CHAPTER XXI THE FALL OF DAMASCUS

At two o'clock on the afternoon of the 29th, the Australian Mounted Division started on the last lap of the race to Damascus. The 5th Cavalry Division followed a few miles in rear of the Australians. The distance to be covered was about forty miles, and it was hoped that, if the two divisions marched all night, they would be able to surround the city soon after dawn on the 30th.

It was arranged that the Australian Mounted Division should send two brigades along the foot of the hills west of Damascus, to close the two roads leading north-west to Beir?t, and north-east to Homs. The 5th Division was to send one brigade round the east side of the city, to gain touch with the Australians on the Homs road, and place the remainder of the division astride the Deraa-Damascus road, at or near Kiswe, to receive the remnants of the Turkish IVth Army, which was to be driven into their welcoming arms by the 4th Division.

It must be explained that the only available maps were very inaccurate and greatly lacking in detail. Thus, there was no indication that the steep and rocky hills, which press right on to Damascus on the west, were almost impassable for cavalry; or that the Beir?t road runs along the bottom of a deep, precipitous gorge, into which it was impossible for cavalry to descend; or that, to reach the Homs road, it would be necessary to pass through the[Pg 267] western suburbs of the city, always a difficult and dangerous operation in a hostile country, and doubly so for mounted troops.

For political reasons, strict orders had been given that no British troops were to enter Damascus, and these orders considerably hampered our subsequent operations, and made our task more difficult.

In the end, however, it was the action of the enemy that was the chief cause of our delay. A couple of armoured cars went ahead of the Australian Division to reconnoitre, and returned, shortly after the division had started, with the information that the enemy was holding a position astride the road, near the village of Sasa, a little north of the Nahr Mughaniye. The cars had drawn a considerable fire from guns and machine guns. Patrols of the 3rd A.L.H. Brigade crossed the river just before dark, and had located the enemy's position fairly accurately by the time the rest of the brigade arrived. The position had been well sited by the enemy, on a rocky ridge running about east and west. An impassable morass of unknown extent protected his right flank, north of the road, and the country to the south was a wilderness of broken lava boulders, most difficult even for infantry and in the daylight.

The 8th and 9th A.L.H. Regiments dismounted, and advanced in pitch darkness against the presumed position of the enemy's left flank. The going was so bad that it was nearly two in the morning before they got to grips with the Turks. There was a half-hour's very confused bayonet fighting among the rocks in the darkness, during which it was almost impossible to distinguish friend from foe. The Turks then broke, most of them making for the road. A pre-arranged signal of Verey lights, sent up by the attackers, apprised the division of this, and, immedi[Pg 268]ately it was seen, a squadron of the 10th A.L.H. Regiment, which had been held in readiness, galloped straight down the road in the dark, to get ahead of the retreating Turks and cut them off. It very nearly came to grief over one of the enemy guns which had been abandoned on the road, but fortunately the leading horses saw it, and swerved aside just in time. The squadron was followed, at a more sober pace, by the 4th and 12th Regiments of the 4th Brigade, which now took the lead.

About 100 prisoners, three guns, and a number of machine guns were captured on the position, and, after daylight, about 250 more stragglers were gathered in, including a party of 150 Germans, who had retired before the 10th Regiment charged down the road. Our casualties had been rather heavy for so small an affair, and, by some strange chance, the Turks captured and carried off with them in their retreat eight of our men. These we came upon and rescued near the village of Sasa, shortly after daybreak.

The net result of this action was that, instead of being on the outskirts of Damascus at dawn on the 30th, our troops were still nearly twenty miles away.

Pressing on as fast as possible, the division reached Kaukab about ten o'clock, and here encountered the enemy again. At some time or other the Turks had constructed a long line of entrenchments stretching from near Katana (north of the El Kuneitra road) across the road at Kaukab, along the high ridge of the Jebel el Aswad, over the Deraa road north of Kiswe, and thence over the Jebel el Mania to near Deir Ali. It was the western portion of this line, astride the El Kuneitra road, that they were now holding. The position looked strong, and, had the Turks put up a determined fight here, they might have saved many of their friends in Damascus, to[Pg 269] say nothing of their masters the Germans, from capture.

'A' Battery H.A.C. and the Notts Battery R.H.A., which were marching near the head of the advance guard, came into action at once, and opened a rapid and effective fire on the enemy position. After a few minutes' bombardment, the 4th A.L.H. Regiment was launched at the village of Kaukab, and the 12th at a spur of the Jebel el Aswad, against the enemy's left flank. The going here was good, and the cavalry were able to gallop right on to the position, which they proceeded to do, covered by the fire of the guns. The combination of gun fire and charging cavalry was too much for the shattered nerves of the Turks, who broke and fled, pursued by the Australians. The whole force was killed or captured.

The 5th Brigade now took the lead, and rode hard up the road towards Damascus, followed by the 3rd Brigade, which had rejoined from Sasa just after the action. The leading troops came under fire from the houses and gardens of the suburb of El Mezze. The Notts Battery came into action, and shelled the enemy satisfactorily, while the 5th Brigade plunged into the maze of hills north of the road, and made for the Beir?t road. Seeing their right threatened, the Turks retired into the town, and the 3rd Brigade was free to move on. Patrols from this brigade then found that it was impossible to reach the Homs road, except by going right through the town, as the river Barada, running between rock cliffs, barred their path farther west. As the orders against entering the town were peremptory, there was nothing to be done but send back word of the state of affairs, and wait for permission to advance. This permission was not received till late at night, when it was impossible for the brigade to make its way[Pg 270] through the narrow, tortuous streets of the town, which was still full of enemy troops.

Meanwhile the 5th Brigade was encountering great difficulties in the bare, rocky hills west and north of El Mezze, but the advanced troops reached the gorge of the Barada, above El Rabue, about five in the evening. Here they found themselves on the top of a cliff about 200 feet high, overhanging the road and railway to Beir?t, and looked down upon an extraordinary sight. The whole of the bottom of the gorge, from side to side, was packed with a struggling mass of fugitives, on horse and afoot, in motors, cabs and carts, surging along like a tidal wave. There was a train on the line, packed with Germans, but it was completely blocked by the mass of people who struggled and fought along the railway, and the engine driver had long since been submerged in the tide of frenzied Turks. Even the river was full of men and horses.

There was no possible way of getting down on to the road from the top of the cliffs, but the fugitives had to be stopped somehow. A few machine guns were brought into action, and ordered to open fire on the head of the column below. General Onslow, who commanded the brigade, told the writer afterwards that he had never given an order with greater reluctance and horror. With a view to minimising the inevitable slaughter, he instructed his machine gunners to concentrate their fire as much as possible on the vehicles at the head of the column, in order to disable them and so block the road. When the firing commenced, the Turks in front tried to turn back towards the city, but the pressure behind them was so great that they were constantly pushed along into the zone of the bullets. At last, however, the growing pile of corpses and broken vehicles at the[Pg 271] head of the column completely blocked the gorge, and the Turks realised that their escape was barred. They turned and streamed miserably back towards the city. Part of the crowd was intercepted by troops of the 3rd Brigade, who took about 5000 prisoners. The rest reached the city, and were collected next day. How many perished in the defile will never be known, but it took a large force of German prisoners ten days to dispose of the bodies. It was fitting that they, who by their insane ambition had brought the Turks to this sorry end, should have had the task of burying the victims of their lust for power.

artilley

Royal Horse Artillery fording the Jordan at Jisr Benat Yakub.

road

The Beir?t road in the gorge of the River Barada. 1st October, 1918.

Before dark, the 5th Brigade got a small party down on to the road, and picketed it during the night.

While the Australian Mounted Division had been pushing round west of Damascus, the 4th and 5th Cavalry Divisions had been slowly closing in on the city. The former had pursued the retreating IVth Army relentlessly all through the 29th of September, and, on the morning of the 30th, the 11th Brigade, which was acting as advance guard, reached El Ghabaghib Station, on the old French railway from Damascus to Mezerib, about thirty miles south of Damascus.

The main body of the enemy, which had been marching hard all night, was now some distance ahead of the division, but its retreat was constantly harassed by Lawrence's Arabs, who made repeated raids on the right flank of the Turks, and had by now reduced them to a state of extreme disorganisation. It must be remembered that the 4th Cavalry Division had about thirty miles farther to go before reaching Damascus than the other two divisions. Moreover, although there had been no opposition[Pg 272] from the enemy after the action at El Remte, the division had been much delayed by the bad road from Deraa to Damascus, across the southern Hauran. The whole of this area is overlaid with the débris of extinct volcanoes, mostly in the form of huge boulders of black basalt, which everywhere cover the ground. Much time was spent in clearing away these boulders, to make a passage for the guns and transport of the division. The whole country from Deraa to Damascus was strewn with the bodies of Turks that had died from exhaustion. Dead horses, broken-down vehicles, and abandoned guns were scattered everywhere. It was estimated that 2000 enemy dead were passed on the march, and many more than that number of dead animals. The hot sun, beating down on the black rocks, burnt like the blast from a furnace, and the heavy air, poisoned by the unburied corpses of men and beasts, hung like a pall over the land. There is little water to be found in the Hauran in summer, and less food, and not a single tree and scarce a human habitation soften the desolation of this horrible region.

The 5th Cavalry Division reached Sasa at about eight on the morning of the 30th, and there received a message from an aeroplane that a large body of the enemy, which was, in fact, the leading portion of the IVth Army, was approaching Kiswe, along the Deraa-Damascus road. The 13th Brigade, followed by the 14th, was at once despatched to try and intercept this force. Before they moved off, General MacAndrew[26] issued the following characteristic order to his brigades: 'Push on! Kill or capture all you can, and seize Damascus.'

This day marked the end of the Turkish IVth[Pg 273] Army, but, as it split up into a number of detached groups, which were attacked throughout the day by brigades, regiments, and even single squadrons of the 4th and 5th Cavalry Divisions, it is impossible to give any very concise account of its destruction. It is clear, however, that, on the morning of the 30th, the army was marching in two main bodies. The leading portion, that which had been seen and reported by our aircraft, consisted of the remains of the Turkish 3rd Cavalry Division, with such of the infantry as had been able to keep up with the mounted troops. The following portion, evidently much more disorganised, was marching some eight to ten miles in rear.

The 13th Brigade, moving along the south bank of the Wadi el Zabirani, encountered some opposition on the ridge of the Jebel el Aswad, north of Deir Khabiye, from enemy troops occupying a portion of the entrenched position that has been mentioned above. By mid-day, however, the brigade had succeeded in dispersing the enemy, taking some 700 prisoners. Meanwhile the 14th Brigade had got astride the Deraa-Damascus road, north of Kiswe. It was just in time to intercept the leading portion of the Turkish force, the advanced elements of which had cleared Kiswe, and were hurrying up the road over the Jebel el Aswad towards Damascus.

In the somewhat confused fighting which followed the encounter, the greater part of what was left of the Turkish 3rd Cavalry Division, including the divisional commander and his staff, fell into our hands. The remainder of the force was driven back, completely broken, to Kiswe.

At this time the 15th Brigade was in divisional reserve a little east of Khan el Shiha.

Shortly afterwards, about four in the afternoon,[Pg 274] the second portion of the Turkish army was seen approaching Kiswe, followed by the 11th Brigade of the 4th Cavalry Division. This brigade had been checked for a time at Khiyara Chiftlik, about six miles south of Kiswe, by a body of the enemy who took up a position behind the mud walls of a farm there. The brigade was rather heavily shelled from the direction of Kalaat el Nuhas at the same time. The farm was cleared by a mounted charge, and the Turks dispersed. Some escaped up the steep slopes of the Jebel el Mania to the east, but the bulk of them continued along the main road to Kiswe. On their arrival there, they joined the demoralised remnants of the leading portion of their force, that had escaped the onslaught of the 14th Brigade. Here they learnt that the road to Damascus was barred, and, looking backwards, saw the lances of the 4th Cavalry Division approaching. Caught between the two forces, they made a last despairing attempt to break through. There appears to have been a general sauve qui peut. Some attempted the Damascus road, and were ridden down and captured by the 14th Brigade. Others made their way north-east up the Nahr el Awaj, and attempted a counter-attack against the left flank of this brigade, but were broken up by the fire of the Essex Battery. They split up into small groups, and disappeared among the gardens of the Damascus plain east of the city, where the majority of them were almost certainly murdered by the natives. The largest body broke out to the north-west, and fell into the arms of the 13th Brigade near Sahnaya, where about 1500 prisoners were taken, and many were killed. Others again were observed trying to escape to the east. The Ayrshire Battery, attached to the 11th Brigade, galloped forward, supported by two machine[Pg 275] guns and a few Hotchkiss rifles, and came into action at close range, causing the Turks to scatter wildly. The 29th Lancers pursued these disorganised parties up the slopes of the Jebel el Mania, and had rounded up large numbers of them before darkness put an end to the pursuit. Finally, a number remained in Kiswe, and tried to organise some sort of resistance there. At five o'clock, however, the 13th Brigade swept suddenly down upon the village and captured it, with about 700 prisoners and several guns.

It was now nearly dark, and nothing further could be done that day. The 5th Division remained for the night along a line north of the Wadi el Zabirani, from the Kuneitra-Damascus road to a few miles north-east of Kiswe. The 4th Division concentrated south of Kiswe.

Two troops of the Gloucester Yeomanry, 13th Brigade, and a troop of the 12th Regiment, 4th A.L.H. Brigade, starting from south and west of the town respectively, attempted to reach the big German wireless installation at Kadem Station in the southern suburb. The wireless plant had, however, been prepared for demolition, and was blown up before our troops reached it. Both parties had a warm time, and were continually sniped at by wandering bodies of the enemy from the houses and wooded gardens. Eventually they came upon a number of large ammunition dumps, which had been set on fire and were going off like a monstrous Brock's Benefit, and they had to beat a hurried retreat. All through the early part of the night tremendous explosions shook the air, as the fire reached fresh stacks of shells. Kadem railway station and all the houses round it were completely destroyed, but there was little other damage in the city. The Turks were too dispirited and worn out[Pg 276] for deeds of frightfulness, and the Germans too intent on trying to make good their escape. The independence of the city from Turkish rule was actually publicly proclaimed in the Serai early on the afternoon of September the 30th, without any opposition from the Turks, although there were at the time some 15,000 Turkish and German soldiers in the town, including Jemal Pasha, the commander of the IVth Army. A number of these troops had come from Aleppo and Beir?t, and the remainder were stragglers who had made their way in, by rail and road, from the south, after the débacle of September the 19th and succeeding days. Nearly all of them were half starved and worn out by continual marching, and their morale had sunk so low that they made no protest when the whole city broke out in a blaze of Sherifian flags. Insulted and beaten by the people, who refused to give or sell them food, abandoned by their German masters in the most callous manner, diseased and starving, many of the poor wretches died in the streets that night. Many others, less fortunate, met a brutal death at the hands of the populace. Several thousand dragged themselves to the Turkish barracks, which they filled, and overflowed into the parade ground, where some 300 perished during the night. Two considerable bodies did indeed attempt to escape, one along the Beir?t road, and the other towards Homs. The fate of the former has already been told. The latter body, which consisted of fresher troops, from Aleppo and Beir?t, got out of the town on the north-east, and marched all night along the Homs road.

The next day, October the 1st, as soon as it was light, the 5th Cavalry Division concentrated and moved round to the east of the city, pushing the 13th Brigade as far north as the Homs road, where[Pg 277] it got into touch with the 3rd A.L.H. Brigade of the Australian Mounted Division. This brigade passed through the city at dawn, patrols of the 10th A.L.H. Regiment reaching the Serai square about six in the morning, and being thus actually the first troops to enter the city. Passing the Baramkie railway station on the way, they found there a train just about to start for Beir?t, the troops in it being ignorant of the fact that the railway had been cut (by the 5th A.L.H. Brigade) the previous night. They were speedily undeceived, and about 500 prisoners and a number of guns and machine guns were taken from the train, and handed over to the 4th and 12th Regiments of the 4th Brigade, which marched to the station later in the morning.

Hurrying through the town, the 3rd Brigade reached the Homs road, and pressed along it on the track of the enemy force that had escaped that way the previous evening. The 10th Regiment came up with part of this force about nine o'clock in the morning, on the Wadi Maraba, near Harista el Basal, and promptly charged it, killing many with the sword, and capturing about 600 prisoners and some forty machine guns. Continuing the pursuit, the cavalry came upon more of the enemy near Duma, and again at Khan Kusseir, twelve miles from Damascus, in the evening. They were engaged in continual skirmishing throughout the day, and the action at Khan Kusseir, where they were opposed by Germans, though short, was severe. The enemy troops had a number of machine guns, and put up a good fight, but were broken by a charge delivered from the cover of some vineyards and olive groves on their right flank, and all of them were killed or captured. The brigade remained at Duma for the night.

The advance troops of the Arab Army, under[Pg 278] Lawrence, reached Damascus about half-past eight in the morning, and established their headquarters in the Government buildings.

Meanwhile the two regiments of the 4th A.L.H. Brigade were at work collecting prisoners in the town, and evacuating them to a concentration area near Daraya. All day long the sorry business continued, and by evening nearly 12,000 had been collected. They were in a pitiable state. Many of them, the remnants of the IVth Army, had been chased for 150 miles by our cavalry and by the Arab forces. Constantly bombed by our aircraft, harassed day and night by the Arab Camel Corps and the hostile population of the country through which they passed, denied all food, and often short of water, it is one of the marvels of war that they had struggled so far. The task of getting them out of the city was a horrible one. Many fell by the wayside, and all the efforts of our cavalry failed to get them on their feet again, and they had to be left to die. All night long our over-worked ambulances toiled among them, bringing water and food and what medical assistance was possible, but they were utterly unable to cope with the numbers, and by morning over 600 were dead.

For the first fortnight, and until the rest and good food had had time to take effect, the mortality in the prisoners' camp, though decreasing daily, averaged over a hundred a day.

The whole Turkish force was riddled with disease. Nearly all were suffering from either malaria or dysentery, and there were several cases of smallpox. Venereal disease is endemic among the Turks, and, in normal times, seems to have little effect upon their general health; but, in the exhausted and weakened condition in which they now were, it laid hold on[Pg 279] them virulently, and took a heavy toll of lives. An indication of the spread of this disease among the Germans was afforded by a room in the hospital at Afule, which was filled with boxes of salvarsan. This drug, we were informed by German medical officers, was reserved exclusively for the use of German troops.

headquarters

The Emir Feisals' Headquarters at Damascus.
Note the Sherifian standards on the balcony.

tripoli

Tripoli. The old Crusader Citadel.

The operations closed on the 2nd October with an extraordinary charge by the 3rd A.L.H. Brigade. Early in the morning, a column of the enemy was seen moving north, parallel to the Homs road, and some miles to the east. This column had evidently hoped, by avoiding the road, to make its way unseen to Khan Ayash, where it would have entered the hills, and probably then made its escape.

The whole brigade immediately mounted, galloped six miles over the open plain, and charged the enemy with the sword. The Turks had with them a few guns and a number of machine guns, which they brought into action and fought to the last. The brigade galloped on, through a hot fire, and charged clean through the enemy force, killing a large number of them, and capturing 1500 prisoners, including a divisional commander, three guns, and twenty-six machine guns. In point of distance this must be a record cavalry charge.

On the same day, detachments from each brigade of the Corps and some of the guns paraded at the village of Sbeine, south of Damascus, and marched through the city from end to end, led by the Corps Commander. This was not intended as a triumphal march, but was a necessary display of force, to overawe the turbulent elements in the town, who threatened to create a state of absolute anarchy.

For political reasons the city was supposed to be in charge of the Arab forces, and an Arab Governor[Pg 280] was actually appointed. But, with the best intentions in the world, the small force of so-called 'regular' Arab soldiers could do little or nothing to keep order. The irregular—highly irregular—forces of King Hussein far outnumbered the Arab Army. During the advance on the city, hordes of nomad Arabs had joined his standard, drawn thereto partly, no doubt, by their genuine and deep-rooted hatred of the Turks, but also, and far more strongly, by their equally genuine and deep-rooted love of plunder. Till they reached Damascus, the loot had consisted almost entirely of rifles and ammunition, best of all loot from the desert Arab's point of view, but now that each son of Ishmael was in possession of at least two good rifles, and was festooned with machine gun belts full of cartridges, he felt that he could toy with some more fancy trifles, should they come his way. So it was not surprising that, as soon as they entered the city, they all set to work at once to collect what Thomas Atkins would call 'souvenirs.' They were perfectly good-tempered about it, and only killed a few shopkeepers who made an unconscionable fuss about having their booths looted. No mercy was shown to the Turks, however. They were hunted down and killed remorselessly whereever found. Some of the Arabs even broke into the Turkish hospital, and set about murdering the moribund wretches whom they found there, till driven away by our troops.

The desert-bred Arabs are probably the most independent of mankind. They acknowledge no authority, and will take orders only from those who are able to exact obedience by force of arms. This the Emir Feisal was quite unable to do, even had he been willing, which is doubtful. His attitude seemed to be that boys will be boys, and it would be a shame[Pg 281] to interfere with their simple pleasures, after the hard time they had had. One of the first things the 'Boys' did was to open the jail and release all the ruffians therein, who added to the liveliness of the city.

map

After two days of something like pandemonium, the powers that were recognised the necessity of imposing some sort of restraint on the lawless elements, and two regiments of the Australian Mounted Division were stationed in the city for police duties. The Australian troopers speedily had the situation in hand, and the normal life of Damascus was resumed within forty-eight hours.
FOOTNOTES:

[26] Major-General Sir H.J.M. MacAndrew, K.C.B., Indian Army. He died from burns received in an accident at Aleppo in July 1919.