File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎92r] (192/834)

41 —
THE BATTLE OF SEIL EL-HASA.
Major Lawrence writes from Tafila under date January 26 :
u A Turkish temporary regiment, commanded by Hamid
Fakhri Bey, acting G-.O.C. 48th Division, and composed of
3/151, 1/152, a murettab battalion of 150, with a company of
gendarmes, a detachment of 100 cavalry, two Austrian quick-
firing mountain guns, and twenty-three machine guns, was railed
to Kalaat el-Hasa station on January 19, and left Kerak on
January 23 to retake Tafila. The troops had been hurriedly
collected from the Hauran and Amman commands, and came
forward from Kerak short of supplies, and leaving no food and
few men there.
On January 24, they came in contact in the afternoon with
our patrols in Seil el-Hasa, and by night had driven them back
into Tafila. The Sherifian officers had laid out a defensive
position on the south bank of the great valley in which Tafila
stands, and Sherif Zeid left for this about midnight, taking with
him the sixty regulars and 400 irregulars (.Ageyl, Bisha, Muteir)
who had come with him from Akaba. The Sherifian baggage
marched away at the same time towards Buseira, and everybody
thought that we were running away. I think we were.
Tafila of course panicked, and as Diab el-Auran (the busy
bodied sheikh) had given us ominous reports of the disaffection
and treachery of the villagers, I went down from my house before
dawn into the crowded streets, to listen to what was being said.
There was much free criticism of the Sherif, distinctly dis
respectful, but no disloyalty. Everyone was screaming with
terror, goods were being bundled out of the houses into the
streets, which were packed with women and men. Mounted
Arabs were galloping up and down, firing wildly into the air,
and the flashes of the Turkish rifles were outlining the further
cliffs of the Tafila gorge. Just at dawn the enemy bullets began
to fall in the olive gardens, and I went out to Sherit Zeid and
persuaded him to send Abdullah Effendi (the machine gunner
and the junior of our two officers) with two fusils mitrailleurs
to support the peasants who were still holding the northern
crest His arrival stimulated them to a counter-attack m which
they'drove the Turkish cavalry back over the near ridge, across
a small plain to the first of the low ridges falling into Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows.
el-Hasa. He took this ridge also, and was there held up, as the
Turkish main body was posted just behind it. ihe fighting
became very hot, with huge bursts of Turkish machine-gun hie
and a good deal of shelling.
Zeid hesitated to send forward reinforcements, so 1 went up
to Abdullah’s position (about seven miles north of lahla) to
report. On my way I met him returning, having had five men
killed and one gun put out of action, and haying finished his
ammunition. We sent back urgent messages to Zeid to send
forward a mountain gun, any available machine guns, and what