ZERO-hour for the attack, 4.30 a.m., was anticipated by many of the attacking units. In fact ‘zero-hour’ was the start of the artillery bombardment, whose timing was integrated with the infantry advance. The aim was to stun the Turks with a sudden shelling, then to advance the infantry just behind the shells. They would then occupy the shattered enemy trenches. This is in the main what happened, at least in the plain of Sharon where the rival lines were fairly close together.

Many of those who wrote accounts of these events remembered the sudden beginning of the bombardment. ‘Every gun on our side was fired as though by the pressing of an electric button’, creating ‘a veritable inferno of noise and dust. Many of our guns were so close behind, and the screaming shells passed so closely overhead, that the effect was bewildering. Momentarily the whole line was checked from sheer amazement at the astounding din’.

The Turks had been ‘apprehensive’ all night, and had been firing at the British lines rather more actively than usual. This was in part because of the noise of the fighting in the hills. When the British bombardment began, ‘from the Turkish lines hundreds of Verey lights and much machine-gun fire’ replied, but ‘It was some time before the Turkish guns came into action’ though Falls's Official History II claims that ‘the Turkish artillery replied promptly’. The main point, however, was that the British infantry had either already come close to the Turkish lines or were moving forwards as the guns fired. So the Turks’ reply tended to hit empty positions.