Item 03: Gordon Macrae diary, 20 January 1917-18 April 1918 - Page 35

You are here

Transcription

[Page 35]

April 1917
Gaza but had to leave it again. The 5th & 7th Light Horse had a scrap with the Turkish cavalry & punished them. They had to leave because the Turks brought up some mountain guns & shelled the horses. We had only a few men wounded with bombs & shells. We saw a great air fight in the afternoon. 4 enemy planes were over us & 2 British. One of our planes flying very low was suddenly dived on by an enemy plane above. At the same time the other British plane dived & fired but suddenly plane it broke into smoke & turned over & over like a fluttering piece of paper & fell to the ground.
We got back to the wadi at 10 oclock & had a few hours sleep. We had only 5 hrs sleep the whole time since Sunday night & I don't think any of us before had had such a strenuous time.

Friday 20th
The Turks during the night advanced to the Wadi & our troops drove them back & took a well they had occupied. Our A Squadron captured 6 horses & inflicted some casualties on them, so also did the armoured cars

This page has its status set to Completed and is no longer transcribable.