11 August 1916: cholera!

​Today is the 11th Aug and he still holds Bir il Abd.
The losses are extremely heavy. The prisoners alone amount to 5000 but so far I have not got the figures of the killed and wounded. Ours are not nearly so heavy. Losses in this Regt are about 100.  
We are having a most trying time. The first two days I done 45 hours duty in 48 hrs and ever since we have had to content ourselves with a sleep on horseback or an occasional few minutes in the desert. Abdul left a good deal of booty behind and we have been eating it for him. (Plenty of preserved fruits and dates also horse fodder).
At Ogratina a bottle was picked up and found to contain Cholera germs and after driving the enemy from Bir el Abd we found a notice written in the following manner: “Australia and other followers beware of Cholera, with best wishes from the German Army Medical Corps”. 
What do you think of that warning us after they spread the germs which should have by then taken a grip on us.
Thanks to the innoculation we escaped it.
J. A Graham