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The men of units forming the XXth Corps were deeply gratified to receive this commendation from their gallant Corps Commander:
SPECIAL ORDER OF THE DAY
BY
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR PHILIP W. CHETWODE, BT.,
K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O., commanding XXth Corps
HEADQUARTERS, XXTH CORPS,
13th December 1917.
Now that the efforts of General Sir E.H.H. Allenby's Army have been crowned by the capture of Jerusalem, I wish to express to all ranks, services, and departments of the XXth Army Corps my personal thanks and my admiration for the soldierly qualities they have displayed.
I have served as a regimental officer in two campaigns, and no one knows better than I do what the shortness of food, the fatigue of operating among high mountains, and the cold and wet has meant to the fighting troops. But in spite of it all, and at the moment when the weather was at its worst, they responded to my call and drove the enemy in one rush through his last defences and beyond Jerusalem.
A fine performance, and I am intensely proud of having had the honour of commanding such a body of men.
I wish to give special praise to the Divisional Ammunition Columns, Divisional Trains A.S.C., Supply Services, Mechanical Transport personnel, Camel Transport personnel, and to the Royal Army Medical Corps and all services whose continuous labour, day and night, almost without rest, alone enabled the fighting troops to do what they did.