infantry, who
had been scrambling about the hills of Samaria for three days, could not
run fast enough to catch the Turks, who were making their way through the
Wadi Farah towards the Jisr ed Damieh ford. Half-way through the wadi the
road has on one side a deep, gloomy gorge, while on the other stretch gaunt
hills terrible in their desolation and stony barrenness. The whole aspect
of the place is sinister and forbidding in the extreme, and one can imagine
the panic-stricken Turks hurrying through yet a little faster, eager to
sight the yellow waters of the Jordan. But they never reached the goal, for
the Royal Air Force found the column half-way through the gorge. Relays of
machines joined in the attack, first dropping bombs and then flying low and
spraying the column with bullets. In five minutes the road eastwards was
blocked, and driven by the slow but remorseless advance of our infantry far
in the rear, with impassable hills on the one hand, and a precipice on the
other, the column was caught in a trap.

A part of it tried to escape, before being driven into the gorge, by a road
leading to the north, but were bombed back again into the shambles. Mad
with terror, some of the Turks tried to scramble up the steep hills, others
made an attempt to descend into the deep gorge; anywhere to escape from the
awful hail of bombs and bullets. For four hours the slaughter continued,
and when "Cease fire" was ordered, the road for nine miles was literally a
vast charnel-house. Guns, limbers, commissariat-waggons, field-kitchens,
every conceivable form of vehicle, including a private barouche, lay heaped
together in monstrous confusion; and when night fell ragged, half-starved
Bedouins descended upon the stricken valley, stealing from pile to pile of
debris in search of loot, nor could the rifles of the guards deter them
from the ghoulish task. It took an entire division three weeks to clear the
roads and bury the dead.

Isolated columns from the Turkish 7th Army did succeed in reaching the
Jordan, but were all killed or captured by the mounted troops left in the
valley. Daily the toll of prisoners increased, as hundreds of Turks who had
been in hiding in the hills round Samaria and Nablus were driven by hunger
to give themselves up to the searching parties. Ras el Ain, which had been
a part of our front line, presented an extraordinary spectacle, for most
of the prisoners passed through here on their way south to Wilhelma and
be