The British advance in Mesopotamia and Palestine.
"The first objective was Tell-el-Ful, a high conical-shaped hill just east of the Sheehem road dominating our lines east and west for a considerable distance. During daylight on Boxing Day the Turks made no movement, but just before midnight our post north of El Ful was driven in. At twenty minutes past one a. m. the first attack on El Ful was made, and at the same time an advance began against Beit Hannina, about a mile west of the road. This line was defended by London Territorials, who added to their grand record by meeting attack after attack with magnificent steadiness, standing like rocks against most furious onslaughts, and never once yielding an inch of ground. Two companies defending Hanbna were attacked four times by storming troops. Each attack was stronger than the last, and the fourth was delivered by 500 picked Turks, but all the attacks were beaten back after prolonged hand-to-hand fighting. The enemy dead showed many bayonet wounds, and the hillside was strewn with Turks killed by machine-gun fire. There were eight attacks on Tell-el-Ful. These were also made with great weight and determination. The strongest of them all was delivered with a reenforced line at dawn, and supported by heavy artillery fire. All were defeated with great loss to the enemy.
"Between 7 a. m. and noon the enemy organized for a last big effort, and about half-past 12 the Turks assaulted the whole of the Londoners' line except Nebi Samwil. This final attack was pressed right up to our positions, the enemy fighting with the bravery of desperation. He proved no match for the London Territorials, who, after raking the advancing waves with machine guns, cleared his breastworks at a bound, met the foe with the bayonet, and forced him back.
"General Allenby, realizing how deeply committed the Turks were to the attack on Jerusalem, put in Irish and dismounted Yeomanry against the enemy right. Those who have seen the terrain marvel at the dismounted Yeomanry's and Irishmen's achievement. They moved from Beth Horon Upper northeastward. The Yeomen attacked El Tireh, at the time not strongly held, but just as they secured it a Turkish storming battalion was advancing to the same spot. The enemy, thus forestalled, counterattacked, but the Yeomanry rushed at them and counted seventy Turks killed by the bayonet alone.
"The hill near by was so steep that it took two hours to get supplies up to the top. Another hillside was so precipitous that the only way troops could get up the terraced slopes was by the men standing on each other's shoulders. So nearly perpendicular was the hill that the Turks on the top could not fire on the climbers till they were at close quarters. While the Irish and Yeomen were advancing, men in reserve were making roads for the guns, which had to be hauled by hand, and when Yeomen captured Beitunia they had a whole brigade of guns just behind their front line, though it was sometimes necessary for a whole company of infantry to haul one gun, which at moments was dangling in the air.
"Welsh and Home Counties troops also took part in beating off the attack on Jerusalem. They had taken Zanby and White Hill, north of the Jericho road, and held White Hill against three counterattacks. On the 27th the Turks attacked all day, and White Hill became no-man's-land, but Zanby was held. Fighting was at bombing distance. At dusk the enemy tried to take White Hill, but the Welshmen charged with the bayonet and killed over a hundred Turks. Farther south a post at the village of Obeid was attacked by 700 of the enemy, who surrounded it and fired 400 shells into the monastery, but the Middlesex men, who were the garrison of the post, held out, their casualties being trifling."
Immediately following the defeat which the British inflicted on the Turks, the former succeeded in advancing their lines north of Jerusalem still another mile.
During January, 1918, there was little activity on the Palestine front. In the last week of the month there was, however, considerable aerial activity. On January 22, 1918, the Turkish camps and depots on the railway west of Sebustieh, Samaria, were raided.