the provision of a water supply, and in developing it they conferred
on the natives a boon which should make them be remembered with
gratitude for many generations.

In the months preceding our attack Royal Engineers were also concerned
in improving the means of communication between railway depôts and the
front line. Before our arrival in this part of Southern Palestine,
wheeled traffic was almost unknown among the natives. There was not
one metalled roadway, and only comparatively light loads could be
transported in wheeled vehicles. The soil between Khan Yunus and Deir
el Belah, especially on the west of our railway line, was very sandy,
and after the winter rains had knitted it together it began to crumble
under the sun's heat, and it soon cut up badly when two or three
limbers had passed over it. The sandy earth was also a great nuisance
in the region between Khan Yunus and Shellal, but between Deir el
Belah and our Gaza front, excepting on the belt near the sea which was
composed of hillocks of sand precisely similar to the Sinai Desert,
the earth was firmer and yielded less to the grinding action of
wheels. For ordinary heavy military traffic the engineers made good
going by taking off about one foot of the top soil and banking it
on either side of the road. These tracks lasted very well, but they
required constant attention. Ambulances and light motor cars had
special arrangements made for them. Hundreds of miles of wire netting
were laid on sand in all directions, and these wire roads, which,
stretching across bright golden sand, appeared like black bands to
observers in aircraft, at first aroused much curiosity among enemy
airmen, and it was not until they had made out an ambulance convoy on
the move that they realised the purpose of the tracks.

The rabbit wire roads were a remarkable success. Motor wheels held