n (the main route being avoided) proved very
bad, and in many places the whole division had to proceed in "single file".
In some places, also, horses were led. The natives, who had gathered upon
the road-side from the villages which we passed, stood silently watching
us. They must have been amazed, and the troops must have appeared to them
veritable "ghosts of the night". At 23.30 a halt of 30 minutes was made, at
a small village, and horses fed. In the early hours of the morning many
horses, belonging to the forward part of the column, were passed by the
wayside. They were completely "done". No doubt they were, in some cases,
able, later on, to join up, but in their present state their riders had
taken their saddles off and had lain down beside them, to sleep. For the
moment these men had nothing further to do, but they must have run a
serious risk from hostile natives when the Brigade had passed by. At 04.00
the next morning we emerged upon the open Plain of Esdraelon.[20]

FOOTNOTES:

[20] _The Plain of Esdraelon stretches across Central Palestine, and
has an average width of about 10 miles. It forms a wide break between
the Mountains of Galilee on the north and those of Samaria on the
south. It has always been a great battlefield; in the Bible it is
called the Plain of Jezreel; see Judges iv, 3, v, 21, vi, 1; I Sam.
xxix, xxxi; I Kings xx, 25; Josh. xvii, 16._

A GREAT MOVE!

Now was to take place an interesting development in the operations. With
Nazareth within fairly close reach, our objective was at hand. We formed up
as quickly as possible in "Line of troop column," and then moved along the
plain to the east, heading slightly towards the north, gradually nearing
the north side as we proceeded forward. The objective for the 14th Brigade
was to cut the main road to Nazareth from the south, thus cutting off all
communication between the Turkish General Headquarters at Nazareth and
their line, which ran across the country from Arsuf to the north of the
Dead Sea. The 13th Brigade, which, it will be remembered, up to this point
had been the leading one, after forming up, made for the hills on the other
side of the plain, and, reaching them, turned to the east, towards their
objective which was _the Turkish General Headquarters at Nazareth_!

The "going" on the plain was very bad, especially in the dark, the ground
being a network of cracks and covered with a species of tall needle-gra