With the British Army in The Holy LandLock, H. O. (Henry Osmond)
History
With the British Army in The Holy Land
Lock, H. O. (Henry Osmond)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Palestine
By the 21st, the retreating Turks had become a demoralized rabble,
fleeing to the fords of the Jordan, like the discomfited Midianites,
under Oreb and Zeeb, had fled more than three thousand years before from
the pursuit of Gideon. Those who fled down the northward road were
captured and collected by our cavalry at Jenin. Those who fled down the
eastward road by the Wadi Fara, hoping to reach the still open ford at
Jisr-ed-Damieh, met with a more cruel fate. This road led down a steep
and narrow gorge, dominated by the heights east of Nablus. A brigade of
the 10th Division was rushed forward by a forced march, and seized these
heights, effectually closing the trap. Our airmen had already got the
situation well in hand here, and the road soon became a veritable
shambles. The enemy had been forced or shepherded by our infantry into
this bottle-neck, and our airmen, swooping down to 200 feet and bombing
the head of the column, soon made the road impassable. That
accomplished, they flew up and down the struggling column, bombing and
machine-gunning without let or hindrance. It seemed as though the
unspeakable Turk had at last been delivered over to vengeance in this
Valley of Death. An eye-witness[11] describes the scene.
"In no section of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow could there have been a
more terrible picture of hopeless and irretrievable defeat. In this area
alone, eighty-seven guns of various calibres, and fully a thousand horse
and oxen-drawn vehicles, nearly a hundred motor-lorries, cars,
field-kitchens, water carts, and a mass of other impedimenta blocked the
road, with the carcases of thousands of animals and the bodies of dead
Turks and Germans."
On the 22nd, our cavalry moved up the Jordan Valley and seized the ford
at Jisr-ed-Damieh, thus cutting off the last possible means of escape.
Prisoners were surrendering in thousands. They looked weak and
exhausted; in many cases they had fled over a parched country and
beneath a burning sun for three or four days, without touching a drop of
water. Their plight was pitiable. By that evening, the Turkish armies
west of the Jordan had ceased to exist.
There still remained the Turkish 4th army in Eastern Palestine. An
expedition, consisting largely of cavalry, was sent against them. These
crossed the Jordan Valley, and, moving up the eastern slopes, on the
23rd September captured Es Salt, and, on the 26th, Amman. A day or two
later, the Turkish force south of Amman, about 10,000 strong,
surrendered. The remainder of the Turkish 4th army tried to withdraw.
They were closely pursued by our cavalry and airmen, and, to some
extent, cut off by the Arab forces of the King of the Hejaz. Many
prisoners were taken from this army, while, such as could do so, made
their escape to Damascus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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