f
Jerusalem to oppose the advance of the 53rd Division, General Chetwode
proposed that the 60th and 74th Divisions should force straight
through to the Jerusalem-Nablus road, the 60th throwing out a flank
to the south-east, so as to cut off the Turks opposing the 53rd from
either the Nablus or the Jericho road. It was not considered probable
that the enemy would risk the capture of a large body of troops south
of Jerusalem. On the other hand, should the Turks withdraw from in
front of the Welsh Division, the alternative plan provided that the
latter attack should take the form of making a direct advance on
Jerusalem and a wheel by the 60th and 74th Divisions, pivoting on
the Beit Izza and Nebi Sainwil defences, so as to drive the enemy
northwards. The operations were to be divided into four phases. The
first phase fell to the 60th and 74th Divisions, and consisted in the
capture of the whole of the south-western and western defences of
Jerusalem.

These ran from a point near the railway south-west of Malhah round to
the west of Ain Karim, then on to the hill of Khurbet Subr, down a
cleft in the hills and up on to the high Deir Yesin ridge, thence
round the top of two other hills dominating the old and new roads to
Jerusalem from Jaffa as they pass by the village of Kulonieh. North of
the new road the enemy's line ran round the southern face of a bold
hill overlooking the village of Beit Iksa and along the tortuous
course of the wadi El Abbeideh. In the second phase the 60th Division
was to move over the Jaffa-Jerusalem road with its right almost up
to the scattered houses on the north-western fringe of Jerusalem's
suburbs, and its left was to pass the village of Lifta on the slope of
the hill rising from the wadi Beit Hannina. The objective of the 60th
Division in the third phase was the capture of a line of a track
leaving the Jerusalem-Nablus road well forward of the northern suburb
and running down to the wadi Hannina, the 74th Division advancing down
the spur running south-east from Nebi Samwil to a point about 1000
yards south-west of Beit Hannina, the latter a prominent height with a
slope amply clothed with olive trees. The fourth phase was an advance
astride the road to Ras et Tawil. As will be seen hereafter all these
objectives were not obtained, but the first, and chief of them, was,
and the inevitable followed--Jerusalem became ours.

Let us now picture some of the country the troops had to cross and the