ALLENBY'S TRIUMPH.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16408, 31 December 1918, Page 8

ALLENBY'S TRIUMPH.

SMASHING THE LINK THE GREAT SWEEP NORTH. (Commonwealth Official Correspondent.) DAMASCUS, October 5. The night before the bombardment preceding. General Allenby's ,dramatic victory over the Turks there was in cur camp close behind .the line an atmosphere of confidence. Every trooper was excited at the thought of a true cavalry charge. The Anzac Mounted Division was still in the linp in Jordan Valley. During many nights before the push every road on the coastal sector was crowded with slow moving, well ordered traffic. By. day all was normal except for significant glimpses of camps in the wide olive groves around Ludd and in the orchards and orange groves about' Jaffa. But as darkness fell the whole countryside would throng with masses of horse, and foot, and guns, and every kind of transport groping their way through bunding clouds, of dust. The roads were impassable outside the organised collimns; tho night was loud with tho shouts of drivers speaking many languages. " The bombardment opened at dawn with a very heavy barrage. For half an hour the startled Turks were battered in ttieir trenches. Then abruptly the bombardment ceased. At the time I was a few. miles with the Australian; . Mounted • Division, which was not intended for the first cavalry dash. . "Now the infantry," said a brigadier of horsei as the gunning stopped, "and then!

Never had plahs worked out with greater precision. All went so cleanly and rapidly that the overthrow of the Turks and the sensational collapse of what is in itself a great war, calls for very little description. Throughout, " the victory has been a triumph for .the staff, the supply columns, and the air force, as much as for the fighting gunner, infantryman, or cavalryman. The bombardment on the western Sharon sector was a surprise; the Turks' strength had been misled away Further east. Our battalions leaped forward as the gunning died away, and carried the Turkish trenches after a very brief struggle. "Within half an hour the infantrv had a gap clear for a great force of Indian and Yeoman cavalry near the coast, and soon afterwards another gar> was open a few miles inland. The expectant horsemen jumped off like thoroughbreds from the starting gate. THE CAVALRY MOVES. v They rode away in the sunrise, the advanced squadrons trotting out after the ground scouts ? the ilank patron gailoping wide, brigade after brigaao over the rolling sandhills. The men were eager, the horses fought for their heads. The swords of the Yeomanry flashed, and Indian lances glinted from each successive skyline. It was tho war scene of the picture . galleries; Quickening, the pace the' regiments raced on past our guns, moßt of which were already lqnbered up for the pursuit. The infantry, busy with then- prisoners, cheered them as they passed, and soon they were speeding down on Turks who had fled from the onslaught of the' infantry. But their sport with sword and lance was brief. On this Sharon sector the enemy had no forward reserves. Still more phenomenal was the absence of any reserve defence. Th© Turkish front line depended for its safety on one trench system. From the' crossing of the trenches until they reached the Esdraelon Plain late in the night, the cavalry encountered no fighting enemy. Once or twice they sighted small bodies of Turks,- and made for them at the gallop. But the enemy would Mot give battle. The -campaign was not three hours old before there began the long series of almost bloodless surrenders, which have been the most amazing feature of this sleepless fortnight. The perfection of our organisation was revealed very early. The cavalry was scarcely clear of the trench system before scores of field-guns were rumbling m their wake. And pressing on after the artillery by many tracks, good and bad, went mile after mile of camels and wheeled transport. Where the cavalry went the supplies must follow, and the cavalry rode from 40 to 50 miles between sunrise and midnight. With nothing to check them, their pace was controlled onlv by the endurancn of their horses. The men rode light ; they carried only one blanket, and that as n saddle-cloth. Tent sheets and waterproofs were forbidden. It was a wild ride aeninst time. But horse? were londcvt with three days' rations; and few carried less than 18 stone, and many more than 20. THE NET COMPLETE. How the scheme succeeded you know from the cablegrams. At dawn next morning the Yeomanry were across the Esdraelon Plain, and in Nazareth, when they caught most of the garrison of 3000, and the whole population still in their" beds, and secured the town at the expense of only 18 casualties. At noon tho Esdraelon Plain was in bur hands, and the Turkish Army in Western Palestine was left without communications or retreat, except at Beis, at tho northeast corner of the trap, and the capture of Bosinn was already assured. How sly the enemy was deceived and

how light were his forces on the sector broken for the cavalry is shown bv the fact that on the first day, although our horse travelled fully 40 miles on a wide front, only 900 prisoners were taken by the iqounted troops. Next day tho net closed round tho forward enemy forces on the Central Range, and he attempted to retreat across the Esdraelon Plain, the cavalry took upwards of 12,000. At the beginning of the second day we contained the lHirkish western army on the south, west, and north. . Tho Anzac Mounted Division, which is twothirds Australian and tho halance New Zealand, was, with a Light Infantry force, entrusted with, moving .up the Jordan Valley on tho east of \the lurks, and completing the net. But .the task of the Anzacs was a very stiff one. Before they could move the enemy guns dominating the ground on either side of the river had>to be shifted. This.meant that the Turks had to begin their rotreat on the Samarian Range before the division began to race' them for the crossings. Not until the second day did this come about, and then the Anzacs, riding fast, closed the fords, and the whole Turkish western army was doomed. Never has a collapse been more sudden. Forty hours after the flight commenced, as the- second day was closing, the enemy began to stream down the tracks leading from his forward mountain position and out "on'•to the .tfsdraelon Plain. Already ho had abandoned guns and transport, a. tragedy which he owed mainly to tho appalling havoc wrought with bombs and machine-guns by our airmen. THOUSANDS OF PRISONERS. | At dusk on the second day a largo * : ; forpe was reported to be heading to- jfc wards Jenin, on the northern side of o the Esdraelon Plain. General Chauvel ■ at once ordered the Third Light Horse Brigade to move to the. attack. An hour later tho' brigade had captured a mass of prisoners, who subsequently counted out at several thousands,, and we had . the first evidence " of the demoralisation of .the enemy. As tho brigade approached Jenin the Turks-jran out in and surrendered. Such £ a triumph for staff work is almost without parallel. The plan had put our | troops into certain positions, and tho Turks, as at manoeuvre, recognising the checkmate, were" surrendering; without - bloodshed. Any, resistance which fol- \ lowed on the 200 mile ride to Damascus came almost entirely from the Gefmans.