The Turkish hour is rather like the Irish mile!

TCD MS 3416 page 16

TCD MS 3416 page 16

[May 1916]

picking up better transport at Mosul to take us on to Ras-el-AIN. Our Senior officers had two donkeys each, & so fared better.

We marched well into the night, halting 10 minutes in each hour. I may say that the Turkish hour is rather like the Irish mile! We eventually halted at 1 am on May 13th in a stubble field, rough & uncomfortable as it was I slept like a log until 4 a.m., at which hour we loaded up and continued our march, swallowing what cold food you happened to have in your haversack & drinking what water you could collect from any stagnant wayside pool you might have been lucky enough to find. The repacking & reloading of Kits was always a horrible job, for you could hardly see in the early hours of the morning, and as the donkeys always strayed away and as one donkey was exactly like another the most awful scrimmages used to take place; I found marking the donkeys with an indelible pencil a great help in rescuing my donkeys from the clutches of gentry who were desirous of, shall I say, loosing theirs because they were not strong in the legs; our two were luckily very good ones. If the donkey of Margate sands is