The highly symbolic fall of Jerusalem during December 1917 was a significant moment of the Great War as Stuart Hadaway explains.
FIRST WORLD WAR | FIGHTING IN MIDDLE EAST
Even before zero-hour on the morning of 9 December 1917, General Sir Edmund Allenby’s plan to capture Jerusalem fell to pieces. But while having plans go disastrously awry was not a new thing for any First World War army, for once the radical change in circumstances was a very welcome, and lifesaving, development. The previous night, the Ottoman and German commanders occupying the city had decided to withdraw; rather than fighting in the streets, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) would be able to simply stroll in through the gates.
The EEF had begun their advance on the Gaza-Beersheba line, some 40-50 miles south, just six weeks previously. They had attempted to break that line twice in early 1917, both attacks being made directly against Gaza and stalling under poor planning, heavy casualties, and determined resistance from very well-entrenched Ottoman troops. There had followed a long, hot summer holding trenches south and south-east of Gaza, and outposts further east towards Beersheba. While the army was static, it was not in…
