HOW JERUSALEM WAS WON
BEING THE RECORD OF ALLENBY'S CAMPAIGN IN PALESTINE
by
W.T. MASSEY
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE LONDON NEWSPAPERS WITH THE EGYPTIAN
EXPEDITIONARY FORCE
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
LONDON 1919
PREFACE
This narrative of the work accomplished for civilisation by General
Allenby's Army is carried only as far as the occupation of Jericho.
The capture of that ancient town, with the possession of a line of
rugged hills a dozen miles north of Jerusalem, secured the Holy City
from any Turkish attempt to retake it. The book, in fact, tells
the story of the twenty-third fall of Jerusalem, one of the most
beneficent happenings of all wars, and marking an epoch in the
wonderful history of the Holy Place which will rank second only to
that era which saw the birth of Christianity. All that occurred in the
fighting on the Gaza-Beersheba line was part and parcel of the taking
of Jerusalem, the freeing of which from four centuries of Turkish
domination was the object of the first part of the campaign. The Holy
City was the goal sought by every officer and man in the Army; and
though from the moment that goal had been attained all energies were
concentrated upon driving the Turk out of the war, there was not a
member of the Force, from the highest on the Staff to the humblest
private in the ranks, who did not feel that Jerusalem was the greatest
prize of the campaign.
In a second volume I shall tell of that tremendous feat of arms which
overwhelmed the Turkish Armies, drove them through 400 miles of
country in six weeks, and gave cavalry an opportunity of proving that,
despite all the arts and devices of modern warfare, with fighters
and observers in the air and an entirely new mechanism of war, they
continued as indispensable a part of an army as when the legions
of old took the field. This is too long a story to be told in this
volume, though the details of that magnificent triumph are so firmly
impressed on the mind that one is loth to leave the narration of them
to a future date. For the moment Jerusalem must be sufficient, and if
in the telling of the British work up to that point I can succeed in
giving an idea of the immense value of General Allenby's Army to the
Empire, of the soldier's courage and fortitude, of his indomitable
will and self-sacrifice and patriotism, it will indeed prove the most
grateful task I have ever set myself.
_April 1919._
CONTENTS
Chap.
I. PALESTINE'S INFLUENCE ON THE WAR
II. OLD BATTLEGROUNDS
III. DIFFICULTIES OF THE ATTACK
IV. TRAINING THE ARMY
V. RAILWAYS, ROADS, AND THE BASE
VI. PREPARING FOR 'ZERO DAY'
VII. THE BEERSHEBA VICTORY
VIII. GAZA DEFENCES
IX. CRUSHING THE TURKISH LEFT
X. THROUGH GAZA INTO THE OPEN
XI. TWO YEOMANRY CHARGES
XII. LOOKING TOWARDS JERUSALEM
XIII. INTO THE JUDEAN HILLS
XIV. THE DELIVERANCE OF THE HOLY CITY
XV. GENERAL ALLENBY'S OFFICIAL ENTRY
XVI. MAKING JERUSALEM SECURE
XVII. A GREAT FEAT OF WAR
XVIII. BY THE BANKS OF THE JORDAN
XIX. THE TOUCH OF THE CIVILISING HAND
XX. OUR CONQUERING AIRMEN
APPENDICES
INDEX
LIST OF MAPS
PLAN OF SOUTHERN PALESTINE
PLAN OF GAZA-BEERSHEBA LINE
PLAN OF THE BETH-HORON COUNTRY
PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF JERUSALEM
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
OFFICIAL ENTRY INTO THE HOLY CITY. GENERAL ALLENBY RECEIVED BY THE
MILITARY GOVERNOR OP JERUSALEM, DECEMBER 11, 1917
KANTARA TERMINUS OF THE DESERT MILITARY RAILWAY
EAST FORCE H.Q. DUG-OUTS NEAR GAZA
WADI GHUZZE NEAR SHELLAL
OUR WATERWORKS AT SHELLAL
ON THE MOVE IN THE DESERT
THE GREAT MOSQUE AT GAZA
TURKISH HEADQUARTERS AT GAZA. Note the Crusader Lion in Wall.
A DESERT MOTOR ROAD NEAR SHELLAL
TURKISH DUG-OUTS AT GAZA
BEERSHEBA RAILWAY STATION WITH MINED ROLLING STOCK
LIEUT.-GEN. SIR HARRY CHAUVEL OUTSIDE BEERSHEBA MOSQUE, NOVEMBER 1,
1917
EL MUGHAR. THE SCENE OF A YEOMANRY CHARGE
BURIAL-PLACE OF ST. GEORGE, PATRON SAINT OF ENGLAND (AT LUDD)
YEOMANRY GRAVES AT BETH-HORON THE UPPER, WHERE JOSHUA COMMANDED
THE SUN TO REMAIN STILL TO ENABLE THE ISRAELITES TO OVERTHROW THE
PHILISTINES
IN THE JUDEAN HILLS
A ROMAN CENTURION'S TOMB, KURYET EL ENAB
ONE OF KING SOLOMON'S POOLS
A TYPICAL NEW ZEALANDER
WADI SURAR, CROSSED BY LONDON TERRITORIALS ON THE MORNING OF THEIR
ASSAULT ON THE JERUSALEM DEFENCES
THE DEIR YESIN POSITION WEST OF JERUSALEM
EASTERN FACE OF NEBI SAMWIL MOSQUE, SHOWING DESTRUCTION BY TURKISH
SHELL-FIRE
OFFICIAL ENTRY INTO THE HOLY CITY. GENERAL ALLENBY ARRIVING OUTSIDE
THE JAFFA GATE
OFFICIAL ENTRY. GENERAL ALLENBY RECEIVING THE MAYOR OF JERUSALEM (A
DESCENDANT OF MAHOMET)
JERUSALEM FROM MOUNT OF OLIVES
JERUSALEM FROM GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
PANEL IN THE CHAPEL OF THE KAISERIN AUGUSTA VICTORIA HOSPICE ON THE
MOUNT OF OLIVES
BETHLEHEM
CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY, BETHLEHEM
AIN KARIM, PART OF THE JERUSALEM DEFENCES
RIVER AUJA, CROSSED AT NIGHT BY LOWLAND TERRITORIALS
JERISHEH MILL, RIVER AUJA, ONE OF THE LOWLANDERS' CROSSINGS
BARREL BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER AUJA
DESTROYED BRIDGE ON THE JERICHO ROAD
THE WILDERNESS, WITH A GLIMPSE OF THE DEAD SEA
LONDONERS' BRIDGE OVER THE JORDAN. THE RIVER IS IN FLOOD
GERMAN PRISONERS CROSSING THE JORDAN
NEW ZEALAND MOUNTED RIFLES AT BETHLEHEM
A HAIRPIN BEND ON THE JERUSALEM ROAD
CHAPTER I
PALESTINE'S INFLUENCE ON THE WAR
In a war which involved the peoples of the four quarters of the globe
it was to be expected that on the world's oldest battleground would
be renewed the scenes of conflict of bygone ages. There was perhaps a
desire of some elements of both sides, certainly it was the unanimous
wish of the Allies, to avoid the clash of arms in Palestine, and to
leave untouched by armies a land held in reverence by three of the
great religions of the world. But this ancient cockpit of warring
races could not escape. The will of those who broke the peace
prevailed. Germany's dream of Eastern Empires and world domination,
the lust of conquest of the Kaiser party, required that the tide of
war should once more surge across the land, and if the conquering
hosts left fewer traces of war wreckage than were to be expected in
their victorious march, it was due not to any anxiety of our foes
to avoid conflict about, and damage to, places with hallowed
associations, but to the masterly strategy of the British
Commander-in-Chief who manoeuvred the Turkish Armies out of positions
defending the sacred sites.
The people of to-day who have lived through the war, who have had
their view bewildered by ever-recurring anxieties, by hopes shattered
and fears realised, by a succession of victories and defeats on a
colossal scale, and by a sudden collapse of the enemy, may fail to see
the Palestine campaign in true perspective. But in a future generation
the calm judgment of the historian in reviewing the greatest of all
wars will, if I mistake not, pay a great tribute to General Allenby's
strategy, not only as marking the commencement of the enemy's
downfall, but as preserving from the scourge of war those holy places
which symbolise the example by which most people rule their lives.
Britons who value the good name of their country will appreciate what
this means to those who shall come after us--that the record of a
great campaign carried out exclusively by British Imperial troops was
unsullied by a single act to disturb the sacred monuments, and left
the land in the full possession of those rich treasures which stand
for the principles that guided our actions and which, if posterity
observes them, will make a better and happier world.
A few months after the Turks entered the war it was obvious that
unaided they could never realise the Kaiser's hope of cutting the Suez
Canal communications of the British Empire. The German commitments in
Europe were too overwhelming to permit of their rendering the Turks
adequate support for a renewed effort against Egypt after the failure
of the attack on the Canal in February 1915. There was an attempt
by the Turks in August 1916, but it was crushed by Anzac horse and
British infantry at Romani,[1] a score of miles from Port Said, and
thereafter the Turks in this theatre were on the defensive. Some
declare the Dardanelles enterprise to have been a mistake; others
believe that had we not threatened the Turks there Egypt would
have had to share with us the anxieties that war brings alike upon
attackers and defenders. Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, however we regard
those expeditions in the first years of the struggle, undoubtedly
prevented the Turks employing a large army against Egypt, and the
possibilities resulting from a defeat there were so full of danger to
us, not merely in that half-way house of the Empire but in India and
the East generally, that if Gallipoli served to avert the disaster
that ill-starred expedition was worth undertaking. We had to drive
the Turks out of the Sinai Peninsula--Egyptian territory--and, that
accomplished, an attack on the Turks through Palestine was imperative
since the Russian collapse released a large body of Turkish troops
from the Caucasus who would otherwise be employed in Mesopotamia.
[Footnote 1: _The Desert Campaigns_: London, Constable and Co., Ltd.]
When General Allenby took over the command of the Egyptian
Expeditionary Force the British public as a whole did not fully
realise the importance of the Palestine campaign. Most of them
regarded it as a 'side show,' and looked upon it as one of those minor
fields of operations which dissipated our strength at a time when it
was imperative we should concentrate to resist the German effort on
the Western Front. They did not know the facts. In our far-flung
Empire it was essential that we should maintain our prestige among
the races we governed, some of them martial peoples who might remain
faithful to the British flag only so long as we could impress them
with our power to win the war. They were more influenced by a triumph
in Mesopotamia, which was nearer their doors, than by a victory in
France, and the occupation of Bagdad was a victory of greater import
to the King's Indian subjects than the German retirement from the
Hindenburg line. If there ever was a fear of serious trouble in India
the advance of General Maude in Mesopotamia dispelled it, and made it
easier not only to release a portion of our white garrison in India
for active service elsewhere, but to recruit a large force of Indians
for the Empire's work in other climes. Bagdad was a tremendous blow to
German ambitions. The loss of it spelt ruin to those hopes of Eastern
conquest which had prompted the German intrigues in Turkey, and it was
certain that the Kaiser, so long as he believed in ultimate victory,
would refuse to accept the loss of Bagdad as final. Russia's
withdrawal as a belligerent released a large body of Turkish troops
in the Caucasus, and set free many Germans, particularly 'technical
troops' of which the Turks stood in need, for other fronts. It was
then that the German High Command conceived a scheme for retaking
Bagdad, and the redoubtable von Falkenhayn was sent to Constantinople
charged with the preparations for the undertaking. Certain it is that
it would have been put into execution but for the situation created by
the presence of a large British Army in the Sinai Peninsula. A large
force was collected about Aleppo for a march down the Euphrates
valley, and the winter of 1917-18 would have witnessed a stern
struggle for supremacy in Mesopotamia if the War Cabinet had not
decided to force the Turks to accept battle where they least wanted
it.
The views of the British War Cabinet on the war in the East, at any
rate, were sound and solid. They concentrated on one big campaign,
and, profiting from past mistakes which led to a wastage of strength,
allowed all the weight they could spare to be thrown into the Egyptian
Expeditionary Force under a General who had proved his high military
capacity in France, and in whom all ranks had complete confidence, and
they permitted the Mesopotamian and Salonika Armies to contain the
enemies on their fronts while the Army in Palestine set out to crush
the Turks at what proved to be their most vital point. As to whether
the force available on our Mesopotamia front was capable of defeating
the German scheme I cannot offer an opinion, but it is beyond all
question that the conduct of operations in Palestine on a plan at once
bold, resolute, and worthy of a high place in military history saved
the Empire much anxiety over our position in the Tigris and Euphrates
valleys, and probably prevented unrest on the frontiers of India and
in India itself, where mischief makers were actively working in the
German cause. Nor can there be any doubt that the brilliant campaign
in Palestine prevented British and French influence declining among
the Mahomedan populations of those countries' respective spheres of
control in Africa. Indeed I regard it as incontrovertible that the
Palestine strategy of General Allenby, even apart from his stupendous
rush through Syria in the autumn of the last year of war, did as much
to end the war in 1918 as the great battles on the Western Front,
for if there had been failure or check in Palestine some British and
French troops in France might have had to be detached to other fronts,
and the Germans' effort in the Spring might have pushed their line
farther towards the Channel and Paris. If Bagdad was not actually
saved in Palestine, an expedition against it was certainly stopped by
our Army operating on the old battlegrounds in Palestine. We lost many
lives, and it cost us a vast amount of money, but the sacrifices
of brave men contributed to the saving of the world from German
domination; and high as the British name stood in the East as the
upholder of the freedom of peoples, the fame of Britain for justice,
fair dealing, and honesty is wider and more firmly established to-day
because the people have seen it emerge triumphantly from a supreme
test.
In the strategy of the world war we made, no doubt, many mistakes, but
in Palestine the strategy was of the best, and in the working out of a
far-seeing scheme, victories so influenced events that on this front
began the final phase of the war--once Turkey was beaten, Bulgaria and
Austria-Hungary submitted and Germany acknowledged the inevitable.
Falkenhayn saw that the Bagdad undertaking was impossible so long as
we were dangerous on the Palestine front, and General Allenby's attack
on the Gaza line wiped the Bagdad enterprise out of the list of German
ambitions. The plan of battle on the Gaza-Beersheba line resembled
in miniature the ending of the war. If we take Beersheba for Turkey,
Sheria and Hareira for Bulgaria and Austria, and Gaza for Germany,
we get the exact progress of events in the final stage, except that
Bulgaria's submission was an intelligent anticipation of the laying
down of their arms by the Turks. Gaza-Beersheba was a rolling up from
our right to left; so was the ending of the Hun alliance.