Action in The Jordan Valley, 1918
In June 1918, the volunteers of the 38th Battalion began engaging the Ottomans some 20 miles north of Jerusalem. In the fighting in the Jordan Valley, more than 20 Legionnaires were killed, wounded, or captured, the rest came down with malaria, and 30 of this group later died. The Legion then came under the command of Major General E.W.C. Chaytor, who commanded the Anzac Mounted Division.
Besides various skirmishes, the Legion also participated in the Battle of Megiddo in mid-September, 1918, widely considered to have been one of the final and decisive victories of the Ottoman front.
The Legion's mission was to cross the Jordan River. Jabotinsky led the effort. Later, he was decorated and General Chaytor told the Jewish troops: "By forcing the Jordan fords, you helped in no small measure to win the great victory gained at Damascus."
Read more about this topic: Jewish Legion
Famous quotes containing the words action and/or jordan:
“We have seen the city; it is the gibbous
Mirrored eye of an insect. All things happen
On its balcony and are resumed within,
But the action is the cold, syrupy flow
Of a pageant.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“We do not deride the fears of prospering white America. A nation of violence and private property has every reason to dread the violated and the deprived.”
—June Jordan (b. 1939)