With the British Army in the Holy Land. By Major
H. 0 Lock. (R. Scott. 7s. 6d. net.)—The best pages in Major Lock's short history of the war in Palestine are those in which he describes his own experiences of the very arduous campaign directed by General Allenby with complete success. The author, after serving in India and Mesopotamia, went with the 2/4th Dorsets to Palestine in time for the Third Battle of Gaza. The 75th Division, of which his battalion formed part, held the so- called " Apex," south-east of Gaza, against a very active and persistent enemy. Major Lock says incidentally—as others have said—that the soldiers who took part in the First Battle of Gaza on March 26th, 1917, thought that they had won ; when the New Zealanders were ordered to retire, they had to march back through Gaza. When General Allenby attacked a far stronger enemy in November, 1917, he drove the blow home and gave the Turks no time to rally. Lack of water alone prevented the cavalry from capturing several enemy divisions. Major Lock's .narrative illustrates the difficulties of the fighting in the Judaean hills. The troops, British and -Indian, who had served on the North-Wrest Frontier, were, he says, more expert in hill- fighting than the Turks, who did not show the traditional cunning of the Pathans and other hillmen ; on the other hand, tho Turks had plenty of artillery and machine-guns, while our men had to advance unsupported until roads had been made for our guns. The daring advance of the infantry to Neby Samwil and their stubborn resistance to the Turks, who, after deciding to abandon Judaea, changed their minds and sent up large reinforcements, brought about the speedy capture of Jerusalem. Major Lock's battalion was disbanded last August, before the final battle, but he gives an interesting account of the obscure operations on the slopes of Mount Ephraim in March, 1918, which were in progress when the German offensive at St. Quentin compelled the recall of General Allenby's best British divisions. The army that routed the Turks last autumn was mainly com- posed . of native Indian troops,. most of whom were Moslems. Incidentally Major Lock says that " there was little or no religious animosity, except that the Moslem Turk extended no quarter to the Hindoo." In Mesopotamia, so far as we know, the Turk treated all his Indian prisoners badly, without dis- tinction of creed.
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