e 180th Brigade. On the evening of December 8 the
position of the attacking force was this. The 53rd Division (I will
deal presently with the advance of this Division) was across the
Bethlehem-Hebron road from El Keiseraniyeh, two miles south of
Bethlehem, to Ras el Balua in an east and west direction, then
north-west to the hill of Haud Kibriyan with its flank thrown south to
cover Kh. el Kuseir. The 10th Australian Light Horse were at Malhah.
The 179th and 180th Brigades of the 60th Division occupied positions
extending from Malhah through a line more than a mile east of the
captured defences west of Jerusalem to Lifta, with the 181st Brigade
in divisional reserve near Kustul. The 229th and 230th Brigades of the
74th Division held a due north and south line from the Jaffa-Jerusalem
road about midway between Kulonieh and Lifta through Beit Iksa to Nebi
Samwil. The 53rd Division had not reached their line without enormous
trouble. But for the two days' rain and fog it is quite possible that
the whole of the four objectives planned by the XXth Corps would have
been gained, and whether any substantial body of Turks could have left
the vicinity of Jerusalem by either the Nablus or Jericho roads is
doubtful. The weather proved to be the Turks' ally. The 53rd Division
battled against it. Until fog came down to prevent reconnaissance
in an extremely bad bit of country they were well up to their march
table, and in the few clear moments of the afternoon of the 7th,
General Mott, from the top of Ras esh Sherifeh, a hill 3237 feet high,
the most prominent feature south of Jerusalem, caught a glimpse of
Bethlehem and the Holy City. It was only a temporary break in the
weather, and the fog came down again so thick that neither the
positions of the Bethlehem defences nor those of Beit Jala could be
reconnoitred.

The Division, after withstanding the repeated shocks of enemy attacks
at Khuweilfeh immediately following the taking of Beersheba, had had a
comparatively light time watching the Hebron road. They constructed
a track over the mountains to get the Division to Dharahiyeh when
it should be ordered to take part in the attack on the Jerusalem
defences, and while they were waiting at Dilbeih they did much to
improve the main road. The famous zigzag on the steep ridge between
Dharahiyeh and Dilbeih was in good condition, and you saw German
thoroughness in the gradients, in the well-banked bends, and in the
masonry walls which he