was
still disputed by enemy rear guards, from whom prisoners and guns were
captured. The enemy rear-guards were defeated, and, by the evening of
the 30th, the city was partially surrounded.

Early on the morning of the 1st October, a British force and a portion
of the Arab army of King Hussein occupied the city of Damascus.

In the course of a fortnight the enemy line had been broken; Samaria,
Galilee, Eastern Palestine and Damascus had been conquered; three
Turkish armies had been destroyed, with a loss of their entire war
material; and over 350 guns and 71,000 prisoners had been captured.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 11: Mr. W. T. Massey, Official Correspondent with the E.E.F.]

CHAPTER XVIII

CONCLUSION

Serious fighting had practically finished with the capture of Damascus.
The northward flight of the Turks continued, closely pursued by our
cavalry and armoured cars. A Division of infantry was brought forward in
support, but the difficulties of supplying a large force so far away
from a base made it impossible to bring forward the infantry in any
strength. Australians rounded up a Turkish column some miles north of
Damascus, and a few thousand more prisoners were captured. Beyrout, the
port of Damascus, was abandoned without a blow, and, on the 6th October,
was occupied by the allies. A Division of French troops was landed here,
and, thereafter, this port became the main channel of supply for the
troops operating in Northern Syria.

Our forces pushed on northwards, meeting with little or no opposition,
and occupying Baalbek, Tripolis and Homs. A Turkish force, under General
Liman von Sanders, and estimated at about 12,000, concentrated a few
miles south of Aleppo, where they threatened to offer some resistance.
The advance northward was, however, unopposed. The enemy had constructed
trenches covering Aleppo, and at first showed signs of holding them.
But, after our armoured cars had got into touch, and our airmen had
bombed them, the enemy decided to evacuate, and withdrew to the hills
towards Alexandretta. Aleppo was entered by our cavalry on the 26th
October, and the station was seized at Muslimie, the junction of the
Baghdad Railway. By these captures we had made ourselves masters of the
main line of communications with Constantinople of the Turkish armies in
Mesopotamia.

Their armies virtually destroyed, the Turks now concluded an armistice,
which took effect as from the 31st October. Their allies