The Story of the Great War, Volume 8: Victory with the Allies; Armistice; Peace Congress; Canada's War Organizations and vast War Industries; Canadian Battles Overseas
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume 8: Victory with the Allies; Armistice; Peace Congress; Canada's War Organizations and vast War Industries; Canadian Battles Overseas
World War, 1914-1918
Jerusalem surrendered, it will be recalled, to General Allenby,
commander in chief of the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force, on
December 9, 1917. Two days later he entered, at the head of his
victorious army, the Holy City, at last again in the hands of
Christendom. From then on the British advance continued steadily, even
if slowly, toward the north across the whole breadth of Palestine.
Jericho fell on February 21, 1918. There was much fighting during
March and April, 1918, but after that a period of comparative
inactivity set in which was utilized by the British to repair the
damages which war had wrought in the Holy Land and to carry through
sanitary and administrative reforms which laid a sound foundation for
bringing back some of the glory of past centuries. Not until
September, 1918, did any military operations of importance occur.
Then, however, a new British offensive set in, described in the
following pages, which was to drive the Turks forever out of
Palestine, Syria, and Arabia.
Much the same story is to be told about the British operations in
Mesopotamia, along the Tigris and Euphrates. There, it will be
remembered, General Maude had captured Bagdad, the ancient capital of
the Caliphs, on March 11, 1917, and had then followed up his success
by a steady advance in a northwesterly direction until he fell a
victim to cholera on November 19, 1917. He had been succeeded in the
command in chief of the Indian Expeditionary Force by General
Marshall, who, with the same tenacity as his lamented predecessor and
as his companion in arms in Palestine, continued to push the British
advance during the balance of 1917 and the first half of 1918. The
ancient city of Hit was captured in March, 1918, and from then on the
Turks were driven back without let-up.
A considerable share of the victory in Palestine was due to the Arabs
who had rebelled against the Turk and, under the king of the Hedjaz,
had allied themselves with the British. As early as February, 1918,
the Arab and British fronts had been joined at the Dead Sea, and from
then on had cooperated in the closest possible manner against the
common enemy whom even German support was to avail nothing.
During the early summer of 1918, comparative inactivity ruled along
the Palestine front. In August, 1918, only a few minor operations were
reported. Thus, on the morning of August 8, 1918, an extensive bombing
raid was carried out by Royal Air Force and Australian units against
the Turkish camps and establishments in the vicinity of Amman railway
station, on the Hedjaz Railway, twenty-five miles east of the Jericho
bridgehead.
On the same day Imperial Camel troops, cooperating with the Arab
forces of the king of the Hedjaz, seized Mudawara railway station on
the Hedjaz Railway, sixty-five miles south of Maan, killing
thirty-five and capturing 120 of the enemy, with two guns and three
machine guns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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