File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎274v] (557/834)

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lances and rifles), and about forty women. I noticed particularly
one pregnant woman, who had been forced down on a saw-
bayonet/ Unfortunately, Talal, the Sheikh of Tafas, who, as
mentioned, had been a tower of strength to us from the beginning,
and who was one of the coolest and boldest horsemen I have
ever met, was in front with Auda abu Tayi and myself when we
saw these sights. He gave a horrible cry, wrapped his headcloth
about his face, put spurs to his horse, and, rocking in the saddle,
galloped at full speed into the midst .of the retiring column, and
fell, himself and his mare, riddled with machine-gun bullets,
among their lance points.
With Auda’s help we were able to cut the enemy column
into three. The third section, with German machine-gunners
resisted magnificently, and got off, not cheaply, with Jemal Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders.
in his car in their midst. The second and leading portions after
a bitter struggle, we wiped out completely. We ordered “ no
prisoners ” and the men obeyed, except that the reserve company
took two hundred and fifty men (including many German A.S.C.)
alive. Later, however, they found one of our men with a fractured
thigh who had been afterwards pinned to the ground by two
mortal thrusts with German bayonets. Then we turned our
Hotchkiss on the prisoners and made an end of them, they saying
nothing. The common delusion that the Turk is a clean and
merciful fighter led some of the British troops to criticise Arab
methods a little later—but they had not entered Turaa or Tafas,
or watched the Turks swing their wounded by the hands and
feet into a burning railway truck, as had been the lot of the
Arab army at Jerdun. As for the villagers, they and their
ancestors have been for five hundred years ground down by the
tyranny of these Turks.
Our Rualla horse were then sent on straight to Deraa, with
orders to scatter any Turkish formations met with on the road,
and to occupy the place. They had two or three fights on their
way down, and took Deraa station at a whirlwind gallop, riding
over all the trenches, and blotting out the enemy elements that
still tried to hold the place. Next morning they brought us
three hundred mule-mounted infantry prisoners, and about two
hundred infantrymen and two guns. The Turks and Germans
had unfortunately burnt their stores before we took it.
The regular troops spent that night—a very uneasy night
it was—at Sheikh Saad. We did not yet know that we had
won, since there was always a risk of our being washed away
by a great wave of the enemy in retreat. 1 went out to see our
Haurani horse, near Sheikh Miskin, where they were tenaciously
clinging on to the great Turkish column from Deraa, giving
much more than they were getting. At midnight I was back in
Sheikh Saad, and found Nasir and Nuri just off for Deraa : we
had a race, in which my camel-corps beat the headquarters horses
and joined Trad Shaalan in Deraa village at dawn. We had some
little work to do then in making the necessary local arrangements.
ft