w them scale frowning
heights and clamber up and down the roughest of torrent beds, one
realised that more than three months' fighting had not removed the
'bloom' from these Cockney warriors, and that their physique and
courage were proof against long and heavy trials of campaigning. The
chief objective of the centre column was Talat ed Dumm which, lying on
the Jericho road just before the junction of the old and the new road
to the Jordan valley, was the key to Jericho. It is hard to imagine a
better defensive position. To the north of the road is the wadi Farah,
a great crack in the rocks which can only be crossed in a few places,
and which a few riflemen could cover. Likewise a platoon distributed
behind rocks on the many hills could command the approaches from all
directions, while the hill of Talat ed Dumm, by the Good Samaritan
Inn, and the height whereon the Crusader ruins stand, dominated a
broad flat across which our troops must move. This position the 180th
Brigade attacked at dawn. The guns opened before the sun appeared
above the black crest line of the mountains of Moab, and well before
long shadows were cast across the Jordan valley the batteries were
tearing to pieces the stone walls and rocky eyries sheltering
machine-gunners and infantry. This preliminary bombardment, if short,
was wonderfully effective. From where I stood I saw the heavies
pouring an unerring fire on to the Crusader Castle, huge spurts of
black smoke, and the dislocation of big stones which had withstood
the disintegrating effect of many centuries of sun power, telling the
Forward Observing Officer that his gunners were well on the target and
that to live in that havoc the Turks must seek the shelter of vaults
cut deep down in the rock by masons of old. No enemy could delay
our progress from that shell-torn spot. Lighter guns searched other
positions and whiffs of shrapnel kept Turks from their business. There
are green patches on the western side of Talat ed Dumm in the early
months of the year before the sun has burned up the country. Over
these the infantry advanced as laid down in the book. The whirring
rap-rap of machine guns at present unlocated did not stop them, and
as our machine-gun sections, ever on the alert to keep down rival
automatic guns, found out and sprayed the nests, the enemy was seen
to be anxious about his line of retreat. One large party, harried by
shrapnel and machine-gun fire, left its positions and rushed tow