CHAPTER XXIX
NAHR AUJA AND EL BURJ
BEFOREproceeding further with the narrative of the capture
of Jerusalem, it is desirable to turn to the operations
carried out by the British on the extreme left flank,
which had an important influence upon the fighting in Judaa.
By November 20th the Anzac Mounted Division had established a strong line of entrenched posts running from Nalin
on the right through Budrus and El Yehudiyeh, and thence
by high ground south of Tel Abu Zeitun to the sea. At this
time the Turkish line on the coastal sector traversed the high
ground north of Nahr Auja as far as Ferrekhiyeh, where it
crossed the stream and ran south-east to the foot-hills. As the
54th Division marched up from the south it was placed under
Chauvel’s orders ; the Camel Brigade was also advanced into
the area, while the 1st Light Horse Brigade was sent back
to a position near the beach south of Yebna to rest. On the
21st the Camels took over the line from Yehudiyeh to Hill
265, and the 161st Infantry Brigade was ordered to relieve
the New Zealanders and free them for action, if necessary,
across the Auja. During this time mounted patrols pushed
aggressively up to the Auja crossings, and to the villages
further east. At Mulebbis, an extensive Jewish colony, large
stores of horsefeed were discovered.
But everywhere the
patrols were sharply fired upon, and it was evident that the
enemy was prepared to resist a further advance up the plain
of Sharon.
T o prevent the withdrawal of troops of the Eighth
Turkish Army from Sharon to assist in the defence of
Jerusalem, Allenby decided to demonstrate strongly along the
coast, so as to lead the enemy to anticipate a further advance
in that direction.
On the 24th, therefore, Chauvel moved
to establish at least one bridgehead on the north bank of the
Auja.
Early in the afternoon the ground covering all the
crossings was vigorously shelled, and, while the whole line
displayed menacing activity, the Canterbury Mounted Rifles
crossed the Auja at the ford on the beach, put to flight a
small party of Turkish infantry, and seized Sheikh Muannis.
24A
497
498
SINAI AND PALESTINE
[zqth-asth Nov., 1917
The Wellington Regiment, following, moved by Muaiinis and
captured the bridge at Khurbet Hadrah; and a battalion of
infantry crossed by the mill at Jerisheh.
The enemy’s outposts were everywhere taken by surprise, and about thirty
Turks were captured, while the British sustained no losses.
That night the infantry with four companies held posts at
Khurbet Hadrah and Muannis, covered by a squadron of the
New Zealanders, who also guarded the ford on the beach.
All night the engineers worked at constructing a bridge at
the Jerisheh mill and improving the crossing at Khurbet
Hadrah, with a view to establishing two strong bridgeheads
on the 25th.
Allenby’s scheme succeeded almost too well. Bef ore dawn
on the 25th the Turks advanced in strength upon the Auckland Mounted Rifles, who were covering the infantry in front
of the Hadrah crossing.
The Canterburys at once moved
from the mouth of the Auja against the Turkish right; but
the enemy pressed his attack in considerable numbers, the
Aucklands were forced back on the infantry, and the little
combined force was heavily shelled.
Pressing in, about
1,000 strong, from the direction of El Jelil, the Turks could
not be arrested, and the infantry, covered by the New Zealanders and some machine-guns, were withdrawn to the south
bank of the stream.
The New Zealanders followed, and
the Turks took up a position on Khurbet Hadrah.
Shortly before g o’clock, as the British infantry at Sheikh
Muannis, assisted by a battalion on the south, were preparing
for a counter-attack on the enemy at Khurbet Hadrah, they
came under severe shell-fire, and the enemy could be seen
advancing in force. An hour later the Turks, in spite of
effective shelling by the Somerset Battery, still pushed rapidly
forward.
Very hard-pressed, the infantry, covered by a
squadron of the Aucklands and two troops of the Canterbur‘ys, fell back towards the bridge at Jerisheh. Some, however, were cut off from the crossing and were obliged to
pass the stream in boats, while a few had to swim. The
New Zealanders remained to give covering fire to the British;
then, with the Turks very close to them, they in turn took
to the water.
The position, although exciting, had never
been critical, and the New Zealanders enjoyed the lively
25tl1-2jtl1
Nov., 19171 NAHR AUJA AND EL BURJ
499
character of the little enterprise.
That night tlie original
line was occupied by the mounted troops and infantry, and
the artillery on the sector (made up of a few 6-inch howitzers,
one 3.5-inch howitzer battery, two 18-pounder batteries, and
three batteries of Royal Horse Artillery) registered the
crossings as a precaution against a further enemy offensive.
The ‘Turks showed no disposition to attempt to force the Auja;
but on the 27th they began to display activity against Hill
265 (afterwards known as “Bald Hill ”), which was held
by a company of the 4th Battalion of the Camel Brigade, and
against the line on its right.
The Camel positions were
heavily bombarded with 4.2’s ; Mulebbis, after having been
patrolled by troops of the 2nd Light Horse Brigade in the
morning, was occupied by the enemy in strength only two
hours later, and Wilhelmia was bombarded.
At about noon the line of Ryrie’s brigade was being intermittently shelled, and the light horsemen could see Turks
creeping through the orchards about 1,000 yards in front of
the Camel Brigade. A troop of the Australians, under
Lieutenant R. S. Billington,’ caught these in flank with a
Ilotchkiss gun, and caused many casualties, but the movement
towards the Camels made steady progress.
Ryrie’s headquarters were persistently shelled, and Major Bryant, of the
Ayrshire Battery, a bold artillery officer who had supported
the light horsemen in many fights, was killed.
A strong force of Turkish infantry then advanced under
cover of the barrage, and the company of the 4th Battalion
which occupied the post on Bald Hill was driven off, retiring
The Turks immediately entered the
for about 500 yards.
post, and with enfilade fire compelled the evacuation of three
posts held by the same battalion on the right. This in turn
made a post known as “Ypres Salient,” occupied by the 2nd
Light Horse Brigade, untenable. All the posts were at once
manned by tlie enemy, who, however, attempted no further
advance.
Bald Hill was a coinmanding knoll, valuable to either side
if it could be held. General Smith was ordered to retake it
after dark, if not before. At 7.30 p.m. Camel patrols, pushing
~~
1
Capt. R . S. Billington, h1.C.
1894.
23 Feb.,
5th L.H. RE@.
Clerk; b Enoggera, Q’land,
500
SINAI A N D PALESTINE
[27th-29th Nov., 1917
on to the hill, found the southern slopes occupied by about
500 Turks with machine-guns ; but with a swinging bayonet
charge the Camels re-occupied the three posts previously
evacuated on the right of the hill. Smith, whose leadership
was always marked by sound and independent judgment,
insisted that the knoll was a No-Man’s Land, and that gunfire from either side could make it untenable by infantry.
This view was accepted by Chaytor, and afterwards by
Chauvel, and was proved to be correct-to the great satisfaction of the men of the Camel Brigade, who had smarted
under the criticism at first levelled a t them for losing the
position.
Simultaneously with the attack on Bald Hill, the Turks
had made a stout effort to push the infantry of the 54th
Division out of Wilhelmia, but were driven off with considerable losses.
They also crossed the Auja, and established
a post near the Hadrah bridge. Here they were successfully
raided after dark by the infantry, who killed fifty and
captured eight prisoners, with only nominal losses to the
British.
The enemy continued to shell the posts and back
areas, but the Anzac trenches were excellently dug, and the
effect was slight. The plan to pin the Eighth Turkish Army
on the western sector, while the 60th and 74th Divisions in
the hills prepared for the final assault on Jerusalem, had
been richly rewarded, and all signs of activity on the Auja
were welcomed by the Commander-in-Chief.
The Turks continued to appear on Bald Hill, and eniployed working parties there in the darkness, despite heavy
shelling from the British batteries. On the night of the 29th
the position was again raided by a company of the 4th Camel
Battalion, supported by a squadron of the 6th Light Horse
on the left under Captain Stuart Tooth. After the hill had
been hotly bombarded, it was rushed by the Camels with the
bayonet. The Turks met them with bombs at the foot of
the hill, but were speedily swept back to the summit, when
the Camels were withdrawn, their task only half accomplished. Tooth’s squadron, however, whose mission was to
enfilade the Turks if they attempted to follow the Camels on
their withdrawal, blundered in the night on to a considerable
enemy force, apparently massed for an attack. A lively
29th-30th h'ov., 19171 NAHR AUJA A N D EL BURJ
501
fight with bombs and rifle-fire ensued, and the enemy brought
up a second force about 300 strong, which fell on Tooth's left
flank.
The light horsemen met the combined assault with
fine coolness, and Tooth succeeded in establishing a line,
upon which the struggle was bitterly waged.
The Turks,
however, threatened to envelop the line, and Tooth withdrew
his squadron for about 300 yards, found a good position, and
held on until daylight.
On another occasion a squadron of the 6th Light Horse
Regiment, led by Captain D. C. Close: raided the Ypres
Salient, which had been evacuated to the enemy.
The
salient was to be heavily bombarded for ten minutes, after
which the barrage was to l i f t for ten minutes, while the Australians made their dash at the enemy, and to be put down
again to cover their withdrawal, Unfortunately the lift after
the first ten minutes was not complete, and many of the Australians, as they rushed forward from their advanced position
in an orchard, were caught by the barrage. Lieutenant Owen
Tooth, brother to Stuart Tooth, was killed, Lieutenant H.
Dickson3 wounded, and one other rank killed and twenty-two
wounded in a few minutes by their own guns. But the attack
was rapidly pressed, the trenches were entered, twenty Turks
killed with the bayonet, and four taken prisoner.
Then,
bearing their dead and wounded, the Australians returned
inside the ten minutes allotted for the enterprise.
During these days and nights the posts of the 2nd Light
Horse Brigade along the crest of the hills were always active.
The orchards enabled the enemy to creep up to close
quarters in the darkness, and attacks were frequent.
Major
Barton, of the 7th Regiment, occupied a small entrenched
position on Hill 330, in front of which was a wide garden of
almond trees, crossed here and there by cactus hedges, sloping
rapidly down to the valley of the Auja.
One night the
Australians heard Turks talking behind a cactus hedge about
150 yards away down the hill, and immediately afterwards
officers could be heard calling out orders. Volleys of riflefire opened on the post. Barton had only nineteen men, with
_ _
'Xlai. D. C. Close. 6th L.H. Reat. Station manaeer: of hIoree and Warren.
N.S W-, b Stanmore, Sydney, N S W , 30 A u g , 1852.
'Capt. H . Dickson, M.C. 6th L.H. Regt
Station manager. of New England
District, N.S W.; b. Barney Downs Station, Tenterfield, N S.W.,' 18 July, 1874.
I
,
502
SINAI AND PALESTINE
[zgth Nov.-7th Dec., 1917
fifteen rifles and two Hotchkiss guns; but they knew the
ground intimately and mauled the Turks severely as they came
up tlie slope in the darkness.
Both the Hotchkiss guns
jammed, but the riflemen held the attackers at bay until dawn,
when it was found that they had retired to the shelter of the
cactus hedge. Within a few hundred yards on either side
of Barton’s trenches, but nearer the river, were Australian
posts, which, as daylight broke, put down a barrage with
Hotchkiss and rifle-fire behind the Turkish party, while
Barton’s men blazed into them from the front. The Turks,
cut off from retreat and faced by destruction, raised the
white flag, and Barton walked down and took the surrender
of four officers and 194 men, with four machine-guns, rifles,
and Iiombs.
The week’s fighting along the Auja showed that despite
von Papen’s condemnation the enemy was already, at least on
the plain of Sharon, recovering his spirit and still capable of a
sporadic offensive.
At times, however, there was evidence
of the effects of the long and harassing drive which his troops
had suffered. An outpost held by Lieutenant K. B. Suttor’
and Lieutenant Finlay, with only thirty rifles and two
Hotchkiss guns, was attacked by an enemy party nearly 200
strong. The Turlts were easily beaten off, many killed, and
150 made prisoner. On the night of December 1st three
Turkish deserters, coming in to one of the 7th Regiment’s
posts, indicated by signs that some of their friends also wished
to surrender. The information they could give was scanty
and uncertain ; but Lieutenant L. W. D a ~ i e s ,accompanied
~
by Corporal R. G. Maguirea and Trooper A. Dobbs,‘ with a
Turk as guide, went down through the orchards for threequarters of a mile until they were behind one of the enemy’s
posts. But the information was correct, and they returned
with twenty-four prisoners, including a Turkish officer.
On December 7th tlie Anzac Mounted Division handed
over the sector to the 52nd Division, but the New Zealand
4 Capt K. B. Suttor, 7th L H. Regt.
Station manager; b Waikato, Hamilton,
N Z , 1Y84 Died, Z J A u g , 1 9 3 0 .
6 Mal. L
W Danes, fi1.C.
7th L H. Regt
Of Sydney, N S W : b. Esk.
Q’land, 3 0 March, 1887.
8 Sgt
R G . hlaguire, h1 M. 7th L.H Regt. Clerk; b. Yass, N.S.W., 1896.
7 L/Cpl. A. Dobbs, hl.hI.
7th L.H. Regt. Farmer; b. Sydney, N S.W., 1895.
Nov.-Dec.,IgI7]
N A H R AUJA A N D EL EURJ
503
Brigade was left for some time in the line. The 1st and
2nd Light Horse Brigades were withdrawn to rest-camps at
Richon and Wady Hanein. The light horsemen relished
their brief holiday.
For nearly a month the men had slept
and fought in the clothes which they had worn when the great
offensive began. For many days at a stretch they had neither
washed nor shaved, and had been on a hard and scanty ration.
As they moved south, their transport officers were busy
bringing up from the south of Gaza tents, extra blankets, and
all the gear of their standing camp-and, best of all, great
loads of Australian mail-bags.
Requisitioning officers
ransacked the surrounding villages for tibbin for the
horses. Mounted troops escaped the infantry’s arduous
marching under heavy packs, but pay in constant labour
for the privilege of being carried on horses.
Even in
rest-camps the light horseman was working during most of
the day.
Feeding, watering, grooming. and cleaning the
horse-lines keep the squadrons ceaselessly busy ; and when
the horses become reduced, as they were at this time, they
demand particular care and nursing.
Grooming is massage,
to exhausted animals the best of tonics; as the campaign
continued, the average light horseman spent far more than
the regulation time in rubbing down his coveted waler, and
tired men would walk miles if there was a chance of acquiring
a bundle of green fodder or an extra nosebag of grain. But
with all the demands of the horses the men found time to
clean themselves and to rest. After a bath and the imperative “ delousing,’’ there followed a wonderful period of
sleeping. Nothing was more remarkable than the manner
in which these young men would sleep after some weeks of
severe campaigning. Day after day, in sunshine or darkness,
until nature had re-asserted herself, they were able to sleep
heavily whenever they were free from the horse-lines, with
the result that an utterly exhausted brigade, after a week’s
rest or even less, would take the track again as fresh as a lot
of schoolboys.
The Australian Mounted Division, after its movement
against Latron on November 19tl1, was (with the exception
of the 5th Mounted Brigade, but with the 7th Mounted
Brigade attached) placed in corps reserve, and, to ease the
504
SINAI A N D PALESTINE
[Nov., 1917
strain on transport, was withdrawn to Mejdel, on the
Philistine plain. There, in camps close to the sea, the Australians (less the 10th Regiment) engaged for a week in reequipment, and were indulged with a few day’s rest.
The
Jews provided them with fruit and vegetables, bread and
honey, and sometimes wine; from the Arabs were obtained
horse-feed and fresh meat.
To the traveller in a normal
season the Pliilistine plain is not inspiriting.
It is a rich
land, but also a bare, dead, hushed land, with no note of
youth or joy.
The absence of trees, except round the scattered new settlements ; the squalid, mud-built, flat-topped
villages with their thieving and depraved Arab inhabitants ;
the industrious but timid and servile Jews; the wild dogs
and strange birds, which howl and cry about the villages and
camps by night; and, almost at every mile, the ruins of an
old-time glory pointing the moral of greatness built on foundations of blood and lust and worldly ambitions, conibine to
depress all except the enthusiastic student or the delving
archzeologist. But to Chauvel’s light horsemen the plain,
after the blinding dust and heat of southern Palestine, was
almost as the Promised Land to the tribes under Moses,
They sIept and swam and feasted, and hailed with cheers the
arrival of the richly laden field-representatives of the Australian Comforts Fund and the light motor-cars of the A.I.F.
canteens, which were never far from the fighting line. They
explored the ruins of ancient Askalon, looked upon the valley
where, utiless tradition lies, David overthrew Goliath, flirted
freely, despite the obstacle of language, with the pretty Jewish
girls, spent every penny they could extract from their paybooks and from the fugitive pay officers, and in their simple,
hearty way lived like kings.
Barrow’s Yeomanry had now been engaged in hard dismounted fighting in the hills on the left of the infantry for
more than a week.
On November 26th Hodgson was
ordered to move with the 3rd and 4th Australian Light Horse
Brigades and the 7th Mounted Brigade to their relief.
The enemy, appreciating the menace to the Nablus road, had
been resisting the yeomanry with great stubbornness ; his
counter-attacks had regained Foka and other ground won by
the British horsemen, and after very bitter fighting had driven
ZSth-Zgth Nov., 19171
N A H R AUJA A N D EL BURJ
505
IIodgson’s division
our infantry out of Suffa and Shiltzl
The struggle was
reached Berfilya on the 28th and 29th.
still running strongly about Suffa, which, after+twicechanging
hands, became No-Man’s Land.
The 7th Brigade at once
became hotly engaged. and General Wigan was wounded.
The 3rd and 4th Brigades were put into the line, with the
~ 2 n dDivision on their right around El Burj, and the 74th
on their left about one and a half miles north of Berfilya.
The country was extremely steep and rocky, and the position
on the front was obscure. Between the attacks and the counterattacks no Turks or trenches were within sight of the British;
though bursts of effective machine-gun fire and very accurate
sniping showed that the enemy was not far away.
On
November 28th the XX Corps had taken over the Jerusalem
operations from the XXI, and the Australian Mounted Division was now under Chetwode’s orders. All horses except
those needed by gallopers were sent back to Ramleli, and the
Australians were engaged purely as infantry.
Rain was
frequent, and the mountain cold intense. Some of the men
had secured an issue of winter clothing; but most of them
were in summer dress and, like the infantry, suffered acutely.
If the regiments of the 3rd and 4th Brigades rode into the
hills refreshed, they were also n i d i reduced in battle-strength
The tnunth’s hard fighting, rough living, and lack of sleep had
caused heavy wastage by casualties and sickness ; and, when
one-fourth of the men had been sent back to Ramleh with
the horses, there remained a very light force to oppose the
enemy. The 8th Regiment, for instance, had only 105 men
of all ranks available for the line out of a total of above 400
who had been with the regiment at Beersheba. As the Australians advanced towards the dominating hill on which stands
the village of El Burj, they had their first taste of the bitter
Judaan winter; hut when some of them relieved a battalion
of the 5th Royal Scots Fusiliers, they realised that they were
more fortunate than the infantry. They found the Scotchmen
clad in short twill khaki pants, without tunics, with one blanket
to four men, very short of rations and without tobacco.
“ Our boys.” wrote a light horse officer, “ supplied the Jocks
with matches and cigarettes. and the ‘ Dinlcums.’ as they
always called us. were very popular.’’
506
S I N A I A N D PALESTINE
[zgth Nov.-1st Dec., 1917
The 3rd Brigade went into the line on the evening of the
29th. As the squadrons were so weak, Hodgson decided on
the following day to strengthen them with the 4th Brigade.
This necessitated moving Wilson’s men about I ,000 yards to
The movenient was
the left between Shilta and El Burj.
made at dark, and threw the 3rd for the night into strange
country. The 8th Regiment, now reduced to two squadrons,
each about fifty strong, occupied two positions some 200 yards
apart. One under Major Y . H. Walker* was on a small
hill to the right, and across the valley about 400 yards away
was the left flank of the 4th Light Horse Brigade.
On
Walker’s left, and somewhat to the rear, Major A. CrawfordB
was placed on a higher hill with the other squadron of the
8th; still further to the left was the 9th Regiment. All along
the front the line was occupied in a similar way, with troops
on the knolls and the intervening low ground open.
The
infantry had built stone sangars to give them protection against
both the enemy and the driving rain, and the light horsemen,
crouching behind these, and ignorant of the country ahead,
All round them the hills were
prayed for a quiet night.
extremely rocky, with occasional large caves hewn out of the
outcrops of limestone.
By IO prn. the change was completed, and for two hours
the hills were ominously quiet. Soon after midnight the
sentries on Walker’s post reported a movement only a few
yards away, but could see nothing in the intense darkness.
Walker called his men to arms, and began to report to
Crawford by telephone. Next moment the post was rushed
in great strength by the Turks, who were within bombing
distance of the Australians before they were discovered.
For a few minutes the light horsemen stood and fought
with rifles, bayonets, and hand-grenades ; then Walker.
finding that his post was being enveloped from both
flanks, ordered a withdrawal to the post held by
Crawford on the higher hill.
The vigorous resistance
had steadied the enemy, who, like the Australians, were
obstructed by the darkness, and Walker was able to
fall back in good order to Crawford’s hill and take
* Maj. Y . H. Walker, M C.
8th L.H. Regt.
Farmer; b. Nagambie, V i c ,
zg Aug., 1895.
I.ieut.-Col. A. Crawford, V.D
ti Aug.. 1887.
0
8th L H. Regt.
Farmer; b
Tatura, V i c ,
1st Dec, 19171
507
NAHR AUJA AND EL BURJ
up a position there on the lower slopes to the left.
As
the two squadrons then waited in the darkness for the next
assault, Crawford sent an urgent message to brigade for
reinforcements, and at the same time fired flares as a call to
the artillery. The gixns of the 268th Royal Field Artillery
Brigade and the Hong Kong and Singapore Battery promptly
responded, and put down a barrage over the enemy approaches.
After an interval of
complete silence, which
was a greater strain on
the nerves of the dcfenders than the fighting itself, about 500
Turks, with loud shouts
of " Allah," rushed up
the hill at Crawford's
sangars.
The Australians held their fire
until the leading men
were within twenty
yards, and then shot
them down in heaps
with rifle and Hotchkiss, and at the same
Jm,mc) pepo
Jooo
YDJ
time
lionilied
them
effectively. Retaliating with bombs, the Turks pressed
bravely forward in a desperate effort to bring their
greatly superior numbers into a hand-to-hand struggle
with the Australians. But the Victorians fought on with
splendid steadiness, and had the enemy soundly held, when
forty-eight yeomanry of the Gloucester Regiment (which was
at that time attached to the 3rd Light Horse Brigade in place
of the 10th Regiment) came up under Lieutenant-Colonel
Palmer. A few minutes later a company of the Royal Scots
Fusiliers under Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart-Richardson also
hastened up the hill and joined in the fight, and the Turks,
coining under very severe punishment at a few yards' range,
were driven to cover. At the same time the 9th Regiment
on the left and the 4th Brigade 011 the right enfiladed their
rear and cut off their escape.
'',
roQ)
I
a(
508
SINAI AND PALESTINE
[ I s t Dec.,
I917
The little composite British force remained on the hilltop
until dawn, when the Turkish survivors, numbering sis officers,
including a battalion commander, and I 12 other ranks, surrendered. More than IOO enemy dead lay close up to Crawford's
sangars, and sixty wounded were collected, most of them
badly mutilated by the point-blank fire.
Captain Fay and
Lieutenant S. V. Moorelo and five other ranks of the 8th Light
Horse were killed, and two officers and thirty-five other ranks
wounded; while the Scots had one officer and one man killed
and two wounded, and the yeomanry three men wounded.
The booty included large quantities of hand-grenades and
eight automatic rifles. I t was afterwards learned that the
attacking force was a battalion of storm-troops," selected
in Galicia from the 19th and 20th Divisions, and specially
trained by German officers. Physically they were the finest
Turks seen by the Australians during the war. The ALEtralian defence was distinguished by the cool leadership of
Major Crawford, and by much excellent individual work,
including that of Captain Macpherson and Lieutenant T. R.
Peppercorn,l' Sergeant-Major A. H. Currington,'* and
Trooper H. W. I<eahle.18
Had the enemy seized El Burj, the British would have been
deprived of the use of the road leading up from Berfilya, and
the Beit Nuba-Beit Sira valley would have become untenable.
This would have weakened all the pressure towards the Nablus
road, and exposed the left flank of the infantry which was
making the main advance towards Jerusalem. Hodgson was
therefore ordered to watch closely for a second attack. The
artillery, which had been slowly advanced up the mountain
by doubling the teams, steadily shelled enemy positions, intermittent indirect machine-gun barrage was put down on tracks
leading to the Turkish posts, and a second defensive line was
prepared to meet emergencies.
But the Turks were satisfied with their one disastrous
10 Lieut. S. V
Moore, 8th L H. Re@
Farmer; of Ararat, Vic ; b. Murtoa,
V I C , S Apr , 1894. Died of wounds, I D e c , 1917.
11 Capt
T. R. Peppercorn, hf C.
Sth L H. Regt.
Survelor's student, of
Gympie. Q'land; b Caulfield. Melb, V x , i g J a n , 1893
11 Lierit
A H Curringtm. D C M. Sth L H . Re@. Lahourer; of Ballarat,
VIC.; b. Great Barford. Bedfordshlre, Eng., 5 March, 1SS7
"SKt. H. W. Keable, D.C.M.
(No I O I O , 8th L H . Regt.)
Stockman; of
Mitchell, Q'land; b Stanthorpe, Darling Downs, Q'land, 14 July, 1893.
Nov.-Dec., 19171
NAHR AUJA AND EL BURJ
509
attempt ; from that time until their withdrawal from the hills
early in January, the regiments of Australian Mounted Division had little or no fighting at close quarters. A t times their
stone sangars were freely shelled, and sniping was constant,
but the men’s chief grievance was against the weather and the
conditions of living. Their plight was not extreme, as was
that of the infantry, but it imposed sharp suffering, and they
were called upon to endure it for many weeks. The tracks
were iiiipossible for transport, and raticjns were frequently
short ; waterproof sheets were not available ; until after the
fall of Jerusalem, when the line advanced into country containing olive-groves. they were without firewood for cooking.
Wet by day and night, with hoots hroken and useless, underfed, and protected from the biting mountain winds only by
the stone walls they constructed, their thoughts ran constantly
on the conditions under which they had been living only five
weeks before in the desert. But each day brought them
cheering news of the slow but sure approach of the infantry
towards Jerusalem, and the worst of hours were the subject
of jest.
By the end of November transport was the main source of
anxiety everywhere on the mountain front. Wheels were
useless except on the main Jaffa-Jerusalem road, and even on
that steep track, now holed and torn, the traffic was very slow.
A special service of 2,000 donkeys and thousands of camels
was therefore hastily orgariised and rushed into service, The
agile little donkeys, bearing loads at which the army marvelled,
saved the situation ; but still more remarkable was the work
of the camels. The great ungainly animals of the desert
climbed the steepest tracks of wild Judaa, their long legs
slithering on the greasy mud and the flat surface of the stones :
and despite frequent heavy falls, and looking more dejected
than anything else in the world, they went resignedly and
gamely on by day and night up to the firing-line. Their
Egyptian drivers rivalled them in courage and persistence.
These unfortunate men, barefooted and clad only in light
cottons, served the Commander-in-Chief with a degree of
fidelity not rivalled by any of his British troops. At tinies a
dead camel would be seen beside the rough track with its
driver crouched dead at its side. The camel having surren-
510
SINAI AND PALESTINE
[Nov.-Dec., 1917
dered, the Egyptian seemed in despair to have settled down
and willed, with the resignation characteristic of Eastern
peoples, to die beside his charge.
With the line of the Australian Mounted Division held
only by posts, the front was elastic and the position at times
confused. One night early in December a reduced company
of British infantry, marching to the relief of the 11th Light
Horse Regiment, lost direction, penetrated the enemy territory, and blundered on to Foka as they came back. Here a
considerable enemy force was encountered. The British at
once attacked, and a spirited rush gave them possession of the
village and of 500 prisoners, whom they endeavoured to bring
into the Australian lines. The Turks, however, appreciating
the weakness of their captors, broke loose, and 200 escaped,
taking with them a British officer and two of his men. The
remaining 300 were rounded tip and brought in.