cember the 54th Division assaulted
Bald Hill, a prominent mound south of the Auja from which a
magnificent view of the country was gained. Stiff fighting resulted,
but the enemy was driven off with a loss of 4 officers and 48 other
ranks killed, and 3 officers and 41 men taken prisoners. At dawn the
Division reported that the enemy was retiring from Mulebbis and Fejja,
and those places were soon in our hands. H.M.S. _Grafton_, with
Admiral T. Jackson, the monitors M29, M31, and M32, and the destroyers
_Lapwing_ and _Lizard_, arrived off the coast and shelled Jelil and
Arsuf, and the 52nd Division, advancing on a broad front, occupied the
whole of their objectives by five o'clock in the afternoon. The 157th
Brigade got all the high ground about Arsuf, and thus prevented the
enemy from obtaining a long-range view of Jaffa. A few rounds of shell
fired by a naval gun at a range of nearly twenty miles fell in Jaffa
some months afterwards, but with this exception Jaffa was quite free
from the enemy's attentions. The brilliant operation on the Auja had
saved the town and its people many anxious days. By the end of the
year there were three strong bridges across the river, and three
others substantial enough to bear the weight of tractors and their
loads were under construction. The troops received their winter
clothing; bivouac shelters and tents were beginning to arrive. Baths
and laundries were in operation, and the rigours of the campaign began
to be eased. But the XXIst Corps could congratulate itself that,
notwithstanding two months of open warfare, often fifty to sixty miles
from railhead, men's rations had never been reduced. Horses and mules
had had short allowances, but they could pick up a little in the
country. The men were in good health, despite the hardships in the
hills and rapid change from summer to winter, and their spirit could
not be surpassed.

CHAPTER XVIII

BY THE BANKS OF THE JORDAN

We have seen how impregnable the defences of Jerusalem had become as
the result of the big advance northwards at the end of December.
As far as any military forecast could be made we were now in an
impenetrable position whatever force the Turk, with his poor
communications, could employ against us either from the direction of
Nablus or from the east of the Jordan. There seemed to be no risk
whatever, so long as we chose to hold the line XXth Corps had won,
of the Turks again approaching Jerusalem, but the Commande