DARING STRATEGY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 17, 22 January 1919, Page 2

DARING STRATEGY

AIIENBY’S CAMPAIGN SMASHING THE TURKS IN PALESTINE. WORK DONE BY BRITISH FORCE. The following is the continuation of the Wellington soldier’s narrative of General Allenby’s campaign : It was the British Forces that had for years borne the heat and burden of the desert; that constructed, railways and plugged along. It was the British Yeomanry, Londoners, and! Anzacs that broke the Turk and drove him across Sinai, Romani, and out of Gaza to the hills beyond Jerusalem and Jericho. The cavalry that pursued and beat the Turk was composed of British Yeo-' manry;, Andlratlanis), New fZealju)ndfers, and Indians. The Infantry corps that pushed. across the front were of London, Welsh and Scottish, Irish and Indian regiments. The others were small in number, late arrivals, and mere political units. As for the? Hedjaz Arabs, a greater lot of apparently lazy murderous cutthroats in their picturesque brigandage one could not expect to find elsewhere. “Picturesque brigandage. We could easily picture many of them shining when opposed, say one hundred strong, to a defenceless woman seized foiv ransom. But opposed to resolute, fighting forces? Well, wo have our doubts. • Perhaps it is better to have them as allies than have them shooting us in the back from under 1 cover and in darkness.

None of us saw them do 'any fighting, Wp continually passed lots of bodies of unarmed Turkish stragglers fallen exhausted in their flight and put to death by the Arabs. The Arabs published a report, that the Turks had in their retreat, massacred the inhabitants of two villages. But they did. not state that ,previously the Arabs had fallen on top of a hospital train load of Turkish sick and wounded, and jthat the Turks heard this. Afany here believe that the two Amman-Es Salt stunts had failed owing to the failure of the Arabs'to keep their obligations, and because we had been let down badly by them. Again, there are many who, despite newspaper garbage, think that the .Arabs here in this last campaign, by not fully or partially accounting for the 4th Turkish Army of 6000 men, prolonged- the pursuit of the British cavalry, and caused plans to he altered. This, we know, we hurriedy repacked oiir saddle wallets, girthed up, and proceeded north to Jisr Mijamia, near Lake Tiberias; crossed the Jordan, climbed about 4000 ft towards Irbid, and pushed on to Er Rente, near Deeraa Junction, where we engaged and accounted for a lot of Turks. Over the most atrocious tracks we hurried north to Mezerib, to Kumi, and. eventually to Damascus, where we camped at the gates, so to speak. The Australian and sth (Cavalry Division also arrived along the Kumeistra roadImagine our surprise when next day the Arab leader rode gaily into the city and took charge of it. Of course, the British soldier, who had actually captured it, required a “pass” before he could enter and: see what the place was Ulra With their, usual luck the Amac Division had. meantime bumped against very severe, fighting; on the way to Es Salt, and had suffered some heavy .casualties. They collected, the Turkish Hedjaz Army (about four times their size) as it retired from Maan, After a coupto of days at Damascus we passed along the mountain roads to the Plain of Bukaa. of which Zable i* the chief town (and very flourishing, too) . Following the railway line north wo reached Baalbek of Baalbek, mast interesting and imposing)) and travelled along the Homs road. At Homs (60,000 inhabitants) the line to Aleppo joins a branch to the port of Tripoli..

AN INTERESTING CAMPAIGN

The -campaign has beeij. most interesting, so far. Days and nights of lightning dashes; days and days- of hard fagging treks; days of good roads, but never-ceasing clouds of white _ dust that generally accompany a matching army; nights of scrambling over atrocious tracks (map described, “good roads for guns and vehicles”)'; days of terrific heat, cloud bursts.; nights of icy travelling, and latterly nights of heavy rain and coldness, ancient cities, dead villages, assorted people, lessons learnt on the road pf places and villagers. Man is never satisfied, bo with us. We are anxious to see our home folk and birth places. So we are impatient to push on past AleppoAlexandria and finish the* Turk.

MUCE SICKNESS,

x have' Just read a newspaper article dealing with the question of whether an epidemic could. alter a campaign and prevent victory, l.t rather hinted that ih France the “flu*’ had paused! some trouble in our French military operations. The halt at Beisan for thosedays to collect the Turk almost causedour undoing. The Turks were' full of disease. (They .say that about 20,iu). Turks sick are clogging our hospitals j on The lines of communications and:, in] Egypt) . The Hfcmascus-Beisan-Jordan Valley country produces a malaria _of a most malignant and! fatal kind. Fevers abounded. The water was extremely unhealthy. The Turk Army had developed a good type of malignant Spanish “fla-” Many prisoners fell down and died of it on the roadsidle. They transmitted the “flu” to us. By vigorous military action- they could not defeat us, but they created trouble by . the inoculation, so to speak, of many of our men with their tyP e o j “flu.” Moreover, all the way the road had 1 been . stinking with dead; Tilrks, horses, oxen, etc. Bead bodies were our portion all the trek. . Decomposing and rotting in a few hours they caused much “annoyance.” 'Streams and, wells were full of dead matter. _ Happily wo do not know the composition of the water we drink, Tlie terrific heal and dust, caused us to drink much and of tern Bully beef and biscuit were our 4iet. Naturally, by contagion, assisted by privation undermining constitutions, sickness developed quickly. At Damascus our list was full. High temperatures were ordinary. Daily reports of deaths were received, The pity of it. Practically all are those who have been doing their bit since the beginning of the duration'-—1914 year men—men who survived more than three years of de-

sorts battles and Palestine mountain campaign. . The luck of the old stager—the “sticker.” None begrudge “killed in action,” but tp die in the closing days of the war of sickness and neglect. It makes one weep.

The-journey but' of Damascus' was a particularly poisonous one. We came xip narrow defile, l ? of enclosed smellls and vapours and foul atmosphere. Here Turk convoys and) regiments had been, trapped. Bombed and 1 machine-gunned dead everywhere. Stenches leapt at one. No escape possible from the poison. Dead bodies protrude from th# waters streams rushing down from the mountains to supply the water supply of Damascus. All day we plodded oi» to accompaniment of sickening sights and smells id el Hame. Here,, as night fell, a heavy downpour of rain drenched the lightly clad soldiers. They were clad in summer clothes of drill texture, without overcoats, no oilsheets 1 , the flimsiest armour only against elements, a necessity of our campaign of fast travelling and the lightest burdens. Nextday Khan Mezebun gave us another downpour (not expected, ordinarily for a month). The rough hospitals became crowded. I was glad to reach Bar Elias, near Zahle, in Plain of Bnkaa with my brigade. Here 25 per cent (exact figures) of the men were so sick and had such high temperatures _ they could simply He down in rough bivouacs in the plantations of the Jesuit Colony. The sole remaining doctor in the Cavalry Brigade was worked to death. W<i attended our own men and. dosed them with quinine. As the sick improved others went’ sick. The totals never lessened. Fifty per cent of officers were in hospitals and being the eurvivor of my unit I had of. necessity to keep going when I myself became infected. We managed to get moving again by tieing the spare horses to the guns and vehicles. We could not have three drivers for each gun team, but "managed with a lead and a wheel driver. So ■we progressed hoping ' for reinforcements ■ to overtake us. At' Baalbek the ’flu again attacked! me, but I feel much better. X cannot say I am yet free, because so many have had. relapses. It is hard to tell when a patient has ’flu or malaria. Pneumonia, and diphtheria, and other diseases are sometimes overlooked amongst the many, 1 The combination of several is ; possible. Still we are deter: mined ■ even if delayed to push op and win. 'Our reduced numbers are keen.

WONDERFUL FEATS OF HORSES.

Now, the strange ,part is that we had been prepared for a very,, high rate of .loss of horses, and it has been, nothing. They have done so well, and the losses are so few that it is a drawback. We have not sufficient men to look after them. As we commenced by carrying three days rations ox food and forage, and the forage ration was only 9.'b grain daily we expected trouble. But to our surprise we picked, up .a lot. We passed through a graito-grpwing area. At each village the men ran over with bags and collected grain and ■ plenty of tibbin (local chaff), and the horses were really well fed. Further more we did not have much difficuty in keeping the horses well watered. Streams were many and well frequently met. We believe General Alleriby was prepared to sacrifice 60 per cent of the horses. We did) not lose 8 per cent. It was nothing, ' The horses kept going splendidly. ■ At the moment the connecting up of supplies and medical requirements is being effected. We look for the early arrival of more men to help us keep going. Referring to the way the horses stood the strain, I may mention that recently a general (who claimed to be a close student of military history and had been an the Staff of a big Staff College) claimed that we had performed wonderful feats of modern eavalry warfare. So wonderful were they that a daring plan had been brought Ho a more than decisively successful conclusion. 'One lot of horsemen rode 95 miles in tho first 36 hours. Cur division did on an average 83 miles in 33 hours. Most cavalry divisions did 81 mile in 33 hour. Our Hors© Artillery did 85 miles in 33 hours.

What wonderful feats these horses have thus performed only those can judge who have been in similar campaigns Credit wag unstintedly given to the officers and men for the way. they kept their horses going. On occasion, it took hours to draw water for the horses f rom deep wells. Moreover, the way 'the mjen reconnoitred for .forage for their horses was most pleasing. The horses were generally- well fled. The men perhaps isuffered more by comparison. They lived on bully and biscuits and had water; were often in the saddle from 4 a.m. till 8 p.m. all most continuously without hot meals or hot tea. They stuck it well. Tho only time the men really scored was at Damascus. We camped for a couple of days amongst , the most beautiful vinelards in full growth of. luxurious ripe fruit. We spent all our time gorging grapes. We were never tired of picking them. It was a splendid find. Quinces and pomegranate® also abounded. . ~ . This campaign will probably bo one for the text-books. Many lessons are to be learnt. Allenby went in. for daring ' stratgey.- Allenby, took risks, H© demoralised the enemy by his dash. No soldier , fights well when the enemy has got behind him. So with the Turk. He was outgeneralled and the inevitable,- Ho is a great, trench fighter, but driven to the open he was done, Allenby called upon -his cavalry for ;a effort, the cavalry stood to at. Allenby dared, and won.