Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Francis Henry Smith diary, 12 September-13 November 1918
MLMSS 2777/Item 1

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Septr 12th to 18th
Camped near Ludda. Great signs of activity. Guns & troops moving forwards. We are camped with portion of 3rd & combined we are forming the Aust div. Clearing stn. The stunt appears to be very close & we hope it will be our last. Hostile ‘planes kept down & the eyes of Jacko are practically picked out. Aust Div armed with swords concentrated around Jaffa. Night of 18th we started, camping near Wilhelma.
Sept 19th Awakened early by heavy bombdmt. & at daylight we were on the move. Inf. captured redoubt, making a gap in the enemy lines & our bde. got thro’, & made the most of their opportunity. By 3 pm Tul Keram stn [indecipherable] had been captured & we were 18 hours ahead of time. Regts separated & both

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positions & prisoners a long distance behind their lines. We passed thro Jaffa & our transport found the heavy travelling beyond Arsuf, too much for horses, hence loads lightened. Tabsor that night About 2000 prisoners from redoubt seen near Sheikh Muannis. Trench system very complete & good souvenirs found by few. Our arty fire had been very effective, redoubt suffering heavily. M Guns found here.
20th. Left at daylight, passed thro villages of El Miskeh & Et Tireh resting at latter for dinner. More trenches here. Vges deserted Looked like 2nd line of defences. Leaving Et Tireh we made for Metalled road, thence to Tul Keram. Saw one of our planes (intact) forced down thro’ engine failure, captured & recaptured Duggan & Co on bikes arr. Tul Keram earlier & scored well off captured train, eluding Indian guard

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Pitched hospital tents here & received few wounded including German prisoners. Germ Military maps galore here. Passed at a vge on L of roads what had apparently been this section front Line H. Qrs. Handing over to Imp. G.C.S. today (21st).
22nd. Travelling north we reached & camped at El Medgel that night pushing on & reaching Kerkur 6 m further on at 9 AM next day. Thousands of hungry prisoners here. Leaving midday we travelled E.N.E. as usual we walked fast, leaving the column behind Passed nr of stragglers of prisoners Manage to board a lorry part of way but not being sure of our destn. did not go too far by [indecipherable]. Jenin the Turkish Aerial H.Q. being some miles to the right of the road. Unit caught up to us at [indecipherable] & we camped on flat about 7pm

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Too dark to see much. 9 am following day we left for Afuleh another Jctn stn where large qties of spirits etc capuured. Jenin also gold as well as spirits taken by 3rd Bde with 9000 prisoners. Leaving Afuleh 2 pm we climbed the hills surround Nazareth very steep & zigzag road. Large nr of motor lorries & bikes, also a convoy of 80 loaded lorries taken here. Nazareth was H.Q. of Liman Von Saunders. Splendid view of pl. of Esdraelian from road. Large iron monery ordnance stores captured here & we refitted our panniers with tools etc.
In mng took over the French hospital from 4th L.H.F.A. Immob Sector which was base for wounded coming from around the S. of Gallilee. Food scarce but commandeered. Stayed here about a week German nuns here & very haughty

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Two cases of typhus here, both eventually dying. En route to Tiberias we passed Kefr Kenna the ancient Canaan & rather larger than most Vges. Tiberias out of bounds owing to prevalence of Cholera. We arrived here about 10 am next day, camping near Lilbreh the night before. Enjoyed a swim in S of Gallilee & when in, heard it was O of B too. Passed another El Medgel & camped Abu Shusheh at 3 pm til next mng thence rounding the S. of Gallilee we went due north heading for Damascus. Splendid visit of S Gallilee & ruins of a vge, where Christ rested. Semakh is at S end of Sea. Stiff fight by Germans here but taken by 11th L.H. Passed about 2 m E of large native Vge of Safed on top of hill, then N.E. to Jacobs bridge over the jordan S of Lake Huleh. Bridge has been blown

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up by Turks but repaired to permit of wheeled T port passing over it. Hills very steep roads being in places about one in three doubling & redoubling time & again. We were on a lorry & camped for tea about 7 pm reaching the Circassian Vge of Lunestren about 11 pm on Octr 3rd. Circassian women not as beautiful as we were led to believe. Village rather hostile & sqdn of 11th left to keep order & transport from being molested. Whole country hereabout uncertain. We moved on again at daylight walking but soon overtaken by lorries & at noon we waited at Sasa ruins for the unit to catch us up. Explored ruins & had a swim in rivulet whilst wtg. Road dusty. Two cats & a kitchen only sign of life in Vge. Country called the Anti Lebanon very barren & rough village here & there only sign of any life. The next day was our

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last & boarding lorries we arr at Damascus abt noon, unit at 5 pm. Camped beside an Ind. hsptl & turned in hoping for good nights rest & because I felt considerably off colour T104, query malaria. At 11 that night roused out by Col, to postman & give equipmt to Indians close by who were in a bad state some dying. Returned to blankets 1 am. & next mng I beat the sparrows in getting up & 8 am we took over hsptl of 500 patients from Tommies Hsptl badly equipped & patients worse. No attendance or M.O. Faulty organisation. Meant lot of work sorting & diagnosing patients. Absolutely criminal the conditions existing. Men in dying condition Mal. Malaria & pneumonia. No blankets or means of providing warmth. Field lab. kept busy with slides. The sick came in in large nrs. & unable to

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to properly cope with them. We were insufficiently staffed to look after them properly but all worked well & long & eventually after getting several hundreds lighter cases transferred we got things ship shape & conditions improved. Sanitation very bad. I managed to get into the town twice during our fortnight stay & saw what there was to see. Bought field glasses for Goldsmith.
Our next destn we believed to be Aleppo 185 m N of Dawson Damascus. After travelling for 3 days thro the same type of country we reached Homs, 95m the last 46m being without water & which we commenced at 8 am on 31st arriving Homs same time next day travelling slowly thro’out night to save the horse. While wtg to draw rations at dump at 11 pm Col recd news "Armistice Turkey signed Noon today." We passed several Jewish Vges

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which swarmed with hornets & Jews with German looking countenances & looking as miserable as possible. Bought some indigestible bread here & after biscuits seemed very welcome. Hornets worse than flies & it was an act of celerity to get a grape or piece of bread & jam to your mouth without hornets settling on it. Reminds us of flies of Gallipoli. They did not seem to mind or [indecipherable] the Jews. Exchanged raisins for bread. We rode through Homes on arriving & camped about a mile beyond near river Orontes. That same evening we returned to Homs camping on a vacant allotment opposite a nice looking building which we took over as hoptl. Rooms large & airy & some had tiled floors. How to do all intra muscular quinine hypodermic injections which meant 30 or 40 every day. Whilst here Col recd news re 1914 men on leave & asked me which

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I preferred England or Aust. I chose the latter & a few days later recd word to pack up & get. Spent a couple of days at Tripoli being attached to 11th LH for rations & on Nover 11th recd news that transport was in & we embarked that afternoon leaving same night for Port Said, Moascar next day & Suez same night, embarking on Port Darwin before 6 am on 15th, leaving Port Tewfik (Suez) same night & at daylight on 16th were on our way thro Gulf of Suez thence to Aust.
Brief notes of last operation of campaign in Palestine by F. Smith, 5th L.H.F.A. attached to Aus Div. G.C.S.
Typewritten explanation & Elucidation accompanying

[Transcribed by Rosemary Cox for the State Library of New South Wales]