Bean in Egypt, writing beautifully, had been watching training in the desert at a spot near the Australian and New Zealand camps along the old Suez road.

"Alongside it at intervals of three miles there still rise the old towers which protected it from wandering Arabs. They are pagoda-like structures of four stories, built of stone from which most of the ancient plaster has long since peeled. Here they stand to this day, with the white road winding past them, shimmering in the midday glare ... For the next half century there will be a man [a returned soldier] out in the Australian bush who, when he closes his eyes, will see before him a shimmering brown desert with somewhere in the landscape a distant eight-sided tower standing out from the bosom of it.

"[In these manoeuvres, pretend battles] the New Zealand and Australian Division has attacked the Turkish advance guard which reached the third tower at nightfall. It has retreated before the imaginary Turks to the second tower. It has outflanked imaginary Turks, been outflanked by imaginary Turks, surprised Turks, waited for Turks, entrenched against Turks, fought Turks by day, fought imaginary Turks by night, on foot, on horseback, all within sight of the towers on the Suez road."