Meanwhile the Indian and Yeomanry Division had crossed Eastern Palestine and reached Deraa, where it joined hands with the Arab army. Then the Arabs, the Indians and the Yeomanry sped on towards Damascus. There was still a chance of escape for some 20,000 Turks, who had moved northwards of Deraa before the arrival of our forces. These struggled gamely towards Damascus, hoping either to make a stand at that great base or to escape by rail to the north. But General Chauvel still had in hand the Australian Mounted Division and a strong force of Indians and Yeomanry, which had returned to the Jordan after the capture of Haifa. With the Australians leading, he marched from Esdraelon Plain north-east across Jordan for Damascus. Then ensued one of the grand races of the war. Our tired horses were called upon for the heaviest work of the lightning campaign. Marching by Beisan, the 4th Light Horse Brigade, after a stiff fight—the most expensive cavalry fight in the campaign—took Semakh, and then, co-operating with the 3rd Brigade, which had come down from Nazareth, occupied Tiberias. After a day’s partial rest, during which our men swam and fished in the blue waters of Galilee, the Australian Division marched swiftly for the Jordan crossing, a few miles south of Lake Huleh. But the enemy was now seized of our intention, and the German machine gunners put up a fine resistance. Their stand at Semakh aimed at preventing us reaching Damascus before the 20,000 Turks, who were retreating from the direction of Deraa, and to give time for the removal of as many military stores as possible from the city. South of Lake Huleh, also, the Germans fought well and delayed us for a few hours. We then ran through as far as Kunneitra, but, a few miles further on, were again held up by machine guns and a field battery. GREAT-HEARTED HORSES Our horses had covered, with marching and fighting, an average of thirty and forty miles a day. Thousands of Australian-bred animals must have covered some 400 miles in twelve days, a very fine performance when it is remembered that they carried a load exceeding an average of 250lbs. and had been on short rations. On our ride to Damascus, the excellent work of the staff was demonstrated again. As the advance guard of the 4th Light Horse Regiment (Victorian), travelling north-east, came within view of the green and generous plain of Damascus, we saw, some eight miles away on our right, and moving north-west, a great converging column of the fugitive Turks from Deraa. Nearly all of these were captured, the Germans once more fighting well with their machine guns. But even the Germans had now almost given up hope, and on this last day before Damascus, and in the two days which followed, they abandoned their machine guns, and fled at the galloping approach of the Australians. That evening many thousands of prisoners were captured by the 3rd and 5th Australian Light Horse Brigades, and the city was enveloped.