The Turks at Irbid had been retreating rapidly for three days, harassed by the Arabs, and their morale was not high. But they had not, as yet, suffered any severe defeat, and they were in considerably better case than the miserable remnants of the VIIth and VIIIth Armies, with which our cavalry had been engaged since the 20th of September. This fact would seem to have been overlooked by the 2nd Lancers. Moreover the enemy was in considerable strength. Natives reported on the following day that there had been not less than 5000 Turks at Irbid. This was manifestly an exaggeration, but the mere mention of such a number indicated that there had been, at any rate, a large body of them there. The failure of the charge taught a lesson that is liable to be forgotten by cavalry when pursuing a broken and demoralised foe; namely, that, for a small body of horse to charge an enemy force of unknown strength, without previous reconnaissance of the ground, and without any fire support, is to court disaster.
The rest of the regiment continued to work gradually round the enemy's right flank. Nightfall found them some distance to the north-east of the village, where they put out pickets and remained during the night.
Meanwhile the Central India Horse, advancing more warily, occupied Zebda, after some sharp fighting, and then attempted to penetrate Irbid dismounted from the south-west. The attack was driven back by the enemy with some loss, and the regiment took up a position south of the village, and engaged the Turks with machine-gun and rifle fire. One squadron continued to work eastwards, and, by the time darkness descended, had nearly reached the Deraa road. This squadron formed a defensive post near the road, and stood to till daylight.
The 12th Brigade spent the night at El Shuni, on the Wadi el Arab, six miles east of the Jordan, and the rest of the division at Jisr Mejamie.
From the summit of the ridge near Beit Ras, just before sunset, our troops had seen the Arab Army, twenty miles away, on the far side of Deraa. After their raids on the railway at this place, between the 16th and 18th of September, the Arabs had moved east into the wild fastnesses of the Hauran. From here they had made several raids on the IVth Army, harassing the Turks' right flank, and forcing them to abandon much of their transport and artillery. On the day and night of the 26th, the Arab camelry, led by Lawrence, pushed rapidly northwards, cutting the railway at Ghazale and Ezra, ten and twenty miles north of Deraa, and reached Sheikh Saad, fifteen miles west of Ezra, on the morning of the 27th. Here they engaged and defeated an advanced detachment of the IVth Army, capturing 500 Turks and a number of German officers, and then entrenched themselves astride the Damascus road to await the coming of the remainder of the army.
At daylight on the 27th, Irbid was found to have been evacuated during the night. The 10th Brigade at once pushed on towards El Remte, with the Dorset Yeomanry as advance guard. At half-past ten, patrols from this regiment encountered the enemy in position astride the road, just west of El Remte. The position was not so strong as that at Irbid, and the country was more open.
A quarter of an hour later, the Dorsets reported the enemy to be retiring from the position to the south-east. The Brigadier directed the regiment to occupy the ridges on the left bank of the Wadi Ratam, overlooking the village from the south-west, and to make a demonstration against the enemy, in order to cover the assembly of the remainder of the brigade, which was to advance under cover of the high ground immediately north of El Remte, and cut off the enemy's retreat to Deraa. The Berks Battery came into action west of the village, to support this move, and to take advantage of such targets as offered.
While these movements were taking place, the Yeomanry were heavily counter-attacked by the enemy troops that they had supposed to be retiring. The attack was pressed vigorously, and the Dorsets were forced back some distance. A signal message was sent to brigade headquarters asking for assistance, but, before the message could be acted upon, Lieutenant Mason, skilfully withdrawing his squadron in the advanced firing line, mounted it, and charged the counter-attack. The Turks were utterly surprised by this sudden charge. A number of them were killed with the sword, and the rest driven back in confusion into the village. The Dorsets then continued to work round to the south, but were held up shortly afterwards by heavy machine-gun fire from a fortified stone house.
Just at this moment, a body of enemy cavalry was observed galloping away from the village to the east. The Yeomanry were unable to pursue them, but they were effectively shelled by the Berks Battery, and dispersed.
The Central India Horse had by now reached a point north-east of the village, from where they espied the Turkish infantry retiring in some disorder. Charging instantly, they went through the Turks, killing many with the lance, and rounding up 200 prisoners. This charge completed the rout of the enemy force, the survivors of which scattered in all directions.