"(Signed) Wilhelm."
One by one the kings, grand dukes, dukes, and princes of the various German states abdicated and, finally, the last autocratic monarchies of the western world had disappeared.
CHAPTER XII
THE LIBERATION OF THE HOLY LAND—MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN
Jerusalem surrendered, it will be recalled, to General Allenby, commander in chief of the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force, on December 9, 1917. Two days later he entered, at the head of his victorious army, the Holy City, at last again in the hands of Christendom. From then on the British advance continued steadily, even if slowly, toward the north across the whole breadth of Palestine. Jericho fell on February 21, 1918. There was much fighting during March and April, 1918, but after that a period of comparative inactivity set in which was utilized by the British to repair the damages which war had wrought in the Holy Land and to carry through sanitary and administrative reforms which laid a sound foundation for bringing back some of the glory of past centuries. Not until September, 1918, did any military operations of importance occur. Then, however, a new British offensive set in, described in the following pages, which was to drive the Turks forever out of Palestine, Syria, and Arabia.
Much the same story is to be told about the British operations in Mesopotamia, along the Tigris and Euphrates. There, it will be remembered, General Maude had captured Bagdad, the ancient capital of the Caliphs, on March 11, 1917, and had then followed up his success by a steady advance in a northwesterly direction until he fell a victim to cholera on November 19, 1917. He had been succeeded in the command in chief of the Indian Expeditionary Force by General Marshall, who, with the same tenacity as his lamented predecessor and as his companion in arms in Palestine, continued to push the British advance during the balance of 1917 and the first half of 1918. The ancient city of Hit was captured in March, 1918, and from then on the Turks were driven back without let-up.
A considerable share of the victory in Palestine was due to the Arabs who had rebelled against the Turk and, under the king of the Hedjaz, had allied themselves with the British. As early as February, 1918, the Arab and British fronts had been joined at the Dead Sea, and from then on had cooperated in the closest possible manner against the common enemy whom even German support was to avail nothing.
During the early summer of 1918, comparative inactivity ruled along the Palestine front. In August, 1918, only a few minor operations were reported. Thus, on the morning of August 8, 1918, an extensive bombing raid was carried out by Royal Air Force and Australian units against the Turkish camps and establishments in the vicinity of Amman railway station, on the Hedjaz Railway, twenty-five miles east of the Jericho bridgehead.
On the same day Imperial Camel troops, cooperating with the Arab forces of the king of the Hedjaz, seized Mudawara railway station on the Hedjaz Railway, sixty-five miles south of Maan, killing thirty-five and capturing 120 of the enemy, with two guns and three machine guns.
During the night of August 12, 1918, British troops carried out a series of successful raids at various points on a frontage of ten miles astride the Jerusalem-Nablus (Shechem) road, killing some 200 of the enemy and capturing seventeen Turkish officers and 230 of other ranks, with fifteen machine guns.