The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-10
CROSSED
 BIG DESERT TO
 ATTACK BRITISH
Bringing Guns Over Sands In Summer Heat an Unprece-
 dented Feat.

Summer Heat an Unprece- .dented Feat.
 t Romani Egypt, Oct. 10-Unique features of warfare were developed, | according to military men, in the re- cent battle of Romani in which the | British defeated the Turks, the in- vaders losing some 5000 in dead, wounded and prisoners out of their tai of approximately 14,0OO men, as | has been told in cable advices. The crossing of the Sinai desert with big guns and other war equipment dur ing the heat of summer was an un- precedented achievement A repre- l'sentative of The Associated Press who was permitted to travel over the en- l tire battle ground after the conflict, 1 had been told previously, by high | military authorities that the feat could not be accomplished and that any force sitting along the Suez Canal would be safe from attack throughout 1 the summer. One of the few dissen- | tants. however, was Lieutenant-Gen- eral Sir Archibald Murray, Command er-in-chief of the British Forces in Egypt. Immediately upon his assump-
 tion of command here last January he I began to prepare for just such an at-
 tack and the victory at Romani was due to his foresight.
 The Turkish expedition undoubtedly was engineered by German officers who laid elaborate plans for the ad- vance from the direction of Fl Arish, Turkish post on the northern coast, ninety miles from the canal. About half this distance is through a water less desert and at this time of year
 the heat is intolerable. It would be impossible for men to march for in these sands one sinks to the ankles at every step, and horses are not fitted for work of this kind. The only means
 of transporting troops and supplies
 was on canels and this was the method employed. About fourteen thousand of these beasts were used. Unable to drag the heavy gun car | riages through the loose, deep sands, the Turks constructed roads by dig ging small parallel trenches which would fit the carriage wheels, and fill ing these tracks with the scrubby plants which represented the only vegetable life outside the cases. These wiry plants formed a cushion over which sand was thrown, making very practicable road for the guns. In some
 places where the sand was too loose and. deep for this track, blanks were
 laid lengthwise under the wheels.
 Progress was necessarily slow and long before the Turks reached the watered positions which they took up some miles in front of Romani, the British were ready and waiting for them. The defenders did not attack, for it was the plan to draw the invad- CTS on to an assault if possible. Gen. eral Murray decided that he would wait certain length of time and then force the issue if the Turks had not advanced. It seemed almost like a forlorn hope that the Tur4 Is with their astute German leadership, would be led to an attack on the Romani posi- ton, for the whole country in this sec- tion, is covered with great steep dunes. some of which cannot be climbed in places because of the sliding sands. All these dunes were we'll protected by the British. However, as had been hoped, at midnight on August 3 the Turks began the attack which ended in complete disaster for them on Aug. 5.
 Just what persuaded the Turks to try to take this apparently impregna- ble position is matter of considerable speculation. Some express the opin- ion that they were misinformed as to the nature of the battle-ground. 9th CTS think they misjudged the British strength and hoped, despite the diff ficulties presented, to take the posi- ;oI, they could work against the canal. However, that may be, they were cleverly drawn into the sand dune trap. N,
 They fought bravely and their ar tillery shooting was very accurate and effective in. places. but no body of attacking troops could hope to fight their way through these dunes when opposed by artillery, machine guns, cavalry and entrenched infantry.
 The Turks suffered from lack of water since they had to advance from their base laden as lightly as possible Both sides undoubtedly underwent al- most the limit of human endurance from the great heat. The climax of the battle was the charge of the An zac light horse who arrayed them selves on-a ridge some two miles and half in length and hurled themselves down upon the Turks VI Do were strag- gling forward in the sandy trap, and were defenceless against the terrible onslaught.
 XXX x(Paragraph deleted by censor).
 The general opinion is that the Turks must have proved to their own satisfaction that while they might bring troops across the desert, yet they could hope for no success during the hot season unless they had communi- cation railways established back of them. For this reason, it is believed, that they will not venture to attack again in force during the summer.
 A Turkish prisoner of war, a major who was captured at Romani, gave the