page_title: Battle of Nablus (1918)
section_title: Capture of Nablus
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Nablus (1918) / Battle / 21 September / Capture of Nablus
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Light Armoured Car Patrol in Samarian hills.
context_page_description: The Battle of Nablus took place, together with the Battle of Sharon during the set piece Battle of Megiddo between 19 and 25 September 1918 in the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. Fighting took place in the Judean Hills where the British Empire's XX Corps attacked the Ottoman Empire's Yildirim Army Group's Seventh Army defending their line in front of Nablus. This battle was also fought on the right flank in the Jordan Valley, where Chaytor's Force attacked and captured the Jordan River crossings, before attacking the Fourth Army at Es Salt and Amman capturing many thousands of prisoners and extensive territory. The Battle of Nablus began half a day after the main Battle of Sharon, which was fought on the Mediterranean section of the front line where the XXI Corps attacked the Eighth Army defending the line in front of Tulkarm and Tabsor and the Desert Mounted Corps which rode north to capture the Esdrealon Plain. Together these two battles, known as the Battle of Megiddo, began the Final Offensive of the war in the Sinai and Palestine campaign.
context_section_description: After cutting the railway north of Nablus, the 5th Light Horse Brigade (attached to the 60th Division) camped near Tulkarm for the night of 20 September. The brigade, consisting of the 14th and 15th Light Horse Regiments and the Régiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie, was ordered to assist in the capture of Nablus on the morning of 21 September. To reach Nablus, they had to negotiate around and through the wreckage caused by aerial bombing on the road from Tulkarm to Nablus. (See Battle of Sharon (1918) and Battle of Tabsor (1918) for movements of this light horse brigade.)
  Dead men and animals, torn about with ruthless bombs, swollen and distorted, stank fearfully. Many of the animals still lived in speechless agony, and some of the wretched wounded were in many cases pinned down by carrion, but there was no time to stop and help them. That was for others who came behind. War is hell, and looks well only in a picture show.
  The 5th Light Horse Brigade with the 2nd Light Armoured Motor Battery, had advanced quickly along the Tulkarm-to-Nablus road to attack the last resistance outside Nablus and capture the town, between 800 and 900 prisoners and two field guns. The Régiment Mixte de Marche de Cavalerie, with two armoured cars, entered Nablus while the 14th Light Horse Regiment linked with the 29th and 30th Brigades (10th Division, XX Corps) at Balata.
  "[T]he 10th Division reached Nablus by noon, where they were met by the Fifth Australian Light Horse Brigade which had entered the town from the west at about the same time." The light horse rode through the streets of Nablus (the ancient Shechem) and camped on the plain beyond the town, where they received orders to rejoin the Australian Mounted Division at Jenin.
  Outflanked, Nablus fell to the French regiment, to the usual demonstrations of allegiance to the conquerors – of whatever side. The Turkish troops had abandoned it for the surrounding country and the civic leaders formally surrendered to Onslow. The 5th then collected about 900 of the former garrison in the hinterland.
  Before advancing on Nablus and Balata, the 10th Division fought and marched for two days through the hills and gulleys of Mount Ephraim, suffering about 800 casualties but capturing 1,223 prisoners.
  Chetwode wrote:
  I was able to motor into Nablus where I was joined by Allenby the same evening also in a motor, both of us being well ahead of our advance guards. The country was a mass of half starving bodies of Turks, some armed and some not, and it was quite ordinary to see an Indian havildar [sergeant] emerging from the mountains followed by 20 or 30 fully armed Turks who had surrendered to him.
  — Chetwode Letter to Falls of 15 August 1929
  Allenby wrote:
  I cannot estimate total number of prisoners, but 18,000 have been counted. I motored to Lejjun, today; 65 miles N. of here, overlooking the plain of Esdraelon. A beautiful view across the flat vale. Nazareth, high in hills, to the N.; Mount Tabor opposite; Mount Gilboa to the E., overlooking Jezreel. Some of the Indian cavalry got into Turks with the lance, in the plain yesterday, and killed many. I ... passed through thousands of prisoners today ... 
  — Allenby Letters to King Hussein of the Hedjaz and Lady Allenby 21 September 1918
caption: Light Armoured Car Patrol in the Samaria hills
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