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

by R. M. P. Preston

The fighting continued day and night during the 4th and 5th. As the time passed, and our preparations for the main attack neared completion, the enemy, who must by this time have realised our intention, flung his reserves more and more recklessly against our weak right flank, in a desperate endeavour to drive it in. He completely failed in his effort, and our troops, after three days and nights of incessant fighting, short of food and water, and, at one time, perilously short of ammunition, not only held their own, but drove back the Turks inch by inch, and at last, on the morning of November 6th, the 53rd Division captured the ridge of Tel Khuweilfeh. One magnificent counter-attack the enemy made, which drove our men off the ridge again, but it was a last despairing effort. His exhausted troops were quickly dislodged from the position, and the ridge remained in our hands.

The fine fighting and grim endurance of the 53rd and the Anzac Mounted Divisions during these three days played a vital part in the success of the subsequent operations, by engaging the enemy's principal reserves and defeating his counterstroke, thus permitting our concentration for the main attack to proceed unhindered. The cavalry had an especially hard time. The country was quite unsuited for mounted work, and so all their fighting was done on foot. But it was necessary to keep their horses always near them in order to be in a position to pursue the enemy at once, should he give way and endeavour to withdraw. Water was very scarce, and the few known wells were quite inadequate for the requirements of the division.

When our troops had first entered this region there were a number of pools in the wadis, left by the thunderstorm which had broken a few days before the operations began, but these rapidly dried up, and, by the morning of the 5th of November, had finally given out. The horses then had to be sent back to Beersheba to water. From the Dhahariyeh area to Beersheba and back again is twenty-eight miles, and a record of the movements between these two places from the 3rd to the 6th of November will give some idea of the extra work entailed on horses and men by the lack of water.

On the 3rd of November the 1st Brigade was relieved by the 5th, and marched back to Beersheba to water, their horses having then been thirty hours without a drink. On the 4th the New Zealanders relieved the 5th Brigade at Ras el Nukb for the same purpose. This brigade had also been thirty hours without water. On the 5th the New Zealanders remained at Ras el Nukb, since there was no brigade available to relieve them, but sent all their horses back to Beersheba during the night. They had then been unwatered for forty-eight hours. On the 6th it was the turn of the 2nd Brigade to make the weary pilgrimage to Abraham's Well.

Thus the horses of each of these brigades had only one really good drink during the four days they were in this area. Some of them, it is true, picked up a little water here and there, generally at night. Indeed many units of the division spent every night in a search for water that too often proved fruitless, and only added to the fatigue of men and horses. The 7th Brigade found enough water on the east of the line to eke out a bare existence for its horses.

During all this period the cavalry were continually engaged with the enemy, and some of the fighting was severe. The Turks assaulted Ras el Nukb repeatedly on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of November. This hill was held in turn by the 7th Brigade, which had captured it in the first instance, the 1st, 5th and New Zealand Brigades, and each of these had to withstand one or more attacks.

By the evening of the 5th of November the 20th Corps was in readiness for the assault on the Sharia-Hareira positions, which was to complete the defeat of the Turks.

The situation was now slightly different from what had been expected. The action of the enemy in counter-attacking against our right flank had resulted in prolonging his line to the east. The coming operations, therefore, consisted in an attempt to pierce his line at Sharia, instead of an attack against his left flank, as had been anticipated. In order to secure the troops engaged in this attempt from molestation by the considerable body of enemy about El Dhahariyeh, a force, known as Barrow's Detachment,[9] was formed to protect our right flank. This force consisted of the 53rd Division, the New Zealand Mounted Brigade, and the Camel Corps Brigade, with the Yeomanry Division, which crossed over to the right of our line on the night of the 4th to join the detachment. All the horses of this division had to be sent back to Beersheba, fifteen miles away, to water. The Australian Mounted Division had left Beersheba on the 4th, having nearly exhausted all the water there, and moved to Karm, taking up a line of observation from the Wadi Hanafish to Hiseia.

There was now a gap some twelve miles wide between the 21st Corps at Gaza and the 20th Corps opposite Sharia, and it was possible, though not very probable, that the enemy might attempt to throw his cavalry through this gap in an endeavour to raid our communications. It was part of the task of the Australian Mounted Division to frustrate any such attempt.

At dawn on the 6th November the 10th, 60th, and 74th Divisions attacked the south-eastern portion of the Hareira defences, known as the Kauwukah and Rushdi systems. The 74th, after some of the hardest fighting of a day of hard fighting, succeeded in capturing all its objectives by half-past one. The 10th and 60th Divisions, which were attacking on the left of the 74th, had farther to go, and the heavy wire of the main Kauwukah position had to be methodically cut before the attack could be launched. To reach its objectives, the 10th (Irish) Division had to cross a perfectly flat, open plain, two miles wide, which was swept from end to end by the fire of enemy guns of all calibres, and by machine guns and rifles. The advance of this grand division, marching across the fire-swept plain as steadily as though on parade, was a sight that will never be forgotten by those who were privileged to see it.