eviously tested the strength of Adaseh, and had found
it an extremely troublesome hill. They went for it again--the 179th
Brigade this time--and after a several hours' struggle took it at
dusk. Meanwhile the 181st Brigade had taken the lofty villages of Bir
Nebala and El Jib, and after Adaseh became ours the Division went
ahead in the dark and got to the line across the Nablus road from Er
Ram to Rafat, capturing some prisoners. The 74th Division also made
splendid progress. In the early hours the Division, with the 24th
Royal Welsh Fusiliers and the 24th Welsh Regiment attached, secured
Jufeir and resumed their main advance in the afternoon, the 230th and
231st Brigades cooperating with the 229th Brigade which was under the
orders of the 10th Division. Before dark they had advanced their line
from the left of the 60th Division in Rafat past the east of Beitunia
to the hill east of Abu el Ainein, and this strong line of hills
once secured, everybody was satisfied that the Turks' possession of
Ramallah and Bireh was only a question of hours. Part of this line had
been won by the 10th Division, which began its advance before noon in
the same battle formation as on the 27th. Soon after the three groups
started the heavy artillery put down a fierce fire on the final
objectives, and before three o'clock the Turks were seen to be
evacuating Kefr Skyan, Ainein, and Rubin. The enemy put up a stout
fight at Beitunia and on a hill several hundred yards north-west of
the village, but the 229th Brigade had good artillery and machine-gun
assistance, and got both places before four o'clock, capturing seventy
prisoners, including the commander of the garrison, and a number of
machine guns. The left group was hotly opposed from a hill a mile west
of Rubin and from a high position south-west of Ainein. The nature of
the ground was entirely favourable to defence and for a time the Turk
took full advantage of it, but our artillery soon made him lose his
stomach for fighting, and doubtless the sound of many shell-bursts
beyond Ramallah made him think that his rock sangars and the deep
ravines in front of him were not protection against a foe who fought
Nature with as much determination as he fought the Turkish soldier.
Six-inch howitzers of the 378th Siege Battery had been brought up to
Foka in the early hours, and all the afternoon and evening they
were plastering the road from Ramallah along which the enemy were
retreating. The left group