ROUND A MOSQUE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 102, 4 May 1929, Page 21

ROUND A MOSQUE

A STORY OF THE WAR

The fall of Jerusalem at the end of 1917 was preceded by heavy fighting in the Judeau hills, where the Neby Samwil ridgo was of great tactical importance. After it had been cleared of the enemy ho made several attempts to regain possession of it. At its highest point was the village and the mosque which was built over the traditional site of the tomb of the prophet Samuel. The 2/19 th London (St. Pancraa) -Regiment held the position on 27th November, when, in the afternoon, the Turks made another effort. A fierce •bombardment lasted for an hour and a half, and then the enemy rushed forward to the attack. He was met by deadly fire from rifles and Lewis guns, while trench mortars smothered the activities of his snipers. The fight was fiercest in the broken ground north of the mosque, but no Turk got within thirty yards of the Londoners. By 7 p.m. the worst was over, the battalion having lost about SO men iii their successful defence. Two days later, when the 2/20 th London (Blackhcath and Woolwich) lrid relieved tho.2/19th, the Turk tried again for tho last time. At 8.30 a.m. his heavy guns concentrated upon the houses and the mosque, of which the minaret had already fallen. Its remaining walla now began to collapse. In tho afternoon the enemy assaulted, first from the north and then fronr the north-east. He worked forward <up the terraced hillsides, which afforded plenty of cover, but all attempts to rush the posts of the London men were driven back by bullet, bomb, and trench-mortar shell. A determined onslaught towards the mosque from the south-east encountered a similar fate. Before 5 p.m. the lurkish infantry had bad enough and at last the Turkish bombardment began to slacken. The 2/20 th Londons lost 50 killed und wounded, almost all of them by shell lire and falling masonry.