World War, 1914-1918 -- Australia; World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Palestine
A few days after Beersheba the Turkish line was broken by the infantry
at Sheria, and again between Gaza and the sea. The mounted men were
turned loose on the heels of the retreating enemy, and the wild stern
chase was continued for nearly fifty miles. The speed of the horsemen
was regulated chiefly by difficulties of transport and water supply; but
all the way the Turk fought clever rear-guard actions, making therein
especially effective use of his strong equipment of machine guns. The
Australians’ work was fast and bold throughout. There were scores of
fights by night and day, which brought credit to the staff work and
Brigade and Regimental fighting. Up till then it was the grandest
cavalry drive in the war, and perhaps it has no equal in any campaign of
the past. When the British forces came to a halt on a line running
roughly from the coast a few miles north of Jaffa eastward to the
mountains, the cessation of the pursuit was due not to enemy resistance,
but to the impossibility, at that time, of extending our lines of
communication any further. During this great cavalry drive, the Desert
Mounted Corps, which embraced all the mounted troops, was under the
command of Lieut.-General Sir H. G. Chauvel, who enjoys the distinction
of being the first Australian to rise to the leadership of a Corps. And,
with the 3rd Light Horse Brigade under General Wilson and the 4th under
General Grant, the four Australian Mounted Brigades were, for the first
time, all under Australian commands.
JERUSALEM AND JERICHO
In the wars of the ancients, cavalry and chariots were always used down
on the Philistine Plain, while the Judean Hills were regarded as
practicable only for infantry. It is the same to-day. The Great Drive on
the Plain finished, the British infantry, with Yeomanry dismounted,
moved eastward through the narrow passes and up the harsh, rocky
hillsides of Judea towards Jerusalem. The Turks stubbornly resisted our
capture of the Holy City, and the fighting, at times, was bitter and
bloody in the extreme. But the gallant little Londoners, to whom fell
the honour of most of this significant advance, won their way steadily
forward. Only one Light Horse Regiment, the Western Australians, played
any immediate part in the operations which, on 9th December, culminated
in the surrender of Jerusalem.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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