{"id":141,"date":"2016-05-24T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T08:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/?p=141"},"modified":"2016-04-30T10:39:09","modified_gmt":"2016-04-30T09:39:09","slug":"24-may-1916","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/2016\/05\/24\/24-may-1916\/","title":{"rendered":"24 May 1916"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I woke up with a start about one o&#8217;clock with a feeling that the horses were coming along. I got up and funnily enough they were just coming along a few hundred yards away.<\/p>\n<p>I got on &#8220;Kitty&#8221; who was being led and went with them to <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips97'><span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips99'>Romani<\/span><\/span> to show them the wells. After watering we came back and bivouacked for the night. The forage train came in about four o&#8217;clock and we drew rations and forage as soon as it was light. The guns, baggage, and the rest of the men came along by train about eight o&#8217;clock and began detraining straight away.<\/p>\n<p>I rode over to the headquarters of the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips105'>Anzac<\/span> Mounted Division at <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips97'><span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips99'>Romani<\/span><\/span> and arranged for our horses to water there during the day. They are going to try and sink some wells at Railhead if the water is good enough. About ten o&#8217;clock I was sent on to Mahamdiya which is four miles to a flank of Railhead and practically on the shore. The guns are going to be in a position there but the majority of the horses will have to be at Railhead as all the water has to be taken to Mahamdiya on camels. I took twenty camels on, loaded with baggage and tents, and myself and four men rode on five other camels.<\/p>\n<p>We are taking over at Mahamdiya the position that up till now has been led by the Ross Mountain Battery, and they are going to join the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips105'>Anzac<\/span> Mounted Division. The Mountain Battery have been awfully kind to me today, had me into their mess, and done all they can to help. I went down to the shore to have a bathe this afternoon and it was a treat after the canal; nice clean water and quite big breakers and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is hard sand and you can walk out for some way without getting out of your depth.<\/p>\n<p>The water is going to be a great difficulty here, they are only going to let us have three quarters of a gallon a day per man, but still with the battery we shan&#8217;t do so badly. All the water has to be brought up by train from <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips79'><span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips85'>Kantara<\/span><\/span> to Railhead, and then brought by camels from Railhead to here. It is carried in <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips53'>fantasses<\/span> (zinc cisterns), and each holds 10 gallons and each camel can carry two <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips53'>fantasses<\/span>. So it will be some business supplying us up here with rations and water, etc., besides supplying the <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips8'>156th Infantry Brigade<\/span> who are holding the place too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips8','Infantry brigade formation of the British Army.\u00a0In WWI they served in the Middle East, until being sent to the Western Front after the German army launched their Spring offensive. \u00a0During WWII, the brigade\u00a0served in France, shortly after the Dunkirk evacuation, and later in North-western Europe.'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips53','<img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-391\" src=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/119\/2016\/06\/fantasses-300x251.png\" alt=\"fantasses\" width=\"300\" height=\"251\" \/>'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips79','Al Qantarah El Sharqiyya \u2013 a city in north east Egypt on the eastern side of the Suez Canal'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips84','A military encampment made with tents or improvised shelters.'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips85','More commonly known as Al Quantarah El Sharqiyya, <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips79'><span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips85'>Kantara<\/span><\/span> is around 100 miles from Cairo. Major depot and headquarters during WW1. It is also the place where Richard is buried.<br\/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cwgc.org\/find-a-cemetery\/cemetery\/54500\/KANTARA%20WAR%20MEMORIAL%20CEMETERY\">http:\/\/www.cwgc.org\/find-a-cemetery\/cemetery\/54500\/<span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips79'><span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips85'>Kantara<\/span><\/span>%20WAR%20MEMORIAL%20CEMETERY <\/a>'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips97','See information:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.1914-1918.net\/romani.html\" target=\"_blank\">www.1914-1918.net\/<span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips97'>Romani<\/span>.html<\/a>'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips99','A town in Egypt. \u00a0A large battle on the same name, the Battle of <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips97'>Romani<\/span>, which was an attack by the Central Powers on the Suez Canal, took place between 3 and 5 August 1916. This was the battle in which Dick tragically lost his life.<br\/><br\/>&nbsp;'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips105','Term used to describe\u00a0soldiers\u00a0in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during WWI'); <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I woke up with a start about one o&#8217;clock with a feeling that the horses were coming along. I got up and funnily enough they were just coming along a few hundred yards away. I got on &#8220;Kitty&#8221; who was being led and went with them to Romani to show them the wells. After watering &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/2016\/05\/24\/24-may-1916\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">24 May 1916<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1410,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ww1digitaldiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}