W.T. Massey - How Jerusalem Was Won. Allenby's Campaign in Palestine
tower, a silent, deserted outpost of the land the Crusaders set their hearts on gaining and preserving for
Christianity, but behind it is many centuries' accumulation of sand encroaching upon the fertile plain, and
no effort has been made to stop the inroad. The gallant half-dozen having reported to the 156th Brigade
that Askalon was open to them - the Brigade occupied the place at noon - rode across the sand-dunes to
the important native town of Mejdel, where there was a substantial bazaar doing a good trade in the
essentials for native existence, beans and cereals in plenty, fruit, and tobacco of execrable quality. At
Mejdel the six accepted the surrender of a body of Turks guarding a substantial ammunition dump and
rejoined their units, satisfied with the day's adventure. The Turks had retired a considerable distance
during the day. The principal body was moving up what is called the main road from Deir Sineid,
through Beit Jerjal to Julis, to get to Suafir esh Sherkiyeh, Kustineh, and Junction Station, from which
they could reach Latron by a metalled road, or Ramleh by a hard mud track by the side of their railway.
They were clearly going to oppose us all the way or they would lose the whole of their material, and their
forces east and west of the road were well handled in previously selected and partially prepared
positions.
They left behind them the unpleasant trail of a defeated army. Turks had fallen by the way and the
natives would not bury them. Our aircraft had bombed the road, and the dead men, cattle and horses, and
smashed transport were ghastly sights and made the air offensive. There they lay, one long line of dead
men and animals, and if a London fog had descended to blind the eyes of our Army the sense of smell
would still have carried a scout on the direct line of the Turkish retreat.
I will break off the narrative of fighting at this point to describe a scene which expressed more eloquently
than anything else I witnessed in Palestine how deeply engraved in the native mind was the conviction
that Britain stood for fair dealing and freedom. The inhabitants, like the Arabs of the desert, do not allow
their faces to betray their feelings. They preserve a stolid exterior, and it is difficult to tell from their
demeanour whether they are friendly or indifferent to you. But their actions speak aloud. Early on the
morning after the Lowlanders had entered Mejdel I was in the neighbourhood. Our guns banging away to
the north were a reminder that there was to be no promenade over the Plain, and that we had yet to make
good the formidable obstacle of the wadi Sukereir, when I passed a curious procession. People whom the
Turks had turned out of Gaza and the surrounding country were trekking back to the spots where they
and their forefathers had lived for countless generations. All their worldly goods and chattels were
packed on overloaded camels and donkeys. The women bore astonishingly heavy loads on their heads,
the men rode or walked carrying nothing, while patriarchs of families were either held in donkey saddles
or were borne on the shoulders of younger men. Agriculturists began to turn out to plough and till the
fields which had lain fallow while the Turkish scourge of war was on the land, and the people showed
that, now they had the security of British protection, they intended at once to resume their industry. The
troops had the liveliest welcome in passing through villages, though the people are not as a rule
demonstrative; and one could point to no better evidence of the exemplary behaviour of our soldiers than
the groups of women sitting and gossiping round the wells during the process of drawing water, just as
they did in Biblical days, heedless of the passing troops whom they regarded as their protectors. The man
behind a rude plough may have stopped his ill-matched team of pony and donkey to look at a column of
troops moving as he had never seen troops march before, a head of a family might collect the animals
carrying his household goods and hurry them off the line of route taken by military transport, but neither
one nor the other had any fear of interference with his work, and the life of the whole country, one of the
most unchanging regions of the world, had suddenly again become normal, although only yesterday two
armies had disputed possession of the very soil on which they stood. The moment we were victorious old
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