PALESTINE—ARABIA—MESOPOTAMIA

Although the British had accomplished their main objective in Palestine with the capture of Jerusalem, they did not rest on their laurels. Within a few days after their occupation of the Holy City, by December 12, 1917, they had advanced their lines to the north and some detachments of Indian troops had carried positions as far north as the mouth of the Midieh.

During the night of December 20-21, 1917, British troops crossing the Nahr-el-Auja on rafts and light bridges, seized Khurbet Hadrah, Sheikh Muannis, Tel-er-Rekkeit, and later El Makhras.

These localities are near the mouth of the river, and include commanding ground two miles to the north of it. Three hundred and five prisoners, of whom eleven were officers, and ten machine guns were captured.

Other forces captured Ras-ez-Zamby, two miles northeast of Bethany, which itself is two miles east of Jerusalem, taking thirty prisoners and two machine guns and beating off three Turkish counterattacks.

By this time the booty captured by the British since the beginning of the operations had been counted and had been found to total ninety-nine guns and howitzers with carriages, about 400 limbers, wagons and other vehicles; 110 machine guns, more than 7,000 rifles, 18,500,000 rounds of small-arm ammunition, and over 58,000 rounds of gun and howitzer ammunition, besides various other stores.

On December 22, 1917, troops on the extreme left of the British forces, with naval cooperation, continued their advance north of the Nahr-el-Auja, reaching the line Sheik-el-Ballutah-El Jelil, some four miles north of the river. Pushing eastward south of the river Fejja and Mulebbis, center of a Jewish colony, were occupied. This was followed by the capture of Rantieh on the Turkish railway to the north, and Kh.-el-Beida, and Kh.-el-Bireh, four miles southeast of Rantieh.

The Turks, with German assistance, on December 27, 1917, made a determined attempt to retake Jerusalem. Repeated attacks were pressed with vigor and continued from two a. m. on the 27th for twenty-six hours. General Allenby at once launched a counterattack against the west flank of the Turkish attack.

On the 27th this attack progressed two and one-half miles over very difficult country. Seeing that the Turkish attack was spent, on December 28, 1917, the British made a general advance. British troops on the Nablus road advancing north and the troops on their left advancing east drove the Turks back before them. By the morning of December 29, 1917, General Allenby had secured the line Burkah, Ras-et-Tahunieh, Ram Allah, El Tireh, Wadi-el-Kelh.

On December 30, 1917, British troops occupied Beitin, or Bethel, two miles northeast of Bireh, El Balua, one mile north of Bireh, on the Nablus road, and Kh.-el-Burj, about one mile west of El Balua, Janiah and Ras Kerker, six and seven miles respectively northwest of Bireh.

In the coastal sector of the line a patrol reached Kuleh, twelve miles east of Jaffa, and there found a Turkish gun ammunition depot, which it destroyed. Kuleh is two miles east of Rantieh, on the Damascus Railway, which had recently been occupied by the British.

The Turks suffered heavily in killed and wounded, the killed alone being estimated at about 1,000. About 600 prisoners were taken and twenty machine guns.

The British line was now, at its nearest point, twelve miles north of Jerusalem. The right wing reached some four miles east of the Sheehem road; the center extended across that road north of Beeroth, Bireh, and along the Ram Allah Ridge and the Wadi-el-Kalb, which lies north of and parallel to the Jerusalem-Beth Horon-Joppa road. On the coast the left wing of the British was north of the Auja, in the plain of Sharon.

In describing the Turco-German attempt to regain Jerusalem the special correspondent of the London "Times" attached to the British forces in Palestine said in part:

"The first objective was Tell-el-Ful, a high conical-shaped hill just east of the Sheehem road dominating our lines east and west for a considerable distance. During daylight on Boxing Day the Turks made no movement, but just before midnight our post north of El Ful was driven in. At twenty minutes past one a. m. the first attack on El Ful was made, and at the same time an advance began against Beit Hannina, about a mile west of the road. This line was defended by London Territorials, who added to their grand record by meeting attack after attack with magnificent steadiness, standing like rocks against most furious onslaughts, and never once yielding an inch of ground. Two companies defending Hanbna were attacked four times by storming troops. Each attack was stronger than the last, and the fourth was delivered by 500 picked Turks, but all the attacks were beaten back after prolonged hand-to-hand fighting. The enemy dead showed many bayonet wounds, and the hillside was strewn with Turks killed by machine-gun fire. There were eight attacks on Tell-el-Ful. These were also made with great weight and determination. The strongest of them all was delivered with a reenforced line at dawn, and supported by heavy artillery fire. All were defeated with great loss to the enemy.

"Between 7 a. m. and noon the enemy organized for a last big effort, and about half-past 12 the Turks assaulted the whole of the Londoners' line except Nebi Samwil. This final attack was pressed right up to our positions, the enemy fighting with the bravery of desperation. He proved no match for the London Territorials, who, after raking the advancing waves with machine guns, cleared his breastworks at a bound, met the foe with the bayonet, and forced him back.

"General Allenby, realizing how deeply committed the Turks were to the attack on Jerusalem, put in Irish and dismounted Yeomanry against the enemy right. Those who have seen the terrain marvel at the dismounted Yeomanry's and Irishmen's achievement. They moved from Beth Horon Upper northeastward. The Yeomen attacked El Tireh, at the time not strongly held, but just as they secured it a Turkish storming battalion was advancing to the same spot. The enemy, thus forestalled, counterattacked, but the Yeomanry rushed at them and counted seventy Turks killed by the bayonet alone.

"The hill near by was so steep that it took two hours to get supplies up to the top. Another hillside was so precipitous that the only way troops could get up the terraced slopes was by the men standing on each other's shoulders. So nearly perpendicular was the hill that the Turks on the top could not fire on the climbers till they were at close quarters. While the Irish and Yeomen were advancing, men in reserve were making roads for the guns, which had to be hauled by hand, and when Yeomen captured Beitunia they had a whole brigade of guns just behind their front line, though it was sometimes necessary for a whole company of infantry to haul one gun, which at moments was dangling in the air.

"Welsh and Home Counties troops also took part in beating off the attack on Jerusalem. They had taken Zanby and White Hill, north of the Jericho road, and held White Hill against three counterattacks. On the 27th the Turks attacked all day, and White Hill became no-man's-land, but Zanby was held. Fighting was at bombing distance. At dusk the enemy tried to take White Hill, but the Welshmen charged with the bayonet and killed over a hundred Turks. Farther south a post at the village of Obeid was attacked by 700 of the enemy, who surrounded it and fired 400 shells into the monastery, but the Middlesex men, who were the garrison of the post, held out, their casualties being trifling."

Immediately following the defeat which the British inflicted on the Turks, the former succeeded in advancing their lines north of Jerusalem still another mile.

During January, 1918, there was little activity on the Palestine front. In the last week of the month there was, however, considerable aerial activity. On January 22, 1918, the Turkish camps and depots on the railway west of Sebustieh, Samaria, were raided.

On January 24, 1918, two Turkish aeroplanes were wrecked in aerial combats.

On January 25, 1918, British bombing squadrons surprised a body of some 2,000 Turkish troops in close formation near Hawara, on the Jerusalem-Nablus road four and one-half miles south of Nablus. Half a ton of bombs were dropped on the column before it could disperse. At the same time a camp of mounted troops was bombed and the animals were stampeded.

Twelve Turkish aeroplanes were destroyed during the month of January, 1918.

During the night of January 30, 1918, the British line was again advanced slightly in the vicinity of Arnutieh, a ruined site, on the Sheehem road, twelve miles north of Jerusalem. On the morning of January 31, 1918, a British reconnoitering detachment penetrated the village of Mukhmas, eight miles north-northeast of Jerusalem, repulsed Turkish counterattacks, and withdrew during the following night, having accomplished its object. During the night of February 2, 1918, Turkish patrols were active between Arnutieh and Sheikh Abdulla, one mile east of Arnutieh. Attempts to penetrate the British lines at these points, however, were repulsed.

In the meantime the Arab revolt in the Hedjaz, that part of Arabia adjoining the Red Sea, was spreading. It will be recalled that it had been announced in July, 1917, that the Turks had been defeated at Maan and that the Arabs had occupied the enemy positions between Maan and Akaba, the latter place being at the head of the Red Sea gulf of the same name, and just east of the Egyptian frontier. The town of Maan, which is on the Hedjaz Railway, is about 120 miles southeast of Gaza.

Late in August, 1917, it became known that forces operating under the orders of the King of the Hedjaz, the Grand Sherif of Mecca, had carried out a series of extensive operations against Turkish detachments and posts in Arabia. According to the information available, the Arab forces had been working on a carefully thought out plan, resulting in the destruction of part of the railway line north of Medina, which is 230 miles north of Mecca, and in the capture of isolated Turkish posts.

In the Maan district alone, over 700 Turks were killed in action and a similar number taken prisoner, in addition to four guns.

The Arab movement, originating with the Sherif of Mecca, apparently was gaining the support of almost all the Arab tribes in the Hedjaz, and was spreading eastward.

During September, 1917, no news came from the Hedjaz. Early in October, 1917, it was reported that Arab forces had successfully raided the railway communications north of Medina on the Hedjaz Railway.

Not until late in December, 1917, did it become known that the Arabs had been quite active during the latter part of November, 1917, though definite news was lacking concerning their activities during October, 1917, and the early part of November, 1917.

Between November 8 and November 12, 1917, a section of Arabs attacked the railway from Deraa to Amman, that part of the Hedjaz line running parallel to the Jordan. Two locomotives, a number of coaches and trucks, and a bridge were destroyed, and traffic was interrupted for six days.

On November 11, 1917, a train in which Djemal Pasha was traveling to Jerusalem was blown up with a mine and destroyed. Djemal escaped, but his aid-de-camp and the staff officers accompanying him were killed. The Turkish casualties amounted to 120, while the Arabs lost seven killed and four wounded.

On November 22, 1917, a Turkish lancer patrol from Maan attacked some Arab tents in the neighborhood of Batra, fifteen miles southwest of Maan, but were driven off with losses. Arab forces later took the posts of Fuweila and Basta, southwest and west of Maan respectively. These points had been fortified by the Turks in August last in the hope of confining the Arabs in the Akaba area.

A few days later it was announced that an Arab force under Sherif Feisal, son of the King of Hedjaz, had destroyed a troop train south of Tebuk, on the Hedjaz Railway, some 350 miles north of Medina.

The whole of the Turkish detachment in the train were killed or captured, amongst the former being Suleiman Pasha Rifada, paramount chief of the Billi tribe. Three hundred rifles were captured as well as a large quantity of ammunition, also £24,000 Turkish in gold.

On January 11, 1918, it was announced that the Arab forces in Hedjaz had made a successful raid on the railway some twenty miles south of Maan, and that still farther to the south the entire Turkish garrison of an important post on the railway had fallen into the hands of the Arabs.

A few days later the Arabs occupied the Turkish post of Tafile, forty-five miles north-northeast of Maan and eighteen miles southeast of the Dead Sea, capturing the entire garrison. On January 26, 1918, a body of Turkish troops moving on Tafile from El Kerak, twenty miles northeast of the southern end of the Dead Sea, was routed on the Seil-el-Hesa, eleven miles north of Tafile, by the Arabs, and driven back in disorder with the loss of many prisoners, a mountain gun, and seven machine guns.

On the same day another Turkish force advancing westward from Maan was repulsed by Arab troops near Ain Uheid, seven miles west of Maan.

Still farther south, in the Aden sector of Arabia, little of importance transpired between August, 1917, and February, 1918, though the British troops near Aden continued to be in constant contact with the Turks, engaging in numerous outpost and patrol skirmishes.

On November 22, 1917, an action was fought on a larger scale than usual, in which British troops attacked and captured the Turkish post at Jabir, fifteen miles north of Aden, and its neighboring pickets. Losses were inflicted on the Turks and their defenses were destroyed.

On January 5, 1918, a strong reconnoissance was made toward Hatum and Jabir, the defenses of the former being destroyed by British troops. Aeroplanes cooperated with the British artillery, who inflicted considerable damage on the Turkish infantry.

In Mesopotamia there had been very little activity since the fall of Bagdad on March 11, 1917. Soon after that event a British column had been sent westward to Feluja on the Euphrates, a town almost on a line with Bagdad, but about thirty-five miles farther west. The Turks had offered no resistance and the town had been occupied by the British. The Turkish forces in the meantime had been withdrawn to Ramadie, about twenty-five miles northwest from Feluja and also on the Euphrates. In July 1917, a British column had successfully pushed forward about twelve miles in the direction of Ramadie, but after inflicting considerable losses on the Turks had to stop farther advance on account of the extreme heat.

Early in October, 1917, came the news that Ramadie had fallen on September 29, 1917. During the night of September 27, 1917, the British had moved in two columns from an advanced camp on the Euphrates, west of Feluja, one column on the right, the other on the left, and at dawn they attacked Mushaid Ridge, a low line of dunes running north and south from the Euphrates to Habbanie Canal.

At dawn they bombarded the main crest of the ridge, but the Turks had evacuated it, and they replied with a counterbombardment a few minutes afterward, expecting apparently that the British would follow up the barrage with an assault. The British, however, as soon as it became clear that the Turks were evacuating Mushaid Ridge, changed their line of attack. The right column was withdrawn and, swinging round west behind the left column, became the left wing of the force.

As soon as the infantry had carried Mushaid Ridge British cavalry made a wide sweeping movement across the desert round the right flank of the Turks. They left the battle area at 8 a. m. and by 4 p. m. they were established astride the Aleppo road on a regular line of hills running at right angles with the river five miles west of Ramadie.

By this move the Turks were cornered. The net which the British had flung round them was complete. They had no bridge behind them and were cut off from all hope of reenforcement or supplies. Their only chance was to drive in determined counterattacks, and to break through before the British drew the ring in closer and drove them out from their trenches with their artillery.

Meanwhile the British infantry were closing in. At 1 o'clock, after bombardment, one column attacked Ramadie Ridge, on the right, while the other was working round to Azizie Ridge, on the left. The capture and holding of Ramadie Ridge by British and Indian infantry was a difficult achievement. This low pebbly rise is perfectly smooth, a long and gentle gradient barely seventeen feet above the plain level. It offered no cover of any kind, and the British infantry became visible to the Turks a full 200 yards before they reached the top of the rise. As soon as they came into view the Turks opened concentrated rifle and machine-gun fire on the British front and right flank, while their guns opened intense enfilade fire from the batteries on the left. The British and Indian soldiers hung on to their positions and at night dug themselves in. Their action so occupied the Turks that the left column was able to work round and seize the Azizie Ridge before dusk with very little opposition.

At night British cavalry, who occupied strong points on a front of three miles along the ridge, prepared for a desperate struggle. The expected attack began the battle after 3 o'clock, when the Turks tried to break through between the cavalry and the river. The action continued for two hours till dawn, when it degenerated into casual sniping. The nearest Turkish dead were found within fifty yards of the cavalry trenches.

In the meantime the infantry soon after daybreak had taken up the attack again and in face of well-directed fire and against repeated counterattacks, had carried the last outlying defenses of the Turks on the British left, until 8 o'clock, September 29, 1917, they had seized and were holding the bridgehead of the Azizie Canal. After this new repulse an intense bombardment was opened on the Turkish trenches. The British line of cavalry, far away west, soon saw the dark masses of the enemy approaching and apparently prepared for bloody battle. They watched this advance, as they thought, for over an hour, but there came a moment when, to their astonishment, they saw the Turks turn and walk in mass formation toward the British. The Turkish guns were silent and white flags went up all along the line.

It was a general surrender. Ahmed Bey, the Turkish commander, who had been on the Euphrates all through the campaign from the battle of Shaiba, March, 1915, came out and surrendered with his whole force.

The British captured 3,455 prisoners, thirteen guns, ten machine guns, 1,061 rifles, a quantity of ammunition, some railway material, two steam launches and a large quantity of miscellaneous engineering material, equipment, and military stores. When the British entered Ramadie they found that such Turkish forces as had not surrendered had hurriedly fled.

To the north and east of Bagdad the British forces, too, succeeded in advancing in the direction of the Persian border. In this undertaking they had for some time the cooperation of Russian troops still fighting in this region.

On August 19, 1917, British columns attacked the Turks near Shahroban on the left bank of the Dialah, about fifty miles northeast from Bagdad. The Turks made little resistance and retreated hastily to the Hamrin Hills, and British troops remained in possession of Shahroban.

In an action fought on October 20, 1917, the British occupied Deli Abbas, about ten miles northwest from Shahroban, and established themselves on the Jebel Hamrin range on the left bank of the river Dialah. The Turks retreated across the Dialah River in the vicinity of Kizil Robat, burning the bridge behind them, and continued to hold a position in the hills on the right bank of that river, north of Deli Abbas, which is on the Bagdad-Kifri road.

This position was attacked on the morning of December 3, 1917, by converging columns, one of which successfully bridged the Dialah near Kizil Robat, sixty miles northeast of Bagdad, on the road to Khanikin.

The Turks attempted to delay the British advance by flooding the area between the Nahrin and Dialah Rivers close to their junction, six miles east of Deli Abbas, but by the morning of December 4, 1917, British troops had driven back the Turks and were in possession of the Sakaltutan Pass, eleven miles north of Deli Abbas, and between the Dialah and the Nahrin, a northern tributary of the Dialah, flowing through the Jebel Hamrin, and crossed on the main road between Deli Abbas and Kifri at an elevation of 600 feet above sea level. Through the Sakaltutan Pass the road from Deli Abbas leads to the north to Kifri and Mosul.

A force of Russians, under the command of Colonel Bicharakoff, operated on the British right flank and rendered valuable assistance.

Immediately after the capture of the pass, the Turks were pursued as far as the village of Kara Tepe, thirteen miles north of the pass and about twenty-five miles north of Deli Abbas, through which the Turks were driven on December 5, 1917, after a sharp engagement. The pursuit was carried out over difficult country containing bogs and intersected by numerous watercourses.

On the morning of December 7, 1917, British aeroplanes bombed Tuz Kurmatli, on the Mosul road, thirty-five miles north of Kara Tepe, with good results. It was reported that the Turks set fire to the Kifri coal mines on December 5, 1917, and the British observed that fires were burning there on the following day.

No further news came from the Mesopotamian theater of war during the balance of December, 1917, or during January and February, 1918.

On December 1, 1917, it was officially announced by the British authorities, that reconnoissances had definitely established the fact that German East Africa had been completely cleared of all German troops and that the German commander, General von Lettow-Vorbeck, with the force under his command, estimated at 2,000 rifles, had crossed the Rovuma River into Portuguese East Africa.

During December, 1917, after driving the Germans across the border into Portuguese territory, the British forces were busy in preparing for the new task of hunting out General Lettow-Vorbeck in Portuguese East Africa. British patrols by December 25, 1917, were forty miles south of the Rovuma River, which marks the frontier.

Von Lettow's force had been broken up into small foraging parties; and it was expected that they would be rounded up before the big rains set in.

However, during the last few days of December, 1917, the German forces in Mozambique, consisting of 2,000 men with two fieldpieces and ten machine guns, attacked the Portuguese positions on Mt. M'Kula, occupied by Captain Curado, with 250 men and five machine guns, and after three days' fighting succeeded in carrying the positions by assault.

This did not change the fact that the last vestige of the German Colonial Empire had fallen into the hands of the Allies.