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Capture of Damascus (1918)
Part of Final Offensive
Date 26 September to 1 October 1918 Location Advance from Tiberias and Deraa to Damascus Result British Empire victory
Belligerents
British Empire  British India  Australia  New Zealand Indian Princely states Hyderabad Jodhpur Mysore  Arab Revolt  France	Ottoman Empire  German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Edmund Allenby Henry Chauvel	Liman von Sanders Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Jevad Pasha Oberst von Oppen
Units involved
Desert Mounted Corps	Fourth Army Seventh Army Eighth Army Asia Corps

The Capture of Damascus occurred on 1 October 1918.

Background

On 24 September, Allenby received a communication from Sir Henry Wilson (CIGS):

Your success being so complete, I should like you to consider the possibility of a cavalry raid on ALEPPO, to be supported by infantry or not as the situation developed and as opportunities offered.

The War Cabinet was prepared to take full responsibility for any "risks involved," but Allenby hesitated as Aleppo was about 300 miles (480 km) from Nazareth and informed Wilson that such a raid did not seem feasible unless supported by large–scale military and naval operations at Alexandretta. Allenby envisaged his next advance would be to the Damascus–Beirut line.

Populations living on the battlefields

At the time the peoples of the area varied greatly in their background, religious beliefs and political outlook. North of these in the Southern Lebanon, four varieties of Christians; the Maronite, Greek Uniats, Greek and Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) lived alongside many Protestants, Druses and Metawala. Living in the Southern Bukaa and on the western slope of Mount Hermon, were more Druses, while in the Bukaa, Metawala and Syrian Orthodox Christians lived. In the Northern Lebanon, besides the same sects of Christians as in the south, more Metawala and an exclusive set of Shiahs, the Ismailiyah lived. In the Eastern Hauran, the bulk of the Druses lived while in Jaulan, more Circassians, Metawala and some Algerian colonists lived. North of Damascus many Syrian Christians and to both the north and the south, some Metawola, while east of all these peoples, the Bedouin Arab lived.

Ottoman garrison

Holding the Deraa to Damascus area was the Hauran Detachment of one regiment and Circassian irregulars under the command of the II Corps (Fourth Army) at Amman.

Capture of Dera'a 27 September (by Hedjaz Arab forces)

Before Haifa fell our troops were moving swiftly east of Jordan. A Division of Indian and Yeomanry cavalry crossed the Jordan about Beisan and rode eastward.

On the fringe of the desert the Army of the Sherif of Mecca, harassed the Ottoman army by day and night, repeatedly cutting railway and telegraph communications with Damascus. While Chaytor's Force advanced to Es Salt and Amman, the Hedjaz Arabs appeared on the flank of the enemy north of Deraa, and cut the railway where the Hedjaz line junctions with the line which supplied the Turks west of the Jordan.

Notes

Citations

1. Wilson to Allenby received 24 September 1918 in Woodward p. 203
2. Wilson to Allenby, received 24 September and Allenby to Wilson, 25 September 1918 in Woodward pp. 203–4
3. Handbook 9/4/18 p. 61
4. Falls p. 548
5. Gullett 1919 p.39
6. Gullett 1919 p.39

References

• Great Britain, Army, Egyptian Expeditionary Force (1918). Handbook on Northern Palestine and Southern Syria (1st provisional 9 April ed.). Cairo: Government Press. OCLC 23101324.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Woodward, David R. (2006). Hell in the Holy Land World War I in the Middle East. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-2383-7.

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