as comfortable as possible. Stakes sent up by the R.E. were used for
constructing bivouacs, but perhaps the palm trees provided as much
assistance as anything else. Although we had not yet learnt to use the
word "camouflage" we knew its meaning, and whenever we settled down on
the desert we put it into use as a protection against inquisitive
aircraft. At Katia the palm trees gave us all the protection we required
in this way.




CHAPTER II.

Desert Life.


On August 14th the 42nd Division moved back to Romani, a further advance
across the Sinai Desert being deemed inadvisable until the railway and
water pipe, which stopped a few kilometres beyond Romani, had been
pushed further ahead. A system of training was started, but as the men
had not recovered from the fatigue of the Katia operations, and the
weather was very trying, vigorous forms of exercise were given up. A
number of men went to hospital with a weakening form of diarrhoea
almost akin to dysentery, while the medical authorities were in a highly
nervous state about cholera of which a few cases had been reported. It
was presumed that this had been contracted from the Turkish prisoners
and their old camping grounds.

The battalion was augmented slightly at this stage by a draft from
England, while 2nd-Lt's. W. H. Barratt and W. Thorp returned from leave.