On the right is an article by American journalist Lowell Thomas (1892 – 1981) regarding all that he witnessed while reporting on General Edmund Allenby’s campaign against Johnny Turk in the Sinai and Palestine Theater during the First World War. This reminiscence was written many years after the war in an effort to make up for the fact that “after eighteen years, no clear-cut account of Allenby’s campaign has been set down”:
“You will get a real idea of what may well be impending from the story Kenneth Brown Collings and I have to tell you – the story of how the largest cavalry army in all history succeeded at last where Richard of the Lion Heart had failed.”
“The Turks had fled during the night; the mayor of was coming out to surrender the city to Allenby’s army. The first British soldiers he saw were these two Tommies. The mayor didn’t know anything about army rank; any British uniform was the symbol of Britain’s might as far as he was concerned. He made an eloquent speech and surrendered the Holy City – to a cockney cook and a kitchen mechanic.”
“That was too deep for the cook.” ‘We don’t want the surrender of the ‘Olly City, sir,’ he said. ‘All we wants is heggs for our hofficer.'”
Click here to hear Lowell Thomas give an audio account of his W.W. I experiences in the Middle East.
More about this victory can be read here
Click here to read about Lawrence of Arabia…
KEY WORDS:
Suez Canal defenses 1918,ww1 aerial recognizance during the Palestine campaign of general allenby,military intelligence during the Palestine campaign of general allenby,failed Turkish assault on the Suez Canal during WW1,Lowell Thomas and Kenneth Brown Collings article about WW1,british sixtieth division outside Jerusalem 1917,Beersheba cavalry battle 1917,British army in Bethlehem 1917,British army captures Neby Swami 1917,rfc pilot lieutenant peter drummond the battle for jerusalem 1917,british general coxcaptured ramleh 1917,judean hills 1917,Mughar Hill 1917,gezer the ancient doorway to the holy city 1917
