The enemy troops encountered during the day, and especially towards evening, were utterly disorganised, and offered little resistance to our advance. They were quite worn out by their exertions of the past three days. Many of them had dysentery, and all were suffering severely from thirst.
The advanced troops of the 52nd Division, 21st Corps, reached El Mejdel in the evening.
[Footnote 11: The charge formed the subject of a brilliant picture by Lady Butler painted from notes made by an eye-witness of the action.]
On the evening of the 9th of November, as the Anzac Mounted Division was 'in the air,' it was necessary for the other two divisions of the Desert Mounted Corps to press on and join it as soon as possible. The Australian Mounted Division, therefore, left Huj on the evening of the 9th, although all its horses were not yet watered, and marched to the north-east, the first objective being Tel el Hesi, and the second Arak el Menshiye and El Faluje. This was the only night march made by the cavalry in enemy country during the pursuit. The 3rd Brigade, with a battery attached, acted as advance guard, being followed by the 5th and 4th. The advance guard dropped pickets along the route every quarter of a mile, which were picked up by the 5th Brigade. This brigade, in turn, dropped pickets to be picked up by the rearguard. Signallers with lamps were sent by the two leading brigades on to every prominent hill top during the march, to flash the letters of the divisional signal call intermittently in a south-westerly direction. These arrangements worked well, and the division arrived at Tel el Hesi at half-past four in the morning, and halted there till daylight.
There were several large pools of good water in the Wadi Hesi, and the rest of the horses got their fill at last, having been without water for _three days and four nights_.
The division pushed on at once, and came up on the right of the Anzac Division at Faluje and Arak el Menshiye Station about eight o'clock. It was joined, some few hours later, by the Yeomanry Division, which had left Huj early in the morning, after having spent all the previous night trying to water horses. This division took over Arak el Menshiye, and extended a little farther east. Thus, on the afternoon of the 10th, the whole of the Corps, with the exception of the New Zealand Mounted Brigade, was in line from a point a little east of Arak el Menshiye to the sea, and ready for the further pursuit of the enemy.