artillery into action, and only three sections of artillery were
brought up, the horses of the guns sent back to Ramleh being used to
double the teams in the three advanced sections. It was heavy work,
too, for infantry who not only had to carry the weight of mud-caked
boots, but were handicapped by continual slipping upon the rocky
ground. The 75th advancing along the road from Enab to Kustul got an
idea of the Turkish lack of attention to the highway, the main road
being deep in mud and full of dangerous ruts. They won Kustul about
midday, and officers who climbed to the top got their first glimpse
of the outskirts of Jerusalem from the ruined walls of a Roman castle
that gives its name to the little village perched on the height. They
did not, however, see much beyond the Syrian colony behind the main
Turkish defences, and the first view of Jerusalem by the troops of
the British Army was obtained by General Maclean's brigade when they
advanced from Biddu to Nebi Samwil, that crowning height on which many
centuries before Richard the Lion Heart buried his face in his casque
and exclaimed: 'Lord God, I pray that I may never see Thy Holy City,
if so be that I may not rescue it from the hands of Thine enemies.'

What a fight it was for Nebi Samwil! The Turk had made it his advanced
work for his main line running from El Jib through Bir Nabala, Beit
Iksa to Lifta, as strong a chain of entrenched mountains as any
commander could desire. General Maclean's brigade advanced from Biddu
along the side of a ridge and up the exposed steep slope of Nebi
Samwil, not all of which, in the only direction he could select for an
advance, was terraced, as it was on the Turks' side. He was all
the time confronted by heavy artillery and rifle fire, and, though
supported by guns firing at long range from the neighbourhood of Enab,
he could not make Nebi Samwil in daylight. Round the top of the hill
the Turk had dug deeply into the stony earth. He knew the value
of that hill. From its crest good observation was obtained in all
directions, and if, when we had to attack the main Jerusalem defences
on December 8, the summit of Nebi Samwil had still been in Turkish
hands, not a movement of troops as they issued from the bed of the
wadi Surar and climbed the rough face of the western buttresses of
Jerusalem would have escaped notice. The brigade won the hill and held
it just before midnight, but the battle for the crest ebbed and flowed
for days