Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by RoslynSKP (talk | contribs) at 08:40, 21 April 2012 (→Capture of Dera'a 27 September (by Hedjaz Arab forces)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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.

Liman's withdrawal

While Liman was out of contact until late in the afternoon of 20 September, following his hasty retreat from Nazareth in the early hours of the morning, the Fourth Army, still without orders stood firm. Liman continued his journey via Tiberias and Samakh late in the afternoon, to arrived at Deraa on the morning of 21 September, on his way to Damascus. At Deraa he received a report from the Fourth Army, which he ordered to withdraw to the Yarmuk to Deraa to Irbid line, without waiting for the southern Hedjaz troops. Liman found Deraa "fairly secure" and placed its commandant, Major Willmer in temporary command of the whole front from Deraa to Samakh.(See also Battle of Nablus (1918)

At Deraa, during the evening of 21 September Liman met with the leaders of several thousand Druses who agreed to remain neutral.

Liman's staff was already at Damascus, when he arrived there in the evening of 23 September, after his journey from Nazareth. He requested the Second Army garrisoning Northern Syria to move to the defence of the city.

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.

Between 6,000 and 7,000 managed to escape via Deraa or Tiberias towards Damascus before these places were captured by Desert Mounted Corps. At Jisr Benat Yakub (bridge of the Daughters of Jacob) on the upper Jordan north of the Sea of Gallilee the mounted advance was held up by a strong rearguard.

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.

On 27 September Australian aircraft reconnoitred Damascus for the first time. They found the railway station filled with hundreds of carriages and engines and retreating columns and transport on the roads from Deraa and north of Jisr Benat Yakub. In the afternoon of 28 September Damascus aerodrome was bombed and burnt and the following morning Damascus was being evacuated.

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 1930 Vol. 2 pp. 511, 545
5. "Keogh251"
6. Wavell 1968 p. 223
7. Falls 1930 Vol. 2 p. 545
8. Falls 1930 Vol. 2 pp. 545–6
9. Falls p. 548
10. Cutlack p. 167
11. Gullett 1919 p.39
12. Gullett 1919 p.39
13. Cutlack p. 167

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.

External links

• example.com

• Articles created via the Article Wizard