[Illustration: _Diagram illustrating the Situation on the 14th November_]
On the 15th the Anzac Mounted Division, moving northwards over the plain, occupied Ramleh without opposition, taking about 350 prisoners, and on the following day the New Zealand Mounted Brigade entered Jaffa, where it was received with acclamation by the populace. On the 17th the division had reached the Nahr el Auja, near its mouth, without having yet succeeded in bringing the enemy to action. Favoured by the hard ground on the plain, and assisted to some extent by the railway along which they were retreating, the Turks made the best use of the nights during this period, and never stopped till they had put the wide and deep channel of the river Auja between themselves and our troops. They were now located, entrenched along the north bank of the river, from near the sea to about Khurbet Hadrah. The Anzac Division received orders to halt opposite this line, and remain in observation of the enemy, pending the arrival of reinforcements, while the more important task of the advance on Jerusalem was taken in hand.
Meanwhile the Yeomanry division was engaged driving the right half of the enemy army into the hills. The road from Jerusalem to Jaffa runs through a deep and narrow valley in the mountains, which has its outlet at Amwas, near Latron. Here the valley opens out into the Vale of Ajalon, which slopes gently down to the level of the coastal plain. Running north and south across the western end of the Vale, a bold ridge stands up sharply from the plain, between the villages of Sidun and Abu Shusheh. The northern end of this ridge terminates at Abu Shusheh, and the southern end at the hill of Tel Jezer, the ancient Gezer, round which so many battles have been fought in the past.
The enemy had posted a strong rearguard on the northern end of the ridge, to cover the retreat of his main body up the Jerusalem road. The Yeomanry Division was ordered to dislodge this rearguard, and then clear up the foothill country from Amwas, at the eastern end of the Vale of Ajalon, to Ramleh.
The enemy's position was one of great natural strength, and was held by a force of about 4000 Turks, well supplied with machine guns and artillery. The greater part of this force was distributed in, and on each side of, the village of Abu Shusheh, but a considerable body of Turks with machine guns was stationed some distance farther south, evidently in order to outflank any attack on the village from the west. The country on that side of the position was of an undulating nature, and afforded some cover to troops advancing over it. The ridge itself rose abruptly from this undulating country, a forbidding-looking mass of boulders and scrub. In places the solid rock outcropped from the hill over large areas, and there were a number of caves among the rocks, in many of which the Turks had posted machine guns.