This silent newsreel was released by Kodak as part of their Kodascope Library in 1927. The contents were shot by veteran journalist Lowell Thomas, who reported from Egypt during WWI and helped Lawrence of Arabia come to international acclaim. At 13:00 a title card proclaims that “Allenby’s army, made up of seventeen nationalities, marched from Egypt to Palestine.” A view of the Black Watch is shown. At :33, the Australian Camel Corps. is shown. At :56 Gaza is bombarded by artillery and at 1:17, mortars. This is probably during the Third Battle of Gaza (31 October – 7 November 1917) in which Allenby won by surprising the defenders with an attack at Beersheba. At 1:28 Jaffa is shown after capture, and at 1:37 supply trucks advance on the road to Jerusalem from Jaffa. At 2:00 local women move water to aid the troops, horses and camels. At 2:27, the infantry is shown advancing up Nabi Samwill, the Turkish stronghold where Samuel was buried. At 2:53 the film proclaims that the “First Christian soldier on guard over Jerusalem” as a sentry arrives to the Mount of Olives. At 3:09, the Duke of Connaught decorates Allenby and his officers after the capture of Jerusalem in December of 1917.
Field Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, GCB, GCMG, GCVO (23 April 1861 – 14 May 1936) was an English soldier and British Imperial Governor. He fought in the Second Boer War and also in the First World War, in which he led the British Empire’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the conquest of Palestine.
The British succeeded in capturing Beersheba, Jaffa, and Jerusalem from October to December 1917. His forces occupied the Jordan Valley during the summer of 1918, then went on to capture northern Palestine and defeat the Ottoman Yildirim Army Group’s Eighth Army at the Battle of Megiddo, forcing the Fourth and Seventh Army to retreat towards Damascus. Subsequently, the EEF Pursuit by Desert Mounted Corps captured Damascus and advanced into northern Syria.
During this pursuit, he commanded T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”), whose campaign with Faisal’s Arab Sherifial Forces assisted the EEF’s capture of Ottoman Empire territory and fought the Battle of Aleppo, five days before the Armistice of Mudros ended the campaign on 30 October 1918. He continued to serve in the region as High Commissioner for Egypt and Sudan from 1919 until 1925.
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