ap
between the XXth Corps to the right of the XXIst Corps being held
by the 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade of the Australian Mounted
Division. Against us were the 27th Turkish Division and the 7th and
27th cavalry regiments south of the Jericho road, with the 26th, 53rd,
19th, and 24th Divisions on the north of that road and to the west of
the Jerusalem-Nablus road, one division being in reserve at Bireh, the
latter a new division fresh from the Caucasus. The 6th and 8th Turkish
cavalry regiments were facing our extreme left, the estimated strength
of the enemy in the line being 14,700 rifles and 2300 sabres. Just as
it was getting dark on December 11 a party of the enemy attacked the
179th Brigade at Tel el Ful but were repulsed. There was not much
activity the following day, but the 53rd Division began a series of
minor operations by which they secured some features of tactical
importance. On the 13th the 181st Brigade made a dashing attack on Ras
el Kharrabeh and secured it, taking 43 prisoners and two machine guns,
with 31 casualties to themselves.

It was about this time the Corps Commander framed plans for the
advance of our front north of Jerusalem. There had been a few days of
fine weather, and a great deal had been done to improve the condition
of the roads and communications. An army of Egyptian labourers had
set to work on the Enab-Jerusalem road and from the villages had come
strong reinforcements of natives, women as well as men (and the women
did quite as much work as the men), attracted by the unusual wage
payable in cash. In Jerusalem, too, the natives were sent to labour on
the roads and to clean up some of the filth that the Turks had allowed
to accumulate for years, if not for generations, inside the Holy City.
The Army not merely provided work for idle hands but enabled starving
bodies to be vitalised. Food was brought into Jerusalem, and with the
cash wages old and young labourers could get more than a sufficiency.
The native in the hills proved to be a good road repairer, and the
boys and women showed an eagerness to earn their daily rates of pay;
the men generally looked on and gave directions. It was some time
before steam rollers crushed in the surface, but even rammed-in stones
were better than mud, and the lorry drivers' tasks became lighter.

General Chetwode's plan was to secure a line from Obeid, 9000 yards
east of Bethlehem, the hill of Zamby covering the Jericho road three
miles fro