Some of them declared that the Canal was to be filled up by the sandbags which had been prepared in great quantities.

Others held that thousands of camels would be kept without water for many days preceding the attack; then the thirsty animals, when released, would rush into the Canal in such numbers that the troops could march to victory over the packed masses of drowned bodies.
The army operating against Suez numbered about one hundred and fifty thousand men.

Of these about twenty thousand were Anatolian Turks--trained soldiers, splendid fighting material, as was shown by their resistance at the Dardanelles.

The rest were Palestinian Arabs, and very inferior troops they were.

The Arab as a soldier is at once stupid and cunning: fierce when victory is on his side, but unreliable when things go against him.