The Beauty and the Sorrow (90 page)

4
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Jerusalem has capitulated and welcomes the victors, 1 December 1917:
“Gaza fell in November … followed by Jerusalem in December—the former a great blow militarily, the latter a political and prestige catastrophe.”

5
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The ruins of Gaza after the fall of the city, November 1917:
“The silence of death ruled everywhere. In the middle of the streets, piled up among soot-blackened rafters and smashed carriages, lay hundreds of bodies, the burnt and shattered remains of people and animals.”

6
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Under fire on the Palestine front:
“It is hardly a month since the First Battle of Gaza, a confused affair with heavy losses. Both sides initially thought they had lost the battle, but it finally ended in an Ottoman victory since the British, partly because of a shortage of water, withdrew from the ground they had gained.”

7
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View of Bursa:
“It was in Bursa that the top British generals were being held prisoner and for a while Mousley was able to share their privileges in such matters as good and plentiful food, relatively recent newspapers and considerable freedom of movement.”