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.
"On November 15, Australian and New Zealand troops occupied the towns of Ramleh and Lydda. This latter was the former crusader town of St Georges de Lydde, home of St George of dragon-slaying fame whom British crusaders had brought back as their patron saint six hundred years earlier. New Zealand cavalrymen entered Jaffa on November 16 [1917]. Their next objective was Jerusalem."
From May 1916 to March 1917, British forces built the infrastructure—roads, rail, and water—to support an offensive against Ottoman forces in Palestine and Syria. Advancing from the Egyptian border, they crossed Sinai along the Mediterranean coast. They were defeated by the Turks in two Battles of Gaza (March 26 to 28, April 20), but victorious in the Third Battle of Gaza, fought from November 1 to November 6, and ending with the Turks abandoning the city. Lydda and Ramleh (now Lod and Ramla, Israel) are about 10 miles from the coast, seaside Jaffa lying to their northwest. Jerusalem is further inland.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 377, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
1917-11-16, 1917, November, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Gaza, Palestine,
