In Southern Palestine General Allenby, having taken Gaza early on
November 7th and smashed the Turkish line to the east, rapidly followed up his brilliant victory. Our infantry, doggedly toiling through the sandhills on the coast, occupied Ascalon on the 9th and were on Monday close to Ashdod. Our mounted troops farther inland kept the beaten Turks on the run. The enemy tried to organize a new lino of defence on the watercourse north of Ashdod, but after stiff fighting on Monday and Tuesday he was again defeated and driven further northward. On Wednesday General Allenby was holding a lino from the coast eight miles south of Jaffa to the junction on the railway thirty miles west of Jerusalem. The Turks in the Judaean hills, holding the historic pass up to Jerusalem, were facing our right wing. Up to Wednesday General Allenby had captured more than seven thousand prisoners and over seventy guns, besides inflicting heavy loss on the Turks in their fruitless counter-attacks. In plan and execution the battle of Gaza and the pursuit must rank among the moat successful episodes of the war. The Navy, in co-operating with our forces on the coast, unfortunately lost a destroyer and a small monitor, which were sunk by an enemy submarine. All but thirty-three of the crews were saved.
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