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2,000 miles away
from the trench stalemate in France,

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another war was being fought in the
desert wastes of the Middle East.

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00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:38,280
An old-fashioned war
of small armies and large spaces,

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00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:44,080
where manoeuvre counted and success
depended not on millions of men,

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00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:49,800
not on the products of industry,
but on the leadership of generals.

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Where cavalry wasn't an out-of-date
spectator of vast killing matches,

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but a vital instrument
of fast offensives.

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Where rivers were lifelines,

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like in the campaigns of Alexander
The Great and Napoleon Bonaparte.

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This region
bridged Europe and the East,

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the East and Africa.

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In the rich soil
of its river valleys - the Nile,

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the Tigris, the Euphrates -
human civilisation had been born.

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Down the centuries,

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tide after tide of conquests
had flowed over the Middle East -

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the Babylonians,
the Assyrians, the Egyptians,

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the Persians, the Greeks,
the Romans, the Arabs and the Turks.

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Under Turkish rule, life stagnated.

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Poverty and disease
afflicted the people.

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The 19th century brought the Arabs
ancient memories of nationhood.

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Men prophesied a free and united
Arabia rid of alien Turkish rule.

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In 1883, a French traveller noted -

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"Everywhere, I came upon the same
abiding and universal sentiment -

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"hatred of the Turks.

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"The notion of concerted action
to throw off the detested yoke

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"is shaping itself. An Arab
movement is looming in the distance,

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"and a race hitherto downtrodden

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"will claim its due place
in the destinies of Islam."

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Towards the end of the 19th century,

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the Jews were also
reviving memories of nationhood.

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They had scattered after Emperor
Titus captured Jerusalem in AD 70.

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Now there was a movement to bring
the Jewish race home again,

33
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and build in Palestine
a new, Jewish state.

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The Jews began to return.

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The races of the Middle
East were stirring

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against the bonds of the
senile Turkish empire.

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But the Turks still ruled
over the crossroads of the world,

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collision point of the imperial
ambitions of the European powers.

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The Middle East was the key to the
British hold on her Indian Empire.

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To keep the Middle East from France,

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Nelson had sunk Napoleon's fleet
at the Battle Of The Nile.

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To keep it safe from Russia,
Britain had fought the Crimean War.

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Since its opening in 1869, the Suez
Canal had become the direct route,

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linking Britain to India,
Australia and New Zealand.

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And since 1882,

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the British had been
the paramount power in Egypt.

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The early years of the 20th
century gave the British

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added concern about the
Middle East - oil.

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In 1908, oil had been discovered
in Persia, near the Persian Gulf.

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With aircraft and motor transport,
oil was becoming vital for Britain.

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The Navy, too, was changing over
from coal to oil.

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Unlike coal, which lay safe
under British fields, this new fuel

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was in lands that might be menaced
by hostile powers.

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From London and from Delhi,

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the British continued to keep watch
on the Middle East.

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MACHINERY CREAKS

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The eyes of the German empire

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were also fixed
on the head of the Persian Gulf.

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Through the Balkans and Turkey,
and across the sands of Mesopotamia,

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there lay Germany's road
to the East.

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A road for her busy salesmen
and industrialists.

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The Berlin to Baghdad railway.

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By 1914, all but 400 miles
had been completed.

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Germany's interest
had been proclaimed

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by the Kaiser's visit to Turkey
and the Holy Land in 1898.

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"His Majesty, The Sultan and
the Muslims who revere him as caliph

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"may rest assured they will always
have a friend in the German emperor."

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When the Kaiser
visited Turkey again 19 years later,

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the war
between the nations of Europe

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had engulfed Turks, Arabs, Jews
and Egyptians alike.

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But he had redeemed his promise.

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In 1914,
Germany gave Turkey the warships

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Goeben and Breslau
to replace two Turkish ships

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being built in Britain
and seized for the Royal Navy.

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Britain's act of seizure

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and Germany's friendship
pulled Turkey from neutrality.

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In Constantinople,
the crowds were in holiday mood.

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DRUMS BEAT AND MEN CHEER

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But the Kaiser saw them,
and their fellow Muslims everywhere,

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as a means of destroying
Britain's Indian Empire,

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that Empire which tormented him
with envy.

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"We must inflame all the Mohammedan
world to frantic rebellion

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"against this treacherous,
conscienceless nation of shopkeepers.

84
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"For if we are to bleed to death,

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"England shall, at all events,
lose India."

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Turkey went to war with a German-trained,
German-equipped, German-advised army

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recruited from some of the toughest
fighting stock in the world.

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Which way would the Turks march?

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Across the Sinai Desert
to the Suez Canal?

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Down the Tigris and Euphrates
to the oil fields of Persia?

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For the British, the loss of either
would have been a catastrophe.

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In London and Delhi,
orders were given.

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Troops sailed to parry
the Turkish threat.

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Indians, Australians and
New Zealanders to Egypt,

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British and Indians
to the Persian Gulf.

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The expedition from India landed
at the head of the Gulf.

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They captured Basra,
the Turkish port

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where the Tigris and
Euphrates flowed to the sea.

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The army discovered Mesopotamia,

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where even the towns
were crumbling heaps of mud-houses.

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An Arab proverb said,

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"When Allah had made hell,
he found it not bad enough.

103
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"So he made Mesopotamia

104
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"and added flies."

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Gradually,
a primitive base was built up

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amid the palm groves of Basra.

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More troops arrived to share
the flies and the dysentery.

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The oil fields were safe.

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There seemed nothing more for the
army to do. But its new commander,

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Lieutenant General Sir John Nixon,
would not rest on the defensive.

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"General Nixon had
a well-earned reputation for dash.

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"He himself thought he was selected
for command on account of it."

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Nixon dispatched a British
and Indian force north-westwards

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to find and defeat the Turks.

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Through the spring floods of 1915,

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between and along the great rivers,

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the army laboured slowly forwards
towards Baghdad.

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In country where an army
must provide for itself,

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everything had to
be improvised.

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It was the rainy season
and the rivers were in flood.

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For transport, the British
used small, native boats.

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Gunboats protected the advance,
as they had

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for Kitchener's
advance up the Nile in 1898.

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But, unlike Kitchener,

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the British were not building
a railway line behind them.

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By June, the army was at Amara,

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200 miles from its base in Basra.

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So far,
the Turks had been beaten easily.

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Should the British press on?
Nixon asked the Government at home

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for instructions.

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The Government were dazzled
by the easy successes.

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They told Nixon to march on,
if he thought the risks acceptable.

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00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:57,680
Nixon ordered the force commander,
General Townsend, to advance.

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Townsend, too, was a man
with Napoleonic aspirations.

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While his troops marched, rested
or battled with the flies,

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he decided to try
a stroke of daring.

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"I told Nixon,
if I routed the Turks,

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"I might follow them to Baghdad.

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"I was told if I went into Baghdad,

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"it would have the same importance

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"as entering Constantinople. The
news would go through all Asia."

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Constantinople. Baghdad.

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Cities of legend.

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The lure of Baghdad blinded
soldiers and politicians alike

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00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:40,520
to the squalid reality of 20th
century Mesopotamia in midsummer,

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to the weakness of the link
with far-off Basra.

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00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:48,400
It was a link strained
to breaking point

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by the hoards
of filthy and hungry refugees

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fleeing from the clamour
of a foreigners' war.

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It was 1915. The summer of the Battles
of Artois and Neuve Chapelle in France.

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The sun glared down
on the troops round Amara.

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Water that teemed with germs

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had to be purified
before it could be drunk.

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And in the heat,
men and beasts craved for water.

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The day temperature reached
125 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Disease swept the army.

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00:14:07,560 --> 00:14:12,640
With contaminated water
came dysentery and cholera.

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00:14:12,640 --> 00:14:15,982
With rats and lice came
plague and typhus.

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00:14:15,983 --> 00:14:19,480
With insects came sandfly
fever and malaria.

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00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:24,640
Above all, there was the crushing,
annihilating heat.

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I had malaria, and I was looking
in this window at the back of me,

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a room full of strong young men,

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00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:35,720
all dying slowly of heatstroke.

164
00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:49,040
Further and further
up the turgid rivers,

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00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:53,280
further and further
into the heat and emptiness,

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Townsend's men advanced.

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00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:02,920
Now Townsend himself
began to feel qualms.

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00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:05,720
"The army commander does not realise

169
00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:09,960
"the weakness and danger
of his line of communications.

170
00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:12,600
"We are now 380 miles from the sea."

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00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:15,240
With the capture of Kut al Imara,

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just another Arab mud town
on the river,

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Townsend halted to rest
and build up supplies.

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00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:40,560
In Basra, Nixon was still confident.
He telegraphed to India -

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"I consider I am strong enough
to open the road to Baghdad."

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November 1915.

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00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:50,480
Once more, Townsend's weary men

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00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:53,120
plodded north along the river.

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Behind them
ambled a transport column

180
00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:06,720
that belonged
not to the 20th century,

181
00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:10,360
but to the campaigns
of Alexander or Xerxes -

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00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:13,000
620 camels, 240 donkeys,

183
00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:17,520
1,000 mules, 660 carts,
a collection of bullocks and cows

184
00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:20,480
and a strange regatta

185
00:16:20,480 --> 00:16:22,720
of river-craft.

186
00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:28,120
At last, Townsend
came up with the main Turkish army.

187
00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:31,600
Only 16 miles from Baghdad,

188
00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:35,080
but nearly 500 from Basra.

189
00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:38,720
The Turks lay entrenched
in the plain,

190
00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:41,480
where only the great ruined arch

191
00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:46,080
of the ancient Palace of Ctesiphon
broke the flat horizons.

192
00:17:18,280 --> 00:17:21,840
But when we come into
the 300 yards mark,

193
00:17:21,840 --> 00:17:26,080
they opened a pretty heavy
lot of shooting.

194
00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:31,680
Quite a lot of our fellas got it.
About half the regiment wiped out.

195
00:17:31,680 --> 00:17:36,320
Well, we carried on.
We captured that first line -

196
00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:42,320
the Turks had all gone away from it.
We captured the place we was after.

197
00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:45,560
We couldn't go on no further.

198
00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:48,320
It was a victory,

199
00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:52,920
but it cost nearly half
the British infantry.

200
00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:55,040
The Turks had been reinforced.

201
00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:01,840
Townsend was 500 miles
from his base.

202
00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:06,080
Outnumbered,
cumbered with sick and wounded,

203
00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:08,720
he faced disaster.

204
00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:11,360
The army fell back.

205
00:18:11,360 --> 00:18:15,280
The sick and wounded
now began a journey

206
00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:17,920
whose horror recalled the Crimea.

207
00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:22,560
Jolted over the rough desert
in the cushionless transport carts,

208
00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:26,800
wounded men crawled across
the desert on hands and knees

209
00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:29,440
rather than endure the shaking,

210
00:18:29,440 --> 00:18:33,840
or used dead bodies as cushions
between them

211
00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:36,480
and the bottom of the carts.

212
00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:40,440
Worse was to come.
Packed into riverboats,

213
00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:45,200
the wounded lay without medical aid
until they reached Basra.

214
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:51,040
"The patients were so huddled they
couldn't defecate clear of the ship.

215
00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:56,480
"The whole of the ship's side was
covered with stalactites of faeces.

216
00:18:56,480 --> 00:19:01,920
"We found a mass of men huddled up,
some with blankets and some without.

217
00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:05,560
"They were lying
in a pool of dysentery,

218
00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:08,240
"covered in dejecta
from head to toe.

219
00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:12,560
"The first man I examined
had a fractured thigh,

220
00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:15,480
"perforated in five or six places.

221
00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:18,240
"He had been writhing about on
deck."

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00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:22,880
On 3rd December 1915, Townsend
found shelter in the town of Kut.

223
00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:27,240
Soon he was cut off
and besieged by the Turks.

224
00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:29,880
"I have shut myself up in Kut.

225
00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:33,520
"The state of extreme weariness
and exhaustion

226
00:19:33,520 --> 00:19:36,120
"of my men demands instant rest."

227
00:19:36,120 --> 00:19:41,560
On Christmas Eve, there were quite
a number of troops in front of us

228
00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:45,200
and they started at dawn
on an attack.

229
00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:49,120
They blew different holes
in our walls.

230
00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:53,680
They got in. We counterattacked
and drove them out again,

231
00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:59,120
I suppose about half a dozen times.
They broke in at different places.

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00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:09,600
In January 1916,
fresh troops from Basra

233
00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:14,800
fought desperate battles to try
to break through and relieve Kut.

234
00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:19,240
Instead of the summer's heat,

235
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:23,880
winter brought floods,
torrential rains, bitter cold.

236
00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:27,520
Once more,
supplies and medical care

237
00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:30,160
were improvised, inadequate.

238
00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:33,920
The months dragged on.

239
00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:37,640
The relief attacks failed,
with heavy losses.

240
00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:41,000
In Kut itself, hope grew dim.

241
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,920
The rations came down finally

242
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:51,560
to 3oz of bread
and 12oz of horse meat.

243
00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:54,200
The horse meat was difficult to eat

244
00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:57,840
because some of these mules
we ate

245
00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:00,480
had been fed on mules themselves

246
00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:05,200
and the meat was very lean
and hard to digest.

247
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:09,440
After five months,
on the 29th April 1916,

248
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:12,000
Kut surrendered

249
00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,720
and General Townsend and 13,000 men,
British and Indian,

250
00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:19,360
went into Turkish captivity.

251
00:21:19,360 --> 00:21:22,200
Capture did not end the sufferings.

252
00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:27,640
Painful marches, thirst and hunger,
brutal treatment lay ahead.

253
00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:31,880
Two thirds of them
were to die in captivity.

254
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:39,160
The fall of Kut released
Turkish reserves.

255
00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:45,840
In 1915, feeble Turkish attacks on the
Suez Canal had been easily repulsed.

256
00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:48,320
Now, in August 1916,

257
00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:52,200
the Turks launched
a major offensive in Egypt.

258
00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:58,400
HORSES NEIGH AND MEN SHOUT

259
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:02,920
SHELLFIRE AND SHOUTING

260
00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:06,240
MACHINE-GUNFIRE

261
00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:42,480
Half their force was destroyed and
the rest retreated into Palestine.

262
00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:45,640
Egypt and the Suez Canal
were secure.

263
00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:52,640
The British commander in Egypt,
Sir Archibald Murray,

264
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,480
wanted to crown his success
with a counterstroke.

265
00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:59,390
Gradually, the British
in Egypt were drawn

266
00:22:59,391 --> 00:23:03,160
into a major campaign for the
conquest of the Holy Land.

267
00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:12,280
Across the Sinai Desert they marched,
a route taken by Bonaparte in 1799.

268
00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:16,520
Like him, the British Government
allowed themselves to be dazzled

269
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:19,200
by the names of fabulous cities,

270
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:24,080
holy places that had lured European
soldiers since the Crusades -

271
00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:26,760
Jerusalem and Damascus.

272
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:30,880
This, too, was a war
for old-fashioned objectives.

273
00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:33,400
But it was fought with modern means.

274
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:36,720
A wire-netting vehicle track
was laid across the sand,

275
00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:38,720
and a pipeline
to bring up the water

276
00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:41,600
without which
the men and beasts could not live.

277
00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:47,200
A railway was laid
behind the Army,

278
00:23:47,201 --> 00:23:50,720
linking it with its
base in the Nile delta.

279
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:55,760
By March 1917,
Murray was through the desert

280
00:23:55,760 --> 00:23:59,200
and at the gates of Palestine.

281
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:03,600
Murray's mounted regiments, British,
Australian, New Zealand and Indian,

282
00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,960
were the key to his plan of attack
on the Turks.

283
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:11,400
Our job was to follow through
with the Light Horse,

284
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:16,080
get the other side of Gaza
and come round towards the sea

285
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:18,720
so the Turks were enclosed,

286
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:21,560
with the sea on one side
and troops all round.

287
00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:23,440
EXPLOSION

288
00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:40,973
In the confusion of battle,
the British thought they had failed,

289
00:24:40,974 --> 00:24:43,240
whereas the Turks
were near defeat.

290
00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:48,320
There was a withdrawal and we went
back a short way for the night,

291
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:53,200
much to our disappointment, because
the objectives had been reached.

292
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:58,040
But the dismay and bewilderment
was all the greater the next morning,

293
00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:00,800
when we had to do it all over again.

294
00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:13,320
The second battle of Gaza
was a British repulse.

295
00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:17,560
As Kut had ended Nixon's command,
Gaza ended Murray's.

296
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:22,000
The Turks still barred the road
to Jerusalem and Damascus.

297
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:24,480
CAMEL GRUMBLES

298
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,000
MEN SHOUT ORDERS

299
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:36,240
The British and Australian troops
settled down for a long wait

300
00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:39,960
in the empty, scorching wastes
of the Sinai.

301
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:00,800
Our biggest problem was monotony.

302
00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:03,880
You'd see the sun get up,
a big, red ball in the morning

303
00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:06,360
and go down a big,
red ball at night,

304
00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:08,560
and that was your only
sense of time.

305
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:14,640
And nothing but sand dunes
as far as the eye could see.

306
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:18,120
You had the heat in the day,
lying in the sand,

307
00:26:18,120 --> 00:26:21,480
the glare of the sun
and the glare of the desert.

308
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:26,520
Your rifle barrels would get so hot,
you had to hold them by the wood.

309
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:32,960
In Mesopotamia,
there was now a new commander -

310
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:34,840
Sir Stanley Maude.

311
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:37,480
He was an organiser - not a gambler.

312
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:42,960
The base at Basra was reorganised,
re-equipped.

313
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:47,480
So were the Army's transport
services and communications.

314
00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:52,680
There was abundant modern equipment
of every kind. By the end of 1916,

315
00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:57,720
Maude commanded an army four times larger
than the Turkish force in front of him.

316
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:04,720
Maude was ready. When the British
advanced this time,

317
00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:08,240
there was no gamble,
no drama, no adventure.

318
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:11,280
Maude's personality stamped
the expedition

319
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,800
with cool professionalism.

320
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:16,960
Yet the objective remained
the same - Baghdad.

321
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:28,120
Carefully, irresistibly,
Maude swept the Turks

322
00:27:28,120 --> 00:27:31,320
northward out of Kut,
on up the River Tigris.

323
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,520
On 11 March, the British at last

324
00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:02,320
entered the city of the caliphs.

325
00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:04,760
"Nothing could have been
more casual and easy

326
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:07,760
"than our entry into Baghdad.

327
00:28:07,760 --> 00:28:11,720
"Four of us - the colonel
and the adjutant of the King's Own,

328
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:15,160
"a gunner officer and myself
would be in first.

329
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:19,000
"The weariness of the long pursuit
was forgotten.

330
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:23,640
"Here they were in Baghdad -
the goal of their desires."

331
00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:30,840
At the gates of Palestine,

332
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:34,400
the forces south of Gaza
also had a new commander -

333
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:38,000
General Allenby -
sometimes known as the Bull.

334
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:40,920
Allenby's leadership transformed

335
00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:45,600
the bored troops in the Sinai
desert into an army eager to attack.

336
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:54,080
Preparations for a great offensive
gathered speed.

337
00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:55,680
Allenby wrote home -

338
00:28:55,680 --> 00:29:00,800
"I shall not attempt anything big
until I have what was promised me.

339
00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:05,920
"I've made a lot of changes since I
came here and have now a good staff

340
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:08,030
"and some capable commanders.

341
00:29:08,031 --> 00:29:12,040
My army is in good spirits
and is confident of success."

342
00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:15,640
The objective remained
the Holy Land and Syria,

343
00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:18,160
Damascus and Jerusalem.

344
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:20,640
In September 1917,

345
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:22,960
Allenby was ready.

346
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:27,800
It was the year of the Russian
Revolution and of Passchendaele.

347
00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:31,240
Britain needed a prestige victory.

348
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,880
Lloyd George told Allenby he was
expected to give the British nation

349
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:37,480
Jerusalem as a Christmas present.

350
00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:44,760
Cavalry was the instrument
of victory.

351
00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:48,200
Allenby tricked the Turks
into thinking

352
00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:50,720
he was going to attack Gaza again,

353
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:57,320
while his horsemen launched a surprise
attack on their flank at Beersheba.

354
00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:01,160
The cavalry charge
by the Australian Light Horse

355
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:06,000
was made with fixed bayonets
on rifles in three lines of horsemen.

356
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,520
Well, they charged through.

357
00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:12,852
As the first line jumped over
the first lot of trenches,

358
00:30:12,853 --> 00:30:15,360
the Turks didn't
put up a fight.

359
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:17,560
That was the finish.

360
00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:21,840
Out-fought, outmanoeuvred,
the Turks fell back

361
00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:24,560
with Allenby in relentless pursuit.

362
00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:28,280
In ten days,
the British advanced 50 miles.

363
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:32,640
Arab fishing boats carried
essential supplies to beaches

364
00:30:32,641 --> 00:30:35,120
close behind the
advancing Army.

365
00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:41,480
While the Arabs hauled their craft
ashore, Allenby's pursuit swept on.

366
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:47,120
The Turks were split in two,
one group amid the orange groves

367
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:51,800
of the Plain of Sharon and
the other in the hills of Judaea.

368
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:56,640
Allenby swung his main weight east,
towards Jerusalem,

369
00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:01,120
racing to beat the onset
of the winter rains.

370
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:04,760
Then we began to approach
the Judaean hills.

371
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:06,989
Here we met deluges of rain.

372
00:31:06,990 --> 00:31:11,600
And as we went up those hills,
it became colder and colder.

373
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:16,480
We had our jackets, but we were
wet through from morning till night.

374
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:19,920
With it came troubles
with the camels.

375
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,400
The camel is no mountaineer

376
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:28,600
and the Judaean hills are not high but
consist of ridge after ridge after ridge.

377
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:33,560
You know you have a destination
which will take some hours to reach.

378
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:38,840
You hope each ridge will be the last,
but there's always one more ridge.

379
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:43,480
On 11 December 1917,
the Allies took Jerusalem.

380
00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:47,920
Allenby entered the conquered city
humbly, on foot,

381
00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:52,760
in contrast to the Kaiser who,
in 1898, had ridden on horseback

382
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:56,840
through a gap specially made
in the ancient walls.

383
00:31:56,840 --> 00:31:59,840
Jerusalem was the first famous city

384
00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:04,200
to fall to the Allies
during four years of war.

385
00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:11,680
For the first time, an Allied army
received the keys of such a city

386
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:15,714
and posted proclamations
of military government

387
00:32:15,715 --> 00:32:18,760
on the walls of a captured capital -

388
00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:23,054
a spiritual capital, the holiest
city of three religions

389
00:32:23,055 --> 00:32:25,720
- Christian, Jewish
and Mohammedan.

390
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:30,760
The British nation had received
its Christmas present.

391
00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:35,600
After going through Jerusalem,
we passed the Garden of Gethsemane

392
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:40,680
and went up the Mount of Olives,
where we camped for quite a few days.

393
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:45,560
From the Mount of Olives, one gets
a wonderful view of Jerusalem town.

394
00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:48,098
We were all very impressed with that

395
00:32:48,099 --> 00:32:52,840
and couldn't help thinking of our
Bible stories we'd read in the past.

396
00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:56,760
The Turkish empire,
so long senile and decadent,

397
00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:59,360
was crumbling into collapse.

398
00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:02,920
Her Arab lands
had already been the subject

399
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:07,080
of secret bargaining
between France and Britain.

400
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:09,600
But other parties were involved now.

401
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:15,840
Britain had encouraged Arab hatred of the
Turk, sending Sherif Hussein of Mecca

402
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:19,760
and his son, Faisal,
money, weapons and explosives.

403
00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:24,200
She had sent the Arabs a leader -
Colonel TE Lawrence.

404
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:26,679
"I was a stranger to these Arabs,

405
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:31,200
unable to think their thoughts
or subscribe to their beliefs,

406
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:36,240
"but charged to lead them forward
and develop any movement of theirs

407
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:39,000
"profitable to England in her war."

408
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:42,615
British help, together
with hatred of the Turk,

409
00:33:42,616 --> 00:33:46,080
ostered the Arab revolt.
The Arab irregulars

410
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:50,920
moved swiftly and secretly through
the desert east of Jordan on camels,

411
00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:55,320
blowing up Turkish railway lines,
attacking isolated posts

412
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:59,800
and even capturing
the holy city of Mecca.

413
00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:13,240
12,000 Turkish troops were
tied down by the Arab irregulars,

414
00:34:13,240 --> 00:34:15,720
a valuable diversion of strength

415
00:34:15,720 --> 00:34:18,800
away from the decisive battles
in Palestine.

416
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:22,640
The Arabs believed that,
as a reward for their help,

417
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:25,883
Great Britain would
only conclude peace

418
00:34:25,884 --> 00:34:29,680
on terms that gave freedom
to the Arab peoples.

419
00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:35,400
The Jewish hope of founding
a new state of Israel in Palestine

420
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:39,240
grew brighter
in the shadow of Turkey's defeats.

421
00:34:39,240 --> 00:34:43,920
The Allies needed the help and
support of Jews all over the world.

422
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:49,240
They bought that help, as they had
that of the Arabs, with promises.

423
00:34:49,240 --> 00:34:52,360
"His Majesty's Government view
with favour

424
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:57,200
"the establishment in Palestine of a
national home for the Jewish people

425
00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:01,040
"and will facilitate the achievement
of this object,

426
00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:04,880
"it being understood
that nothing shall be done

427
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:09,800
"to prejudice the civil or religious
rights of non-Jews in Palestine."

428
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:12,327
The war between the Europeans

429
00:35:12,328 --> 00:35:16,240
was bringing mighty changes
to the Middle East.

430
00:35:16,240 --> 00:35:18,040
New hopes,

431
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:22,096
new and massive human forces
had been set rolling

432
00:35:22,097 --> 00:35:24,880
among peoples long
sunk in apathy.

433
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:29,560
Clashing ambitions and promises
carried the threat of new conflicts

434
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:34,400
at a time when the conflicts of the
old order were still being resolved.

435
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:37,714
While Allenby prepared
for the 1918 offensive,

436
00:35:37,715 --> 00:35:41,240
a new German commander had
arrived in Palestine -

437
00:35:41,240 --> 00:35:46,160
Liman von Sanders. Before the war,
he had trained the Turkish armies.

438
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:49,760
He had led the successful defence
of Gallipoli.

439
00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:55,040
But now, his Turkish troops
were slinking away to their homes.

440
00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:57,720
Only his German contingent
could be relied on.

441
00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:05,960
The Turkish empire was near to death.
But, in the collapse of imperial Russia,

442
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:08,480
Turkish leaders saw an opportunity

443
00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:13,240
to carve out a new empire
in the Caucasus and Persia.

444
00:36:13,240 --> 00:36:17,600
While the Turkish troops marched
and fought

445
00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:21,480
in the Caucasus
in pursuit of this fantasy,

446
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:26,520
von Sanders faced Allenby,
outnumbered by two to one.

447
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:29,640
WAGON WHEELS RUMBLE

448
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,000
EXPLOSION

449
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:45,571
Early in the morning
of 19 September 1918,

450
00:36:45,572 --> 00:36:49,760
Allenby struck under cover
of a hurricane barrage.

451
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:54,600
His troops tore a gap in
the Turkish positions on the coast,

452
00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:58,440
wheeled right and pushed the Turks
into the hills.

453
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:03,280
Allenby's cavalry swept forward
across the Turkish communications.

454
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:06,500
Co-operation between
cavalry and aircraft,

455
00:37:06,501 --> 00:37:09,720
the oldest and the
newest striking forces,

456
00:37:09,720 --> 00:37:13,160
brought Allenby a brilliant victory.

457
00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:18,200
Ceaseless air attacks isolated
von Sanders from his troops

458
00:37:18,200 --> 00:37:22,040
and blocked the crossings
of the River Jordan.

459
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,120
The Turkish army strove to escape.

460
00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:33,840
Only the German soldiers remained steady
in the welter of confusion and disaster.

461
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:50,440
The cavalry rode 70 miles
in 24 hours

462
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:54,680
to cut off the Turkish retreat
to the north.

463
00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:59,400
In three days, Allenby destroyed
two Turkish armies.

464
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:05,880
Beyond the Jordan, in the barren hills,
a third Turkish army was cut to pieces

465
00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:08,600
by Arabs avenging the cruelties

466
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:11,280
of centuries of Turkish rule.

467
00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:21,070
On 2 October 1918, another of the
legendary cities of the Middle East

468
00:38:21,071 --> 00:38:24,840
fell into British hands
- Damascus.

469
00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:27,360
Allenby was the hero of the Arabs.

470
00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:30,676
But the moment of Arab
liberation was poisoned

471
00:38:30,677 --> 00:38:34,200
by conflict between the
different Allied promises.

472
00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:39,400
The problems of victory remained
for others to solve.

473
00:38:56,360 --> 00:39:01,400
Victory had not been cheap. The
Middle East campaigns had drawn in

474
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:05,440
over two million soldiers
of the British Empire.

475
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:08,880
They had cost
over 160,000 casualties.

476
00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:11,600
Painful marches and stern battles

477
00:39:11,601 --> 00:39:15,720
had barely affected the issue
of the world struggle.

478
00:39:15,720 --> 00:39:19,200
But the Turkish empire
had been destroyed.

479
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:21,960
To Allies and Arabs alike,

480
00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:24,920
for the moment, this was enough.