Item 04: M.C. Evans war diary, 4 November 1916-16 June 1917 - Page 138
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[Page 138]
Deir el Bellah [Deir el Belah]
13th April, Thursday
I thought I was right about the old building at Khan Yunis – it was built about 1172 by Richard Coeur de Lion on his crusade. I & another fellow are now out on our own at Dei el Bela which is about 8 miles from Gaza in which 30000 turks are now reported. We are going to attack it shortly with 3 divisions of infantry & one in reserve, 2 divisions of cavalry, 8 monitors from the sea, much fairly heavy artillery – which are rationed for each gun continuous firing for 48 hours & 8 tanks so if it is not muddled up we ought to take the place.
On Tuesday Riches & I set out from Khan Yunis to get camels in response to one of their brilliantly lucid telegrams saying "send two men to 2nd Immobile Sect. at Railhead to escort camels".
We thought we should be back the same day. We did not know what the Immobile Sect. was or where it was