the brigade got over the watercourse just north
of Setaf a little after midnight. As a preliminary to the attack on
the first objective it was necessary to secure the high ground south
of Ain Karim and the trenches covering that bright and picturesque
little town. At two o'clock, when rain and mist made it so dark it was
not possible to see a wall a couple of yards ahead, the Kensingtons
advanced to gain the heights south of Ain Karim in order to enable
the 179th Brigade to be deployed. A scrambling climb brought the
Kensingtons to the top of the hill, and, after a weird fight of
an hour and a half in such blackness of night that it was hard to
distinguish between friend and foe, they captured it and beat off
several persistent counter-attacks. The 179th Brigade thus had the
ground secured for preparing to attack their section of the main
defences. The 180th Infantry Brigade, whose brigadier, Brig.-General
Watson, had the honour of being the first general in Jerusalem, the
first across the Jordan, and the first to get through the Turkish line
in September 1918 when General Allenby sprang forward through the
Turks and made the mighty march to Aleppo, was composed of the 2/17th
London, 2/18th London, 2/19th London, and 2/20th London, 519th Coy.
R.E., two platoons of pioneers, and the 2/5th Field Ambulance. It
reached its position of assembly without serious opposition, though a
detachment which went through the village of Kulonieh met some enemy
posts. These, to use the brigadier's phrase, were 'silently dealt
with.'

It was a fine feat to get the two brigades of Londoners into their
positions of deployment well up to time. The infantry had to get from
Kustul down a precipitous slope of nearly a thousand feet into a wadi,
now a rushing torrent, and up a rocky and almost as steep hill on the
other side. Nobody could see where he was going, but direction was
kept perfectly and silence was well maintained, the loosened stones
falling into mud. The assault was launched at a quarter-past five, and
in ten minutes under two hours the two brigades (the 181st Brigade
being in reserve just south of Kustul) had penetrated the whole of the
front line of the defences. The Queen's Westminsters on the left
of the Kensingtons had cleared the Turks out of Ain Karim and then
climbed up a steep spur to attack the formidable Khurbet Subr
defences. They took the garrison completely by surprise, and those
who did not flee were either killed