Between the 3rd and 6th the hardest fighting took place east of Gaza, and the enemy’s line was broken there. The despatch, paragraph 12, notes that “East Anglian troops on the left also found at dawn” (on the 7th) “that the enemy had retired during the night, and early in the morning the main force occupied the northern and eastern defences of Gaza.” The 54th took part in the pursuit and the British advance to the line Jaffa-Jerusalem. Sir E. Allenby’s second despatch, that of 18th September, 1918, shows that the 54th was, along with the 52nd, in the XXI. Corps to which was given the task of increasing the distance between Joppa, or Jaffa, and the enemy. This was duly accomplished on 21st and 22nd December, 1917, in what is now designated the “Battle of Jaffa” (see also 52nd Division). Paragraph 4 of the despatch states that “on the morning of 22nd December, the 54th Division on the right drove the enemy from the orchards which surround Mulebbis and captured the villages of Rantieh and Fejja. On the left the 52nd reached all their objectives.” Paragraph 8 of the despatch shows that early in March the XXI. Corps made a further advance. The 54th captured five villages and some prisoners, and, paragraph 16, the Corps again moved forward, 9th to 11th April, when other positions were taken and held against the heavy counter-attacks in which the enemy’s losses were considerable, “over 300 of his dead being counted”. In his last despatch, that of 31st October, 1918, Sir E. Allenby described how his infantry broke through the Turkish lines and opened the gate for the cavalry and armoured cars. Paragraph 15: “The attack on the coastal plain on the morning of September 19th was attended with complete success. On the right, in the foothills, the French Tirailleurs and the Armenians of the Légion d’Orient advanced with great dash.” “On their left the 54th Division stormed Kefr Kasim village and wood and the foothills overlooking the railway from Ras El Ain to Jiljulieh. North of Kefr Kasim the advance was checked for a time at Sivri Tepe, but the enemy’s resistance was quickly overcome and the remaining hills south of the Wadi Kanah captured.” “The 3rd, Lahore, Division pressed on eastwards into the foothills, near Hableh, joining hands with the 54th Division north of the Wadi Kanah.” Later the 7th, Meerut, 3rd, Lahore, and 54th Divisions advanced further in an easterly direction. After this the infantry of the XXI. Corps were never seriously opposed but they had many most severe marches during the next three weeks. Like its neighbour in the East, the 53rd, the 54th Division lost some good battalions before it went abroad as a division. The policy pursued in 1914 and first half of 1915 of “picking the eyes out of” Territorial divisions has been severely animadverted upon, by, among others, Sir Ian Hamilton, and no one was better qualified than he was to judge of the wisdom or folly of this proceeding.