100 Years Ago - THE CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM

AMMUNITION CAMELS SHELTERING IN A WADI NEAR GAZA

·CAMEL AND CATERPILLAR IN THE DESERT

IN PALESTINE: BRINGING IN A CAPTURED GERMAN AEROPLANE

THE ENTRY OF GENERAL ALLENHY INTO JERLSALRM BY 'IH.h JAFFA GA'IE


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How Beersheba was captured

Our infantry made rushes across the open, the ground being very exposed, heeding neither the enfilade fire of the guns nor the spasmodic machine-gun fire

November 5, 1917

By a rapid, well-delivered surprise blow General Allenby’s army has smashed the eastern end of the Turks’ entrenched line in Southern Palestine, and has wrested one of the most ancient Biblical towns from the enemy. In the early moonlight hours of last night Beersheba, where Abraham dug the well of the oath, was occupied by Australian mounted troops and British infantry after a stern, day-long fight, in which our troops displayed great endurance and courage, doing everything planned for them and working out the Staff scheme as if by the clock.
Although meeting with strong resistance from the enemy, who held extremely strong positions, nothing went wrong, and the story of the day will add to the military glory of the soldiers from the English cities and shires and from Australia and New Zealand. The splendid British infantry made long night marches, and attacked with such determination that they tore down the wire entanglements with their hands, and just as the moon rose over the Judea Hills Australian Horse charged, mounted, against the strongly-held trenches, with fixed bayonets, overwhelming the Turks and galloping, cheering, into the town. Our preliminary movements were all executed during the night. At dawn yesterday the cavalry were south of Beersheba, the infantry were facing the northern, western, and south-western defences, which were cut in a range of hills hiding Beersheba from view. These entrenehinients were elaborate, skilfully chosen, and generally heavily protected with wire, guns covering all approaches.

On the night of the 30th-31st under a beautiful moon horsemen made a wide and rapid sweep round from south to south-east, ready at dawn to rush up, cover the town from the east, and get astride of the Hebron road in order to prevent a retirement in that direction. The infantry were to attack the trenches on the south-east, but before that could be done Hfill 1,070 (Khasm Sauna) three miles to the south had to be taken. This hill had been made into a strong redoubt, commanding a wide stretch, but an extremely heavy fire was brought to bear against it, and the gallant infantry carried it with an irresistible rush within half an hour of the beginning of the attack.
There was a German machine-gun section on the hill, but a prisoner admitted that every machine-gun was knocked out by our fire. When this important outpost had been secured the infantry prepared to attack the system of trenches south-west of the Wadi Sheba from the Khalassa road to the Beersheba-Sheria [Audja] railway, the Camel Corps and other infantry making a holding attack north of the Wadi. There had been some rifle fire and shelling by the enemy just before dawn. Thereafter the guns north of the wadi fired heavily on the troops moving across open ground to the south until one of our batteries located them and silenced them for the remainder of the day.
The advance against the south-western trench system was a great achievement. The Turks held on desperately, and time would not permit more than an hour’s bombardment to cut the wire. Our infantry made rushes across the open, the ground being very exposed, heeding neither the enfilade fire of the guns nor the spasmodic machine-gun fire. In a few places shells had broken down the wire. Into these the bombers dashed, while others tore down the wire from the iron supports with their hands and were in upon the Turks before they realized that resistance was futile.

This grand work was done by soldiers from the English counties, many of them men who prepared themselves for Great Britain’s defence before the war burst upon the world. They showed an inspiring courage and resource. This onslaught on the south-western trenches only served to whet their appetite. Resting awhile, they crossed the rough pebbly bed of the wadi Sheba and reduced the chain of holes and trenches on the western side of Beersheba.
The cavalry work was equally meritorious: many horsemen rode 310 miles before getting into action. They had two very difficult places to reduce during the day. A brigade of Australians, with the widest sweep had to capture Sakaty, a high hill six miles north-east of Beersheba, dominating a wide district. With their usual elan, these big Australians stopped at nothing, and rounded up every Turk on the hill by 1 o’clock. Thereafter they crossed the Hebron road and the Wadi Itmy [a tributary of the Ark et Abrek], and denied the enemy that exit from Beersheba.
Even more difficult was the taking of Tell es Saha, a 1,000ft hill three miles east of the town, converted into a redoubt of great strength, and made almost unapproachable by the steep banks of a wadi running alongside it on the south. But the New Zealanders and Australians carried it by half-past 3, and then turned their attention to a group of houses between the hill and the Hebron road, held by a German machine-gun company. lt was getting dark, and anxiety was felt about water for the horses. Another Australian force settled the difficulty. Dismounting at the first line of trenches the Australians went on afoot, sweeping up all resistance. Then, bringing forward again their brave chargers, they remounted, and galloped cheering into the town.
I was in Beersheba in the early hours of today. Everywhere was evidence of the Turks being taken completely by surprise. They had blown up a railway engine and burnt the engine house, but a train was standing in the station, and the warehouses, full of corn, were almost intact, though attempts had been made to fire them. A direct hit by a heavy gun on the bridge over the wadi, north of the town, prevented the removal of the rolling stock.
Yesterday was certainly a great day for the Army in Palestine: the staff work was admirable, the moral of the troops never higher.

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The deliverance of Jerusalem

Today General Allenby makes his entry into the city, and his entry means that the yoke of the Turk is broken for ever

December 11, 1917

The deliverance of Jerusalem, though its influence on the war may be relatively remote, must remain for all time a most memorable event in the history of Christendom. Wherever the Gospel has been preached it has been in all ages the most sacred spot upon earth to countless millions. There the Divine Author of their faith taught the great truths which are the well-spring of all that is holiest and best in civilization, and there He suffered and died. For well-nigh thirteen centuries it has remained, with relatively brief intervals, in Musulman hands, and for 400 years Turkish Sultans have been its lords.
To Moslem, too, it is a holy place, though the tradition of its sanctity is no longer a living force among them in India and in the outer world. For the Jews, on the other hand, whatever may be the land of their exile, its memories are imperishable. To them it has always remained the providential home of their race and the earthly centre of their ancient and venerable religion.

Today General Allenby makes his entry into the city, and his entry means that the yoke of the Turk is broken for ever. The Sultan will dominate the Holy Places no more; the scattered Jews will have a prospect of returning as a free people to their national home, and a new order will be established, founded upon the ideals of righteousness and of justice. Whilst the (Germans have wantonly destroyed the noblest of Christian churches on the false plea of military necessity, the British General has delayed his operations to save the sacred places in and about Jerusalem from accidental hurt. That is a warrant of the care which will certainly be taken, in accordance with those principles, to safeguard the rights and to respect the susceptibilities of every faith. The great Mosque of Omar and the other sites most intimately associated with the traditions of Islam will, doubtless, be safeguarded and left in Moslem keeping, and the priests and ministers of all communions who are not alien enemies may confidently rely upon the countenance of the conquerors.
The fall of Jerusalem, whatever its military importance, marks the latest stage in a singularly brilliant and successful campaign. It is a sign that the tyranny of the Turk is doomed end that the dawn of a new freedom is rising over his dominions. To all whom he oppresses - to Greeks and Armenians, to Arabs, Jews, and to Syrians - it is an augury of deliverance. The commanders of the French and Italian contingents and the head of the French political mission will accompany General Allenby in the ceremony of to-day. Their presence is a symbol of the unity of the Allies, but it also recalls with particular appropriateness one aspect of the struggle which they jointly wage.
It has often been said that this war is in truth a crusade for human liberties, and France and Italy of all countries were the lands of the old Crusaders. We, too, played a brilliant part in that wonderful and complex contest between East and West. The countrymen of Richard Coeur de Lion and of Edward I dealt many a stout stroke in the struggle. It was France who furnished the largest number of efficient warriors; it was her sons chiefly who founded and maintained the Latin kingdoms; it was she who oftenest renewed the struggle, and it is her children who have left us the best contemporary accounts of its more striking episodes. If the French did most of the hard fighting in Palestine, the sea-power of the Italian cities, of Genoa, of Pisa, and of Venice, powerfully supported many of their operations, furnished them with military engines and indispensable supplies, and built up the flourishing commerce with the East which, despite the final failure of Crusades, continued to link Christian and Moslem together until the discovery of the Cape route to the Far East. And if France has given us Geoffrey Villehardouin and Joinville, the first Crusade was chosen as his theme by the last great epic poet of Italy.

The Crusades did much to renew the intercourse between East and West which had been Interrupted by the rise of the Mahomedan power. But Jerusalem was performing that function in other ways from the first Christian centuries. It has been for Christians as for Jews the city of pilgrimage. The Mahomedans themselves made pilgrimages to it instead of to Mecca, when that place had been seized by the Karmathians. In the fifth century pilgrims flocked there from the distant West, from Spain and Gaul and Brittany, and there is a regular literature of their travels, from the “Pilgrim of Bordeaux” in the first half of the fourth century to Brother Felix Faber of Ulm, at the close of the fifteenth The pilgrims and the Crusaders brought home with them new discoveries, new tastes, new knowledge, and, above all, enlarged ideas of the world, all of which things have profoundly influenced the course of history. But the “City of David” was venerable and famous long before the birth of Christ. Egyptian Pharaohs, Assyrian kings, and Persian monarchs laid it desolate, but it was always reared anew. Alexander, Pompey, Titus, and Hadrian all made war upon it. Saladin entered it in triumph as General Allenby enters it today. In Christian literature and art it has been the type of the “urbs caelestis,” of the “new Jerusalem” of the “City of God,” of “The wondrous fane angelical Whose only bounds are Light and Love.”


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The British in Jerusalem

Unlike the bombastic and spectacular entry of the German Emperor - who rode into the city in the theatrical guise of a conqueror - General Allenby and his companions were on foot

December 13, 1917

The dispatch from General Allenby which was read yesterday by the Prime Minister to the House of Commons is an eamest of the spirit in which the British occupation of Jerusalem and the control of the Holy Places will be organized. The British Commander made his entry accompanied by the Commanders of the French and Italian detachments and the Military Attaches of France, Italy, and the United States.
Unlike the bombastic and spectacular entry of the German Emperor - who, though in reality a Cook’s tourist, rode into the city in the theatrical guise of a conqueror, and proceeded to preach a political sermon in a German church - General Allenby and his companions were on foot, and made no effort to impress the imagination of spectators. No effort was needed. The measures taken spoke and will speak for themselves. The British Military Governor has organized the supervision of the Christian Holy Places, and is keeping in touch with the representatives of the Latin and Greek Churches. Around the Mosque of Omar has been placed a military cordon composed of Indian Musulman officers and soldiers, and the area within the cordon is under Moslem control. No non-Moslem can pass this cordon without joint permission from the Military Governor and the Moslem in charge of the Mosque. At Bethlehem and on Rachel’s Tomb guardians have been appointed, while the hereditary custodians of the Wakf, or Moslem Pious Foundations, at the gates of the Holy Sepulchre, have been requested to continue their duties in remembrance of the magnanimous act of the Khalif Omar, who, on taking Jerusalem, respected and protected the special sanctity of the supreme Christian shrine. News travels fast in the East, and we imagine that the tidings of the entry of the British Commander and his Allied Staff into the Holy City, as of the just and tolerant spirit that has informed his dispositions, will quickly spread through every Oriental bazaar and community, and redound not a little to the credit of the Allies and to the prestige of their cause.

Equally happy are the words of the proclamation addressed by General Allenby to the inhabitants. It announces the maintenance and protection, “according to the existing customs and beliefs” of every sacred building, monument, holy spot, shrine, traditional site, endowment, pious bequest, or customary place of prayer, of the “adherents of three of the great religions of mankind,” by whose prayers and pilgrimages the soil of Jerusalem has been consecrated for many centuries. To see in this attitude on the part of the British Commander a mere calculation of political expediency would be gravely to misread and seriously to underestimate its significance. In its essence it is a vindication of Christianity. At a moment when Christendom is torn by strife, let loose through the apostate ambitions of those who have returned in practice to the sanguinary worship. of their “Old German god,” it stands forth as a sign that the righteousness and justice that are the soul of Christian ethics guide Christian victors even in the flush of triumph.