Through Palestine with the 20th Machine Gun Squadron

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Through Palestine with the 20th Machine Gun Squadron

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Squadron, by Unknown This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Through Palestine with the 20th Machine Gun Squadron
Author: Unknown
Release Date: November 19, 2005 [EBook #17109]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH PALESTINE WITH THE ***

Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Sigal Alon and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)

[Transcriber's note:
1. Some of the biblical references in the original seem to be mistaken. All the references were left as in the original. The following is a list of uncertain references, usually together with a possible alternate reference.
Footnote Original Suggestion
[7] III Kings i II Kings i Zech. iv, 5 Zech. ix, 5
[10] Judges l, 18 Judges i, 18 Jeph. ii, 4 Zeph. ii, 4
[13] Matt. xii, 40 ? Acts x, 9 Several times in Acts x, but not verse 9
[15] II Kings ii, 11 II Kings ii, 15
[20] Judges iv, 3 Judges vi, 33 v, 21 Mentions the Kishon which borders Esdraelon vi, 1 Judges vii, 1
[21] Psalms xxxix, 12 Psalms lxxxix, 12
[25] Deut. xiv, 5 ? I Kings iv, 23 I Kings iv, 11 mentions Dor, a village in the vicinity xviii, 13 xviii, 19 Isa. lv, 12 ?
[29] II Kings vi II Kings v vii ? xiii ? xv ?
[30] John i, 47 ?
[34] Josh. xiii, 2 Josh. xiii, 5 Judges iii, 1 Judges iii, 3 II Chron. ii, 2 II Chron. ii, 8 or 16 Isa. xxxv, 17 Isa. xxxv, 2
[40] I Kings xviii, 34 II Kings xviii, 34 xix, 13 II Kings xix, 13
2. As there is no one way to transcribe Arabic and Hebrew place names, I left all the names as they appear in the original. Nevertheless, I tried to keep consistency and used a single spelling when a place was mentioned using two possible spellings.
3. The inconsistency of capitalization (e.g., Sub-section/sub-section, Sergeant/sergeant) and punctuation (mostly inside/outside quotation marks) are thus in the original book.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Through Palestine
with the
Twentieth
Machine-Gun
Squadron.
Printed and Published for private circulation
by
J.M. BAXTER & CO., 20 Appold Street, London--E.C.2.

Foreword.
This Booklet has been compiled with the object of enabling the members of the 20th Machine-Gun Squadron to recall the principal incidents in its history, as well as to allow their friends and relations to obtain some idea of their experiences whilst they were serving with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.
Although no pains have been spared to obtain accuracy, the statements made must, necessarily, not be regarded as absolutely authoritative.
Beyond doubt, many brave deeds, fully deserving of mention in these pages, must have been unavoidably overlooked, in which case the leniency of readers is requested.
In view of the probability that the incidents described herein may be read by many persons who have not been to the East, explanations have frequently been included, which might appear to some as unnecessary.
The writer is indebted to several members of the Squadron for their valuable assistance, without which, obviously, it would have been very difficult to have given an adequate account of any particular incident at which he was not present in person.
THE AUTHOR.
_1st July 1920._

Glossary.
The following are a few descriptive terms which occur in the following pages, with place-names, and the abbreviations used:--
ABU Father. AIN Spring. BEIT House. BIRKETT Pool. BIR Well. DEIR Monastery. ED, EL, ER, ES, EZ The definite article THE JEBEL Mountain. JISR Bridge. KEFR Village. KAHN Inn. KHURBET (abbrev. KH.) Ruin. MAKHADET Ford. NAHR River. NEBY A Prophet. RAS Head, cape, top. SHEIKH (abbrev. SH.) Chief, elder, saint. TEL Mound (especially one covering ruins). WADI A watercourse (normally dry).
TIME.
The following table shows the military method of stating the time which is used throughout this book:--
1 a.m. 01.00 2 " 02.00 3.15 " 03.15 6.45 " 06.45 12 midday 12.00 1 p.m. 13.00 2.35 " 14.35 3.50 " 15.50 8 " 20.00 10 " 22.00 12 midnight 24.00 12.15 a.m. 00.15

THROUGH PALESTINE WITH THE 20TH MACHINE-GUN SQUADRON.


PART I.
FORMATION OF THE SQUADRON.
It was on the 4th July 1917 that authority was given to the 7th Mounted Brigade (then at Ferry-Post, Ismailia), for the formation of a MACHINE-GUN SQUADRON to be known as the "20th." It was to consist of "Headquarters" and only three sub-sections, there being but two regiments (instead of the usual three) in the 7th Brigade.
On July 4th, Lieut. E.P. Cazalet and Lieut. E.B. Hibbert, machine gun officers of the Notts (Sherwood Rangers) Yeomanry and South Notts Hussars respectively, brought their sub-sections to the new camp. Lieut. C.D.