WW1 Digger History Podcast

This episode has some of Oliver Hogue's best battlefield writing. As the commander of a squadron of now cavalry trained Australian Light Horse he describes the actions north and east of Jerusalem as General Allenby's force and their arab allies sweep through Palestine and the Levant / Syria and take Damascus from the defeated Ottoman 4th, 7th and 8th Armies. Herés a taste: "The ruin and slaughter on the road from Tulkeram to Nablus defy description. Never shall I hear the trite expression "horrors of war" without thinking of that road. Dead men, horribly gashed, lacking limbs or head, lay strewn around. Poor wounded creatures beyond all aid lay in the gutters moaning for water. Broken and bleeding animals still kicked in the wrecked wagons. All around were littered the vast impedimenta of an army. Ordinarily our troopers laughed and joked as they rode along. To-day they were strangely silent on their tired charges picked their way amongst the debris."

Well folks, it's my birthday and you get the present. This one is a beauty, not just the First Battle of Amman, but also the Battle for El Ghoraniyeh (The Camel's Hump). We cover the last three non-fiction chapters of 'The Cameliers'.
Here's a taste of the camel's hump battle: "The first line having surrendered, the Cameliers pushed on to the second trench. But this left unguarded a number of Turks and Germans in the front line who had yelled for quarter. With Teutonic treachery several of these grabbed the rifles they had thrown down and fired on the backs of the men who had spared their lives."
If you don't like Oliver's poems, miss the first and last couple of minutes, but no more.

G'day folks, just a quick update on the podcast.

No battles, except on the most unusual sporting field!
This one has two parts.
It looks firstly at the YMCA in the Middle East Theatre in World War One. 
Secondly a fun look at the Imperial Camel Corps sports day in February 1918 so if you want to learn about 'The Galoot' then listen in.

It never stops does it? The Holy Land is in the news now as it was in 1917. We take a look at the fall of Jerusalem and the entry of General Allenby into the city marking the start of just over 30 years of British rule. Oliver Hogue, a 10th Light Horse trooper and a local bystander tell the story of the attacks leading up to the surrender of Jerusalem and how Allenby entered the old city on foot.