W.T. Massey - How Jerusalem Was Won. Allenby's Campaign in Palestine
sand, tugging heavy guns and ammunition, stores for the air and signal services, machinery for engineers
and mobile workshops, and sometimes towing a weighty load of petrol to satisfy their voracious appetites
for that fuel. The tractors did well. Sand was no trouble to them, and when mud marooned lorries during
the advance in November the rattling, rumbling old tractor made fair weather of it. The mechanical
transport trains will not forget the service of the tractors on the morning after Beersheba was taken. From
railhead to the spot where Father Abraham and his people fed their flocks the country was bare and the
earth's crust had yielded all its strength under the influence of the summer sun. Loaded lorries under their
own power could not move more than a few yards before they were several inches deep in the sandy soil,
but a Motor Transport officer devised a plan for beating down a track which all lorries could use. He got
a tractor to haul six unladen lorries, and with all the vehicles using their own power the tractor managed
to pull them through to Beersheba, leaving behind some wheel tracks with a hard foundation. A hundred
lorries followed, the drivers steering them in the ruts, and they made such good progress that by the
afternoon they had deposited between 200 and 300 tons of supplies in Beersheba. The path the tractor cut
did not last very long, but it was sound enough for the immediate and pressing requirements of the Army.
Within a month of his arrival in Egypt, General Allenby had visited the whole of his front line and had
decided the form his offensive should take. As soon as his force had been made up to seven infantry
divisions and the Desert Mounted Corps, and they had been brought up to strength and trained, he would
attack, making his main offensive against the enemy's left flank while conducting operations vigorously
and on an extensive scale against the Turkish right-centre and right. The principal operation against the
left was to be conducted by General Chetwode's XXth Corps, consisting of four infantry divisions and
the Imperial Camel Brigade, and by General Chauvel's Desert Mounted Corps. General Bulfin's XXIst
Corps was to operate against Gaza and the Turkish right-centre south-east of that ancient town. If the
situation became such as to make it necessary to take the offensive before the force had been brought up
to strength, the XXIst Corps would have had to undertake its task with only two divisions, but in those
circumstances its operations were to be limited to demonstrations and raids. By throwing forward his
right, the XXIst Corps Commander was to pin the enemy down in the Atawineh district, and on the left
he would move against the south-western defences of Gaza so as to lead the Turks to suppose an attack
was to come in this sector. That movement being made, the XXth Corps and Desert Mounted Corps were
to advance against Beersheba, and, having taken it, to secure the valuable water supply which was known
to have existed there since Abraham dug the well of the oath which gave its name to the town. Because
of water difficulties it was considered vital that Beersheba should be captured in one day, a formidable
undertaking owing to the situation of the town, the high entrenched hills around it and the long marches
for cavalry and infantry before the attack; and in drawing up the scheme based on the
Commander-in-Chief's plan, the commanders of XXth Corps and Desert Mounted Corps had always to
work on the assumption that Beersheba would be in their hands by nightfall of the first day of the attack.
General Barrow's Yeomanry Mounted Division was to remain at Shellal in the gap between XXth Corps
and XXIst Corps in case the enemy should attempt to attack the XXth Corps' left flank. Having dealt
with the enemy in Beersheba, General Chetwode with mounted troops protecting his right was to move
north and north-west against the enemy's left flank, to drive him from his strong positions at Sheria and
Hareira, enveloping his left flank and striking it obliquely.
While the XXth Corps was moving against this section of the enemy line, Desert Mounted Corps was to
bring up the mounted division left at Shellal, and passing behind the XXth Corps to march on Nejile,
where there was an excellent water supply, and the wadi Hesi, so as to threaten the left rear and the line
of retreat of the Turkish Army.
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