THE FALL OF DAMASCUS
At two o'clock on the afternoon of the 29th, the Australian Mounted
Division started on the last lap of the race to Damascus. The 5th
Cavalry Division followed a few miles in rear of the Australians. The
distance to be covered was about forty miles, and it was hoped that, if
the two divisions marched all night, they would be able to surround the
city soon after dawn on the 30th.
It was arranged that the Australian Mounted Division should send two
brigades along the foot of the hills west of Damascus, to close the
two roads leading north-west to Beirût, and north-east to Homs. The
5th Division was to send one brigade round the east side of the city,
to gain touch with the Australians on the Homs road, and place the
remainder of the division astride the Deraa-Damascus road, at or near
Kiswe, to receive the remnants of the Turkish IVth Army, which was to
be driven into their welcoming arms by the 4th Division.
It must be explained that the only available maps were very inaccurate
and greatly lacking in detail. Thus, there was no indication that the
steep and rocky hills, which press right on to Damascus on the west,
were almost impassable for cavalry; or that the Beirût road runs along
the bottom of a deep, precipitous gorge, into which it was impossible
for cavalry to descend; or that, to reach the Homs road, it would be
necessary to pass through the western suburbs of the city, always a
difficult and dangerous operation in a hostile country, and doubly so
for mounted troops.
For political reasons, strict orders had been given that no British
troops were to enter Damascus, and these orders considerably hampered
our subsequent operations, and made our task more difficult.
In the end, however, it was the action of the enemy that was the
chief cause of our delay. A couple of armoured cars went ahead of the
Australian Division to reconnoitre, and returned, shortly after the
division had started, with the information that the enemy was holding
a position astride the road, near the village of Sasa, a little north
of the Nahr Mughaniye. The cars had drawn a considerable fire from
guns and machine guns. Patrols of the 3rd A.L.H. Brigade crossed the
river just before dark, and had located the enemy's position fairly
accurately by the time the rest of the brigade arrived. The position
had been well sited by the enemy, on a rocky ridge running about east
and west. An impassable morass of unknown extent protected his right
flank, north of the road, and the country to the south was a wilderness
of broken lava boulders, most difficult even for infantry and in the
daylight.
The 8th and 9th A.L.H. Regiments dismounted, and advanced in pitch
darkness against the presumed position of the enemy's left flank. The
going was so bad that it was nearly two in the morning before they
got to grips with the Turks. There was a half-hour's very confused
bayonet fighting among the rocks in the darkness, during which it
was almost impossible to distinguish friend from foe. The Turks then
broke, most of them making for the road. A pre-arranged signal of
Verey lights, sent up by the attackers, apprised the division of this,
and, immediately it was seen, a squadron of the 10th A.L.H. Regiment,
which had been held in readiness, galloped straight down the road in
the dark, to get ahead of the retreating Turks and cut them off. It
very nearly came to grief over one of the enemy guns which had been
abandoned on the road, but fortunately the leading horses saw it, and
swerved aside just in time. The squadron was followed, at a more sober
pace, by the 4th and 12th Regiments of the 4th Brigade, which now took
the lead.
About 100 prisoners, three guns, and a number of machine guns were
captured on the position, and, after daylight, about 250 more
stragglers were gathered in, including a party of 150 Germans, who had
retired before the 10th Regiment charged down the road. Our casualties
had been rather heavy for so small an affair, and, by some strange
chance, the Turks captured and carried off with them in their retreat
eight of our men. These we came upon and rescued near the village of
Sasa, shortly after daybreak.
The net result of this action was that, instead of being on the
outskirts of Damascus at dawn on the 30th, our troops were still nearly
twenty miles away.
Pressing on as fast as possible, the division reached Kaukab about ten
o'clock, and here encountered the enemy again. At some time or other
the Turks had constructed a long line of entrenchments stretching from
near Katana (north of the El Kuneitra road) across the road at Kaukab,
along the high ridge of the Jebel el Aswad, over the Deraa road north
of Kiswe, and thence over the Jebel el Mania to near Deir Ali. It was
the western portion of this line, astride the El Kuneitra road, that
they were now holding. The position looked strong, and, had the Turks
put up a determined fight here, they might have saved many of their
friends in Damascus, to say nothing of their masters the Germans, from
capture.
'A' Battery H.A.C. and the Notts Battery R.H.A., which were marching
near the head of the advance guard, came into action at once, and
opened a rapid and effective fire on the enemy position. After a few
minutes' bombardment, the 4th A.L.H. Regiment was launched at the
village of Kaukab, and the 12th at a spur of the Jebel el Aswad,
against the enemy's left flank. The going here was good, and the
cavalry were able to gallop right on to the position, which they
proceeded to do, covered by the fire of the guns. The combination of
gun fire and charging cavalry was too much for the shattered nerves of
the Turks, who broke and fled, pursued by the Australians. The whole
force was killed or captured.
The 5th Brigade now took the lead, and rode hard up the road towards
Damascus, followed by the 3rd Brigade, which had rejoined from Sasa
just after the action. The leading troops came under fire from the
houses and gardens of the suburb of El Mezze. The Notts Battery came
into action, and shelled the enemy satisfactorily, while the 5th
Brigade plunged into the maze of hills north of the road, and made
for the Beirût road. Seeing their right threatened, the Turks retired
into the town, and the 3rd Brigade was free to move on. Patrols from
this brigade then found that it was impossible to reach the Homs road,
except by going right through the town, as the river Barada, running
between rock cliffs, barred their path farther west. As the orders
against entering the town were peremptory, there was nothing to be done
but send back word of the state of affairs, and wait for permission to
advance. This permission was not received till late at night, when it
was impossible for the brigade to make its way through the narrow,
tortuous streets of the town, which was still full of enemy troops.
Meanwhile the 5th Brigade was encountering great difficulties in the
bare, rocky hills west and north of El Mezze, but the advanced troops
reached the gorge of the Barada, above El Rabue, about five in the
evening. Here they found themselves on the top of a cliff about 200
feet high, overhanging the road and railway to Beirût, and looked down
upon an extraordinary sight. The whole of the bottom of the gorge,
from side to side, was packed with a struggling mass of fugitives, on
horse and afoot, in motors, cabs and carts, surging along like a tidal
wave. There was a train on the line, packed with Germans, but it was
completely blocked by the mass of people who struggled and fought along
the railway, and the engine driver had long since been submerged in the
tide of frenzied Turks. Even the river was full of men and horses.
There was no possible way of getting down on to the road from the top
of the cliffs, but the fugitives had to be stopped somehow. A few
machine guns were brought into action, and ordered to open fire on the
head of the column below. General Onslow, who commanded the brigade,
told the writer afterwards that he had never given an order with
greater reluctance and horror. With a view to minimising the inevitable
slaughter, he instructed his machine gunners to concentrate their fire
as much as possible on the vehicles at the head of the column, in order
to disable them and so block the road. When the firing commenced, the
Turks in front tried to turn back towards the city, but the pressure
behind them was so great that they were constantly pushed along into
the zone of the bullets. At last, however, the growing pile of corpses
and broken vehicles at the head of the column completely blocked
the gorge, and the Turks realised that their escape was barred. They
turned and streamed miserably back towards the city. Part of the crowd
was intercepted by troops of the 3rd Brigade, who took about 5000
prisoners. The rest reached the city, and were collected next day. How
many perished in the defile will never be known, but it took a large
force of German prisoners ten days to dispose of the bodies. It was
fitting that they, who by their insane ambition had brought the Turks
to this sorry end, should have had the task of burying the victims of
their lust for power.
[Illustration: Royal Horse Artillery fording the Jordan at Jisr Benat
Yakub.]
[Illustration: The Beirût road in the gorge of the River Barada. 1st
October, 1918.]
Before dark, the 5th Brigade got a small party down on to the road, and
picketed it during the night.
While the Australian Mounted Division had been pushing round west of
Damascus, the 4th and 5th Cavalry Divisions had been slowly closing
in on the city. The former had pursued the retreating IVth Army
relentlessly all through the 29th of September, and, on the morning of
the 30th, the 11th Brigade, which was acting as advance guard, reached
El Ghabaghib Station, on the old French railway from Damascus to
Mezerib, about thirty miles south of Damascus.
The main body of the enemy, which had been marching hard all night, was
now some distance ahead of the division, but its retreat was constantly
harassed by Lawrence's Arabs, who made repeated raids on the right
flank of the Turks, and had by now reduced them to a state of extreme
disorganisation. It must be remembered that the 4th Cavalry Division
had about thirty miles farther to go before reaching Damascus than the
other two divisions. Moreover, although there had been no opposition
from the enemy after the action at El Remte, the division had been much
delayed by the bad road from Deraa to Damascus, across the southern
Hauran. The whole of this area is overlaid with the _débris_ of extinct
volcanoes, mostly in the form of huge boulders of black basalt, which
everywhere cover the ground. Much time was spent in clearing away these
boulders, to make a passage for the guns and transport of the division.
The whole country from Deraa to Damascus was strewn with the bodies of
Turks that had died from exhaustion. Dead horses, broken-down vehicles,
and abandoned guns were scattered everywhere. It was estimated that
2000 enemy dead were passed on the march, and many more than that
number of dead animals. The hot sun, beating down on the black rocks,
burnt like the blast from a furnace, and the heavy air, poisoned by the
unburied corpses of men and beasts, hung like a pall over the land.
There is little water to be found in the Hauran in summer, and less
food, and not a single tree and scarce a human habitation soften the
desolation of this horrible region.
The 5th Cavalry Division reached Sasa at about eight on the morning
of the 30th, and there received a message from an aeroplane that a
large body of the enemy, which was, in fact, the leading portion of
the IVth Army, was approaching Kiswe, along the Deraa-Damascus road.
The 13th Brigade, followed by the 14th, was at once despatched to try
and intercept this force. Before they moved off, General MacAndrew[26]
issued the following characteristic order to his brigades: 'Push on!
Kill or capture all you can, and seize Damascus.'
This day marked the end of the Turkish IVth Army, but, as it split
up into a number of detached groups, which were attacked throughout
the day by brigades, regiments, and even single squadrons of the 4th
and 5th Cavalry Divisions, it is impossible to give any very concise
account of its destruction. It is clear, however, that, on the morning
of the 30th, the army was marching in two main bodies. The leading
portion, that which had been seen and reported by our aircraft,
consisted of the remains of the Turkish 3rd Cavalry Division, with such
of the infantry as had been able to keep up with the mounted troops.
The following portion, evidently much more disorganised, was marching
some eight to ten miles in rear.
The 13th Brigade, moving along the south bank of the Wadi el Zabirani,
encountered some opposition on the ridge of the Jebel el Aswad,
north of Deir Khabiye, from enemy troops occupying a portion of
the entrenched position that has been mentioned above. By mid-day,
however, the brigade had succeeded in dispersing the enemy, taking
some 700 prisoners. Meanwhile the 14th Brigade had got astride the
Deraa-Damascus road, north of Kiswe. It was just in time to intercept
the leading portion of the Turkish force, the advanced elements of
which had cleared Kiswe, and were hurrying up the road over the Jebel
el Aswad towards Damascus.
In the somewhat confused fighting which followed the encounter, the
greater part of what was left of the Turkish 3rd Cavalry Division,
including the divisional commander and his staff, fell into our hands.
The remainder of the force was driven back, completely broken, to Kiswe.
At this time the 15th Brigade was in divisional reserve a little east
of Khan el Shiha.
Shortly afterwards, about four in the afternoon, the second portion
of the Turkish army was seen approaching Kiswe, followed by the 11th
Brigade of the 4th Cavalry Division. This brigade had been checked for
a time at Khiyara Chiftlik, about six miles south of Kiswe, by a body
of the enemy who took up a position behind the mud walls of a farm
there. The brigade was rather heavily shelled from the direction of
Kalaat el Nuhas at the same time. The farm was cleared by a mounted
charge, and the Turks dispersed. Some escaped up the steep slopes
of the Jebel el Mania to the east, but the bulk of them continued
along the main road to Kiswe. On their arrival there, they joined the
demoralised remnants of the leading portion of their force, that had
escaped the onslaught of the 14th Brigade. Here they learnt that the
road to Damascus was barred, and, looking backwards, saw the lances
of the 4th Cavalry Division approaching. Caught between the two
forces, they made a last despairing attempt to break through. There
appears to have been a general _sauve qui peut_. Some attempted the
Damascus road, and were ridden down and captured by the 14th Brigade.
Others made their way north-east up the Nahr el Awaj, and attempted a
counter-attack against the left flank of this brigade, but were broken
up by the fire of the Essex Battery. They split up into small groups,
and disappeared among the gardens of the Damascus plain east of the
city, where the majority of them were almost certainly murdered by the
natives. The largest body broke out to the north-west, and fell into
the arms of the 13th Brigade near Sahnaya, where about 1500 prisoners
were taken, and many were killed. Others again were observed trying to
escape to the east. The Ayrshire Battery, attached to the 11th Brigade,
galloped forward, supported by two machine guns and a few Hotchkiss
rifles, and came into action at close range, causing the Turks to
scatter wildly. The 29th Lancers pursued these disorganised parties
up the slopes of the Jebel el Mania, and had rounded up large numbers
of them before darkness put an end to the pursuit. Finally, a number
remained in Kiswe, and tried to organise some sort of resistance there.
At five o'clock, however, the 13th Brigade swept suddenly down upon the
village and captured it, with about 700 prisoners and several guns.
It was now nearly dark, and nothing further could be done that day. The
5th Division remained for the night along a line north of the Wadi el
Zabirani, from the Kuneitra-Damascus road to a few miles north-east of
Kiswe. The 4th Division concentrated south of Kiswe.
Two troops of the Gloucester Yeomanry, 13th Brigade, and a troop of
the 12th Regiment, 4th A.L.H. Brigade, starting from south and west
of the town respectively, attempted to reach the big German wireless
installation at Kadem Station in the southern suburb. The wireless
plant had, however, been prepared for demolition, and was blown up
before our troops reached it. Both parties had a warm time, and were
continually sniped at by wandering bodies of the enemy from the houses
and wooded gardens. Eventually they came upon a number of large
ammunition dumps, which had been set on fire and were going off like a
monstrous Brock's Benefit, and they had to beat a hurried retreat. All
through the early part of the night tremendous explosions shook the
air, as the fire reached fresh stacks of shells. Kadem railway station
and all the houses round it were completely destroyed, but there was
little other damage in the city. The Turks were too dispirited and
worn out for deeds of frightfulness, and the Germans too intent on
trying to make good their escape. The independence of the city from
Turkish rule was actually publicly proclaimed in the Serai early on
the afternoon of September the 30th, without any opposition from the
Turks, although there were at the time some 15,000 Turkish and German
soldiers in the town, including Jemal Pasha, the commander of the IVth
Army. A number of these troops had come from Aleppo and Beirût, and
the remainder were stragglers who had made their way in, by rail and
road, from the south, after the _débâcle_ of September the 19th and
succeeding days. Nearly all of them were half starved and worn out by
continual marching, and their _morale_ had sunk so low that they made
no protest when the whole city broke out in a blaze of Sherifian flags.
Insulted and beaten by the people, who refused to give or sell them
food, abandoned by their German masters in the most callous manner,
diseased and starving, many of the poor wretches died in the streets
that night. Many others, less fortunate, met a brutal death at the
hands of the populace. Several thousand dragged themselves to the
Turkish barracks, which they filled, and overflowed into the parade
ground, where some 300 perished during the night. Two considerable
bodies did indeed attempt to escape, one along the Beirût road, and the
other towards Homs. The fate of the former has already been told. The
latter body, which consisted of fresher troops, from Aleppo and Beirût,
got out of the town on the north-east, and marched all night along the
Homs road.
The next day, October the 1st, as soon as it was light, the 5th Cavalry
Division concentrated and moved round to the east of the city, pushing
the 13th Brigade as far north as the Homs road, where it got into
touch with the 3rd A.L.H. Brigade of the Australian Mounted Division.
This brigade passed through the city at dawn, patrols of the 10th
A.L.H. Regiment reaching the Serai square about six in the morning,
and being thus actually the first troops to enter the city. Passing
the Baramkie railway station on the way, they found there a train just
about to start for Beirût, the troops in it being ignorant of the fact
that the railway had been cut (by the 5th A.L.H. Brigade) the previous
night. They were speedily undeceived, and about 500 prisoners and a
number of guns and machine guns were taken from the train, and handed
over to the 4th and 12th Regiments of the 4th Brigade, which marched to
the station later in the morning.
Hurrying through the town, the 3rd Brigade reached the Homs road, and
pressed along it on the track of the enemy force that had escaped
that way the previous evening. The 10th Regiment came up with part
of this force about nine o'clock in the morning, on the Wadi Maraba,
near Harista el Basal, and promptly charged it, killing many with the
sword, and capturing about 600 prisoners and some forty machine guns.
Continuing the pursuit, the cavalry came upon more of the enemy near
Duma, and again at Khan Kusseir, twelve miles from Damascus, in the
evening. They were engaged in continual skirmishing throughout the day,
and the action at Khan Kusseir, where they were opposed by Germans,
though short, was severe. The enemy troops had a number of machine
guns, and put up a good fight, but were broken by a charge delivered
from the cover of some vineyards and olive groves on their right flank,
and all of them were killed or captured. The brigade remained at Duma
for the night.
The advance troops of the Arab Army, under Lawrence, reached
Damascus about half-past eight in the morning, and established their
headquarters in the Government buildings.
Meanwhile the two regiments of the 4th A.L.H. Brigade were at
work collecting prisoners in the town, and evacuating them to a
concentration area near Daraya. All day long the sorry business
continued, and by evening nearly 12,000 had been collected. They were
in a pitiable state. Many of them, the remnants of the IVth Army,
had been chased for 150 miles by our cavalry and by the Arab forces.
Constantly bombed by our aircraft, harassed day and night by the Arab
Camel Corps and the hostile population of the country through which
they passed, denied all food, and often short of water, it is one of
the marvels of war that they had struggled so far. The task of getting
them out of the city was a horrible one. Many fell by the wayside,
and all the efforts of our cavalry failed to get them on their feet
again, and they had to be left to die. All night long our over-worked
ambulances toiled among them, bringing water and food and what medical
assistance was possible, but they were utterly unable to cope with the
numbers, and by morning over 600 were dead.
For the first fortnight, and until the rest and good food had had time
to take effect, the mortality in the prisoners' camp, though decreasing
daily, averaged over a hundred a day.
The whole Turkish force was riddled with disease. Nearly all were
suffering from either malaria or dysentery, and there were several
cases of smallpox. Venereal disease is endemic among the Turks, and, in
normal times, seems to have little effect upon their general health;
but, in the exhausted and weakened condition in which they now were,
it laid hold on them virulently, and took a heavy toll of lives. An
indication of the spread of this disease among the Germans was afforded
by a room in the hospital at Afule, which was filled with boxes of
salvarsan. This drug, we were informed by German medical officers, was
reserved exclusively for the use of German troops.
[Illustration: The Emir Feisals' Headquarters at Damascus.
Note the Sherifian standards on the balcony.]
[Illustration: Tripoli. The old Crusader Citadel.]
The operations closed on the 2nd October with an extraordinary charge
by the 3rd A.L.H. Brigade. Early in the morning, a column of the enemy
was seen moving north, parallel to the Homs road, and some miles to the
east. This column had evidently hoped, by avoiding the road, to make
its way unseen to Khan Ayash, where it would have entered the hills,
and probably then made its escape.
The whole brigade immediately mounted, galloped six miles over the open
plain, and charged the enemy with the sword. The Turks had with them a
few guns and a number of machine guns, which they brought into action
and fought to the last. The brigade galloped on, through a hot fire,
and charged clean through the enemy force, killing a large number of
them, and capturing 1500 prisoners, including a divisional commander,
three guns, and twenty-six machine guns. In point of distance this must
be a record cavalry charge.
On the same day, detachments from each brigade of the Corps and some
of the guns paraded at the village of Sbeine, south of Damascus, and
marched through the city from end to end, led by the Corps Commander.
This was not intended as a triumphal march, but was a necessary display
of force, to overawe the turbulent elements in the town, who threatened
to create a state of absolute anarchy.
For political reasons the city was supposed to be in charge of the
Arab forces, and an Arab Governor was actually appointed. But,
with the best intentions in the world, the small force of so-called
'regular' Arab soldiers could do little or nothing to keep order. The
irregular--highly irregular--forces of King Hussein far outnumbered the
Arab Army. During the advance on the city, hordes of nomad Arabs had
joined his standard, drawn thereto partly, no doubt, by their genuine
and deep-rooted hatred of the Turks, but also, and far more strongly,
by their equally genuine and deep-rooted love of plunder. Till they
reached Damascus, the loot had consisted almost entirely of rifles and
ammunition, best of all loot from the desert Arab's point of view, but
now that each son of Ishmael was in possession of at least two good
rifles, and was festooned with machine gun belts full of cartridges, he
felt that he could toy with some more fancy trifles, should they come
his way. So it was not surprising that, as soon as they entered the
city, they all set to work at once to collect what Thomas Atkins would
call 'souvenirs.' They were perfectly good-tempered about it, and only
killed a few shopkeepers who made an unconscionable fuss about having
their booths looted. No mercy was shown to the Turks, however. They
were hunted down and killed remorselessly whereever found. Some of the
Arabs even broke into the Turkish hospital, and set about murdering the
moribund wretches whom they found there, till driven away by our troops.
The desert-bred Arabs are probably the most independent of mankind.
They acknowledge no authority, and will take orders only from those
who are able to exact obedience by force of arms. This the Emir Feisal
was quite unable to do, even had he been willing, which is doubtful.
His attitude seemed to be that boys will be boys, and it would be a
shame to interfere with their simple pleasures, after the hard time
they had had. One of the first things the 'Boys' did was to open the
jail and release all the ruffians therein, who added to the liveliness
of the city.
[Illustration]
After two days of something like pandemonium, the powers that were
recognised the necessity of imposing some sort of restraint on the
lawless elements, and two regiments of the Australian Mounted Division
were stationed in the city for police duties. The Australian troopers
speedily had the situation in hand, and the normal life of Damascus was
resumed within forty-eight hours.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 26: Major-General Sir H.J.M. MacAndrew, K.C.B., Indian Army.
He died from burns received in an accident at Aleppo in July 1919.]