General Liman von Sanders had already made his escape, but his papers and some of his staff were taken. The enemy re,sistance was broken on 20 September; on the 21st the Turkish rear s were driven in. On the Z2d the New reaaralnd Mounted Rifles and the British West Indies Battalions seized the bridge at Jisr ed Damieh, thus cutting off all hope of escape for the enemy in that direction. Early in the morn ing parties of Turks, numbering from 50 to 300, began to approarii Beisan, preceded by white flags. On the 24th the 20th Cavalry Corps met with occasional opposition, and its advance was hampered by large ntnnbers of Turks who surrendered. Great quantities of transport and numerous guns were found abandoned by the roadsides. On a five-mile stretch of road 8.7 guns, 55 motor trucks and 842 vehkles were found. Part of the garrison of Haifa, which was attempting to reach Tiberias, was inter cepted and attacked in moonlight by the 18th Lancers, who killed a large number and cap tured 300. While the Indian (Mysore) Lancers were clearing the rocky slopes of Mount Car mel the Jodhpur Lancers crged through the defiles and, riding over the enemy's machine guns, galloped into the town of Haifa, where a number of Turks were speared in the streets; 1,350 prisoners and 17 guns were taken. The small garrison of 150 men holding Acre at tempted to escape, but was overtalcen and cap tured. All the Turkish armies west of the Jordan had been accounted for and the terrain was cleared.
There yet remained the 4th Turkish army east of the Jordan, whose position was no longer tenable. By the morning of 23 Septem ber it was in full retreat on Es Salt and Amman, hotly pursued by the Anzacs and bombed from the air. The New Zealanders captured ES Salt and 380 prisoners; Amman fell on the 25th. Those of the Turks who retired northward along the Hedjaz Railway and the Pilgrim route were harassed by aeroplanes and the Arabs, who had occupied Maan on 23 September. Oil the 28th these Turks fell in with British patrols at Leban station, 10 miles south of Amman; es cape was impossible, and on the 29th the Turk ish commander surrendered vrith 5,000 men.
The road to Damascus, the next objective, was now open. The Desert Mounted Corps was dispatched in two columns on 25 Sep tember to occ-irpy the city and intercept the re treat of the remnants of the 4th Turkish army. The Australian Light Horse captured Semaldt south of the Sea of Galilee, on 24 September after fierce hand-to-hand fighting; they occu pied Tiberias the following day. Two days later cavalry started from Haifa and Acre for Nazareth, for the route now led northeastward to Damascus. By the evening of 30 September, after considerable fighting all along the road, the Australians had closed the exits from that city, which was entered on 1 October amid scenes of g.reat enthusiasm. Throughout the drive on Damascus the Arab Camel Corps formed the extreme right of the Allied advance, and the Arabs were the first to enter the city. After the Turkish and German troops in the city had been collected and guards had been posted, the British troops were withdrawn. The day before Damascus fell, the inhabitants were delighted to witness a brisk fight between Turks and Germans, provoked by excessive German detnands for vehicles. Several were killed on both sides, and of many similar skirmishes 'be tween the Turks and their German allies evi dence was forthcoming in the shape of numer ous German corpses all along the hne of retreat.
One of the first acts of the Arab achninistration was to restore the electric lighting system in Damascus. This was in working order by the evening of 2 October, although the plant had been disused for weelcs under the Turks. The street car service, stopped by the incapable Turldsh administration in 1917, was resumed on 5 October. A further act was the removal, by order of the Arab commander-in-chief, of the bronze wreath which the German Emperor had imposed upon the tomb of Saladin in 1898. The senior descendant of Saladin, Shulcri Pasha El Ayyubi, was appointed head of the Arab ad ministration of Damascus. On 3 October the Shereef Feisul, commander-in-chief .of King Hussein's northern army, arrived outside the old city which had once again passed into the power of his race. An automobile had been placed at his disposal, but Feisul, with a strong sense of the historical fitness of things, preferred to make his entry into Damascus much in the same way as did the Emirs of those Arabs who took Damascus in the 17th century, the Amorite Arabs who re turned to it in the 19th century., the Aramean Arabs who set up their kingdom in Damascus in the 14th century s.c., Aretas, king of Arabia, when he occupied the city in 84 a.c., and Khalid Ibn Walid when he stormed part of the city from its Byzantine garrison in 634. Thus the Shereef Feisnl, accompanied by some 1,500 of his kinsfolk and adherents, entered Damascus at full gallop and rode furiously through the streets to the accompaniment of a crackling feu de joie and shouts of victory, a thrilling exhibition of the typical Arab la'ab el borud or °powder play.) This proceeding undoubtedly impressed the inhabitants with the reality of his arrival far more vividly than would have ar. orderly procession of numerous battalions following upon the unimpressive passage of high-powered automobiles.
French cavalry had meanwhile pressed on up the coast past ancient Tyre and Sidon to the Syrian port of Beirut Tyre and Sidon enthusiastically received a division of Indian troops; they arrived at Beirut on 8 October, where they were warmly welcomed by the popu lation, who handed over 660 Turks, including 60 officers. French and British warships en tered the port on the Ilth. Within a week Tripolis, the smaller port, had been captured together with its railway junction town, Hems. Baalbek was occupied by an armored car sec tion on the 9th and took over 500 Turks who had surrendered to the inhabitants. Frorn Homs the pursuit continued toward Aleppo, where some 20,000 Turks and Germans were reported. The 5th cavalry division and the armored car batteries were sent ahead, starting out on 20 October. On the niolit of the 26th the Turkish rearguard withdrew to a nosition near Deir el Jemel 20 miles northwest of Aleppo. By this time the Allies had advanced over 300 miles since the 19th of September, had taken 75,000 prisoners, including 200 officers and 3,500 men of German or Austrian nationality. About 360 guns had been captured, over 800 machine guns. 210 motor trucics, 44 automobiles, 3,500 animals, 89 railway locomotives and 468 car riages and trucks. The operations had extended over an area of Z500 square miles. Aleppo fell on 26 October with little resistance. The much prized railway line which was to link Germany with the Persian Gulf was cut and in the hands of the Allies; the German commander of the Turkish armies in Syria had fled.