describing the ground engagement as so tough the Ottoman Army soldiers resorted to this extreme measure, turning their anti-aircraft guns away from the attacking planes. The Ottoman soldiers withdrew to the Wadi El Arish, with garrisons at Lahfan and Magdhaba. Raid on Maghara Hills As the Allies advanced, an Ottoman-occupied position on the right flank at Bir El Maghara south east of Romani, began to be a threat to their advance. Major-General A.G. Dallas was put in command of a column of 800 Australian Light Horse, 400 City of London Yeomanry, 600 Mounted Camelry and 4,500 camels from the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps, with another 200 camels for the Army Medical Corps. The column formed at Bayoud and moved off on 13 October on a two-night march via Zagadan and Rakwa to the Maghara Hills. On arrival, A and C Squadrons of the 12th Light Horse Regiment deployed in the centre, with the 11th Light Horse Regiment on the right and the Yeomanry on the left flanks, dismounted at the foot of the hills. Handing over their lead horses in excellent cover these dismounted men then scaled the heights and surprised the defenders but failed to capture the main defensive position. The 11th Light Horse Regiment captured seven Ottoman prisoners and three Bedouins, retiring the way they came to base on 17 October and back to railhead Ferdan on the Suez Canal, on 21 October 1916. Aerial bombing of Beersheba Subjected to further bombing air raids, by 2 October aerial reconnaissance photographs revealed the German aircraft hangars formerly at El Arish had disappeared. By 25 October there was no anti-aircraft fire reported over El Arish and reductions in the Ottoman–German force based there were apparent. By this time the railway construction was well past Salmana where a British forward aerodrome was under construction and No. 1 Squadron were involved in photographing the area around El Arish and Magdhaba, and No. 14 Squadron were reconnoitering Rafah. On 11 November a Martinsyde and nine B.E.2c's, loaded with bombs and petrol, left the Kantara and Mahemdia aerodromes at dawn and assembled at Mustabig, just west of Bir el Mazar. There a raiding force of five B.E.2c's and the Martinsyde formed the largest force yet organised by Australians or any other air squadron in the East, filled up with petrol and bombs and set off in formation towards Beersheba. Over Beersheba the anti-aircraft guns