After that, when the little
bundles dropped near them, the natives would, run as if from high
explosive bombs.
All things considered, it is wonderful that the Turkish demonstration
against the Canal came as near to fulfillment as it did. Twenty thousand
soldiers actually crossed the desert in six days on scant rations, and
with them they took two big guns, which they dragged by hand when the
mules dropped from thirst and exhaustion. They also carried pontoons to
be used in crossing the Canal. Guns and pontoons are now at rest in the
Museum at Cairo.
Just what took place in the attack is known to very few. The English
have not seen fit to make public the details, and there was little to be
got from the demoralized soldiers who returned to Beersheba. Piece by
piece, however, I gathered that the attacking party had come up to the
Canal at dawn. Finding everything quiet, they set about getting across,
and had even launched a pontoon, when the British, who were lying in
wait, opened a terrific fire from the farther bank, backed by armored
locomotives and aeroplanes. "It was as if the gates of Jehannum were
opened and its fires turned loose upon us," one soldier told me.
The Turks succeeded in getting their guns into action for a very short
while.
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