'A' Battery H.A.C. and the Notts Battery R.H.A., which were marching near the head of the advance guard, came into action at once, and opened a rapid and effective fire on the enemy position. After a few minutes' bombardment, the 4th A.L.H. Regiment was launched at the village of Kaukab, and the 12th at a spur of the Jebel el Aswad, against the enemy's left flank. The going here was good, and the cavalry were able to gallop right on to the position, which they proceeded to do, covered by the fire of the guns. The combination of gun fire and charging cavalry was too much for the shattered nerves of the Turks, who broke and fled, pursued by the Australians. The whole force was killed or captured.
The 5th Brigade now took the lead, and rode hard up the road towards Damascus, followed by the 3rd Brigade, which had rejoined from Sasa just after the action. The leading troops came under fire from the houses and gardens of the suburb of El Mezze. The Notts Battery came into action, and shelled the enemy satisfactorily, while the 5th Brigade plunged into the maze of hills north of the road, and made for the Beirût road. Seeing their right threatened, the Turks retired into the town, and the 3rd Brigade was free to move on. Patrols from this brigade then found that it was impossible to reach the Homs road, except by going right through the town, as the river Barada, running between rock cliffs, barred their path farther west. As the orders against entering the town were peremptory, there was nothing to be done but send back word of the state of affairs, and wait for permission to advance. This permission was not received till late at night, when it was impossible for the brigade to make its way through the narrow, tortuous streets of the town, which was still full of enemy troops.
Meanwhile the 5th Brigade was encountering great difficulties in the bare, rocky hills west and north of El Mezze, but the advanced troops reached the gorge of the Barada, above El Rabue, about five in the evening. Here they found themselves on the top of a cliff about 200 feet high, overhanging the road and railway to Beirût, and looked down upon an extraordinary sight. The whole of the bottom of the gorge, from side to side, was packed with a struggling mass of fugitives, on horse and afoot, in motors, cabs and carts, surging along like a tidal wave. There was a train on the line, packed with Germans, but it was completely blocked by the mass of people who struggled and fought along the railway, and the engine driver had long since been submerged in the tide of frenzied Turks. Even the river was full of men and horses.
There was no possible way of getting down on to the road from the top of the cliffs, but the fugitives had to be stopped somehow. A few machine guns were brought into action, and ordered to open fire on the head of the column below. General Onslow, who commanded the brigade, told the writer afterwards that he had never given an order with greater reluctance and horror. With a view to minimising the inevitable slaughter, he instructed his machine gunners to concentrate their fire as much as possible on the vehicles at the head of the column, in order to disable them and so block the road. When the firing commenced, the Turks in front tried to turn back towards the city, but the pressure behind them was so great that they were constantly pushed along into the zone of the bullets. At last, however, the growing pile of corpses and broken vehicles at the head of the column completely blocked the gorge, and the Turks realised that their escape was barred. They turned and streamed miserably back towards the city. Part of the crowd was intercepted by troops of the 3rd Brigade, who took about 5000 prisoners. The rest reached the city, and were collected next day. How many perished in the defile will never be known, but it took a large force of German prisoners ten days to dispose of the bodies. It was fitting that they, who by their insane ambition had brought the Turks to this sorry end, should have had the task of burying the victims of their lust for power.
Royal Horse Artillery fording the Jordan at Jisr Benat Yakub.
The Beirût road in the gorge of the River Barada. 1st October, 1918.