m Jerusalem, Anata, Hismeh, Jeba, Burkah, Beitun, El Balua,
Kh. el Burj, Deir Ibzia to Shilta. The scheme was to strike with the
53rd and 60th Divisions astride the Jerusalem-Nablus road, and at the
same time to push the 10th Division and a part of the 74th Division
eastwards from the neighbourhood of Tahta and Foka. The weather again
became bad on December 14 and the troops suffered great discomfort
from heavy rains and violent, cold winds, so that only light
operations were undertaken. On the 17th the West Kent and Sussex
battalions of the 160th Brigade stalked the high ground east of Abu
Dis at dawn, and at the cost of only 26 casualties took the ridge with
5 officers and 121 other ranks prisoners, and buried 46 enemy dead.
One battalion went up the hill on one side, while the Sussex crept up
the opposite side, the Turks being caught between two fires. The 53rd
Division also improved their position on the 21st December. As one
leaves Bethany and proceeds down the Jericho road one passes along a
steep zigzag with several hairpin bends until one reaches a guardhouse
near a well about a mile east of Bethany. The road still falls
smartly, following a straighter line close to a wadi bed, but hills
rise very steeply from the highway, and for its whole length until
it reaches the Jordan valley the road is always covered by high bare
mountains. Soon after leaving the zigzag there is a series of three
hills to the north of the road. It was important to obtain possession
of two of these hills, the first called Zamby and the second named by
the Welsh troops 'Whitehill,' from the bright limestone outcrop at the
crest. The 159th Brigade attacked and gained Zamby and then turned
nearer the Jericho road to capture Whitehill. The Turks resisted very
stoutly, and there was heavy fighting about the trenches just below
the top of the hill. By noon the brigade had driven the enemy off, but
three determined counter-attacks were delivered that day and the
next and the brigade lost 180 killed and wounded. The Turks suffered
heavily in the counter-attacks and left over 50 dead behind them; also
a few prisoners. At a later date there was further strong fighting
around this hill, and at one period it became impossible for either
side to hold it.

By the 21st there was a readjustment of the line on the assumption
that the XXth Corps would attack the Turks on Christmas Day, the 53rd
Division taking over the line as far north as the wadi Anata,