How Jerusalem Was Won. W. T. Massey

      LIST OF MAPS

      PLAN OF SOUTHERN PALESTINE

      PLAN OF GAZA-BEERSHEBA LINE

      PLAN OF THE BETH-HORON COUNTRY

      PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF JERUSALEM

      LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

      OFFICIAL ENTRY INTO THE HOLY CITY. GENERAL ALLENBY RECEIVED BY THE MILITARY GOVERNOR OP JERUSALEM, DECEMBER 11, 1917

      KANTARA TERMINUS OF THE DESERT MILITARY RAILWAY

      EAST FORCE H.Q. DUG-OUTS NEAR GAZA

      WADI GHUZZE NEAR SHELLAL

      OUR WATERWORKS AT SHELLAL

      ON THE MOVE IN THE DESERT

      THE GREAT MOSQUE AT GAZA

      TURKISH HEADQUARTERS AT GAZA. Note the Crusader Lion in Wall.

      A DESERT MOTOR ROAD NEAR SHELLAL

      TURKISH DUG-OUTS AT GAZA

      BEERSHEBA RAILWAY STATION WITH MINED ROLLING STOCK

      LIEUT.-GEN. SIR HARRY CHAUVEL OUTSIDE BEERSHEBA MOSQUE, NOVEMBER 1, 1917

      EL MUGHAR. THE SCENE OF A YEOMANRY CHARGE

      BURIAL-PLACE OF ST. GEORGE, PATRON SAINT OF ENGLAND (AT LUDD)

      YEOMANRY GRAVES AT BETH-HORON THE UPPER, WHERE JOSHUA COMMANDED THE SUN TO REMAIN STILL TO ENABLE THE ISRAELITES TO OVERTHROW THE PHILISTINES

      IN THE JUDEAN HILLS

      A ROMAN CENTURION'S TOMB, KURYET EL ENAB

      ONE OF KING SOLOMON'S POOLS

      A TYPICAL NEW ZEALANDER

      WADI SURAR, CROSSED BY LONDON TERRITORIALS ON THE MORNING OF THEIR ASSAULT ON THE JERUSALEM DEFENCES

      THE DEIR YESIN POSITION WEST OF JERUSALEM

      EASTERN FACE OF NEBI SAMWIL MOSQUE, SHOWING DESTRUCTION BY TURKISH SHELL-FIRE

      OFFICIAL ENTRY INTO THE HOLY CITY. GENERAL ALLENBY ARRIVING OUTSIDE THE JAFFA GATE

      OFFICIAL ENTRY. GENERAL ALLENBY RECEIVING THE MAYOR OF JERUSALEM (A DESCENDANT OF MAHOMET)

      JERUSALEM FROM MOUNT OF OLIVES

      JERUSALEM FROM GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

      PANEL IN THE CHAPEL OF THE KAISERIN AUGUSTA VICTORIA HOSPICE ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES

      BETHLEHEM

      CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY, BETHLEHEM

      AIN KARIM, PART OF THE JERUSALEM DEFENCES

      RIVER AUJA, CROSSED AT NIGHT BY LOWLAND TERRITORIALS

      JERISHEH MILL, RIVER AUJA, ONE OF THE LOWLANDERS' CROSSINGS

      BARREL BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER AUJA

      DESTROYED BRIDGE ON THE JERICHO ROAD

      THE WILDERNESS, WITH A GLIMPSE OF THE DEAD SEA

      LONDONERS' BRIDGE OVER THE JORDAN. THE RIVER IS IN FLOOD

      GERMAN PRISONERS CROSSING THE JORDAN

      NEW ZEALAND MOUNTED RIFLES AT BETHLEHEM

      A HAIRPIN BEND ON THE JERUSALEM ROAD

      CHAPTER I

       Table of Contents

      PALESTINE'S INFLUENCE ON THE WAR

      In a war which involved the peoples of the four quarters of the globe it was to be expected that on the world's oldest battleground would be renewed the scenes of conflict of bygone ages. There was perhaps a desire of some elements of both sides, certainly it was the unanimous wish of the Allies, to avoid the clash of arms in Palestine, and to leave untouched by armies a land held in reverence by three of the great religions of the world. But this ancient cockpit of warring races could not escape. The will of those who broke the peace prevailed. Germany's dream of Eastern Empires and world domination, the lust of conquest of the Kaiser party, required that the tide of war should once more surge across the land, and if the conquering hosts left fewer traces of war wreckage than were to be expected in their victorious march, it was due not to any anxiety of our foes to avoid conflict about, and damage to, places with hallowed associations, but to the masterly strategy of the British Commander-in-Chief who manoeuvred the Turkish Armies out of positions defending the sacred sites.

      The people of to-day who have lived through the war, who have had their view bewildered by ever-recurring anxieties, by hopes shattered and fears realised, by a succession of victories and defeats on a colossal scale, and by a sudden collapse of the enemy, may fail to see the Palestine campaign in true perspective. But in a future generation the calm judgment of the historian in reviewing the greatest of all wars will, if I mistake not, pay a great tribute to General Allenby's strategy, not only as marking the commencement of the enemy's downfall, but as preserving from the scourge of war those holy places which symbolise the example by which most people rule their lives. Britons who value the good name of their country will appreciate what this means to those who shall come after us—that the record of a great campaign carried out exclusively by British Imperial troops was unsullied by a single act to disturb the sacred monuments, and left the land in the full possession of those rich treasures which stand for the principles that guided our actions and which, if posterity observes them, will make a better and happier world.

      A few months after the Turks entered the war it was obvious that unaided they could never realise the Kaiser's hope of cutting the Suez Canal communications of the British Empire. The German commitments in Europe were too overwhelming to permit of their rendering the Turks adequate support for a renewed effort against Egypt after the failure of the attack on the Canal in February 1915. There was an attempt by the Turks in August 1916, but it was crushed by Anzac horse and British infantry at Romani,[1] a score of miles from Port Said, and thereafter the Turks in this theatre were on the defensive. Some declare the Dardanelles enterprise to have been a mistake; others believe that had we not threatened the Turks there Egypt would have had to share with us the anxieties that war brings alike upon attackers and defenders. Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, however we regard those expeditions in the first years of the struggle, undoubtedly prevented the Turks employing a large army against Egypt, and the possibilities resulting from a defeat there were so full of danger to us, not merely in that half-way house of the Empire but in India and the East generally, that if Gallipoli served to avert the disaster that ill-starred expedition was worth undertaking. We had to drive the Turks out of the Sinai Peninsula—Egyptian territory—and, that accomplished, an attack on the Turks through Palestine was imperative since the Russian collapse released a large body of Turkish troops from the Caucasus who would otherwise be employed in Mesopotamia.

      [Footnote 1: The Desert Campaigns: London, Constable and Co., Ltd.]

      When General Allenby took over the command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force the British public as a whole did not fully realise the importance of the Palestine campaign. Most of them regarded it as a 'side show,' and looked upon it as one of those minor fields of operations which dissipated our strength at a time when it was imperative we should concentrate to resist the German effort on the Western Front. They did not know the facts. In our far-flung Empire it was essential that we should maintain our prestige among the races we governed, some of them martial peoples who might remain faithful to the British flag only so long as we could impress them with our power to win the war. They were more influenced by a triumph in Mesopotamia, which was nearer their doors, than by a victory in France, and the occupation of Bagdad was a victory of greater import to the King's Indian subjects than the German retirement from the Hindenburg line. If there ever was a fear of serious trouble