FAMOUS SOLDIER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 114, 15 May 1936, Page 5

FAMOUS SOLDIER.

BRITISH WAR LEADER. LORD ALLENBY PASSES. STRATEGY THAT BEAT TURKS. Lord Edmund Henry Hvndman Allcnliy. whose death i* announced by cable to-day, was born in ISfil and joined the Inniskilling Dragoons in 1882. He served in South Africa, taking part in the operations in Becliuanaland in 1884-5, and in Zululand in 1888. He fought in the Boer War of 1899-1002, participating in the relief of Kimberlev. the Battle of Paardeberg and Lord Roberts' advance to Pretoria. He made a' great name for himself as a column leader and was promoted colonel. In 1909 he was made majorgeneral, becoming Inspector of Cavalry 111 1910. In that capacity he went out to France with the Expeditionary Force in 1914 in charge , of the cavalry division. The work of his mounted men during the retreat from Mons, the advance to the Aisne and the first battle of Ypres won great praise and, when the second cavalry division arrived, he was appointed to the command of the Cavalry Corps and was knighted. 111 June, 1915, he took over the sth Army Corps, and in October the 3rd Army, which he led for nearly two years. In the spring of 1917 his troops won the great Battle of Arras. In Egypt and Palestine. Allenby was chosen in June, 1917, to command the troops in Egypt and Palestine. .Capturing Beersheba 011 October 31, he attacked on his extreme left on November 2 outflanking Gaza. But the whole line between these points was strongly fortified and a week's hard fighting was necessary to reduce it. The British then advanced 011 Gaza to find it practically undefended. Jaffa fell on ■ Vvember 10. The British forces the eastwards and- advanced on Jei alem which the enemy evacuated.

Allenby entered the Holy City on December 11. He did so on foot "to fulfil the Arab prediction that it would not revert to the Christians until its conqueror entered it oil foot and until the waters of the Nile flowed into it. The latter part of the prophecy was carried out by the bringing of a pipe-line into the city by the troops to improve the water supply. Thus, after 730 years of Moslem rule, Jerusalem passed under Christian control. Fooling the Turks. In the spring of 1918 Allenby had to send some of his troops to France, but in the summer he was reinforced from India and Iraq, and in September made his big attack. His ruses completely misled the Turks. He pretended to mass troops on his right, while his main blow was to be delivered on his left. Tents were left standing in the Jordan Valley and others pitched there to suggest that more troops lmd arrived. This impression was strengthened by employing soldiers to drag trees about and raise a dust. Dummy horses took the place of real horses when the cavalry went west. All troop movements westward were made at night; any eastward by day. In the west section no fires were lit antl no tents used. When the blow fell, it was entirely unexpected and the whole Turkish Army —far larger than the British force—was captured or killed, 45,000 prisoners and 300 guns being taken. In a few weeks Damascus and Beirut had been occupied and troops sent to Aleppo. Not only Palestine, but all Syria were in the hands of the Allies. Cavalry's Outstanding Triumph; Allenby's has been described as the most brilliantly conceived and executed campaign of the war, one of the finest in history and an outstanding triumph for cavalry. He held that the day of cavalry was by no means over and that it would play a big part in any future war. He was given the G.C.8.. and in 101!) was promoted Field Marshal and raised to the peerage as Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and Felixstowe, with a grant of £50.000. While engaged in Palestine he had also been responsible for mantaining order in Egypt and protecting it from attack. In 1919 he was appointed British High Commissioner -there. He adopted a policy of conciliation, but took strong measures when kindlier methods failed. His tenure of office coincided with a period of great unrest,

culminating in tlie murder of Sir Lee Stack, the Sirdar, and his handling of the situation was criticised in some quarters. He resigned in May, 1925. He then made a tour of the Dominions, after which he settled at Deal Castle of which he had been appointed captain. In 1933 he revisited Palestine to open the Y.M.C.A. building at Jerusalem.