Volume 2: Letters written on active service, M-W, 1914-1919 - Page 204
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[Page 204]
Our boys have been doing some of the greatest work mounted troops have ever taken on and the best part of it on their own.
Well we took El-arish it was a very important position of the Turks and I think it will change their minds a bit of ever attacking the Canal again. El-arish was also their gate or stronghold to Egypt, they have held the place for two years.
It is not a very large town, population of about seven thousands, Egyptians and Arabs mostly. It was a great victory though it did not take much taking, for our advance was that quick and great they could not get ready for us, so they had to go for their lives or be captured by the great Australian Light Horse, so they went and we only captured a few, and of course the town and position, which was a great loss to them in military value, for as I said, it was their gate to Egypt and the end of the desert for us.
It was a grand sight to see the greatest part of the Anzac Mounted Division with their wonderful horses and horsemanship moving at night over the great Sinia desert, and great steep white sand dunes, which only great horsemanship could move over at night, because some of the sand hills' sides are almost perpendicular and it takes a bit of manoeuvring to descend their sides.
Well after riding all night through the sand, at the break of dawn we over-looked a great stretch of flat hard country and also could see the beautiful blue sea, and best of all we could see green trees, palms, and crops, and on the side of a small slope stood the town of El-Arish.
We advanced straight on over the flat and past the town taking a few prisoners till we came to another ridge of hills, then we made our position stronger on account of Johnny Turk, if changing his mind and trying to get back, but he soon gave it up and we never saw anything of him for four or five days, bar his aeroplanes, which always visit us and drop a few bombs, which make a chap feel very uncomfortable while he is over-head, but he does not do a great deal of damage, and goes for his very life when our planes come on the scene.
Well after we had been here for a while we went back to the green crops looking for water for our poor horses and selves, of which we found ample supply and of excellent quality to our great joy for it was the best water we had had all along the track. We went back a little further