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From Jerusalem to Da,Mascus

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From Jerusalem to Da,Mascus CHAPTER CCLXVIII. FROM JERUSALEM TO DA,MASCUS. SURVEY OF OPERATIONS, DECEMBER, 1917-0CTOBER, 1918-FREEING JOPPA FROM PRESSURE­ FINE WORK OF SCOT~ISH TROOPS-ENEMY AT~Kl'm TO RETAKFJ JERUSALEM-CAPTURE OF J ERICHO- HEAVY FIGHTING ON SHECHEM ROAD FRONT-BRITISH OFFICERS WITH THE ARABS­ THE EMIR FAISAL'S DEAD SEA CAMPAIGN-CROSSING THE JORDAN-RAID ON AMMAN- IN PRAISE OF THE LONDONERS- THE Es SALT RAID; A T URKISH SUCCEss-EvENTS AT JERUSALEM-ALLENBY SENDS TROOPS TO FRANCE-REORGANIZATION OF THE FORCE-Tu RCO-GERMAN ATTACK ASTRIDE THE JORD AN-THE AUTUMN OFFENSIVE-:-MARCH OF THE ARABS FROM AKABA-DEFEAT OF THE T URKS "VVEST OF THE JORDAN- BRITISH AND ARABS JOIN HANDS- TuRKISH ARMY EAST OF JORD AN SURRENDERS-ENEMY ROUT COMPLETE-FALL OF DAMASCUs-THE EMIR FAISAL'S ENTRY INTO THE CITy -ARAB CLAIMS. HE first phase of General Allenby's the Jordan Valley, and thus prevent the Turks campaign of 1917-18 in Southern east of the river being readily reinforced. On T Palestine, culminating in the sur­ . March 8-12 operations to this end were l-mder­ render of J erusalem, was described taken and there was very severe fighting in Vol. XV, Chapter CCXXVI. Little more astride the J erusalem-Shech em and the Jericho­ than a fortnight later the Turks made a deter­ Beisan roads. The Turks were driven back, mined attempt to recapture the city, although but this did not debar them from sending they, or the Germans for them, had declared troops across the Jordan by roads still farther that it possessed no military value. The north. The Turks were from this tin1e, attack, made on D ecemb er 26-27 (1917), failed March, 1918, under the supreme command completely ; the British lines were pushed of the German general, L iman von Sanders. farther north and the secllrity of J erusalem But h aving secured a sufficiently wide base assured. A few days previously . the enemy for action Allenby, on March 21-22, forced a had b een driven from the neighbourhood of crossing of the Jordan, and thereafter fairly Joppa (Jaffa) and the western front of Allenby's stron g columns, though weak in artillery, army freed from menace. The occupation of pushed on to Amman, a station on the H edjaz J ericho on February 21, 1918, secured t he railway, 30 miles east by north of Jericho in eastern flank of the army. Transport and a straight line. H eavy rain caused delays and supply difficulties rendered, however, a con­ gave time for the enemy to bring up reinforce­ tinuation of operations on a large scale im­ ments, and though a certain a,mOl-mt of derno­ possible for t h e time. General Allenby there­ lition was effected on the railway near Amman fore l-mdertook a raid on the H edjaz rail­ the raid was not as successful as had been hoped. way.. with the object of aidin.g the Arab It; had n evertheless drawn Tl.U~kj s h troops from Army under t he Sherif and Emir Faisal, the south to Amman and had given the Emir w'hich in the region south and east of the Faisal the opportunity of inflicting m uch D ead Sea was faced by a numerically superior damage to the -en emy comml-mications with body of Turks. Medina. A second trans -Jordan raid was To carry out trans-Jordan raids it was planned by the British and an advance b egun n ecessary first to deny to the enemy the use on April 30, p artly in reliance on t he h elp of an of the roads and tracks leading from J udea to Arab tribe which in the end was not able t o Vol. XVIII.-Part 228 9.17 218 THE TI MES HISTORY OF THE WAR. ...... ~ . ' ~~;' ~i:; o 5 20 bHy {H.I038j THE COUNTRY BETWEEN JERUSALEM AND DAMASCUS. THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. 219 do anything. The troops had to be withdrawn Jordan were also in flight, menaced alike by without achieving their object; a mounted. the British 'and by the army of the Emir brigade which was guarding a crossing of the ' Faisal. The collapse of the Turks was absolute; Jordan above Jericho was driven back (May 1) of a fighting force of some 110,000 Turks and by a force of the enemy which had crossed the . 15,000 Germans over 80,000 were captured river the previous night, and had to abandon and most of the remainder killed. Damascus nine guns. " was entered by British and Arab troops on At this period, to meet the needs of the September 30-0ctober 1, and the rest of Syria situation in France, where the great German fell without further serious opposition, the offensive opened on March 21, General Allenby campaign practically ending with the occupa­ was called upon to send a very considerable tion of Aleppo on October 26. part of .his force to Europe, their places being taken by Indian troops-largely unt,ried bat­ Gener-al Allenby's army-the Egyptian talions. This rendered the adoption of a Expeditionary Force was its official title· -had DRAGGING FOR GERMAN MINES ON THE PALESTINE COAST. policy of active defence necessary, and it was been divided into two main striking forces, not until September that General Allenby of which one l..mder Major-General Sir E. S. resumed the offensive. The chief event of Bulfin had advanced along the coast to .Joppa, the summer ,was the complete defeat of a the other, under Major-General SIT Philip Turco-German attack on the British lines on Chetwode, had advanced to Jerusalem. The either side of the Jordan (July 14). m01..mted troops, Yeomanry, Australian Light It was on September 18 that General Horse, New Zealand Mounted Rifles and Allenby's new campaign opened. The infantry Indian Cavalry were under Major-General having carried by assault the enemy positions Sir H. Chauvel. Major-General Sir L. J. Bols on the coast plain, cavalry and armoured cars was chief of staff and so remained to the close swept r01md behind the Turks, who were of the campaign. To Sir Louis Bols's invaluable quickly thrown into confusion and began a aid General Allenby bore generous testimony. disorderly retreat. Outflanked on the east In the description of the post-Jerusalem from the air by squadrons of the R.A.F. and operations Chetwode's force became the XXth the Australian F.C., who bombed the Turks Corps. It included the 53rd , (Welsh) Division, seeking to escape by the roads leading to the the 60th (London) Division (both distinguished Jordan, the rout of the enemy was complete in the fighting which began with the attack on by the night of September 20. A day or two Beersheba), the 74th and 10th Divisions. later all the Turkish garrisons east of the Bulfin's force became the XXlst Corps. It 228-2 220 THE TIMES HISTORY OF THE WAR. included the famous 52nd (Lowland) Division hills overlooking J oppa and Ramleh. The­ which had walked the whole way from Egypt other part, the remains of six battered divisions, to the Promised Land, and also from Gaza to was stationed close to the British posts around Joppa, the 54th D'ivision, and the 75th Jerusalem. On the west the lines of this part Division. To neither corps did the capture of of the Turkish force extended to Sufia, from which place there was a gap of several miles between it and the Turks by the coast. The country between the wings of the enemy army was rugged and roadless, deep valleys separating bare and rocky spurs. No opera­ tions were possihle here "Lmtil roads fit for whee,led· transport had been made. The only lateral communications possible for the dis­ membered sections of Djemal Pasha's force lay 30 miles to the north. Yet in one respect the Turks were well situated. Both disjointed segn.1eilts retained free communication with their base and their transport worked with sufficient smoothness to enable them to b e quickly reinforced from Damascu s. From that A BRITISH CAMP IN THE JUDEAN HILLS. Jerusalem aJford any respite from fighting; nor to General Chauvel's force, of which a considerable section was then brigaded, dis­ mounted, with the infantry . It was, indeed, not until some days after J erusalem had fallen that the news reached some of the solitary outposts in the Judean Hills, where the weather was both wet and bitterly cold and cases of frostbite not uncommon. But the monotony of their life was soon to b e broken. General Allenby's rapid advance had brought him on the coast to the mouth of the N ahr el Auja, three miles north of J oppa, and on the east to a line in the hills four miles east PILLAR ERECTED TO COMMEMORATE and north of Jerusalem, astride the roads THE CROSSING OF T~ NAHR EL AUJA leading respectively to Jericho and Shechem BY THE 55th BRIGADE, DECEMBER 20-21, 1917. (Nablus). From the Nahr el Auja to the Jerusalem positions the British line ~overed, city a railwa.y ran through Gilead, crossed the rather insecurely, the main Joppa-Ramleh­ Jordan at the southern end of the Sea of Jerusalem road. The force opposing General Galilee, and was continued to Nazareth, where Allenby had been split into two isolated parts. headquarters were situated. Going thence One part, that which had suffered most severely south-west and passing near Samaria, the in the previous operations, had halted in the railway ran parallel to the coast.
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