The handwritten manuscript called The 4th Brigade Trek from the Canal to Khan Yunis and the 2nd Gaza Battle was produced by 666 Sergeant David Woodward HARRIS of the 12th Light Horse Regiment.
David Woodward HARRIS was a 24 year old Overseer from Turramurra, New South Wales. He enlisted on 30 December 1914 and was allotted to the 12th Australian Light Horse Regiment, AIF, Machine Gun Section, which embarked from Sydney, New South Wales on board HMAT A29 Suevic 13 June 1915.; and at the conclusion of the war Returned to Australia, 20 July 1919.
For further information, see:
4th Australian Light Horse Brigade, AIF
and:
The 11th ALH Regiment, between our position and the ridge leading to the Tank Redoubt was being heavily shelled while machine gun and rifle fire inflicted heavy losses on their rapidly thinning line.
Next, the 12th ALH were ordered to advance and we were soon subject to a heavy bombardment from high explosive and shrapnel, while and intense rifle and machine gun fire was directed at us from the long transitional ridge ahead, and the Attawineh Redoubt on the right. By the time our artillery had exhausted its small stocks of shells, so the advance was unsupported. The low shrapnel and machine gun fire was playing havoc with our line and we were passing clearly defined range posts every hundred yards. Stretcher bearers did heroic work, but the