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[page 78]
1918
2/Lieut. Dunn placed two machine guns in position on the right flank and Lieut. Greatorex placed two on the left flank. All trenches were well supplied with bombs. The heat was intense and the air felt very heavy, due to the valley being hundreds of feet below sea level.
On the nights of June 17 and June 19 Lieut. Matheson led patrols on foot from Musallabeh towards Grant Hill, and on the night of June 2 Lieutenants Frost and Matheson, each with a troop, raided the enemy post on Grant Hill, the former from the south-east and the latter from the north-east. Although they inflicted casualties with hand grenades they were beaten back by heavy rifle and machine gun fire, Lieut. Matheson and 2 men being wounded. The Inverness Battery put down a barrage on to the enemy position, and the raiding parties returned with their wounded.
Up to June 30, during which period General Allenby visited our sector, we suffered daily shelling and a few casualties. The enemy had the best of the observation; a heat haze rose in the valley each day and dense clouds of dust rolled up from our horses going to water. On June 25, 2/Lieut. C.H. Menzies marched in from the Cadet School and Lieut. W.G. Drummond from the School of Instruction at el Arish. On the 29th, Capt. Moore who had been acting as assistant-adjutant, went to hospital, and Lieut. Drummond was wounded, slightly.
On June 30, we handed over our sector to 2 L.H.; the relief was finished by 2235 and the bivouac we went into was violently shelled in the morning and again in the afternoon, 3 men and 12 horses being wounded and 8 horses killed. About 70 horses stampeded when a shell burst among them, but they were all subsequently recovered. Major 0.B. Ryrie was evacuated to the field ambulance.
The evacuations were now becoming heavy owing to sickness, the older men seeming to stand the conditions the best. Working parties were nightly sent to improve the wiring around el Maskerah, generally under shell fire. On July 3 the enemy again shelled the bivouac area, but beyond blowing bivvies about did not do much damage. Next day we were reinforced by 2/Lieut. W.H. Scott from the Cadet School and 59 other ranks from Moascar. Wiring in the line was being carried out by 1 L.H. nightly.
On July 7 Major Harris went to the rest camp at Port Said, leaving Lieut. L.W. Rogers in command of "C" Squadron. The wiring at el Maskera and Musallabeh was now completed, but a fresh line of wire in front of