centuries of conquest, the Turk was ridding the land of his presence in the
bitterness of defeat. _On this same day_, 2082 years before, another race
of conquerors, equally detested, were looking their last on the city which
they could not hold, and, inasmuch as the liberation of Jerusalem in 1917
will probably ameliorate the lot of the Jews more than that of any other
community in Palestine, it was fitting that the flight of the Turks should
have coincided with the national festival of the Hanukah, which
commemorates the re-capture of the Temple from the heathen Seleucids by
Judas Maccabæus in 165 B.C.




PART III.


AFTER JERUSALEM--A REST!

During the last-mentioned operations, the Squadron had lost three officers
and 67 men (out of the total of seven officers and 182 men, with which it
started from Amr), and had only received one officer and three men as
reinforcements. The losses in animals were: 50 riding horses, 15 draught
and pack animals and one donkey. Of these animals, 25 had been killed at
Tahta alone, and, considering that the Squadron had covered nearly 300
miles in five weeks, the losses due to fatigue, etc., were remarkably
small. It was now necessary that the Squadron be re-equipped and
re-organised, but reinforcements and remounts had first to be obtained,
when training could be re-commenced. At length on December 5th Sergt.
Knowles and Sergt. Lewis, with 10 reinforcements, arrived from the base;
Sergt. Knowles being posted to "D" Sub-section and Sergt. Lewis to "E".