On the arrival of the rest of the brigade, the 4th Regiment was sent in mounted on the west. After charging into the town, these troops also dismounted, and continued the fight on foot.
The enemy, stiffened by the large number of German troops, resisted desperately, and some of the fiercest hand-to-hand fighting of the campaign took place in this village. We learnt afterwards that Liman von Sanders had paid a hurried visit to the place in a car, after flying from Nazareth, and had given orders that it was to be held to the last man, so as to clear the ammunition and stores from Deraa for the defence of Damascus.
Gradually the defenders were driven back through the narrow streets of the village, till only the railway 'fort' still held out. This was garrisoned chiefly by Germans, who had a number of machine guns covering all approaches. One of these guns was located in a railway culvert, and, as a troop of the 12th Regiment was working towards it, the crew suddenly stood up and held up their hands, shouting out: 'We surrender!' Being unaccustomed to the ways of the Hun, our men got up and walked towards the gun in the open. When they were about fifty yards away, the crew dropped to their knees, at a given signal, and opened a murderous fire on our men, killing or wounding nearly all of them. The few who escaped worked round to the other side of the railway, and, crawling through the culvert, fell upon the treacherous crew from behind, and killed them all.
About the same time, another troop of the same regiment encountered a German machine gun in charge of an officer. As our men approached, the officer stood up and waved a white handkerchief, whereupon the subaltern in command of the troop went up to him unsuspectingly. When he was about two paces away, the German pulled out his automatic and deliberately shot the unfortunate officer dead.
These two pieces of treachery met with a just retribution. The enraged Australians stormed into the fort, deaf now to all offers of surrender, and bayoneted the defenders almost to a man. About 150 Germans and several hundred Turkish prisoners were taken in the action, and some 200 corpses, mostly those of Germans, were left on the position to be looted by the natives. None of our men would put spade to the ground to bury them.
Two motor boats were lying at the pier when our troops attacked. One of these succeeded in escaping to Tiberias, where it was abandoned by the crew, and burnt. The other was set on fire by Hotchkiss rifle fire, and blew up.
As soon as the action was over, a squadron from the brigade was sent forward along the lake road towards Tiberias. This squadron gained touch with the regiment of the Australian Division advancing from Nazareth, and the two detachments captured Tiberias, which was lightly held, before dark, with about 120 prisoners.
The operations now resolved themselves into a race for Damascus between our cavalry and the Turkish IVth Army. The country about ten miles south of Damascus is favourable for defence against a force advancing from that direction, and the enemy command hoped, if the IVth Army could reach this position first, to be able to delay our troops long enough for help to arrive from Aleppo, and thus save Damascus.
The survivors of the German G.H.Q. troops and garrison of Nazareth had retired, via Tiberias, to the Jordan at Jisr Benat Yakub, just south of Lake Huleh. Crossing the river here, they blew up the bridge behind them, and took up a strong position on the east bank, overlooking the only known fords. They were joined, on the morning of the 26th, by a few hundred Turkish troops who had been hurriedly collected in Damascus, and sent down in motor lorries across the Hauran. If this force could hold the crossing for twenty-four hours, there was a chance of the Turks winning the race to Damascus.
The Australian Mounted Division left Kefr Kenna at midnight on the 25th, and, marching all night, reached the hill of Tel Madh, overlooking Tiberias, at dawn. Continuing the march, after a short halt to water and feed, the division arrived at El Mejdel, on the lake shore four miles north of Tiberias, in the early afternoon. In order to give time for the 5th Division to close up, and for the 4th A.L.H. Brigade to rejoin from Semakh, the Australians bivouacked here for the night. Patrols were sent forward as far as Jisr Benat Yakub, and the rest of the men spent the afternoon bathing in the lake.