W.T. Massey - How Jerusalem Was Won. Allenby's Campaign in Palestine
accustomed to fighting the elements as well as the Turks, but here was a situation where rain might have
made all the difference between success and failure. General Bulfin saw General Hill and his brigadiers
on the afternoon of the 20th. The brigadiers were depressed owing to the floods and the state of the
ground, because it was then clear that causeways would have to be made through the mud to the river
banks. General Hill remained enthusiastic and hopeful and, the Corps Commander supporting him, it was
decided to proceed with the operation. For several nights, with the object of giving the enemy the
impression of a nightly strafe, there had been artillery and machine-gun demonstrations occurring about
the same time and lasting as long as those planned for the night of the crossing. After dusk on December
20 there was a big movement behind our lines. The ferrying and bridging parties got on the move, each
by their particular road, and though the wind was searchingly cold and every officer and man became
thoroughly drenched, there was not a sick heart in the force. The 157th Brigade proceeded to the ford at
the mouth of the Auja, the 156th Brigade advanced towards the river just below Muannis, and the 155th
Brigade moved up to the mill and dam at Jerisheh, where it was to secure the crossing and then swing to
the right to capture Hadrah. The advance was slow, but that the Scots were able to move at all is the
highest tribute to their determination. The rain-soaked canvas of the boats had so greatly added to their
weight that the parties detailed to carry them from the Sarona orange orchards found the task almost
beyond their powers. The bridge rafts for one of the crossings could not be got up to the river bank
because the men were continually slipping in the mud under the heavy load, and the attacking battalion at
this spot was ferried over in coracles. On another route a section carrying a raft lost one of its number,
who was afterwards found sunk in mud up to his outstretched arms. The tracks were almost impassable,
and a Lancashire pioneer battalion was called up to assist in improving them. The men became caked
with mud from steel helmet to boots, and the field guns which had to be hauled by double teams were so
bespattered that there was no need for camouflage. In those strenuous hours of darkness the weather
continued vile, and the storm wind flung the frequent heavy showers with cutting force against the
struggling men. The covering party which was to cross at the ford found the bar had shifted under the
pressure of flood water and that the marks put down to direct the column had been washed away. The
commanding officer reconnoitred, getting up to his neck in water, and found the ford considerably out of
position and deeper than he had hoped, but he brought his men together in fours and, ordering each
section to link arms to prevent the swirling waters carrying them out to sea, led them across without a
casualty. In the other places the covering parties of brigades began to be ferried over at eight o'clock. The
first raft-loads were paddled across with muffled oars. A line was towed behind the boats, and this being
made fast on either side of the river the rafts crossed and recrossed by haulage on the rope, in order that
no disturbance on the surface by oars on even such a wild night should cause an alarm. As soon as the
covering parties were over, light bridges to carry infantry in file were constructed by lashing the rafts
together and placing planks on them. One of these bridges was burst by the strength of the current, but
the delay thus caused mattered little as the surprise was complete. When the bridges of rafts had been
swung and anchored, blankets and carpets were laid upon them to deaden the fall of marching feet, and
during that silent tramp across the rolling bridges many a keen-witted Scot found it difficult to restrain a
laugh as he trod on carpets richer by far than any that had lain in his best parlour at home. He could not
see the patterns, but rightly guessed that they were picked out in the bright colours of the East, and the
muddy marks of war-travelled men were left on them without regret, for the carpets had come from
German houses in Sarona. How perfectly the operation was conducted - noiselessly, swiftly, absolutely
according to time-table - may be gathered from the fact that two officers and sixteen Turks were
awakened in their trench dug-outs at the ford by the river mouth two hours after we had taken the
trenches. The officers resisted and had to be killed. Two miles behind the river the Lowlanders captured
the whole garrison of a post near the sea, none of whom had the slightest idea that the river had been
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