The Conquest of Syria
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CHAPTER CCL,XXX. THE CONQUEST OF SYRIA. TURKS EXPELLED FROM AAABIC VII,AYETS-OPPOSING FORCES IN PALESTINE- ALLENBY'S STltA'L'EGy-BATTLES OF SHARON AND MOUNT EPHRAIM-'--THE GREAT CAVALRY RIDE- VON LIMAN'S NARROW ESCAPE- W-ORK OF THE AIR FORCE- Two TuRKISH ARMIES DESTROYED- THE EAST .J ORDA~ OPERATIONS-FROM GALlLEE -TO -DAlVIASCUS- -RYRJAN SEAPORTS SEIZrm- HoMS OCCUPIED - TUE ADVANCE TO ALEPpo- TASKS OF POLITICAJ. DEPARTMENT- lVIARSHALL'S VICTORY ON THE Trc1RTs- Two YEARS AT ADE N- SURRENDER OF MEDINA. ENERAL ALLENBY'S campaign in Upper Mesopotarnia by General Marehall. The _ the a.utmnn ef 1918 did more than Turkish force which for three yeftrs bad been G free Palestine and Syria from t.he encamped nf'ar Aden ~ nrrenderod a:1.d was Ottoman yoke. In conjunction with deport.ed The Turkish posts in the Yemen the. advance of General J\1:ilno from Macedoni9. and Asir wen:- likewise w~t.hdrawn, ancl various to the Turkish frontier near Adrianople, and small enemy posts guarding t.he Hedjaz: railway t.he new advance of General Marsha11 in Meso south of Ma'an wore giv6n up to the Arabt' . But potamia, it bronght about the capitulrttion of at. Medina 3, determined attompt WJ3.S made to furkey. Genp. ral Allenby opened his offensive disrogard the terms of the armistice, and it was on Soptembur 19, thp Turks then holding not until Jarmary 10, 1919, that t.he Turkish positions at Sinjil, only 16 miles north ot commander there was forc ~d to capitulate. Jerusalem. In six weeks the f::iituation was Wit.h the entry of t,he Hedjaz Arab:;; into that completely transformed, The main Turkish city, to Moslems second in sanctity only to armies W'::lre shattered in two days; by Octo Mecca, Tirrkish al1thority throughout the ber 1 Damc~scus had heen occnpiod, and Aleppo Arabic vilayets vanished. fell on October 25. General Allenby W -.1S about In Vol. XVIII, Chapter CCLXVIIl, the t.o advance on Alexandretta when, on October 30, openine: phases of General Allenby's campaign the armistice was signed. On that day, b efore werA briefly outlined, the part taken by the the armistice took effect, the Ottoman Divil',ion Arab Army under the Emir Faisal being alone deknding Mosul surrendered to General Marshall , given in any c~('tail. Allenby's campq,ign, onc w'hile General M;ilne's force, after an arduous of the most successful .in military history, can march from the Struma, was ready to seize now be treated as a whole. With it, completing Adrianople and advance on Constantinople. t;he survey of the destruction of the enemy _ r\ condition of the armistice was th9t all the I power in the Arabic vilayets, falls for descrip remalOlng Turkish garrisons and troops ih the tion the last carn.paign in Mesopotamia and the fidel in th0 Arabic vilay('ts of the Empire final stages of the war in Arabia itself. s hould surret.rler t.o the lJ ea.rest Allied post. ~\Icxandrctta was accordingly occupied by At the heginning of Septemher, 1918, General Oeneml Allenby, and Mosul and other places in AHenby estimn,ted t.hat the Turkish Armies Of' Vot. XIX--Part 240 181 182 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE VV AR. RAIL\,_AYS (as nnSeplS 191B) 5bandard Gauge ___ Metre Decauvi/le JERUSALEM TO PAMASCUS AND BEYHUT. THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 183· his front had 4,000 cavalry:and 32,000 infantry, Tirailleurc:: Algerians, the 1st Battalion of the. with 400 guns-representing a" ratio::! strength') Cape Corps (coloured troops . from South of 104,000 men. The German-Anstrian con Afrjca), t.he 1st and 2nd Battalions of the tingent n umbered about 15,000, consisting British W est Indies R egiment, and notably mostly of t echn:ical troops. The enemy forces _J -ewry's contributior;-the 38th and 39th were in three groups : (.Jewic:;h) B attalioils of the Royal Fusiliers. (1) The VIIth and VIIIth T urkish Armies between In addition mention shoulcl b e made of the the J ordan and the Mediterranean, with 27,000 infantry Italig,n D etachment, which, though tlaking no and 268 guns. (2) The IVt h Turkish Army east of t he J ordan, with 6,000 infantry, 2,000 sabre"" and 74 guns. (3) The 2nd Turkish Army Corps in garrison a t Ma'an - sou th-east of t he D ead Sea-and on posts on the H edjaz ra ilway north of Ma'an, some 6,000 infan try and 30 guns. B esides these three hodies there were in :ceserve b etween Tiberias, Nazareth and Haifa about 3,000 infantry, with 30 guns. The German General Liman von Sanders, com mander-in-chief of the· enemy forces, had hjs headquarters at Nazareth.. For the defence of Syria, shou).d the armies jn Palestine be defeated, the Turks had no adequate force. They had lost the flower of thei.r army in the d efence of Gallipolj and in the previous campaigns in Palestine, Mesopotamia aDd the Caucasus. They had squander ed, too, thousands of excellent troops as German and · Austrian auxiliaries in the Dobrudja and the Carpathians. On his side General Allenby had in the fighting line a total of '~some 12,000 sabres, 57,000 rifles and 540 guns .... a considerable GENERAL LIMAN VON SANDERS. superiority III numbers over the enemy, Commander-in-Chief of the Germano-Turkish especially in mounted troops." His force was, Forces. he stated, "made up of two cavalry divisions, promillent part in the camp'l.ign, ," throughout two mounted divi.sions, seven infantry divisions, the operations g::we valuable and loyal an Indian infantry brigade, four unallotted assistance" ; * of the South African Field· battali ons and the French D etachment . (the Artillery, the Australian Flying Corps, Egyptian equivalent of an infantry brigade with other Infantry Batta.lions, and, behind the fighting arms attached)." It was a considerable force, hne, of the Egyptian Labour Corps. Canada. but, as has b een shown in Qhapter CCLXVIII, too, was not wholly unrepresented, h<:tyjng sent a large proportion of the troops consisted of a un:it of its Ordnance Corps. If to all these newly raised Indian battaliohs, the bulk of the be added the Arab Army under the Emir Europeall .units having been withdrawn for Faisal, and the British and French naval service jn Fnmce. The last. Ifldian battalions squadrons which cooperated, an idea may be . to arrive had only b een formed a few months gained of the mixed character of the forces tho arid had not b een incorporated into divisions Turks ha d to face. till early in Augnst. While the majority of There had b een no alterations of special Allenby's army now consisted of Indiaus, its importance in the staff and leaders in the field composjtion was cosmopolitan. The mounted since Gene::.'al Allenby first succeeded to the troops were m ade l]P of British and Indian command of the Egyptian Expediti.onary (Regular and Imperial Service) regiments, Force. Sir J. L. Bols, a soldier of Belgjan Y eomanry, the Australian L ight Horse, N ew descent, remained Chief of Staff; Sir Philip Z e fl,l and Mounted Rifles, and a regiment of Chetwode and Sir Edward Bulfin were the French cavalry. The infa:'ltry, besides some commanders of the two principal infa'1.try famous British ~egiments, included the * The Italian deta chment returned home in Fe bruary~ ' Armer: ian troops of the LE3gioll d'Orient, the 1919. 240-2 184 THE TI1YIES HISTORY OF THE WAR corps, Sir Harry Chauvel Of the Desert Mounted ori first-class roads. Conseqnont,Iy, considering Corps, and Sir Edward Chaytor of the Australian what it wa~ hdped to accomplish, the opening and New Zealand Mounted Division. Col P. operations could not safely be postponed to de Piepapo commanded the French Detach . later than ~d-September, this not'lvithstanding ment. The moral of the force was excellent,; that several of the Indian battalions had had British and Indi:tn regiments brigaded together very little chance to get familiar with worked i ...1 a fine spirit of comradcsrup and. conditions prevailing on the Palestine front. emulation. It may here be noted that any apprehensions .In t.he earlier fight.ing of 1918 it had been felt concerning the Indian and other newly demonstrated that the Turks ('ould greatly raised battalions were soon set at rest ; they embarrass the British ol'crati ons in Eastern all showed good fighting qualities, i,hough Pa19stine by transferring troops from t.he naturally they lacked t.he doll of the veteran west to the cast bank of the Jordan. I t was troop ~! . ARAB CHILDREN. Waiting their turn to be clothed and fed by the British. highly desirable, on political as woll I1S military The plan of campaign was drawn on bold and grounds, that the Turk should be cleared simple lines. The main feature was that the from Moab and GHead, that Medina should b e cavalry were to pour through a gap made for entirely cut off from any chance of succour, them by the infantry in the enemY ,lines, and, and that no enemy force ~hould be left getting behind the Turks, cut off their retreat between Pa1estine and Mesopotamia. General by seizing all vital points in their line of com Allenby realized th8.t th~s could b est be done munications. It v..-as obvious that this by a successful offensive in WBstern Palestine . manceuvre would have mote chance of success .