The troops were moved into position, and the main attack
was launched at dawn on December 8th. This attack was immediately
successful and resulted in the surrender of Jerusalem by the Turks to the
60TH DIVISION on the morning of Sunday, December 9th. Thus, after four
centuries of conquest, the Turk was ridding the land of his presence in the
bitterness of defeat. _On this same day_, 2082 years before, another race
of conquerors, equally detested, were looking their last on the city which
they could not hold, and, inasmuch as the liberation of Jerusalem in 1917
will probably ameliorate the lot of the Jews more than that of any other
community in Palestine, it was fitting that the flight of the Turks should
have coincided with the national festival of the Hanukah, which
commemorates the re-capture of the Temple from the heathen Seleucids by
Judas Maccabaeus in 165 B.C.
PART III.
AFTER JERUSALEM--A REST!
During the last-mentioned operations, the Squadron had lost three officers
and 67 men (out of the total of seven officers and 182 men, with which it
started from Amr), and had only received one officer and three men as
reinforcements. The losses in animals were: 50 riding horses, 15 draught
and pack animals and one donkey.
Pages:
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74