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Capture of Afulah and Beisan
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Capture of Afulah and Beisan
The Capture of Afula and Beisan occurred on 20 September 1918, during the Battle of Sharon which together with the Nablus, formed the set piece Battle of Megiddo fought during the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. During the cavalry phase of the Battle of Sharon, the 4th Cavalry Division of the Desert Mounted Corps attacked and captured the main communications hub at Afula, located in the centre of the Esdraelon Plain (also known as the Jezreel Valley and the plain of Armageddon), and Beisan on the plain's eastern edge near the Jordan River, some 40–50 miles (64–80 km) behind the front line in the Judean Hills.
Infantry attacks by the British Empires XXI Corps had begun the Battle of Sharon on 19 September, along an almost continuous trench line from the Mediterranean across the Plain of Sharon and into the foothills of the Judean Hills. These attacks captured the Ottoman front line at Tulkarm, Tabsor, and Arara, in the process outflanking and decimating the Ottoman Eighth Army on the coast. During the attack on Tulkarm, the infantry created a gap in the Ottoman front line defences, through which cavalry from General Edmund Allenby's Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) rode north. The three cavalry divisions in the Desert Mounted Corps successfully captured the Ottoman Seventh and Eighth Armies' lines of communication across the Esdraelon Plain from their headquarters in the Judean Hills.
The Desert Mounted Corps began the advance riding up the Plain of Sharon to Liktera, on 19 September where they attacked and captured an entrenched line barring their advance. Subsequently, the Corps crossed the Mount Carmel Range by the Musmus Pass and the northern Shushu Pass, during the night of 19/20 September. As the 4th Cavalry Division rode out across the Esdraelon Plain on the morning of 20 September, towards their primary objective; the main communications hub at Afula, they attacked and captured a force sent from Yildirim Army Group headquarters at Nazareth, to hold and bar the Musmus Pass, which had failed to get into position. Afula was captured by units from both the 5th and the 4th Cavalry Divisions shortly after. Leaving the 5th Cavalry Division and one regiments at Afula, the 4th Cavalry Division advanced to capture Beisan and later in the day, the regiment advanced directly from Afula to occupy the railway bridges at Jisr Majami, across the Jordan and Yarmuk Rivers. The capture of Jenin on the southern edge of the Esdraelon Plain, also blocked the main line of retreat to Damascus from the Judean Hills. The General Headquarters of the Yildirim Army Group commanded by General Otto Liman von Sanders at Nazareth was captured the next day, and Haifa two days later.
Several days later while garrisoning Beisan, the 4th Cavalry Division advanced southwards down the Jordan River to close a 20 miles (32 km) long gap, through which the retreating remnants of the Seventh and Eighth Armies had been escaping. They successfully attacked and captured several fords during 23 and 24 September, to completely cut off all remaining Ottoman soldiers in the Judean Hills. By the end of the month, one Ottoman army had been destroyed, while the remnants of two others were in retreat to Damascus after the German rearguard at Samakh was captured by Australian Light Horsemen on 25 September. Damascus was captured on 1 October, and by the time the Armistice of Mudros between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire was signed at the end of October, fighting for Aleppo was underway.
The Esdraelon Plain stretches from Lejjun in the west to Nazareth 10 miles (16 km) to the north, in the foothills of the Galilean Hills, through Afula in the centre of the plain, to Beisan on its eastern edge and close to the Jordan River, and then to Jenin on the southern edge of the plain, at the foot of the Judean Hills.
Near Lejjun, the remains of the ancient fortress of Megiddo on Tell al Mutesellim dominate the entry to the plain from the Musmus Pass. Here a relatively small garrison could control the routes across the Esdraelon Plain where the armies of Egyptians, Romans, Mongols, Arabs, and Crusaders who had fought Saladin near Afula during the Battle of Al-Fule, as well as of Napoleon, had marched and fought towards Nazareth, the Galilean Hills, and Damascus.
Aerial reconnaissance reported that no defensive works of any kind had been identified on the plain or covering the approaches to it, apart from German troops, garrisoned at the Yildirim Army Group headquarters of Otto Liman von Sanders at Nazareth. At 12:30 on 19 September Liman von Sanders ordered the 13th Depot Regiment at Nazareth and the military police, a total of six companies and 12 machine guns, to occupy Lejjun and defend the Musmus Pass.
The Desert Mounted Corps, commanded by the Australian Lieutenant General Sir Harry Chauvel, was made up of the 4th, and the 5th Cavalry Divisions, and the Australian Mounted Division.
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Capture of Afulah and Beisan
The Capture of Afula and Beisan occurred on 20 September 1918, during the Battle of Sharon which together with the Nablus, formed the set piece Battle of Megiddo fought during the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. During the cavalry phase of the Battle of Sharon, the 4th Cavalry Division of the Desert Mounted Corps attacked and captured the main communications hub at Afula, located in the centre of the Esdraelon Plain (also known as the Jezreel Valley and the plain of Armageddon), and Beisan on the plain's eastern edge near the Jordan River, some 40–50 miles (64–80 km) behind the front line in the Judean Hills.
Infantry attacks by the British Empires XXI Corps had begun the Battle of Sharon on 19 September, along an almost continuous trench line from the Mediterranean across the Plain of Sharon and into the foothills of the Judean Hills. These attacks captured the Ottoman front line at Tulkarm, Tabsor, and Arara, in the process outflanking and decimating the Ottoman Eighth Army on the coast. During the attack on Tulkarm, the infantry created a gap in the Ottoman front line defences, through which cavalry from General Edmund Allenby's Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) rode north. The three cavalry divisions in the Desert Mounted Corps successfully captured the Ottoman Seventh and Eighth Armies' lines of communication across the Esdraelon Plain from their headquarters in the Judean Hills.
The Desert Mounted Corps began the advance riding up the Plain of Sharon to Liktera, on 19 September where they attacked and captured an entrenched line barring their advance. Subsequently, the Corps crossed the Mount Carmel Range by the Musmus Pass and the northern Shushu Pass, during the night of 19/20 September. As the 4th Cavalry Division rode out across the Esdraelon Plain on the morning of 20 September, towards their primary objective; the main communications hub at Afula, they attacked and captured a force sent from Yildirim Army Group headquarters at Nazareth, to hold and bar the Musmus Pass, which had failed to get into position. Afula was captured by units from both the 5th and the 4th Cavalry Divisions shortly after. Leaving the 5th Cavalry Division and one regiments at Afula, the 4th Cavalry Division advanced to capture Beisan and later in the day, the regiment advanced directly from Afula to occupy the railway bridges at Jisr Majami, across the Jordan and Yarmuk Rivers. The capture of Jenin on the southern edge of the Esdraelon Plain, also blocked the main line of retreat to Damascus from the Judean Hills. The General Headquarters of the Yildirim Army Group commanded by General Otto Liman von Sanders at Nazareth was captured the next day, and Haifa two days later.
Several days later while garrisoning Beisan, the 4th Cavalry Division advanced southwards down the Jordan River to close a 20 miles (32 km) long gap, through which the retreating remnants of the Seventh and Eighth Armies had been escaping. They successfully attacked and captured several fords during 23 and 24 September, to completely cut off all remaining Ottoman soldiers in the Judean Hills. By the end of the month, one Ottoman army had been destroyed, while the remnants of two others were in retreat to Damascus after the German rearguard at Samakh was captured by Australian Light Horsemen on 25 September. Damascus was captured on 1 October, and by the time the Armistice of Mudros between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire was signed at the end of October, fighting for Aleppo was underway.
The Esdraelon Plain stretches from Lejjun in the west to Nazareth 10 miles (16 km) to the north, in the foothills of the Galilean Hills, through Afula in the centre of the plain, to Beisan on its eastern edge and close to the Jordan River, and then to Jenin on the southern edge of the plain, at the foot of the Judean Hills.
Near Lejjun, the remains of the ancient fortress of Megiddo on Tell al Mutesellim dominate the entry to the plain from the Musmus Pass. Here a relatively small garrison could control the routes across the Esdraelon Plain where the armies of Egyptians, Romans, Mongols, Arabs, and Crusaders who had fought Saladin near Afula during the Battle of Al-Fule, as well as of Napoleon, had marched and fought towards Nazareth, the Galilean Hills, and Damascus.
Aerial reconnaissance reported that no defensive works of any kind had been identified on the plain or covering the approaches to it, apart from German troops, garrisoned at the Yildirim Army Group headquarters of Otto Liman von Sanders at Nazareth. At 12:30 on 19 September Liman von Sanders ordered the 13th Depot Regiment at Nazareth and the military police, a total of six companies and 12 machine guns, to occupy Lejjun and defend the Musmus Pass.
The Desert Mounted Corps, commanded by the Australian Lieutenant General Sir Harry Chauvel, was made up of the 4th, and the 5th Cavalry Divisions, and the Australian Mounted Division.