Unfortunately this brigade never had an opportunity of putting this method to the test, but the 4th A.L.H. Brigade used it in a modified form at Beersheba, with excellent results.
The wisdom of accompanying a mounted attack by one or two machine guns was generally recognised, and in most cases where a charge was made deliberately and after due preparation, and the guns were available, this method of support was employed.
Where a mounted attack had to cover a considerable distance of open ground before reaching charging distance, the most usual formation was in column of squadrons in line of troop columns. Our own gunners were of opinion that this formation offered the most difficult target to artillery, provided the interval between troops was not less than 25 yards, and the distance between squadrons not less than 100 yards. The experience of the campaign seemed to point to the fact that cavalry also suffered less from machine-gun fire in this formation than in any other, at any rate at ranges beyond 1000 yards.
The Turks had their main ammunition depot at Huj. A squadron of the Worcester Yeomanry came upon this depot just after the charge, and found a party of enemy cavalry engaged in setting fire to it. The squadron commander of the Worcesters at once decided to charge the fire instead of the enemy, and his prompt action was the means of putting out the fire and saving the ammunition. Later on in the campaign we made considerable use of captured enemy guns, especially those of heavy calibre, and this vast store of shells was of the greatest value to us.
General Kress von Kressenstein and his staff, who were still at Huj when our cavalry made this charge, narrowly escaped capture, and had to leave everything behind them in their hurried flight, even to their wireless code book. The Turks had, of course, abandoned all their telephone and telegraph wires, when they were driven off their positions from Gaza to Beersheba. During the retreat over the plain of Philistia their units were so scattered and disorganised that they had to rely almost entirely on gallopers for all orders and messages. Once in the Judæan hills, however, they re-established their wireless service, and thereafter all orders were sent by wireless, until the arrival of fresh telephone and telegraph equipment in January 1918. Armed with their code book, we were able to decode all their messages, and were thus always in possession of enemy orders as soon as they were issued. This piece of luck stood us in good stead later on, more particularly at the time when the Turks made their big effort to recover Jerusalem at the end of December.