Item 01: William Peterson diary, 1 January 1916-13 August 1916 - Page 252
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[Page 252]
Formed the rear guard on the wayback. and got back to Romani at 11.30 pm. And oh joy no stand to arms.
26th July Wednesday 1916. Romani.
Been resting all day. and preparing to go out again tonight But before going out we had a bad scare. About 6.oclock. just as we were preparing for the usual "Stunt" a sudden order came Stand to your Arms! Saddle up! Oh! what a rush for saddles, In about 8 minutes we were on parade and the whole Brigade galloped out of Camp – in the soft sand too which taxed the horses very much too much in fact. We took up a position on outpost and patrols were sent in all directions scouring the desert. The report in the first place came over the wire "1000 Turks advancing on Romani" Hence the rush out. It turned out eventually that someone was suffering as usual from an attack of "Jim Jams" and had probably mistaken 1000 bushes on the desert for 1000 Turks. We got back to the lines and off saddled at about 10.30 pm. went to bed and was roused out again at 12.30. I was disturbed about 11.30 pm. to make arrangements for signallers going out on special patrols about 2 AM. I only had about half an hours sleep. too bad.