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As a result of the repulse sustained by the British forces at the Second Battle of Gaza in April 1917, the troops operating were withdrawn from their exposed position and the Tank Detachment was concentrated in a fig grove some 2,000 yards west of Sheikh Nebhan, at which place it was later on reinforced by three Mark IV machines.

A new plan of operations was drawn up in which the Turkish defences from Outpost hill to Ali El Muntar, which had resisted the combined onslaught of several divisions, was to be turned by an extensive flanking movement west of Gaza. This operation was to take place in conjunction with an attack on Beersheba.

It is with the last of these four operations that this chapter is concerned. For this attack the force detailed consisted of the 54th Division, the Indian Cavalry Division, and the Tank Detachment—eight machines.

The attack of the 54th Division was divided into four phases—Blue, Red, Green, and Yellow.

The Tank Detachment left Deir El Belah on the night of October 22-23, 1917, for the beach near Sheikh Ajlin. From here a thorough reconnaissance of the area of operations was carried out on horseback and by drifter, after which this area was divided into tank sectors. To these tanks were distributed as follows :

i. 156th Infantry Brigade.— Objective—Umbrella hill north-westwards to the eastern portion of El Arish redoubt. No. 1 tank was to support the infantry in their attack on El Arish redoubt, deposit R.E. stores, attack Magdhaba trench and cover the infantry consolidation.

ii. 163rd Infantry Brigade.— Objective El Arish redoubt northwards to south of Zowaiid trench. No. 2 tank was to attack El Arish redoubt, then Island wood, deposit R.E. stores, and on the arrival of the infantry take a southerly route and capture Crested rock.

iii. 161st and 162nd Infantry Brigades.—Objectives—Zowaiid trench to Sea Post and the Cricket valley northwards to Sheikh Hasan and 500 yards beyond. For this operation four tanks were allotted.

No. 3 tank to attack Zowaiid trench, move north and capture Rafa redoubt, rally, then proceed along Rafa trench, deposit R.E. material, capture Yunus trench, attack Belah trench until the arrival of infantry, thence proceed to Sheikh Hasan, deposit more R.E. stores, and return to Sheikh Ajlin.

No. 4 tank to attack Rafa redoubt, co-operate with No. 3 tank against Belah trench, make for Sheikh Hasan, deposit R.E. material, attack A.6 (an isolated Turkish trench to the north-east), and hold this until the infantry had consolidated it.

In all, the above six first-line machines had twenty-nine objectives to attack! That this could have been accomplished successfully would have demanded a miracle; it was consequently foredoomed to failure.

The first phase of the attack was to consist in an infantry assault protected by a creeping barrage; during this phase the tanks were to move to their starting-points and be ready to advance at 3 o’clock on the morning of November 2.

In order to ensure complete co-operation between the Tank Detachment and the infantry, tank officers and other ranks were attached to infantry brigades for ten days prior to the battle. As in France, this system resulted in the greatest benefit to both infantry and tank personnel alike.

The first phase of the battle opened at 11 o’clock on the night of November 1-2, the 156th Infantry Brigade assaulting Umbrella hill. To this attack the enemy did not respond immediately, but when he did he opened a heavy artillery fire all down his front which endangered the forward movement of the tanks to their starting-points, which, in spite of this, they reached half an hour before the second zero hour .

It had been hoped to make every use of the full moon which rose in the early evening, but the smoke, resulting from the battle, and a dense haze restricted vision so completely that the tanks had to move forward on compass bearings. At 3 a.m. a heavy barrage was opened on the enemy’s front-line system, behind which the tanks, followed by the infantry, moved forward. No difficulty was experienced in dealing with the first objective, as the Turks were evidently taken quite by surprise. Under cover of the barrage our troops pushed on till they approached their second objective, when the enemy’s fire began to make itself felt. Along the coastline the attack proceeded according to programme, all objectives, including Sheikh Hasan, being taken. The 161st and 163rd Brigades encountered considerable opposition at Rafa trench, Island wood, Crested rock, Gibraltar, and north of El Arish redoubt. Briefly the operations carried out by the eight tanks of the detachment were as follows :

No. 1 tank successfully attacked El Arish redoubt and was penetrating the maze of trenches beyond, when owing to the darkness it was ditched; its crew then joined the infantry.

No. 2 tank assaulted El Arish redoubt and met a similar fate; eventually it received a direct hit which broke its right track; its crew also joined the infantry.

No. 3 tank attacked Rafa redoubt, and later on, losing direction in the mist, rallied.

No. 4 tank assaulted Rafa Junior, Yunus and Belah trenches, and after depositing its R.E. material rallied.

No. 6 tank captured Sea Post, moved along the enemy’s trench, crushing down the wire as far as Beach Post, attacked Cricket redoubt, Gun hill, and Tortoise hill, and reaching Sheikh Hasan deposited its R.E. stores. Shortly after this it moved forward to attack A.5, but breaking a track it had to be abandoned.

Nos. 7 and 8 tanks received instructions at 4 a.m. to support the infantry attack on El Arish redoubt, and to proceed in this direction with R.E. material. These machines were loaded up with empty sandbags on the roof, these caught fire, probably through the heat of the exhaust pipe, both tanks went out of action.

On the whole the tank operations during the Third Battle of Gaza were of assistance to the infantry. All tanks, except one, reached their first objectives; four reached their second, third, and fourth, and one reached its fifth objective. Of the eight machines operating five were temporarily disabled. Casualties in personnel were very light—only one man being killed and two wounded.

The Third Battle of Gaza closed the tank operations with the Army of Palestine, and though the damaged machines were repaired and put into fighting trim they were not used again. In order to overcome the great difficulty in rounding up, by means of cavalry, the rear-guard detachments of the retiring Turkish Army, a mission was sent to France to obtain, if possible, a number of Whippet machines. This mission reached Tank Corps Headquarters in France on March 21, the day the German offensive was launched. All hope of procuring these machines consequently vanished. The Tank Detachment, therefore, handed over their machines to the Ordnance Department at Alexandria and returned to England.

The tank operations in Sinai and Palestine conclusively proved that tanks could be employed almost anywhere in desert regions, and all that they required were certain improvements in mechanism and changes in design.

What success the Tank Detachment won during its two years in the East was due to the determination and fine fighting spirit displayed by its officers and men, who laboured under the greatest difficulties, not the least being the entire lack of knowledge displayed by the other arms in the limitations of tanks and their tactical employment. When all is said and done and every criticism rounded off, success with tanks in battle is as much a matter of co-operation, that is, unity of action of all arms combined, as it is of mechanical fitness. This can only be attained by constant practice in combined exercises on the training area long prior to the battle even being thought of.