Item 03: Gordon Macrae diary, 20 January 1917-18 April 1918 - Page 26

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[Page 26]

March 1917
low & fired on us, but we returned it & every time drove them off. A big Turkish gun tried to pick us up, but we changed direction & pushed right in behind Gaza cutting off all communication, & capturing more prisoners. In the afternoon our infantry attacked Gaza, but it was too strongly held & only one redoubt was captured by the N Zealanders who galloped across an open grass plain & dismounted & charged with bayonets. It was a great sight. The whole fight seemed more like a big parade ground movement From a hill behind the town we could see everything, all the troops & artillery moving into position & the charge across the plain. It was a pity it wasn't successful, everything seemed to be so well carried out.

Our Brigade held off reinforcements & worried the Turks from the rear. We inflicted a lot of casualties among the Turks, one of our machine guns wiping out whole company. Two guns were captured. The 5th LH had a bayonet charge on horseback. We remained behind Gaza till 10.30 pm

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