showed few signs of fatigue.  No one could move among them without being proud of the Londoners.  They were strong, self-reliant, well-disciplined, brave fellows.  I well remember what Colonel Temperley, the G.S.O. of the Division, told me when sitting out on a hill in the twilight that night.  Colonel Temperley had been brigade major of the first New Zealand Infantry Brigade which came to Egypt and took a full share in the work on Gallipoli on its way to France.  He had over two years of active service on the Western Front before coming out to Palestine for duty with the 60th Division, and his views on men in action were based on the sound experience of the professional soldier.  Of the London County Territorials he said:  ’I cannot speak of these warriors without a lump rising