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
Whatever they may have been, the Turkish calculations were completely
upset. The cavalry's water troubles remained and no human foresight
could have smoothed them over, but the transport problem was solved in
this way. During the attack on Beersheba XXIst Corps came to the aid
of XXth Corps by handing over to it the greater part of its camel
convoys and lorries, so much transport, indeed, that a vast amount of
work in the Gaza sector fell to be done by a greatly depleted supply
staff. When Beersheba had been won and the enemy's left flank had been
smashed and thrown back, the XXth Corps repaid the XXIst Corps, not
only by returning what it had borrowed, but by marching back into the
region of railhead at Karm, where it could live with a minimum of
transport and send all its surplus to work in the coastal sector. The
switching over of this transport was a fine piece of organisation. On
the allotted day many thousands of camels were seen drawn out in huge
lines all over the country intersected by the wadi Ghuzze, slowly
converging on the spots at which they could be barracked and rested
before loading for the advance. The lorries took other paths. There
was no repose for their drivers. They worked till the last moment on
the east, and then, caked with the accumulated dust of a week's weary
labour in sand and powdered earth, turned westward to arrive just in
time to load up and be off again in pursuit of infantry, some making
the mistake of travelling between the West and East Towns of Gaza,
while others took the longer and sounder but still treacherous route
east of Ali Muntar and through the old positions of the Turks. These
lorry drivers were wonderful fellows who laughed at their trials, but
in the days and nights when they bumped over the uneven tracks and
negotiated earth rents that threatened to swallow their vehicles, they
put their faith in the promise of the railway constructors to open the
station at Gaza at an early date. Even Gaza, though it saved them so
many toilsome miles, did not help them greatly because of a terrible
piece of road north-east of the station, but Beit Hanun was
comfortable and for the relief brought by the railway's arrival at
Deir Sineid they were profoundly grateful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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