File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎49v] (107/834)

■MHUBH
i
i 1
si i a
— 488 —
ARABIA.
North-West.
Intelligence.
Railway Raids. ^ _
(«) Southern Section.-Sheni Abdullah s f e ] ,ort t0
father on his Stahl Antar operations of November 11, \2, dealt
with by us in previous issues, has come in, but scarcely .increases
our information. He lost one of his best lieutenants in . eri
Suleiman ibn Abdullah el-Jizam, and also five other ranks The
report, however, by stating that Sherif Ah s attack on Bowat
station was undertaken in co-operation, corrects our impression
that it took place some days earlier and was followed by a second
less successful attack. There was only one attempt on Bowat,
which took place on November 11. Ah’s artillery bombarded the
place and (as Abdullah reports) exploded an ammunition store
and set a “fort” on fire : but it does not appear that the Arabs
took, much less, held the station, though they captured the fort
in question and seem to have wiped out its garrison. Ihese Arab
despatch writers use a style which our most picturesque reporters
mio-ht envy. “ The fighting was worth seeing,” writes Abdullah,
“the armed locomotives were escaping with the coaches of the
train like a serpent beaten on the head. So too the official
epistolary style. “ And now, 0 excellent Agent! ” writes King
H use in to Major Jfassett, “would you allow me to ask vhethei
the despatch of tw r o or four aeroplanes would make any appre
ciable difference to Great Britain’s total of aeroplanes, which are
like the locusts in number ? ”.
[Since the above was printed we have received from Colonel
Bremond the report of Lieut. Kernag, who led the French
artillery contingent in the attack on Bowat on November 11 .
The report, which is of interest through the light which it
throws on Arab methods of fighting, confirms our statement
that the station at Bowat was not captured in this engagement.
The Arab force, consisting of six mountain guns, under
Lieut. Kernag, two companies of mitrailleuses, a company of
infantry, and a company of engineers, in addition to some 250
Mujahidin and 1,500 Harb, including 500 Beni Mohammed, (the
whole under the command of Sherif All), marched at noon
on the 9th from Jaffar, reaching its final point of concentration
in the neighbourhood of Bowat the following morning, the
remainder of the day being spent in reconnaissance. On
the 11 th the attack was opened shortly after dawn, by a
bombardment of the Turkish position by Lieut. Kernag’s
mountain battery, the general plan being, after the demolition
of the enemy’s works by the artillery, that the infantry
and Bedouins should rush the position, with the primary
objective of seizing and destroying the station buildings and
permanent way, and with the secondary objective of gaining time,
i ! I