[michaeldr]

Work is the curse of the drinking classes and it interferes with other important things too. I am very sorry that I missed the anniversary on 23rd September, but as they used to say we are still 'within the octave', so…………………


Haifa Day

In order to keep his forces moving after the retreating Turks, it was vital to Allenby's 'Megiddo' plan that he secure Haifa with its harbour and railhead. Without Haifa, a lack of viable roads meant that it would be impossible for him to keep his army re-supplied.
From the Despatch dated 31st October 1918, by Gen Sir. E.H.H. Allenby: item 19
"........I ordered the Desert Mounted Corps to occupy Acre and Haifa. The roads leading to Haifa from Tul Keram are only country tracks, which, in the event of rain, might become impassable for motor lorries at any time. Any force, advancing northwestwards from Haifa along the coast, would have to depend on supplies landed at that harbour. It was necessary, therefore, to occupy the town without delay, in order that the harbour could be swept for mines, and the landing of stores could be taken in hand."



A force of 700 Turks from the garrison of Haifa attempted to get to Tiberias, but at 0130 hrs on the morning of the 22nd September it reached the outposts of the 13th Cavalry Brigade and was attacked in moonlight by the 18th Lancers. A large number were killed, and 311 were captured together with 4 machine guns. The next air reconnaissance of Haifa now seemed to indicate that the town was evacuated and at 1330 hrs that afternoon a detachment of Light Armoured Cars under Brig Gen A. D'A. King advanced along the Nazareth road to occupy Haifa. Before the town was reached however they found that the road was barricaded. At this point they were shelled from the slopes of Mount Carmel and subjected to machine gun fire. The column withdrew with slight casualties.

The next day, 23rd September 1918, the 14th and 15th Cavalry Brigades turned over their line to the 3rd Australian Light Horse Brigade and at 0500 hrs commenced their march on Haifa. Their route passed along the foot of the Mount Carmel range and was kept in a confined strip by the boggy ground along the River Kishon and its tributary streams. This left little room in which cavalry could manoeuvre. At 1015 hrs as the 15th Cavalry Brigade approached Haifa they came under fire from 77mm guns on Mount Carmel. The 14th Cavalry Brigade together with the divisional headquarters occupied the Kishon railway bridge and 'Harosheth of the Gentiles' at midday.

At 1400 hrs the Jodhpur Lancers supported by 'B' Battery H.A.C. attacked Haifa and encountered strong resistance, the lancers making a brilliant charge in the face of the enemy's machine guns. A squadron of the Mysore Lancers (supported by a squadron of Sherwood Rangers) had meanwhile gone over Mount Carmel to turn the town from the south. They captured two naval guns on the ridge of the Carmel and also made a gallant charge against the fire of the enemy's machine guns.


One of the German guns on Mount Carmel, above Haifa, as photographed in 1920

[michaeldr]

After street fighting, the town was captured at about 1500 hrs with 1,352 prisoners, 17 guns and 11 machine guns being taken. Not without cost however. In the main text of his Despatch of 31st October 1918, General Allenby particularly mentioned
"Whilst the Mysore Lancers were clearing the rocky slopes of Mount Carmel, the Jodhpur Lancers charged through the defile, and riding over the enemy's machine guns, galloped into the town, where a number of Turks were speared in the streets. Colonel Thakur Dalpat Singh, M.C., fell gallantly leading the charge."

from the CWGC
THAKUR DALPAT SINGH
Nationality: Indian
Rank: Major
Regiment/Service: Jodhpur (Imperial Service) Lancers
Date of Death: 23/09/1918
Awards: MC
Additional information: Son of Thakur Hari Singh, of Deoli, Pali, Jodhpur, Rajputana.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Memorial: HELIOPOLIS (PORT TEWFIK) MEMORIAL


Colonel Thakur Dalpat Singh, M.C.,

General Sir Pratap Singh had accompanied his Jodhpur Lancers on their 70 mile ride to Nazareth during a night and a day. Just short of 73 years old, the empire's faithful warrior was in Allenby's words "quite knocked up." He also had a fever. Allenby ordered him to rest for a few days, otherwise the old war horse would no doubt have joined his lancers in their action at Haifa. The anonymous author of 'Through Palestine with the 20th Machine Gun Squadron' is I believe mistaken when he refers to the death of Sir Pratap's son in this battle. He can only be referring to Colonel Thakur Dalpat Singh MC., and it may well be that this officer was the son of the same Thakur Hari Singh who had been Sir Pratap's AdC and boon polo companion. If that is so then it would be quite understandable that Sir Pratap was deeply distressed by the death, described as a loss "much regretted by his comrades, and all who knew him."

In his 'History of the British Cavalry' the Marquess of Anglesey concludes his description of this action thus;

"By 3 p.m. the battle was over and victory complete. A vital new supply base had fallen into British hands. Four days later the landing of supplies started. Without a doubt this was the most successful mounted action of its scale in the course of the campaign. It was won by a weak brigade of only two regiments and a single 12-pounder battery pitted against about 1,000 well-armed troops who had so far seen no action. These, skilfully deployed, occupied a naturally formidable defensive position with an impassable river on one side of a narrow defile and a steep hill on the other. That they had already received news of the general rout is certain and this may well have affected their behaviour, but there is little evidence to show that they put up less than a respectable resistance. The speed and daring, dash and boldness of the two Indian Imperial Service regiments, in conjunction with the skilful flanking movements devised by Holden [Lieutenant-Colonel H. N., the senior Special Service Officer] were what made the action such a success. The speed and good order demonstrated by the leading squadron of the Jodhpores when it was forced to change direction under heavy fire, were other vital ingredients in what was almost certainly the only occasion in history when a fortified town was captured by cavalry at the gallop."


Jodphur and Mysore Lancers entering Haifa, 23rd September 1918

India and her army have not forgotten their heroes of the Great War. The two famous regiments which took Haifa have been combined to form the republic's 61st Cavalry Regiment and annually India commemorates the 23rd September 1918 as Haifa Day
[for example see http://www.mod.nic.in/samachar/dec1-20/html/ch10.htm
and http://news.bahai.org/story/69]




A footnote on a footnote:
Gen Sir Archibald Wavell in his biography 'Allenby – A Study in Greatness' has the following footnote on page 281

"This is probably the only recorded charge of cavalry in which men of the Royal Engineers have ridden. The 15th Field Troop, R.E., happened to be alongside the Jodhpur Lancers just before the charge, and on the invitation of the Lancers' commanding officer armed themselves with lances and swords from casualties and rode in the charge. Though none of them had ever handled such weapons before they claim to have killed at least one Turk with the arme blanche."

Wavell's story is repeated by others, Anglesey included, but where did Wavell get it from?




Unless stated otherwise, details are from:
'The Advance of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force - July 1917 to October 1918 - Compiled from Official Sources' Second edition, HMSO, 1919
'Allenby in Palestine -The middle east correspondence of Field Marshal Viscount Allenby' selected & edited by Matthew Hughes, Army Records Society, 2004

[michaeldr]

These stone and bronze sculptures were created by Leonard Jennings in 1922 to commemorate those killed from the cavalry regiments of the Indian Army during World War I in battles in Sinai, Palestine and Syria. The three statues represent soldiers from the three Indian States - Hyderabad, Mysore and Jodhpur, together with detachments from Bhavnagar, Kashmir and Kathiawar. The statutes were collectively named Teen Murti and the base carries the names of officers. The statues stood in front of Flagstaff House, the Commander-in-Chief's residence, Dehli



The second photograph shows a recent wreath laying ceremony, in this case marking the anniversary of the beginning of the change over from horses to mechanised cavalry [armoured corps]

[El Shahin]

Good morning Michael,

thanks for that post and with this map I want to share a little story about Haifa, which happend in April 1918.

During the dramatic battles the Bavarian pilots of the Fliegerabteilung 304b in Afula had still some time for crazy ideas. The pilots were disappointed about the long lasting travel from their airfiled in Afula to the city Haifa, which was a four hours ride with a very old train for just 60km. They wanted to have a faster travel to go this city. Therefore captain Walz, the Squadron leader, had the genius idea to take a wagon from the train company and ordered to build a 160 hp Daimler plane engine ontop of it. His men did as ordered and called this vehicle the Phönizischer Bäderexpress. The order for the 7. April 1918 was: "The first ride will be the day after tomorrow at 8 p.m. after the flight duty. The participation is according the merits. Take bathing trunks with you!" Indeed, with 90km maximum speed they travelled with this machine to Haifa and the surpized Turks were calling "yavas, yavas" (slowly, slowly).

Der Schnellzug Haifa-Afula: Nr. 1 Kommandeur der F.A. 304 Hauptmann Walz, Nr. 2 Ltn. von Gablenz , Nr. 3 Kommandeur der Flieger Hauptmann Heemskerck, Nr. 4 Ltn. Felmy, Nr. 5 Ltn. Debus, Nr. 6 Ltn. Heussenstamm, Nr. 7 Hauptmann Elias, Nr. 8 Ltn. Haefner.
Picture and text from Dr. Norbert Schwake, Nazareth

I guess on your map we can see very good the railway from Afula (El Affule) to Haifa - the airfiled Afula was taken 20 september by australian cavalary before all planes and equipment could be evacuated and may of the personel became POWs. The famous train should be used to evacute some material and tools but crashed somewhere underway with an opposite travelling train.

Best regards
Klaus

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[michaeldr]

Good morning Klaus,

Your photograph also appears in Benjamin Z. Kedar's book 'The Changing land between the Jordan and the Sea'
[which is subtitled 'Aerial photographs from 1917 to the present] ISBN: 965-05-0975-5

Kedar's version does not identify those on the "Air Wagon" except to say that it was constructed by the Jewish engineer Barukh Katinka
who is the person to be seen standing at the back, just to the right of the engine
[Kedar credits the photograph to 'E. Berghaus, "Auf den Schienen der Erde. Eine Weltgeschichte der Eisenbahn" Munich 1960, opp. p.225]

Many thanks for the additional information regarding the others onboard/date/speed/etc

best regards
Michael

[wroclaw]

Michael and Klaus!

This strange train/plane hybrid actually became a small piece of history quite a few fell in love with. I actually, once in some meeting where several "old train enthusiasts" were present, tackeled them with a fate of that machine. What I was told is that in September 1918 it was seen "riding east" and no one knows of its exact fate... now I see we might know some more about it.

BTW the slow train: this line (Known as the "Train of the valley" was notoriously known as being slow and not efficient up until its final journey in 1948. There were many humoristic stories about it, the best known would probably be of passengers getting off the train while it was on its way, picking wild flowers, and them walking in leisure back to the same train, getting on it back again…

[El Shahin]

Good morning Michael and wroclaw,

thanks for your comments on this. I got the information and picture from a good colleague of mine, who is living and researching about German wargraves in Palestine. Schwake also wrote, that this hybrid train/plane was used to bring spareparts, instruments and and one M.G. with four men to Haifa. On 20th September only very few planes from Fliegerabteilung 304 could flee, most of them were captured. One reason was also the traffic jam of backwards moving troops on the small roads close to Nazareth. But 10km after starting from Afula the magic train crashed with a oppisite train. They managed to safe the engine, which was loaded on the Turkish train. Than they burned the hybrid train before the Australian cavalry arrived.


Best regards
Klaus

[michaeldr]

Gal & Klaus,

Many thanks for those extra details

best regards
Michael