The Pursuit to Haritan occurred between 29 September and 26 October 1918 when the XXI Corps and Desert Mounted Corps of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) pursued the retreating remnants of the Yildirim Army Group advanced north from Damascus after that city was captured on 1 October during the final weeks of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. The infantry and corps cavalry advanced from Haifa and Acre to capture the Mediterranean ports at Beirut and Tripoli between 29 September and 9 October. These captures enabled the inland pursuit to be supplied when the Desert Mounted Corps' 5th Cavalry Division resumed the pursuit on 5 October. The cavalry division occupied one after the other, Rayak, Homs, Hama. Meanwhile, Prince Feisal's Sherifial Force which advanced on the cavalry division's right flank, attacked and captured Aleppo during the night of 25/26 October after an unsuccessful daytime attack. The next day the 15th (Imperial Service) Cavalry Brigade charged a retreating column and attacked a rearguard during the Charge at Haritan near Haritan which was at first reinforced but subsequently withdrew further north.
Following the victory at the Battle of Megiddo on 25 September the Yildirim Army Group was forced to withdraw towards Damascus. The commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force General Edmund Allenby ordered Lieutenant General Henry Chauvel's Desert Mounted Corps to pursue these retreating columns. Followed by the 5th Cavalry Division, the Australian Mounted Division pursuit took them via Kuneitra and the 4th Cavalry Division pursuit took them inland to the Hejaz railway where they joined forces with Prince Feisal's Sherifial Force after their captured Deraa. Several rearguards were attacked and captured at Irbid by the 4th Cavalry Division Jisr Benat Yakub, Kuneitra, Sa'sa', Kaukab, the Barda Gorge by the Australian Mounted Division and Kiswe by the 5th Cavalry Division. After Damascus was captured the remnant Yildirim Army Group were pursued along the road to Homs and attacked by light horsemen at the Charge at Khan Ayash.
While the Yildirim Army Group was retreating, their lines of communication were shortened facilitating supply while Desert Mounted Corps was getting further away from their base and their lines of communication had to be extended. The pursuit north from Damascus began with the advance along the Mediterranean coast by the XXI Corps north from Haifa and Acre to capture the ports at Beirut and Tripoli through which supplies could be transported to support Desert Mounted Corps advance. While the Australian Mounted Division continued to garrison Damascus the 4th and 5th Cavalry Divisions continued the pursuit towards Rayak and Baalbek as the advance along the coast was progressing. From Baalbek the 4th Cavalry Division could not continue due to sickness and remained to garrison the area while the 5th Cavalry Division, was reorganised into two columns and reinforced by a number of armoured cars continued the pursuit with Prince Feisal's Sherifial Force covering their right flank to Homs and Hama. By 22 October the armoured cars were 30 miles (48 km) south of Aleppo with the 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade catching up on 25 October just before Sherifial forces captured Aleppo. Early in the morning of 26 October the 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade continued the pursuit to Haritan where they charged Ottoman rearguards which proved too strong. By that evening, the 14th Cavalry Brigade had arrived and the strong Ottoman rearguard withdrew as a result. On 27 October the Australian Mounted Division was ordered to advance to Aleppo. They had reached Homs, when the Armistice of Mudros was announced, ending the war in the Sinai and Palestine theatre of the First World War.
Background
In southern Lebanon lived four varieties of Christians; the Maronite, Greek Uniats, Greek and Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite) lived alongside many Protestants, Druzes and Metawala. In the Southern Bukaa Valley and on the western slope of Mount Hermon, were more Druses, while in the Bukaa, Metawala and Syrian Orthodox Christians lived. In the Northern Lebanon, besides the same sects of Christians as in the south, more Metawala and an exclusive sect of Shiahs, the Ismailiyah lived. North of Damascus many Syrian Christians lived, and to both the north and the south some Metawala. Villages north to the Lake of Homs were Christian and Arab, while the city was mainly Moslem with a Christian minority of mainly Greek Orthodox. To the east of all these peoples, were the nomadic Bedouin Arabs of the Beni Khalid and Nueim tribes, who according to a British Army report came "from the steppe hills and desert east of Homs and Anti-Lebanon", to spend the summer in Bukaa.
Following the comprehensive success of the Battle of Megiddo, Sir Henry Wilson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) at the War Office encouraged Allenby with the idea that the EEF could do anything: "There is much talk here of the usual kind some saying you could go to Petrograd and some saying that all your force should now be transported to France, and some again who would like to see you march east to Baghdad!" He continued: "Your success being so complete, I should like you to consider the possibility of a cavalry raid on Aleppo, to be supported by infantry or not as the situation developed and as opportunities offered." He added that the War Cabinet was prepared to take full responsibility for any unsuccessful outcomes.
The War Cabinet, recognising the vast influence which the victory in Palestine would have on the whole war, were urging that our great success should be exploited to the fullest extent, and wished for an immediate advance on Aleppo, some three hundred miles to the north.
— W. T. Massey, British War Correspondent
The War Office desired a quick cavalry raid on Aleppo 200 miles (320 km) away. Allenby's EEF at Damascus was already 150 miles (240 km) away from its main supply base and he was prepared to advance only in stages as supply and geography dictated. However, the difficult problem of supplying even a small force as far north as Aleppo 350 miles (560 km) from base would need to be solved. Before either Damascus or Beirut had been captured, Allenby explained to Wilson that a raid on Aleppo "did not seem feasible unless supported by large-scale military and naval operations at Alexandretta."
I could not hope, even if the opposition was negligible, to reach Aleppo, which is distant 300 miles from Nazareth, with three cavalry divisions in less than three weeks. A march of this description would furthermore entail very heavy wastage, and the cavalry would arrive in no condition to deal with the troops in the Aleppo–Alexandretta area. These latter now amount to 25,000 combatants, and during the next three weeks they will be augmented by reinforcements of a good quality, which are already setting out from Anatolia. In each succeeding week the Turkish situation will be ameliorated by the arrival of further reinforcements, which are believed to have started from Constantinople and the Caucasus.
— Allenby to Wilson 25 September 1918
Prelude
Yildirim Army Group concentrate at Rayak
Liman von Sanders had seen the Eighth Army destroyed and its headquarters dissolved and the loss of most of the Yildirim Army Group's artillery.
The surviving 300 German and Ottoman soldiers who had formed the Haifa garrison arrived at Beirut on 26 September and were ordered to continue on to Rayak.
Liman ordered von Oppen's Asia Corps (formerly part of the Eighth Army) to withdraw by train from Deraa at 05:30 on 27 September; he was delayed nine hours by a break in the line 500 yards (460 m) long 30 miles (48 km) north of Deraa, to arrive at Damascus the following morning; travelling straight on to Rayak where he was to establish a defensive line.
Liman von Sanders transferred his headquarters to Baalbek on 29 September and Mustapha Kemal Pasha, commander of the Seventh Army, arrived at Kiswe with his army's leading troops. He was also ordered to Rayak to take over command of that sector, Jemal Pasha, commander of the Fourth Army also took command of the Tiberias Group defending Damascus while Jevad Pasha and the Eighth Army staff had been sent back to Constantinople. The 146th Regiment was the last formation to leave Damascus on 30 September. After hearing the Barada Gorge was closed von Hammerstein left Damascus by the Homs road, following the III Corps, the 24th Division and the 3rd Cavalry Division to Rayak where even remnants of the 43rd Division of the Second Army which had not been involved in fighting, were "infected with panic."
About 19,000 Ottoman soldiers had retreated northwards by 1 October, no more than 4,000 of whom were equipped and able to fight. "Successive defeats in adverse conditions meant that their morale and physical condition were generally poor, they had no artillery support and transport was virtually non–existent ... they were unlikely to be able to offer much solid resistance to a determined British cavalry force operating north of Damascus."
Only von Oppen's force which had travelled by train to Rayak before the Barda Gorge was closed and the 146th Regiment marching to Homs remained "disciplined formations" by 2 October.
EEF advance from Haifa
Allenby's plan outlined to Henry Wilson, CIGS at the War Office on 25 September, included an advance to Beirut at the same time as the advance to Damascus:
I hope to begin within a few days, an infantry division marching up the coast from Haifa to Beirut, while the Desert Mounted Corps ... moves on Damascus. The infantry division I propose to feed, as the advance proceeds, by putting supplies from the sea into Acre, Tyre and Sidon, and finally Beirut.
— Allenby to Wilson 25 September 1918
However, the 7th (Meerut) Division (XXI Corps) with the 102nd Brigade Royal Garrison Artillery and did not arrive at Haifa until 29 September while the XXI Corps Cavalry Regiment which was attached, was at Acre. They were unable to leave until 3 October when the 54th (East Anglian) Division took over garrison duties in the Haifa area.
The 7th (Meerut) Division began their march to Beirut in three columns. The leading column consisted of the Corps Cavalry Regiment, one company of infantry and the 2nd Light Armoured motor Battery. The second column consisted of the 3rd and 4th Companies Sappers and Miners, the 121st Pioneers with the 53rd Sikhs and 2nd Battalion Leicestershire Regiment (28th Brigade). The remainder of the 28th Brigade with the 19th and 28th Brigades of infantry, the 261st, 262nd and 264th Brigades of Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the 522nd Field Coy, RE completed the 7th (Meerut) Division.
The poorly maintained road along the coast was in places only 6 feet (1.8 m) wide with a one in five gradient as it passed over the Ladder of Tyre. The second column began work to improve this narrow track cut over the cliff face. It took three days to blast the rock and build a surface suitable for wheeled transport.
Meanwhile, the XXI Corps Cavalry Regiment comprising one squadron Duke of Lancashire Yeomanry and two squadrons of 1/1st Hertfordshire Yeomanry were able to advance without waiting for the road works to be completed. They moved quickly along the road to arrive in Tyre also known as Es Sur on 4 October.
During the advance to Tyre they encountered "few if any Turkish troops." Three days supplies were delivered by sea to Tyre, for the three columns to pick up on their way north. By 6 October the leading column had entered Sidon also known as Saida, where more supplies arrived, again by ship.
Occupation of Beirut
Beirut, a largely Christian city with a population of 190,000 before the war, was strategically important due to its "great port", located 7 miles (11 km) south of Nahr el Kelb (or Dog River). The Ottoman 43rd Division which had arrived early in October had been assigned the defence of Beirut.
The first British Empire forces to arrive at Beirut were an armoured car reconnaissance from Rayak or Zahle by the 5th Cavalry Division on 7 October. They found Ottoman forces had already evacuated the city and an Arab government under Shukri Pasha Ayubi had been installed. A French destroyer and five French vessels were also in Beirut harbour.
The XXI Corps Cavalry Regiment with attached infantry company and the 2nd Light Armoured Motor Battery arrived at Beirut on 8 October. The city was occupied without opposition when 600 prisoners were captured. The remainder of the infantry division and artillery followed when the road enabled the movement of wheeled vehicles. Private Norman F. Rothon, a mule driver with the 13th Mountain Howitzer Battery, 8th Brigade RGA, 7th (Meerut) Division, arrived at Beirut on the evening of 9 October. He and his unit had marched 226 miles (364 km) since 19 September; 40 miles (64 km) of that total were marched between 8 and 9 October. Rothon wrote in his diary, "if I was asked how I felt when we arrived I should say like a cripple and fairly doubled up and I hope I shall never experience another march like it the men tramping along with hollow cheeks and staring eyes, nothing to eat but the awful Bouilli & Biscuits and lots of the men go without as their stomachs cannot stand the awful repetition (we have had 3 weeks of it). My inside yearns for some ordinary food & vegetables."
Lieutenant General E. S. Bulfin, commander of the XXI Corps, established his headquarters in the city's main hotel, to oversea devolution of the city's administration to the French following the terms of the Sykes–Picot Agreement. He appointed Colonel de Piépape, commander of the infantry Détachment Français de Palestine et de Syrie, military governor at Beirut. He also appointed French military governors to Sidon and Tyre. When detachments of French troops arrived from Haifa by sea to garrison the three towns, they found some unrest caused by disappointed Arab Sherifial representatives. The infantry Détachment Français de Palestine et de Syrie arrived at Beirut on 20 October, and the cavalry Regiment Mixte de Marche de Palestine et Syrie, detached from the 5th Light Horse Brigade, arrived on 24 October. The 54th (East Anglian) Division arrived at Beirut on 31 October 1918.
On 11 October Allenby reported to the War Office:
Shukri el Ayubi has not yet been withdrawn from Beirout by Feisal. He has however modified his attitude so far as to instruct the heads of the Police and the President of the Municipality that they must accept my Corps Commander at Beirout's Orders.
The town is quiet, and the Arab flags flying here have been lowered.
The policy I am adopting is as follows : –
I am recognising Arab independence in Areas 'A' and 'B'; advice and assistance in these areas being given by French and British respectively.
French interests are recognised as being predominant in the 'Blue' area.
Feisal is being warned that if he attempts to control the 'Blue' area, the settlement of which must await the Peace Conference, he will prejudice his case. He is also being told that the Lebanon's status is a peculiar one, and was guaranteed by the Powers, so that he will [be] treading on delicate ground if he attempts undue interference in that area
— Allenby report to Wilson 11 October 1918
Chauvel recalled in 1929:
Bulfin, on arrival on the 8th made Shukri remove his flags and himself from the Serai and put in Col. Piepape as Military Governor of the Lebanon. I had no difficulty in explaining my share of it to General Bulfin but, up to the time I left the Country, I never succeeded in persuading Col. Piepape that I was not backing Feisal in his attempt to annex Lebanon.