We ‘stood by’ all last night and all today till six o’clock but have not been called out. The West Riding battery have got to ‘stand by’ tonight. We had a swim this morning, but had to go down in twos and cannot be away for long, so it wasn’t as nice as usual. A squadron of the Bikanir camel corps were drilling close to our camp this morning, fine looking men and big strong camels with a double saddle on each. A ‘pow wow’ by General Parker this afternoon. He told me several details about the Katia fight on Easter Sunday – it’s been a bad knock for us. He also read us some news that has been collected by our Intelligence Department, and it looks very much as if the Turks mean a serious attack on us before long.
This evening we took the guns out and got them into a position for a practice shoot tomorrow. It seems rather a waste of ammunition when we shall want all we can get before long in all probability. One of our aeroplanes has been reconnoitring over El Arish today, and it seems that the Turks are making great preparations there. Another of our planes that was reconnoitring today hasn’t come in yet and they are afraid it has been shot down.