of the
Turkish Army was not high may be gathered from a very illuminating
letter written by General Kress von Kressenstein, the G.O.C. of the
Sinai front, to Yilderim headquarters on September 29, 1917.[1]

[Footnote 1: See Appendix IV.]

The troops who won Palestine and made it happier than it had been for
four centuries were exclusively soldiers of the British Empire.
There was a French detachment and an Italian detachment with General
Allenby's Army. The Italians for a short period held a small portion
of the line in the Gaza sector, but did not advance with our force;
the French detachment were solely employed as garrison troops. The
French battleship _Requin_ and two French destroyers cooperated with
the ships of the Royal Navy in the bombardment of the coast. Our Army
was truly representative of the Empire, and the units composing it
gave an abiding example that in unity rested our strength. From over
the Seven Seas the Empire's sons came to illustrate the unanimity
of all the King's subjects in the prosecution of the war. English,
Scottish, Irish, and Welsh divisions of good men and true fought side
by side with soldiers of varying Indian races and castes. Australia's
valiant sons constituted many brigades of horse and, with New Zealand
mounted regiments, became the most hardened campaigners in the
Egyptian and Palestine theatre of operations. Their powerful support
in the day of anxiety and trial, as well as in the time of triumph,
will be remembered with gratitude. South Africa contributed good
gunners; our dark-skinned brethren in the West Indies furnished
infantry who, when the fierce summer heat made the air in the Jordan
Valley like a draught from a furnace, had a bayonet charge which
aroused an Anzac brigade to enthusiasm (and Colonial free men can
estimate bravery at its true value). From far-away Hong Kong and
Singapore came mountain gunners equal to any in the world, Kroomen
sent from their homes in West Africa surf boatmen to land stores,
Raratongas from the Southern Pacific vied with them in boat craft and
beat them in physique, while Egypt contributed a labour corps and
transport corps running a long way into six figures. The communion of
the representatives of the Mother and Daughter nations on the stern
field of war brought together people with the same ideals, and if
there are any minor jealousies between them the brotherhood of arms
will make the soldiers returning to their homes in all quarte