The following day the 4th Cavalry Division continued its 'mopping up' operations in the Jordan Valley.
Early in the morning an observation post of the London Yeomanry, who were on outpost duty, observed a large force of the enemy making for the ford of El Masudi. A squadron at once galloped for the ford, but the enemy got there first, and held it up. Another squadron, coming up in support, several times charged the Turks debouching from the hills, and captured a large number of them. The Yeomen had the greatest difficulty in dealing with their prisoners, who, after surrendering and throwing down their rifles when charged, repeatedly picked them up again, and went on fighting.
The Hants Battery now came up, and got into action at close range against the enemy holding the ford. Its rapid and accurate fire completely disconcerted the demoralised Turks, and the 29th Lancers took prompt advantage of the fact to charge them. The enemy, worn out and dispirited, made but a poor fight of it, and the action was soon over. 4000 Turks, including Rushdi Bey, Commander of the 16th Division, were taken prisoner, and another 1000 were rounded up later on in the course of the day. Very few escaped.
The horses of the 11th Brigade were now in a very exhausted condition, and the ammunition of the battery was running low. General Barrow, therefore, ordered the Brigadier only to continue his southward movement as far as Ras Umm Zoka and the Wadi Kafrinji, sending patrols along the Jordan, to gain touch with Chaytor's Force.
This action completed the destruction of the VIIth and VIIIth Turkish Armies. A few stragglers escaped across the river, to wander miserably in the barren, waterless country to the east, at the mercy of hostile Arabs. With the exception of these, the entire enemy force west of the Jordan had been captured or killed, and all its guns, transport, and stores had fallen into our hands.
The IVth Army, east of Jordan, and the 2nd Corps (Hedjaz Force) about Maan, remained to be dealt with. Both these forces were in full retreat to the north, the former pursued by Chaytor's Force and the northern portion of the Arab Army, the latter harried by the southern detachment of the Arabs. As the Hedjaz Railway had been cut at Deraa, no supplies could reach these enemy forces, and they had to depend for their food on a sparsely populated country, already almost denuded of supplies by Turkish requisitions, and inhabited by bitterly hostile tribes.