PALESTINE.

Taihape Daily Times, 2 April 1918, Page 5

PALESTINE.

BRILLIANT MILITARY FBA-Tv — ...—- —. i mures aivsi Received im'anM LONDON, April I. f Mr. Massey/-writing from Palestine headquarters dh- Sunday, says, by a dashing raid Anzac Mounteds and Imperial Camel Corps blew up a portion of the Hedjaz railway north and south of Amman, after infantry had taken the town of Essalt, 26 miles east of the Jordan, Infantry and cavalry in these operations captured over 700 prisoners, many of them Germans, with four guns, a number of machineguns and much ammunition. When the Jordan was bridged a number of troops were put across so as to surprise the enemy. He did not put up much of a fight before Essalt, but was fought stoutly behind these trenches. Cavalry and camel corps made a great holding attack at Amman, shelling the station, with made up trains in the sidings. Airmen dropped bombs causing much destruction, while Anzac engineers, moving' on the other flank, blew up two arched bridges north of the town. They destroyed several culverts south and completely ruined a five miles section of the line. In the march from the Jordan valley, cavalry were on either flank of the infantry who used the road to Essalt. Anzacs went over the mountains, using steep goat and sheep tracks. Nearly all the way troopers had to dismount and pull their horses behind them. For miles they heeded not barriers, nature had erected, nor hardships entailed by the country in which transport must be precarious and scanty. Towards the end of the journey the country was I so terribly rough that some Anzacs) had to leave their horses three miles I behind them. Campaigning in this wild, hilly country is terribly arduous business. The accomplishment of the raid o n the railway is noteworthy as a military feat. Weather was very bad. and the Jordan rose eight feet 'in one day. There was rain and mist in the hills, which added enormously to the difficulties*