and sniped at us. Numbers surrendered without resistance as we caught up
with them. We disarmed them and ordered them to walk back until they fell
in with our cavalry, or the infantry, which was being brought forward in
trucks. As we bowled along in pursuit the scene reminded me of
descriptions in the novels of Sienkiewicz or Erckmann-Chatrian. The road
was littered with equipment of every sort, disabled pack-animals, and dead
or dying Turks. It was hard to see the wounded withering in the increasing
heat--the dead were better off. We reached the heights overlooking Haditha
to find that the garrison was in full retreat. Most of it had left the
night before. Those remaining opened fire upon us, but in a half-hearted
way, that was not calculated to inflict much loss. Many of the inhabitants
of the town lived in burrows in the hillsides. Some of these caves had
been filled with ammunition. The enemy had fired all their dumps, and
rocks were flying about. We endeavored to save as much of the material as
was possible. We were particularly anxious to get all papers dealing with
the Arabs, to enable us to check up which were our friends and which of
the ones behind our lines were dealing treacherously with us. We
recaptured a lot of medical equipment and some ammunition that had been
taken from our forces during the Gallipoli campaign.

Haditha is thirty-five miles from Khan Baghdadi, and Ana is an equal
distance beyond. It was decided that we should push on to a big bridge
shown on the map as eight miles this side of Ana. We were to endeavor to
secure this before the Turks could destroy it, and cross over to bivouac
on the far side. The road was in fair shape. Many of the small bridges
were of recent construction. We soon found that our map was exceedingly
inaccurate. Our aeroplanes were doing a lot of damage to the fleeing
Turks, and as we began to catch up with larger groups we had some sharp
engagements. The desert Arabs hovered like vultures in the distance
waiting for nightfall to cover them in their looting.