Personal war diary of Nathaniel John Wakeham, item 59

• February 4, 2018 15:42:43 Robert Morgan

  Oct 24th   Left at noon Stanch in company escorting  Osmanich who was carrying ammunition for us must be going to see some sport.

  Oct 25th   At sea. 

  Oct 26th   Arrived off Alexandria 8am. left Osmanich and proceeded to Port Said arriving 4pm.  Placed under orders of Rear Admiral Jackson of Egyptian squadron.  

  Oct 27th 28th   At Port Said.  

  Oct 29th   Left Port said at 6pm escorting seaplane carrier "City of Oxford" to position off Gaza front. 

  Oct 30th   Arrived off Gaza 9:30am  Raglan sent up a seaplane to spot for her.  Raglan firing 15" and 6" at a bridge. she also blew up an ammunition dump which was exploding for half an hour.  Grafton and half a dozen   ... Troniths firing on enemy gun positions along the coast.  At 12:50pm 2 hostile aeroplanes paid us a visit, but driven off by ships.  At 4:30pm an hostile aeroplane attacked our spotting machine apparently hitting him several times with machine gun, and aeroplane maneouvered and got out of his way.   Ships finished bombardment at 5:30pm Turks were returning the fire all day but their shots fell wide.  At 5:45pm we went seawards with City of Oxford. 

  Oct 31st   Returned to Gaza 8am left at 10am for Port Said to complete with oil arriving at 3pm.   Left again at 10pm. 

  Nov 1st   Arrived off Gaza anchored at Belak our fleet were bombarding along the coast  and our artillery having a grand splash.  Signal received of operations from General Rulfin.  21st Army --- offers warm congratulations to you and your ----- on most successful ---- which included destruction of both bridges.  We got underway at 4pm to take a look at the trenches and positions along the coast.   Shells were dropping like rain apparently Johnny don't like us. returned to anchor at 6pm.  

  Nov 2nd   At 3am our artillery commenced a heavy bombardment we weighed anchor at 3:15am and proceeded to Sheik Hassau.  We were told off to keep enemy troops back should they counter attack.  Smoke rather thick which lifted at 5am found ourselves almost on the beach.  Turks greeted us Good Morning with rifle and machine guns but they did no damage only denting ship.   At 8:57am  we received following signal from shore.  we have captured ----

  
  

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