Despite the heavy odds, they dug in the best they could at Oghratina and Katia. They were hoping to hold off the Turkish attack for as long as possible, until help could arrive from the main garrisons along the edge of the Canal. Help never did arrive, and after hours of fighting in the hot sand under the burning sun, they were forced to surrender or face annihilation.

Corporal A. G. Dabbs recalls:

"It was just about midday, terribly hot lying on the sand … Suddenly I saw the right flank beginning to fall back and saw that the Turks were in amongst them. Then the Turks opposite us leapt up shouting ‘Allah, Allah’ and charged us. I stood up and fixed my bayonet and waited for the end, hoping it would come quickly. I felt very miserable to think that I had to die, especially in a hole in the desert like this, and I wondered how my people would get to know of it and who would be alive to write and tell them. I wondered which of the advancing Turks would kill me and if I should be able to kill one or two before I was done in. We had almost stopped firing and the Turks too and it was strangely quiet except for their shouting.

Then the Colonel suddenly said "It’s no good, boys, throw done your rifles." Very gladly I obeyed although feeling very cheap and very much conquered as I held up my hands."

The prisoners faced a harrowing march across the desert without proper supplies of food or water to Beersheba and on to Jerusalem. It was the start of an 800 mile journey deep into Turkey, where they would spend the rest of the war in appalling conditions. Many would die from ill-treatment, disease or malnutrition. In Jerusalem they were received in style - they were believed to be the first Christian prisoners marched into the city since the Crusades in the Middle Ages. Corporal Dabbs described the scene:

"Suddenly we rounded the corner of a hill and came upon Jerusalem, a beautiful sight, the city within the walls being all white houses with flat roofs and scarcely any windows - very Oriental looking, and the whole place full of churches of every style and of mosques.

Here evidently our coming was expected - flags were flying everywhere, a red carpet was down on the platform and many high officials were waiting to meet us. Also, what we found very interesting was a large stage erected above the platform and crowded with Turkish ladies - the wives of the officials below - all in black with black veils. As their lords and masters were below them and could not see possibly them many of these ladies became very free, throwing back their veils and smiling and waving their hands at us.

Then we were marched out of the station into the hot, sun-steeped road and formed up in two’s in order that we should look a longer line. There were hundreds of spectators lining the road … They all looked very sorry for us and we certainly looked very extraordinary objects for some had lost their helmets and had tied handkerchiefs around their heads, others had lost their jackets and marched in their shirt sleeves, and none of us had shaved for a fortnight."

At Katia nearly 250 men were taken prisoner, and over 100 were killed or died of wounds. Afterwards, the Regiment could muster only 54 men fit for duty. Their sacrifice held the Turkish attack long enough for a proper defence of Suez to be organsied, though, and the Canal - Britain’s supply life-line to India and the rest of the Empire - was kept open.