The British were as ready as the Germans to use revolution as an instrument of war.
But while the guns and infantry pinned the Turks frontally, inland and to the east 'there grew a muttering that spread for miles - the pounding of ten thousand hooves'. This was a campaign in which cavalry still had a role to play: 'though most of us laughed when the first shells screamed towards us, other men smoked as we broke into a thundering canter holding back in the saddles to prevent the horses from breaking into a mad gallop'. Beersheba, with its water supply, was captured on 31 October. 'Men are remarking', noted one exultant trooper of the Australian Light Horse, 'how the Turk fights till the very last charge, until the pounding hooves are upon him, then he drops his rifle and runs screaming; while the Austrian artillerymen and German machine-gun teams often fight with their guns until they are bayoneted.' Unable to hold the line, Falkenhayn pulled back to the hills north of Jerusalem, resting his right flank on Jaffa. In February 1918 he was recalled to Germany, but not before he had intervened to prevent the resettlement of the Jews, they were reckoned to be spying, but neither the Germans nor Talât, elevated to become Ottoman Grand Vizier in February 1917, wanted a repeat of the Armenian massacres. |
this summer. Follow the link to my Fort Ticonderoga page for more.