ALLENBY'S WAR RECORD SPOTLESS TODATE
1 No Mistake or Error of Judgment—Conqueror of Jerusalem Stands Alone Among British Generals
To General Edmund H. Allenby, in command of the British expeditionary forces in Egypt, is due the credit for an uninterrupted series of victories, the last of which has made the wrold ring with the cry, "Jerusalem has fallen!"
Allenby's career as a fighter is, in many respects exceptional. He is one of the few generals serving at the front in France from the beginning of the war up to the date of his appointment to succeed General Sir Achibald Murray as commander of the expeditionary force on June 15, against whom not one mistake or error of judgment has been charged.
General Allenby is first and above all a cavalryman. He came from an East Anglian family and received his first commission in the army as an officer of the Sixth dragoons, known as the Skillingers. He remained with this command seeing active serive in various parts of the world, until the Boer War.
When the Boer campaign ended he had command of the Fifth Royal Irish lancers, at whose head he remained three years. When the present war begane he was inspecter general of cavalry of the British army in France. He contributed largely with his cavalry to save the sorely tried infantry in their retreat in 1914. Afterward,when his cavalry was forced to discard its horses for service in the trenches, he proved as brilliant an organizer and as resourceful a fighter under the ultered conditions as he had been a cavalry strategist.
WINS HIS PROMOTION AFTER BAT-
TLE OF AISNE..
General Allenby received the full rank of general following the action of his command at the battle of the Aisne, and was mentioned for his startegy by Field Marshal French in his report. Allenby's cavalry advanced on September 12 to the neighborhood of Braisne, and cleared that town and high ground beyond it of strong hostile detachments. At the battle of Arras the general's command occupied the center, and again won distinction when it menetrated the famous Hindenburg line in a point beyond Monchy. His active campaign in southern Palestine began October 31, with the capture of Beersheba, just inside the southern border. This was pursued with vigor and uniform success, one line of defense after another crumbling before this deturned onslaught. In the battle of Beersheba, which lasted only one day, the Turks lost 1600 prisoners, in addition to many casualities. The coast city of Gaza was the next important point to fall into the hands of the British, whose front then ex-
tended about 30 miles eastward from
the Mediterranean coast. And while
investing this city Allenby's troops continued their offensive northward from Beersheba, on the opposite end of the line, driving Turks, supported by both Austrian and German gunners, before them.
TAKES GAZA DESPITE TURKS DESPERATE FIGHT.
The Turks resisted desperately for several days at Gaza, and General Allenby waited for the summer's oppresssive heat to pass, which accounts partly for the splendid endurance of this troops. He captured Gaza November 7 and on November 9 reported that his troops were driving the enemy toward Hebron and had reached points nine and 11 miles beyond Gaza. At that time the entire Ottoman army in southern Palestine was in full retreat.
After his capture of the Biblical city of Askalon, where the British took many prisoners and guns, Gernal Allenby presistently pressed his advantage on November 19 reported the capture of the junction point of the Beersheba-Damascus railway with the Jerusalem railway, near El Mansurah and Nalaneh. He then forced his offensive along the coast, capturing Jaffa, the ancient port of Jerusalem. From there he worked his way rapidly along the celebrated old carriage driveway and railroad to Jerusalem.
It required little more than a fortnight for General Allenby to drive the Turks out of all Palestine south of the Jaffa-Jerusalem line, and now Jerusalem has fallen, and with it the morale of the Turkish army has received a staggering blow.
General Allenby married Miss Adelaide Chapman, a niece of Sir Launcelot Aubrey Fletcher, and had one son, who served as a subaltern in his father's old regiment, the Skillingers.
He was killed in action in France.