No sooner were we there than orders were received to
return again. This time, however, we went in cars as far as Water Dump
A, and there we commandeered a convoy of camels returning with empty
fanatis, and we finished our trek mounted. Great credit is due to the
Light Car Patrol and to the Ford cars which really were wonderful.
Neither sand up to the axle, nor dropping down over rocks stopped
them--they made a road for themselves as they went along, and always
seemed to get there.
That finished our 1916 campaign against the Senussi--the I.C.C. were
relieved by a London Yeomanry Company of the I.C.C, and later on some
Gyppy Cavalry went out and garrisoned Dakhla Oasis.
On 13th November the Regiment started in relays by train for Gara.
There we received orders to start infantry training, as we were to be
converted into a battalion of infantry. Till then we had always done
dismounted cavalry drill. We now started hammer and tongs at infantry
drill, instructed by an officer and two N.C.O.'s from a neighbouring
garrison battalion. We were all looking forward to becoming pukka
infantry, as we had long realised that in our eccentric form as
dismounted yeomanry we should only be given the odd jobs.
We had just got our camp tidy when the water-spout burst, and not only
washed out our lines and those of the Ayrshire and Lanarkshire
Yeomanries, but also demolished the fine earth church which the
Anglican Padre had had built.
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