The Desert Mounted Corps / An Account of the Cavalry Operations in Palestine and Syria 1917-1918

by R. M. P. Preston

The brigade proceeded along the road, and, about eleven o'clock, two squadrons of the Jodhpur Lancers, who were acting as advanced guard, topped the ridge overlooking the village of Haritan from the south-east, and about a mile and a half distant. They immediately came under heavy rifle fire from the village, and took up a dismounted position on the ridge.

Rightly deeming that instant action was all important, and relying on the information he had received as to the strength and composition of the enemy force in front of him, General Harbord decided to attack at once. He ordered the Mysore Lancers to move out to the east, and endeavour to charge the enemy on his left flank. Two squadrons of the Jodhpur Lancers were directed to move in support of the Mysores, as a 'mopping up' party, while the remainder of this regiment, with the machine gun squadron, held the Turks in front, with fire directed from the ridge on which the advance guard had first taken up its position.

Just after the Mysore Lancers commenced their move eastwards, General Harbord was reinforced by a battery of armoured cars, which had been sent out from Aleppo to join him. He directed these cars to approach the enemy positions along the road, and assist the attack with their machine-gun fire. Unfortunately something went wrong with the battery leader's car, and it was withdrawn and driven back to Aleppo. The remaining three cars, through some misunderstanding, followed it, and the brigade was thus deprived of their support.

Meanwhile the Mysore Lancers, finding that the enemy's position extended farther than was expected, moved more to the east to gain the flank. At twelve o'clock, Major Lambert, finding himself in a favourable position, ordered a charge. The ground was rather rocky, and gave some trouble to the horses, but the charge was driven well home, and a considerable number of the enemy was killed. The Turks, however, were to be found in much greater strength than had been expected, and, after driving through their flank, the Lancers were heavily fired on by Turks farther west. Many of those who had been ridden over, and had thrown down their arms, now picked them up again, and continued the fight. Seeing that his regiment had not sufficient weight to charge through the large body of Turks farther west, Major Lambert rallied his squadrons behind the Turkish line, and took up a dismounted position on the left rear of the enemy, where the two squadrons of the Jodhpur Lancers joined him.

The charge had compelled the Turks to reveal their full strength, which turned out to be about 3000 infantry and 400 cavalry, with ten or twelve guns and about thirty-five machine guns. Seeing the smallness of the force opposed to them, they now advanced boldly to the attack, but, when about 800 yards away, thought better of it, and began to dig themselves in.

The 15th Brigade remained in observation of the Turks, and desultory firing continued till about nine o'clock at night, when the enemy faded gradually and silently away. Two hours later the 14th Cavalry Brigade, which had reached Aleppo with Column 'B' late in the evening, arrived on the scene, and relieved the 15th Brigade. The casualties in the latter brigade totalled sixty-three killed, wounded, and missing, which comparatively light bill might have been very much heavier had the Turks showed any real disposition to fight. They outnumbered our men by at least seven to one, and were well supplied with artillery and machine guns, but their morale had sunk so low that it was only surprising that they did not all surrender, or break into helpless flight, when charged. We learnt afterwards that the Turkish Commander in Aleppo had been completely deceived by General MacAndrew, whose boldness in detaching the whole of his cavalry to cut the Alexandretta road led him to believe that we had a much larger force at our disposal than was actually the case.

On the 28th the Arab forces seized Muslimie Junction, on the Baghdad Railway twelve miles north of Aleppo, dislodging a small Turkish rearguard there, and this inglorious little action ended the war for Turkey. The few surviving Turks retired rapidly in the general direction of Constantinople, and that was the last seen of their army. The Armistice[27] came into operation at noon on the 31st of October.

In the thirty-eight days since the commencement of the operations, the 5th Cavalry Division had marched 567 miles, fought six actions, and taken over 11,000 prisoners and fifty-eight guns. The total captures of the Desert Mounted Corps in the same period were 83,700 prisoners and about 160 guns.

The Australian Mounted Division left Damascus on October the 27th to march to Aleppo, a distance of rather over 200 miles. Marching by the direct road to Homs, which runs almost due north from Damascus, the division reached the small village of Jendar, eighteen miles south of Homs, at nine o'clock on the night of the 31st. Here the news of the Armistice was received by wireless, but, as there was no water available in the neighbourhood, the Australians continued the march the same night, and arrived at Homs at eight o'clock on the morning of the 1st of November. Three days later they moved down to Tripoli, on the coast, where they remained until sent to Egypt, en route for Australia, at the end of February 1919.

The Commander-in-Chief made his official entry into Aleppo on the 12th of December. As at Damascus, we had installed an Arab Governor here, but, in view of the disorders that had occurred at the former place, his powers were restricted to giving advice, and the whole of the policing of the city was in the hands of our troops. The 'Chief' took the occasion to give him some good advice, couched in the vigorous language for which he was famous.