The last lap of the race to Damascus. Orders of the Cavalry Corps. A fight in the darkness. The action of Kaukab. 5th A.L.H. Brigade closes the Beirût road. Our two columns meet at Damascus. End of the Turkish IVth Army. Capture of the city with 12,000 prisoners. Terrible condition of the enemy troops. A record charge by Australian cavalry. Disorders in Damascus 266
Decision to advance to Rayak and Beirût. Sickness in the Corps. Occupation of Homs and Tripoli. 5th Cavalry Division ordered to advance to Aleppo. A hunt by the armoured cars. A piece of bluff. Fall of Aleppo. The last of the Turkish army. The Armistice. Captures of the Desert Mounted Corps 282
Police work. The Desert Mounted Corps administers a country larger than Scotland. Condition of the country after the Armistice. Pax Britannica. Co-operation of the Arabs. Work of the Armenian Reparations Committee. Character of the Armenians. A gamble in exchange. Sport and games. End of the Desert Mounted Corps. Northern Syria handed over to the French 295
APPENDIX I: (_a_) The Desert Mounted Corps 331
APPENDIX II: Note on the Arab Movement 337
APPENDIX III: Terms of Turkish Armistice 342
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR H.G. CHAUVEL, K.C.B., K.C.M.G. _Frontispiece_
READING BRITISH PROCLAMATION IN JERUSALEM 120
AN ACCOUNT OF THE CAVALRY OPERATIONS IN PALESTINE AND SYRIA, 1917-1918
When General Allenby arrived in Egypt in June 1917, and assumed command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, British prestige in the East was at a very low ebb. The evacuation of Gallipoli in December 1915, followed by the fall of Kut el Amara four months later, and by our two unsuccessful attacks on Gaza in the spring of the following year, had invested the Turkish arms with a legend of invincibility which was spreading rapidly in all Moslem countries. For the first time in seven centuries, sang the journalistic bards of Stamboul, the followers of Islam had triumphed over the Infidel; Allah was leading the Faithful to victory; the Empire of the Moslems was at hand.
The fall of Baghdad in March 1917 somewhat dashed these high hopes, it is true. But the Germans, to whom the city was, at the moment, of no more importance than any other dirty Eastern village, had little difficulty in persuading the Turks that its loss was a mere incident in the world war, which would be more than made good in the final, and glorious, peace terms. Nevertheless, the Turks insisted on making an effort to recapture the place, and for this purpose a special, picked force, known as the _Yilderim_, or Lightning, Army Group, was in process of formation in northern Syria at this time. The command of this group had been entrusted to the redoubtable von Falkenhayn, who was at Aleppo, directing the training and organisation of the troops.