Allenby replaces Murray

On 27 June 1917 General Sir Edmund Allenby, until then commander of the British Third Army in France, arrived in Cairo. According to the British official history (Cyril Falls, Military Operations: Egypt and Palestine, vol. II), at midnight on 28 June he took over command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force from General Sir Archibald Murray. Some accounts give 29 June as the day of the handover. Murray’s last dispatch from Egypt covers the period up to 28 June. With the new commander came a new policy. The front at Gaza had been at a standstill for two months, but the government in London had decided that the campaign in Palestine was now to be pursued vigorously and without pauses.

Murray’s recall

Murray had been in command in Egypt since the beginning of 1916. In that time his troops had repulsed the Turks at Romani, driven them out of the whole of Sinai and reached the border of Palestine, and a railway, a road and a water pipeline had been laid behind them across the desert. He was undone by two failed battles for Gaza. After the first, in March, Murray reported on it in such terms that the War Cabinet regarded it almost as a victory and ordered him to advance on Jerusalem. The second battle, in April, ended in a bloody defeat. Prime Minister David Lloyd George recalled that as early as 23 April the War Cabinet had concluded that the Egyptian Expeditionary Force needed a more resolute commander.

The post was first offered to General Jan Smuts, who had stayed on in London at the prime minister’s request after the spring sessions of the Imperial War Cabinet. Smuts considered it for a long time, but on 30 May he declined. The Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Sir William Robertson, then proposed Allenby, and on 5 June the War Cabinet approved the choice. On 11 June Murray received a telegram from the Secretary of State for War, Lord Derby, saying that the Cabinet, while appreciating his work, had concluded that a change was desirable. The British official history judges that Murray shared the fate of many commanders sent to open a campaign with insufficient forces. He was recalled because he had not achieved the expected success, although it was he who had prepared everything needed for the advance into Palestine. In the autumn Murray took over Aldershot Command in England.

The new commander

Allenby, a cavalryman born in 1861 and nicknamed “the Bull” for his violent temper and loud voice, had made his name in August 1914. His cavalry division had then covered the British retreat from Mons. From the autumn of 1915 he commanded the Third Army, which in April 1917 made the main attack in the Battle of Arras. After an initial success the offensive bogged down in costly fighting, and Allenby lost the confidence of the commander-in-chief, Douglas Haig. On 9 June the Third Army was taken over from him by Lieutenant-General Julian Byng. According to some historians, Allenby himself believed that the new posting would contribute little to a war that in his view would be decided on the Western Front.

Before Allenby left for Egypt, Lloyd George received him in Robertson’s presence. According to his own memoirs, he told him to ask for whatever reinforcements and supplies he needed: “If you do not ask, it will be your fault. If you ask and do not get them, it will be ours.” He added that the Cabinet expected “Jerusalem before Christmas”. The prime minister also recommended to him the Scottish biblical scholar George Adam Smith’s book on the historical geography of the Holy Land, considering it a better guide than the maps in the War Office drawers.

The first weeks

Immediately after taking command Allenby went by train to the headquarters of Eastern Force at Deir al-Balah. There an appreciation of the situation awaited him, prepared by the commander of Eastern Force, Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Chetwode, and his chief of staff, Brigadier-General Guy Dawnay. It stated that the Turks intended to defend the Gaza–Beersheba line, and that breaking through it would require a clear superiority and careful preparation, especially as regards water. Allenby later based his offensive on this plan. On 12 July he asked London for two new divisions and additional artillery.

From his first days the new commander toured the front and visited the troops. The Australian official historian Henry Gullett writes that the army received him with enthusiasm and hope. Shortly afterwards Allenby moved his general headquarters from the Savoy Hotel in Cairo to the front, near Khan Yunis and Rafah. Gullett quotes one officer of the Australian Light Horse: “I have shaken hands with Allenby more times than I can count. Between the Canal and Gaza I never once saw Murray.” At the end of July Allenby received news that his only son, Michael, had been killed in Flanders. The offensive began at the end of October. On 31 October the British took Beersheba, and on 9 December 1917 Jerusalem surrendered.