Western Ottoman Empire showing the travels of Rafael De Nogales, Inspector-General of the Turkish Forces in Armenia and Military Governor of Egyptian Sinai during the World War, from his book Four Years Beneath the Crescent.
Legend for the author's travels for the years 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1918.
"The date for the attack on Jerusalem was fixed as December 8th. Welsh troops, with a cavalry regiment attached, had advanced from their positions north of Beersheba up the Hebron-Jerusalem road on the 4th. No opposition was met, and by the evening of the 6th the head of this column was ten miles north of Hebron. The infantry was directed to reach the Bethlehem-Beit Jala area by the 7th, and the line Surbahir-Sherafat (about three miles south of Jerusalem) by dawn on the 8th, and no troops were to enter Jerusalem during this operation. . . .On the 7th the weather broke, and for three days rain was almost continuous. The hills were covered with mist at frequent intervals, rendering observation from the air and visual signaling impossible. A more serious effect of the rain was to jeopardize the supply arrangement by rendering the roads almost impassable—quite impassable, indeed, for mechanical transport and camels in many places."
Excerpt from the account by British General Edmund Allenby of the advance through Palestine on Jerusalem in December, 1917. The British advance from Egypt had been halted at Gaza, where the Turks were twice victorious early in the year, but the Turks lost the city and the Third Battle of Gaza on November 6.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. V, 1917, pp. 406–407, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
1917-12-07, 1917, December, Jerusalem, Allenby, Hebron, Palestine, Battle of Gaza
