ful attacks against our line on the morning
of December 27--the venture had a disastrous ending, and instead of
reaching Jerusalem the enemy had to yield to British arms seven miles
of most valuable country and gave us, in place of one line, four
strong lines for the defence of the Holy City. By supreme judgment,
when the Turks had committed themselves to the attack on Tel el Ful,
without which they could not move a yard on the Nablus road, General
Chetwode started his operations on the left of his line with the 10th
and 74th Divisions, using his plan as it had been prepared for some
days to seize successive lines of hills, and compelled the enemy,
in order to meet this attack, to divert the fresh division held in
waiting at Bireh to throw forward into Jerusalem the moment the
storming troops should pierce our line. With the precision of
clockwork the Irish and dismounted yeomanry divisions secured their
objectives, and on the second day of the fighting we regained the
initiative and compelled the Turks to conform to our dispositions.
On the fourth day we were on the Ramallah-Bireh line and secured for
Jerusalem an impregnable defence. Prisoners told us that they had been
promised, as a reward for their hoped-for success, a day in Jerusalem
to do as they liked. We can imagine what the situation in the Holy
City would have been had our line been less true. The Londoners who
had won the City saved it. Probably only a few of the inhabitants had
any knowledge of the danger the City was in on December 27. Their
confidence in the British troops had grown and could scarcely be
stronger, but some of them were alarmed, and throughout the early
morning and day they knelt on housetops earnestly praying that our
soldiers would have strength to withstand the Turkish onslaughts. From
that day onward the sound of the guns was less violent, and as our
artillery advanced northwards the people's misgivings vanished and
they reproached themselves for their fears.

It will be remembered how the troops of the XXth Corps were disposed.
The 53rd Division held the line south-east and east of Jerusalem from
Bir Asad through Abu Dis, Bethany, to north of the Mount of Olives,
whence the 60th Division took it up from Meshari, east of Shafat to
Tel el Ful and to Beit Hannina across the Jerusalem-Nablus road. The
74th Division carried on to Nebi Samwil, Beit Izza to Beit Dukku, with
the 10th Division on their left through Foka, Tahta to Suffa, the g