Jill Curry

While there was tremendous interest in the 100th Anniversary of the Charge of Beersheba last year, the success of that event only led to the liberation of the southern part of the Holy Land up to Jerusalem. The task was not yet completed. As Malcolm Turnbull said at the commemoration service at Beersheba, “Had the Ottoman rule in Palestine and Syria not been overthrown by the Australians and the New Zealanders, the Balfour Declaration would have been empty words.” Three quarters of Palestine and all of Syria were still under the Ottomans at the end of 1917. There was a muddy, cold winter and hot, dry summer to endure and many more battles to fight before the Balfour Declaration could be implemented. The Turkish defence line had been re-established north of Jaffa from the Mediterranean Sea right across to the Jordan River and was held by the Turkish 7th and 8th armies. Over the Jordan River was the 4th army. Two attempts to capture land in today’s Jordan in March and April of 1918 were unsuccessful physically although General Allenby felt strategically that it kept the focus on the eastern side while he was concocting his plan to attack on […]