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

by R. M. P. Preston

THE ADVANCE ON DAMASCUS

As the Turkish VIIth and VIIIth Armies and the 2nd Corps had now been entirely destroyed, and the IVth Army was in full retreat, the Commander-in-Chief determined to push on with his cavalry and seize Damascus.

Apart from the moral effect likely to be produced on the Turks by the capture of this city, its occupation by our troops was a necessary corollary to the co-operation of King Hussein with our army. Damascus is an Arab, and particularly a Bedouin, city. From the time of Mohammed, it has been the focus and centre of Arab political life, constantly both reinforced and kept at the same level of civilisation by intercourse with the tribes of the desert, till to-day they form four-fifths of the total population.

It is an open secret that General Allenby had been urged by the amateur strategists of Downing Street to make a cavalry raid on the city, supported by the forces of the Emir, but he had steadily refused to commit his cavalry to this hazardous enterprise until he had dealt with the Turkish Army. Now, however, the way was clear, and he determined to push on with all speed.

The advance was to be made in two columns. The Australian Mounted Division and the 5th Cavalry Division were ordered to march via Nazareth and Tiberias, crossing the upper Jordan just south of Lake Huleh, and march up the Tiberias-Damascus road, across the Hauran. The 4th Cavalry Division was to cross the Jordan at Jisr Mejamie, north of Beisan, and proceed via Irbid and Deraa Junction, and thence up the Hedjaz Railway, joining hands with the Arab Army about Deraa.

In order to increase to the utmost the mobility of the troops, all transport, even to the regimental water-carts, was left behind. Only the guns and ammunition wagons and a few light motor ambulances per division accompanied the force. The arrangements as to food and forage carried on the man and horse were the same as in the 1917 campaign. When this two days' supply was exhausted, the cavalry were to live on the country. Later on, after the capture of Damascus, and when our line of communications had been organised, tea, milk, and sugar were sent up by lorry to Damascus, or by sea to Beirût and Tripoli, but, except for this, the Corps subsisted entirety on the local resources of the country from the 25th September till the administration of the conquered territory was finally handed over to the French more than a year later.

The orders for the advance were received on the 25th of September, but certain preliminary movements had taken place on the previous day. Thus the 7th Infantry Division arrived at Jenin on the 24th, preparatory to taking over Afule, Nazareth, and Haifa from the cavalry. The 4th A.L.H. Brigade, with one regiment of the 5th Brigade, left Afule on the evening of the same day to march via Beisan to the village of Semakh, at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. The enemy had a small force here, engaged in evacuating the considerable quantities of stores at Deraa. These were sent by rail to Semakh, and thence by boat to Tiberias, where lorry columns awaited them, and shipped them on to Damascus along the Hauran road. The Central India Horse (10th Brigade), who had relieved the 19th Lancers at Jisr Mejamie on the 23rd, had reconnoitred the village on the following day, and found it strongly held. The 4th A.L.H. Brigade was ordered to capture the place, and then rejoin the Australian Division at Tiberias.

On the 25th of September the 4th Cavalry Division concentrated at Beisan, with the 10th Brigade at Jisr Mejamie. The Australian Mounted Division, less the 4th Brigade, left Afule early in the afternoon, and had concentrated at Kefr Kenna, some five miles east of Nazareth, about ten o'clock that night. A regiment of the 3rd A.L.H. Brigade, supported by two armoured cars, was sent ahead along the Tiberias road to reconnoitre the town. The 5th Cavalry Division, which was not relieved at Haifa by the infantry till early the next morning, left that place at once, and reached Kefr Kenna about five in the evening.

The 4th A.L.H. Brigade, having bivouacked at Jisr Mejamie on the night of the 24th, approached Semakh just at daylight on the following day. At half-past four the advance guard, consisting of the 11th Regiment and the brigade machine-gun squadron, came under heavy machine-gun and rifle fire from the railway station. Patrols from the regiment located the enemy holding an entrenched position south of the village (which lies on a bare, flat plain), with posts extending across this plain to the hills on either side.

General Grant decided to attack at once, and ordered the remainder of his brigade to close up. The machine guns and one squadron of the 11th Regiment at once came into action south of the town, and opened a hot fire on the enemy positions, particularly on a sort of fort that had been built by the Germans out of railway material. The other two squadrons of the 11th charged from the east, one on each side of the railway. The charge was driven home, over the enemy positions and into the village, where the Australians dismounted, and went in with the bayonet.