sh, deployed and advanced direct on Sherifeh and gained the
summit soon after dawn in time to see small parties of enemy cavalry
moving off; then the fog and rain enveloped everything. The 4th Welsh
held the hill during the night in pouring rain with no rations--pack
mules could not get up the height--and the men having no greatcoats
were perished with the cold. Colonel Pemberton, their C.O., came down
to report the men all right, and asked for no relief till the morning
when they could be brought back to their transport. The General went
beyond Solomon's Pools and was within rifle fire from the Turkish
trenches in his efforts to reconnoitre, but it was impossible to see
ahead, and instead of being able to begin his attack in the Beit
Jala-Bethlehem area on the morning of the 8th, that morning arrived
before any reconnaissance could be made. He decided to attack on the
high ground of Beit Jala (two miles north-west of Bethlehem) from the
south, to send his divisional cavalry, the Westminster Dragoons, on
the infantry's left to threaten Beit Jala from the west and to refuse
Bethlehem.

Before developing this attack it was essential to drive the enemy off
the observation post looking down upon the main road along which the
guns and troops had to pass. The fog enabled the guns to pass up the
road, although the Turks had seven mountain guns in the gardens of a
big house south of Bethlehem and had registered the road to a yard.
They also had a heavy gun outside the town. The weather cleared at
intervals about noon, but about two o'clock a dense fog came down
again and once more the advance was held up. Late in the afternoon the
Welsh Division troops reached the high ground west and south-west of
Beit Jala, but the defences of Bethlehem on the south had still to be
taken. Advance guards were sent into Bethlehem and Beit Jala during
the night, and by early morning of the 9th it was found that the enemy
had left, and the leading brigade pressed on, reaching Mar Elias,
midway between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, by eleven o'clock, and the
southern outskirts of Jerusalem an hour later.

Meanwhile the 60th and 74th Divisions had actively patrolled their
fronts during the night, and the Turks having tasted the quality of
British bayonets made no attempt to recover any of the lost positions.
We had outposts well up the road above Lifta, and at half-past eight
they saw a white flag approaching. The nearest officer was a commander
of th