How Jerusalem Was Won: Being the Record of Allenby's Campaign in PalestineMassey, W. T. (William Thomas)
History
How Jerusalem Was Won: Being the Record of Allenby's Campaign in Palestine
Massey, W. T. (William Thomas)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Palestine
on the 10th Division front, the infantry went forward at a remarkable
pace; but guns moved up with them, and by keeping down the fire of
machine guns dotted about on every hill, performed services which
earned the riflemen's warm praise. The 9th and 10th Mountain Batteries
were attached to the 10th Division, but field and howitzer batteries
were also well up. On the 28th the 53rd Division bit farther into the
enemy's line in order to cover the right of the 60th Division, which
was to continue its advance up the Nablus road towards Bireh. The
158th Brigade captured Anata, and after fighting all day the 1/7th
Royal Welsh Fusiliers secured Ras Urkub es Suffa, a forbidding-looking
height towering above the storm-rent sides of the wadi Ruabeh. The
1/1st Herefords after dark took Kh. Almit.
In front of the 60th Division the Turks were still holding some strong
positions from which they should have been able seriously to delay
the Londoners' advance had it not been for the threat to their
communications by the pressure by the 10th and 74th Divisions. The
Londoners had previously tested the strength of Adaseh, and had found
it an extremely troublesome hill. They went for it again--the 179th
Brigade this time--and after a several hours' struggle took it at
dusk. Meanwhile the 181st Brigade had taken the lofty villages of Bir
Nebala and El Jib, and after Adaseh became ours the Division went
ahead in the dark and got to the line across the Nablus road from Er
Ram to Rafat, capturing some prisoners. The 74th Division also made
splendid progress. In the early hours the Division, with the 24th
Royal Welsh Fusiliers and the 24th Welsh Regiment attached, secured
Jufeir and resumed their main advance in the afternoon, the 230th and
231st Brigades cooperating with the 229th Brigade which was under the
orders of the 10th Division. Before dark they had advanced their line
from the left of the 60th Division in Rafat past the east of Beitunia
to the hill east of Abu el Ainein, and this strong line of hills
once secured, everybody was satisfied that the Turks' possession of
Ramallah and Bireh was only a question of hours. Part of this line had
been won by the 10th Division, which began its advance before noon in
the same battle formation as on the 27th. Soon after the three groups
started the heavy artillery put down a fierce fire on the final
objectives, and before three o'clock the Turks were seen to be
evacuating Kefr Skyan, Ainein, and Rubin. The enemy put up a stout
fight at Beitunia and on a hill several hundred yards north-west of
the village, but the 229th Brigade had good artillery and machine-gun
assistance, and got both places before four o'clock, capturing seventy
prisoners, including the commander of the garrison, and a number of
machine guns. The left group was hotly opposed from a hill a mile west
of Rubin and from a high position south-west of Ainein. The nature of
the ground was entirely favourable to defence and for a time the Turk
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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