DASHING CAVALRY WORK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 11, 8 October 1918, Page 5

DASHING CAVALRY WORK

BRITISH BEYOND DAMASCUS FURTHER PRISONERS ROUNDED UP London, October 5. . Mr. Massey, writing from Damascus on October 2, states: "Events movo so fast in this campaign that ono can hardly keop abreast ot them. The release of this city after 600 years of Turkish thraldom is so important a world event that if ono became a courier by air he could not glean all the news from tlus front. While wo watched events of deep import at Daniarous

there was a .brilliant" piece of* fighting on the Eastern Aleppo* Road, which! added 3000 prisoners to General Allen-' by'fi captures. The Australian Light) Horse Brigade yesterday morning advanced towards Duma, to which several" thousands of the enemy are retreating before them. They got. to a cultivated: area, where the Germans' and Turks'! machine-gunners fought a hard , rear-' guard action to permit of the main' iorce reaching a pass twenty-mile* north-east of Damascus, whero the crests were held by machine-guns. The enemy held villages strongly, guns be- 1 ing placed in the houses. By contin- 1 ually outflanking flic enemy the'cavalrjj nibbled into tlio position," increasing their captures every hour, until byj dusk eight hundred prisoners ani; eighty machine-guns were taken on this ! rond. On the flanks many other prisoners were brought in, but the day was remarkable for the masterly way in which the machine-gun nests in tha olive groves and vineyards were reu-j dered impotent. It was an anxious time' for tlio brigade while the mass of the/ machine-gun opposition was being dealt with. A patrol brought news' that a column of three thousand mount-* ed men was advancing.from Aleppo to] Damascus. 'Quick and lively with the machine-guns' was tho order, so as to' prepare to- deal with the larger body,! hut tho latter proved to be the arrival of a caravan with enormous numbers of 1 camels going from Aleppo to Mecca,! oscorted by thousands of armed Arabs.! ii

Surrender of a Column. ; "To-day news, reached the brigade' that a forco was moving from the mass' of wooded and cultivated area north-! west of Damascus, endeavouring to! pass the Aleppo Road. Instantly the' order was givon to advance, a-nd the 1 brigade trotted and galloped six miles'; to head the enemy off. The cavalry! conld not approach the pass nearer! than 2000 yards because of the mach-j ine-gnu's on the crests. Riding hard, it, got over the open to the base of thej foothills before the Turks and captured! an entire column of 1400 men, in the! nick of time, with only one casualty.; iu/tlie brigade. Time was an important-;' factor, as the enemy was preparing to! resist. The men of the Light Horse! drew their swords, and were ordered' to charge. The flashing of the swordsj in the bright sunlight was immediately] followed by the signal to surrender, i During tho last two days the" brigade! took 2000 prisoners, and had. under twenty casualties. j

"The situation south and south-eastoj of the town at dusk last evening wasi most interesting. The cavalry brigade! cut in two a column of Turks wniohi was endeavouring- to reach Damascus) from Dera. A portion of the brigade! dealt with tho enemy on their Da-mas- j cus side, and others headed off the re-j mainder of the column to the westward, j where it was caught by another force.' Nine hundred prisoners' were taken.! Meanwhile the British and Indian car-' airy, advancing northwards from Der&j with the Hejaz army.--on : the right,! drove the remnants of the stragglers I of the Fourth Army into the hands i of the troops holding the pass on the! Hejao Road between Kisje and Daraas- i cus. This morning every exit from thej city was closed ■■by.-.our troops. The] whole operation ■ was conducted- in a! masterly manner." '•...• I

ABSOLUTE ANNIHILATION OF THE I TURKS ■-•.:■ '; ALLENBr'S VICTORY DISSEOTBD.J (Rec. October 7, 11 p.mr) ' London, October 6. Mr. W. T. Massey, writing fronij Palestine Headquarters on October 5, says:—"lt will take some time to collect the facts which.will show the completeness of General Allenby's victory, Jbut sufficient data is available to point \ut how absolute the annihilation of the Turkish forces is. Wβ have learned much ifrom captured documents illustrating the strength of the enemy which was opposed to us. In. the equipment of the Turkish Army"'largei support was given by German troops. In the Ilderim Army group there were j 500 guns, including' thirty in the repair shops. Of the balance vt& have captured over 350 of various calibres. There has been-no-time to search over the hundreds of square miles of mountainous country, but doubtless there I are other Runs hidden in the hills: I Many hundreds of machine-guns: and! an enormous amount of gvm amnmni-! .tion were captured. With the Turka j •Vere 115,635 Germans. There, weroj several battalions of infantry, machine-j gun companies, and artillery, while the i remainder were technical troops, run-! ning the railways, transport, signal,] and other services. Time there was a] large stiffening of Germans. Many of! the technicians were armed, and'rbughi] against us. We generally found them whero the enemy put up a strong resistance. We took prisoner a large; number of Germans and Austrians. Our progress was so rapid' and the extent of our advance over a. very wicto front so great that there may be an impression by some that we were weakly opposed. That is wholly wrong, A dooument which was captured shows that the ration strength of tho Turkish Eighth Army was 39,783 men, the] Seventh Army 28,575, the Jordan group ! 5233, the Fourth Army 21,899, linns of j communication 4958, animals. 39,234. ! Those figures may be exaggerated, as J when tho indenting supply officer over- j estimates nn order to obtain sufficient j food, but it is clear that General Al-. K'liby was opposed by over a hundred i thousand troops. Our prisoners ex-i coed seventy thousand. From the j numbers of dead I myself have seen I ■! believe that not more than ten thousand got away home by other roads." —Aus.-N.55. Cable Assn. GERMAN OFFICIAL' REPORT. (Rec. October 7, 8.20 p.m.) ] London, October 6. A German official report state: — "German battalions which had been j fighting in Palestine be'side the trusty Turks were compelled to yield undsr the pressure of superior enemy forces, ' and are returning beyond Damascus northwards."—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.Keutor. '■.

THE RECEPTION AT DAMASCUS .] MORE ABOUT THE ARABS. . (Hoc. October 7, 11 p.m.) I Cairo, October 6. j Mr. Massey, in a delayed message "■] dated October 3, states: "General AM leilby was enthusiastically received atf Damascus. The town is in good order i and the inhabitants are rcsummg'theii \ normal occupations. The King of 'He- •! ja'/.'s troops, operating on our right, j covered five- hundred miles of barren ) country in twenty-four days. Thf j Sheiks of the Bwvalla Tribe-, on©-pi- I the most powerful iu Arabia, brought i

hree thousand horsemen, augmented * peasantry, until, on reaching Doraa, fley totalled nearly eleven thousand lorsemeh and Arab irregulars, • They fioyed along' the Hejaz railway, deitro'ying' sections, considerable rolling jtpek, bridges/ and a couple of aeroilanes. The enemy's railway communiiation between Damascus and the ilain 'Turkish Army, is broken. They ilso', cut. off the Amman garrison. IVherever the Arabs camped the aiemy's 'planes flew low and bombed ibem, but.,, did little damage, and failed to prevent the railway disorganisation. When General Allenby's [ttack began the Arabs fought their pay up tile railway line, one section parching seventy miles in twentybur, hours, fighting part of the way, Ind reaclied Damascus in time to take art in the capture. I "The work of the air-service was iiost valuable during the British adiance, and solved the difficulty of the avalry keeping in contact' on a vast rontibjr untiring energies, recording [he. positions of both. our own and the jnemy's foroes. Our 'planes south "of Imman secured the surrender cf two ihousand Turks. A.pilot, seeing them inarching in column, dropped a mesiage: 'If you don't surrender you will |e, bombed.'- He returned to the aeroirome without receiving an answer. six machines then went up with bombs Hid were circling ready to drop bombs then a signal recalled them, the Turks lavinp mit up the white flag."—Aus.fI.Z. Cable Assn. ' ANOTHER ACCOUNT OF THE CITY'S CAPTURE ' TURKS GTVE A FIREWORKS r DISPLAY. 1 (Rec. October 7, 8.20 p.m.) i Cairo, October 6. , A correspondent, describing the. ad[anee upon Damascus, saye: "Allen•y's mointed men were supremely euciessful. They never missed an opportunity! of hitting hard blows, swiftly 'allowing one big movement,by another Intil three cavalry divisions' converged In 'Damascus. The masses of British feomanry, Australian and Indian fforse were larger probably than ever jefore assembled , under one comrnanler. After out-manoeuvring the Turkish forces and dealing death-blows to jheir armies, in.ten days our mounted [roops covered fully 150 miles, o;er 'joiintry which yielded no food for man jr.beast. The city as it lies before us, '6 set in a most beautiful flame of gloriously green gardens, and rendered bore refreshing to eyes that used to flare.at" the . Eastern sun. 'The: enemy (urned vast quantities of stores. >Tuiherous explosions of ammunition ind .petrol were heard. They burned he. military establishments, and at our jjiproaoh blew up the enormous vireesS installation that afforded them jpmmunication between Constantinople tad Berlin. The roads over which, the iroops advanced were absolutely ' the jrorst OD. the surface of the globe. The highways are a mass of lava and jiqulders. An impressive spectacle was |hat of thousands of horsemen! passing n'the darkness. No sound was hoard lave the hoof-beats and the rumble of vheels. The irregular mass of Mount jlermon loomed in the distance.' ! ~"A brisk aotion delayed the advance it one point on the steep, rough bills iverlookiTig a road with a wadi in [ront. Several hundred Germans and furks, with a machine-gun and two ield-guns well placed, put. up a fight. We got them on the flank, and most ;f them : were captured, -while the rest Scattered. Other columns • also had iome brisk brushes with the enemy, li-ho was attempting to stop our apiroaich to the city, many prisoners being the outcome of these actions. A regiment of Light Horse and French iavalry sent in 3500 between them. Hie enemy's destruction of stores and nunitions within the city afforded one jf the . rarest pyrotechnic displays, lighting i:p the ' circle of hills and throwing out immense bails of flames bid- rolßng smoke clouds to an im[nense height. His main ammunition lump went up with one stunning roar, the hills widely re-echoing. What am(nunition Allenby's army did not capture seems to be in the process of deitmctipn. The inhabitants are gratijed at the British advance. It is sigaificant that'a deputation- from tho Druse sheikhs asked permiseion to aght with us, and expressed deep ■thankfulness for our arrival to deliver them from the Turks."—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. > ' ' '