The 2nd Lancers were leading, accompanied by the armoured cars. Taking in the situation at a glance, Captain Davison, commanding the regiment, ordered the cars to engage the enemy in front with their machine guns, supported by one squadron of his regiment. Taking the other two squadrons with him, he galloped along a slight depression to the right, and charged the Turks on their left flank. The two squadrons went right through the enemy from left to right, killing forty-six with the lance. The survivors of the battalion, about 500 in all, were taken prisoners. The Turks fought well, firing steadily till they were ridden down, but the rapid work of the cavalry gave them no chance. The whole action did not take more than five minutes, and furnished a perfect little example of sound shock tactics—movement and fire at right angles to one another.
Had our cavalry been a few hours later, this battalion would have been at the defile at the top of the pass, and might have caused a delay that would have been fatal to the success of the operations. The battalion came from Afule, and had been ordered to cross the mountains and move down the coast to the support of the enemy right wing. The Turks knew that their line had been broken on the coast, but they had absolutely no idea that our cavalry were through the gap.
Without a pause the 12th Brigade poured out of the pass and cantered across the plain towards Afule. The leading troops charged into the station at eight o'clock, capturing the place with little opposition. A squadron from the 14th Brigade (4th Division) rode in from the north about the same time. The garrison of the place having just been disposed of at Lejjun, few enemy troops were found here, but the Germans had an aerodrome close to the station, and this was captured intact, with three aeroplanes and their pilots and all the mechanical staff. A fourth aeroplane succeeded in getting away in the general confusion. So unconscious was the enemy of the fact that our cavalry were on the plain, that, shortly after this, an enemy aeroplane, returning from a reconnaissance, actually landed on this aerodrome, and was promptly captured intact with its pilot and observer!
Afule proved a valuable prize. In addition to ten locomotives and fifty railway trucks, which were found standing in the station, there was a fully equipped hospital, with a quantity of excellent drugs. One of the most valuable finds was a great store of petrol, which was discovered in an underground cave.
While the 12th Brigade was 'mopping up,' the armoured cars were having the time of their lives chasing twelve German motor lorries down the track leading to Beisan. They captured them all, and brought the drivers back to the station. Unfortunately no men could be spared to guard these lorries, and, when the 5th Division arrived shortly afterwards, and tried to drive them back to the station, it was found that the natives had been there in the meantime, and cut open every petrol tank to get the spirit. They were afterwards repaired, however, and did good service for us later on.
Having sent the prisoners back to Lejjun under a small escort, the 4th Division pressed on towards Beisan, after cutting the railway east, west, and south of Afule.
Riding fast all day down the Valley of Jezreel, the division reached Beisan about half-past four in the afternoon, having rounded up another 800 prisoners on the way. The Lancers made short work of the small garrison they met with here, galloping over the Turks, and taking 100 prisoners and three 5·9-inch howitzers. These guns were in position to defend the town against an attack from the east, an eloquent testimony to the manner in which the enemy had been deceived. Our troops then occupied the bridge over the Jordan at Jisr el Sheikh Hussein, and placed outposts south and east of Beisan.
The division had now marched eighty-five miles in thirty-four hours, fought two skirmishes, and captured 1400 prisoners, but its day's work was not yet quite finished. At six in the evening, after having watered and fed, the 19th Lancers (12th Brigade) set out in the dark, along a difficult mountain track west of the railway, to Jisr Mejamie, the railway bridge over the Jordan, twelve miles north of Beisan. This they reached and seized at dawn next morning, having covered ninety-seven miles since the commencement of their march.
The Australians, who had left the Nahr Iskanderuneh at one o'clock in the morning, reached Kerkur and Beidus just after dawn, and thus made the crossing of the Carmel Range in daylight. They were rewarded by the magnificent view from the top of the pass, across the Plain of Esdraelon to Mount Tabor and Nazareth, and over the Nazarene hills to the great mass of Mount Hermon, poised against the sky sixty miles to the north-east. Scattered along the track were a number of derelict Turkish transport wagons, which had been abandoned as they were being driven over the pass, when the 4th Division came upon them in the dark. Many of the Turks who had accompanied these wagons, came back to the track after daylight, preferring capture by the British to facing the tender mercies of their inveterate enemies, the local Arabs. In this way the division had collected about 100 stragglers by the time it reached Lejjun. Near the top of the pass a large gang of natives was discovered at work on an excellently graded road, which was being built to the village of Umm el Fahm. It appeared that the Germans had intended to build a sanatorium there, in connection with their hospitals at Afule and Jenin. The natives employed making the road had gone to work as usual that morning, all unaware that the Germans and Turks were no longer masters in the land. When they learned the true state of affairs, their first thought was for their wages, which had not been paid, and they were not at all grateful to us for having driven their paymasters out of the country!