With the British Army in The Holy Land | Page 9

with and, before the end of January, the railway station at El Arish
was completed; during the following month the railway was pushed
further out along the coast preparatory to another advance.
After the destruction of their post at Rafa, the Turks immediately began
to concentrate their forces near Shellal. West of this place they
prepared a strong defensive position near Weli Sheikh Nuran, with the
object of covering their lines of communication both along the
Beersheba railway and along the Jerusalem-Hebron-Beersheba road.
They also established themselves at Khan Yunus, on the coastal road a
few miles to the east of Rafa. On the 23rd February, a reconnaissance
was carried out against Khan Yunus. The column, arriving at dawn,
found the position strongly held, and, after manoeuvring the enemy out
of his front line of defence and capturing prisoners, withdrew without
difficulty. Continuous pressure maintained by our troops in this
neighbourhood, however, induced the enemy to withdraw the garrison
of Khan Yunus, which place was entered by our cavalry without
opposition on the 28th February. The enemy also evacuated without
firing a shot the position which he had prepared near Weli Sheikh
Nuran.
Our troops had crossed the desert with success attending them at every
stage. And now at last they had set foot in the Promised Land. Many of
them must have felt, what a soldier was afterwards heard to express,
"This may be the land of promise; it's certainly not the land of
fulfilment." History repeats itself. As the Israelites had much trial and
suffering to endure after reaching this stage of their journey from Egypt,
before they were permitted to "go in and possess the land," so had our
lads many a fierce and bloody battle to fight before they, too, might set
foot within the Holy City.
A few words as to personnel may not be out of place before we leave
the subject of this Desert campaign. Throughout this time the
Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force was General
Sir Archibald Murray, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. A reorganization of the force
took place in October, 1917, in consequence of which General Murray

moved his headquarters back from Ismailia to Cairo. At the same time,
the new headquarters of the Eastern Force came into existence at
Ismailia under the command of Lieut.-General Sir Charles Dobell,
K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., under whose direction thus came more
immediately the operations in the eastern desert.
Amongst the troops employed were the Australians and New
Zealanders and several regiments of English Yeomanry, and, included
among the infantry, were the 52nd (Lowland), the 53rd (Welsh and
Home Counties), the 54th (East Anglian) and the 74th (Dismounted
Yeomanry) Divisions.
This review of the advance across the desert has of necessity been
superficial. Strictly speaking, the Desert campaign is outside the scope
of this book. But a summarized history of the advance forms a
necessary introduction to our subject. Here, on the threshold of
Palestine, we must leave this army for a short space, while we review
some other operations, and while we take a glance at the nature of the
country in which this army was about to operate.
CHAPTER III
MESOPOTAMIA, THE CAUCASUS, AND THE HEJAZ
Having taken a hurried glance at the campaign in Sinai, which directly
led up to that in Palestine, we will take a yet more hurried glance at
three other campaigns in Asiatic Turkey which had their bearing, direct
or indirect, upon the Palestine operations.
Most important among these was the expedition to Mesopotamia. In
1914, when Turkey came into the war against us, a British Indian
Brigade was landed at the mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab, the common
estuary by which the Tigris and the Euphrates reach the Persian Gulf.
The objects of this expedition were to secure the oil-fields of Persia in
which Britain was largely interested; to neutralize German ascendancy,
which was rapidly developing in this part of the world through her
interests in the Baghdad Railway; and to embarrass Turkey by
attacking her at a point where facilities of manoeuvre and supply

seemed to hold out a reasonable promise of success.
Throughout 1915 this expedition met with uninterrupted success. The
British Indian forces engaged were increased in number and strength,
and, in spite of appalling conditions of climate, and notwithstanding
more than one narrow escape from disaster, the British flag was pushed
further and further forward into this flat alluvial country. In the autumn
of 1915, we held all the country up to Nasiriyeh on the Euphrates and
to Kut el Amara on the Tigris. Then that ill-fated decision was arrived
at which sent General Townshend, with the inadequate force at his
command, up the Tigris to capture Baghdad. This force went heroically
forward, and, just short of that city, defeated the Turks at the battle of
Ctesiphon.