IN THE SHADE ] [Illustration: THE VILLAGE WELL NATIVE PLOUGH AND TEAM ] [Illustration] [Illustration: JAFFA ] [Illustration: AUSTRALIANS PRIOR TO THE FIGHT FOR HEIGHTS OF NALIN _Photos, in colour by Capt. Frank Hurley_ ] AMMAN CAPTURED It was not until our men were far across the tableland, and close to Amman, that the enemy showed fight. There our advance guard came under machine gun fire; but the Division’s rapid advance on the town was not stayed. As the scene of the severe March fighting came into view the Australians appreciated the disaster which had so suddenly fallen upon the Turkish arms. In March, the only possible approaches to Amman led through hurricanes of machine gun fire, together with shells from several field batteries. But now, the broken foe, although he fought gamely at this particular spot, was quickly out-witted and out-classed by Light Horse manoeuvre, and soon the Australians, after trifling casualties, were riding in the streets of the squalid modern village, and marvelling at the glory of the ancient Roman amphitheatre. Contact with the Roman in this hour of our triumph did us good. It subdued our vanity. In these far outposts of the old Roman Empire, on the very edge of the barbarian desert, the massiveness of the stone-work and the fine quality of the decorative carving proclaimed to the least imaginative mind the culture and mighty physical achievements of our great rivals in the task of Empire building. “The splendour that was Rome” is told far more convincingly in distant Amman and Baalbek than in the ruins of Rome itself. [Illustration] The Australians took 350 prisoners in Amman, and the New Zealanders another good bag as the Turks attempted to escape to the north. But the chief, and by far the most amusing, exploit of the Anzacs’ campaign, fell to the 2nd Light Horse Brigade under General Ryrie, at Ziza, about twenty miles to the south. News came through that a large Turkish force, which had been far to the south on the Hedjaz railway at Maan, was in an entrenched position at Ziza, and a regiment of Queenslanders rode down to spy out the land and, if possible, to smash them. The C.O. reported that he was in touch with 5000 Turks, who wished to capitulate, but they would not lay down their arms until they were sure that a great force of hostile Arabs, by whom they were surrounded, would be kept away from them. So the Colonel of the Queenslanders suggested that the whole Brigade should hurry down to assure the Turks of their safety. General Ryrie at once decided to go, and the twenty miles were covered in less than three hours. ARABS AND TURKS