the 60th
Division extending its left to include Nebi Samwil, and the 74th going
as far west as Tahta. As a preliminary to the big movement the 180th
Brigade was directed to move on Kh. Adaseh, a hill between Tel el Ful
and Tawil, in the early hours of December 23, and the 181st Brigade
was to seize a height about half a mile north of Beit Hannina. The
latter attack succeeded, but despite the most gallant and repeated
efforts the 180th Brigade was unable to gain the summit of Adaseh,
though they got well up the hill. The weather became bad once more,
and meteorological reports indicated no improvement in the conditions
for at least twenty-four hours, and as the moving forward of artillery
and supplies was impossible in the rain, General Chetwode with the
concurrence of G.H.Q. decided that the attack should not be made on
Christmas Day. The 60th Division thereupon did not further prosecute
their attack on Adaseh. On the 24th December, while General Chetwode
was conferring with his divisional commanders, information was brought
in that the Turks were making preparations to recapture Jerusalem by
an attack on the 60th Division, and the Corps Commander decided that
the moment the enemy was found to be fully committed to this attack
the 10th Division and one brigade of the 74th Division would fall on
the enemy's right and advance over the Zeitun, Kereina, and Ibzia
ridges. How well this plan worked out was shown before the beginning
of the New Year, by which time we had secured a great depth of ground
at a cost infinitely smaller than could have been expected if the
Turks had remained on the defensive, while the Turkish losses, at a
moment when they required to preserve every fighting man, were much
greater than we could have hoped to inflict if they had not come into
the open. There was never a fear that the enemy would break through.
We had commanding positions everywhere, and the more one studied our
line on the chain of far-flung hills the more clearly one realised the
prevision and military skill of General Chetwode and the staff of the
XXth Corps in preparing the plans for its capture before the advance
on Jerusalem was started. The 'fourth objective' of December 8-9 well
and truly laid the foundations for Jerusalem's security, and relieved
the inhabitants from the accumulated burdens of more than three years
of war. We had nibbled at pieces of ground to flatten out the line
here and there, but in the main the line the T