In the twelve days from the 19th to the 30th of September inclusive, the three cavalry divisions had marched over 200 miles, fought a number of minor actions, and captured more than 60,000 prisoners, 140 guns, and 500 machine guns.
Long marches, especially at night, and half rations during the whole period, had rendered the horses thin and tired, and they were in urgent need of a rest. The men were in considerably worse case. In the course of the operations, the Australian Mounted Division had lain one night beside the Jordan at Jisr Benat Yakub, and the 4th Cavalry Division had spent several nights in the neighbourhood of Beisan. In both places the men were exposed to the attacks of swarms of malaria-bearing mosquitoes. Though the outbreak of malignant malaria, which was the fruit of these nights, did not begin to make its appearance till about the 5th of October, the day on which the advance was resumed, there were many cases of influenza in the Corps, and the hospitals were full of sick men, especially Indians. The 5th Division, which had not been in the mosquito districts, suffered less severely from malaria, and was thus able to continue the advance later on, at a time when the other two divisions were so weakened by the disease as to be almost incapable of moving.
After weighing all the factors of the situation, however, the Commander-in-Chief decided that the advantages to be gained by securing the port of Beirût and the railway to Damascus, justified a farther advance, and he determined to push on with his cavalry at least as far as the Rayak-Beirût line.
The 4th and 5th Cavalry Divisions were detailed for this task, the Australian Division remaining in and around Damascus, to keep order in the city and throughout the surrounding country.
The two divisions started on the morning of the 5th of October. At Khan Meizelun, eighteen miles from Damascus, their roads parted, the 4th Division moving on Zebdani, on the railway between Damascus and Rayak, the 5th making for Rayak by the main road through Shtora. Both objectives were reached without difficulty the following afternoon. In the course of the advance the 14th Brigade entered Zahle, capturing 177 prisoners and a few guns. Thirty burnt aeroplanes were found on the aerodrome at Rayak, and in the station a quantity of rolling stock and a number of engines of both the broad and the narrow gauge. Though damaged, most of these were subsequently repaired and put into use.
On the next day (the 7th) the armoured cars attached to the 5th Cavalry Division made a reconnaissance to Beirût, which they entered without opposition about mid-day. The townspeople received them with acclamation, and showed with pride a party of about 600 Turkish soldiers whom they had collected and disarmed. The 7th Indian Infantry Division, which had left Haifa on October the 3rd, reached Beirût on the 8th, and took over these prisoners.
On the 10th the cars reconnoitred northwards as far as Baalbek, without encountering any of the enemy, and the Commander-in-Chief thereupon decided to make a farther advance as far as Homs.
Unfortunately malaria had by now laid such a hold upon the men of the 4th Division, that the surviving hale scarce sufficed to carry on the ordinary duties of camp, and any further work by this division was out of the question. This left only the 5th Division, itself much reduced in numbers, to carry on the advance.