TO SAVE THE HOHENZOLLERNS

Taranaki Daily News, 8 October 1918, Page 5

TO SAVE THE HOHENZOLLERNS

PALESTINE;

THE ADVANCE DESCRIBED. ▲ WONDERFUL SPFCTACLE. •COBKS OUT-MANOEUVRED. Received Oct. 7, 8.30 pjn. Cairo, Oct. 8. A. torrwpondent, describing the adfujde upon Damascus, says General AllenbV't motmteds were supremely succeMfuL They never missed an opportunity of hitting hard blows, or swiftly following one biff movement by another until the three cavalfy divisions converged on Damascus. The masses of British YeoApry, Australian and Indian Horse larger probably than ever before under one commander. the Turkish death blows to their the mounted troops over country which man or The us green garto sun by hills quantities (if ammunition a&Tpetrol were heard. They burned the establishments, and at our approach blew up an enormous wireless installation affording communication between Constantinople and Berne. The roads over which the troops advanced were absolutely the worst on the MUface of the globe. The highways were lint » mass of lava and boulders. An impressive spectacle was that of the thousand? of horsemen passing in the darkness. There was no sound save the hoof beats and the rumble of wheels \>t the irregular mass, Mt. Hermon looming in the distance. A brisk action delayed the advance at 0M point on the steep, rough hills overlooking the road with a wadi in frofit. Brferai hundred Germans and Turks witik machine guns and two field guns, vel placed, nut up a fight. Wc got them OS tie flank, and most of them were j awtnred, the rest being scattered. ' Other columns also had come brisk bru*he« t the enemy attempting to stop oat approach to the city, many prisoners Mug the outcome of these actions. A rtgnnent of light horse and French cavalry 4tnt ir "00 between them. ~ T!ui enen extraction of stores and IRlSitkms w..uin the city afforded one of tie rarest of pyrotechnic displays, lighting up the circle of hills and throwing oat iimnffnse balls of flames and rollStmoke clouds to an immense height. main munition dump went up with W stunning roar, the hills widely reechoing." What ammunition General Allenby*s army did not capture seems to be _ in the process of destruction. I ' Ike inhabitants are gratified at the British advance. A significant deputation of Drnse sheikhs asked permission to agkt with us, and expressed deep ftHiiwhlw for our arrival, thus dc- ■ firaziag, them from the Turks. ENORMOUS CAPTURES.

COMPLETENESS OF VICTORY Received Oct 7, 8.30 p.m. London, Oct. 6. Mr. Massey, writing from Palestine Headquarters on October 5, Vovld take sonje jj»e to collect the facts ■hawing the SGmiileteness of General Allixby'l victory, but there is sufficient dft| available to point ant how absolute the annihilation of {he Turkish forces k. We leaned much from captured documaifa, illustrating the strength of the eaenxy opposed to us, and its equipment. The Turkish Army had a large support given it by German troops. In the Vilderl army group tliero were 500 guns, including thirty in the repair shops. Of the balance we have captured over 350 uf various calibres. There was no time to search the hundreds of square miles of mountainous country. Doubtless other gnat an hidden in tho lulls. Many hundred machine-guns aad an enormous amount of guq ammrnitioii were saptmcd. With th» Tuxkawero 1P.63S Germans, cwaiathig o< eevera} barttaKons of infantry, machine-gun companies and ar- • tfflary. Hie remainder were technical txoope, naming the rsdlwayi, transport, Signal and other services. Thus there ww a large stiffening of Germans. Many . d the teefarieian* ware armed, and fcraght against as. We gnxnOy foimd than where the enemy put np a strong ranstonea We prison ercd a largo number of drains and Austrian*. Oar progress was so rapid, and the ex- ' feai of the advance ewer a very wide fflflßi so great, that there may be an immate among somo that we were weak>fy opposed. That is wholly wrong. A wpturM shows the ratio we SkMb Anas b> ham

FURTHER BRITISH CAPTURES IMPOin'ANT FRENCH ADVANCE i * i » HISTORY MAKINC IN PALESTINE

I been 39,783 men, the Seventh Army 28,i 575, the Jordan group 5233, the Fourth Army 21,899, the lines of communica- ! tion 4958, and the animals 39,234. The figures may be exaggerated by the supply officers over-estimating in order to obtain sufficient food, but it is clear that General AQenby was opposed by over a hundred thousand. The prisoners exceed seventy thousand. From the numbers of dead I myself have seen I believe not more than ten thousand got away home livering them from the Turks.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc. GREAT WORK BY THE ARABS. AIRMEN'S VALUABLE''HELP. Received Oct. 7, 11 p.m. .Cairo, Oct. 0. Mr. Massey's delayed message of October 3 states that General Allenby was enthusiastically received at Damascus. The town was in good order, and the inhabitants were resuming their normal occupations. King Hedjaz's troops, operating on our right, covered five hundred miles of barren country in twenty-four days. The sheiks of the Ruwalla tribe, one of the most powerful in Arabia, brought three thousand horsemen, augmented by peasantry, until on reaching Dorza they totalled nearly eleven thousand horsemen and Arab irregulars. They moved along the Hedjaz railway, destroying sections, considerable rolling stock and bridges, and a couple of aeroplanes. The enemy's railway communication between Damascus and the main Turkish army W.-.3 broken. They also cut off the Annan garrison. Wherever the Arabs camped enemy aeroplanes flew low and bombed them, doing little damage. They failed to prevent railway disorganisation. When General Allenby's attack began the Arabs fought their way up the railway line, one section marching seventy miles in twenty-four hours, fighting part of the way, and reached Damascus in time to take part in the capture.

The work of the Air Service was most valuable during the British advance, and solved the difficulty of the cavalry keeping in contact on the vast front, by untiring energies recording the positions, both of our own and the enemy forces. The planes south of Annan secured the surrender of 2000 Turks. A pilot, seeing them jnarehing in column, dropped a message: "If you don't surrender, you will be bombed.". He returned to the aerodrome without receiving an answer. Six machines then went up with bombs, and were circling ready to drop bombs when $ signßl recalled them, the Turks having put up the white flag.