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With the Cameliers in Palestine

Chapter XVIII — A Biblical Parallel

page 171

Chapter XVIII
A Biblical Parallel

What a story the town of Amman could tell if it was able to relate the whole of its history from the time that the Children of Israel under the leadership of Moses captured it along with Og, the king of Bashan, the last of the giants, the size of whose bedstead excited the amazement of Moses so much, as is stated in the Book of Deuteronomy. In Old Testament times the city was called Rabbath Aramon, and later on, about the year 300 b.c. it was rebuilt by Ptolemy II of Egypt (Philadelphus) and named Philadelphia in his honour. It was later an important stronghold of the Romans, and signs of their occupation are still seen in the Citadel and the well-preserved remains of the amphitheatre which was capable of seating four thousand spectators.

The country in the neighbourhood of Amman is not desert, but consists mostly of a fertile limestone tableland capable of growing wheat of first class quality. It must have once been thickly populated, judging by the numbers slain in the wars waged here by King David and other kings of the Israelites.

During one of these campaigns there occurred an incident most discreditable to David, when, to obtain possession of a beautiful woman whom he coveted, and who afterwards became the mother of Solomon, he designedly sent an honourable soldier to his death.

Having become enamoured, of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, David, from his palace in Jerusalem, sent a message to Joab, the general commanding his army which was besieging Amman, to give leave to Uriah, to return home to report to him on the state of the war. One can imagine Uriah making his way over the high tablelnd, "on leave," until he overlooked the page 172Jordan Valley, and saw in the distance the mountains of Judaea where lived his wife in the city of Jerusalem. When he arrived at the capital, he reported to the king who then gave him a portion of his own viands, and bade him enjoy leave for a day or two at home. But instead of going home, Uriah "slept at the door of the King’s house with the servants." When David heard this next day he sent for Uriah, and asked why he had not gone to his own home. Uriah replied, "The ark, and Israel, and Judah abide in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As thou livest, and as thy soul liveth I will not do this thing." David then set meat and drink before the soldier, who partook of these luxuries so freely that he became drunk, but still he refused to go home.

Foiled in his attempts to prevent his own immoral relations with Bathsheba from being discovered, the king decided that Uriah must die, but in such a manner that he himself would not be blamed for the soldier’s death. He wrote a letter to Joab, telling the latter that Uriah had offended him, and he commanded the general, "Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him that he may be smitten and die."

Uriah was directed to return to the army and was given the letter to be delivered to Joab, and he once more crossed the Jordan, and climbed the mountain side to Amman, little dreaming that he was carrying back his own sentence of death. Joab carried out David’s orders, and praising Uriah for his bravery, sent him with a storm troop to break down part of the wall of the town. The garrison made a sally, Uriah’s companions, acting under instruction, retreated, but he himself, as Josephus records, " Ashamed to run away and leave his post, sustained the enemy, and receiving the violence of their page 173onset, he slew many of them, but being encompassed round, and caught in the midst of them, he was slain."

And now in March, 1918, British, Australian and New Zealand troops were attacking the same town where Uriah fell some 2,950 years before, and strange to relate, the incident of carrying a letter to a commander, and of being left " in the forefront of the hottest battle" was re-enacted in the experience of a New Zealand Camelier on the night of the retirement of the British forces from Amman.

In the afternoon transport camels had arrived at the camel lines with supplies, and a trooper was despatched with two sacks of provisions, two fantassis of hot tea, containing five gallons each, and a stretcher, to take them if possible to the front line. On the way in he met the Colonel of the Fourth Battalion I.C.C., who gave him a written message to deliver to the officer in charge of the Cameliers at the front. He had to cross an open tableland about a mile wide, which was being swept with Turkish shells and machine-gun fire, so half way across, the camel being too good a target, was barracked in the shelter of some rocks. The trooper made a copy of the Colonel’s message (and so unlike Uriah, knew the contents of the letter he was carrying) and gave it to his companion to take in later if he himself was unable to deliver the original. The message contained instructions regarding the manner of retirement after dark, and was safely delivered by the trooper, who then returned for the camel and its load, which was safely brought up behind the line under the cover of darkness. The trooper worked his way along the line in the dark with the supply of hot tea, which made him as popular as Kipling’s Gunga Din with the troops, as their water bottles had long been emptied. A trooper standing at his post near a gap in the limestone escarpment was offered a drink, but he declined, saying, "Give it to that poor page 174devil of a Turk down there." Some distance below him lay a wounded Turk, moaning in the darkness for "Moiyi! Moiyi!" (water, water). But there was sufficient for both the modern Sir Philip Sidney, the second example met with on the same day, and the wounded Turk as well.

Replacing the fantassi on the camel which he had tethered to a clump of scrub in a sheltered spot, the Camelier made his way to his own Lewis gun section of four men on the extreme right flank of the front line. Firing still continued along the line, but in the darkness figures could be seen moving to the rear. As time went on, no orders arrived for the small section, and no further movement was observed. After a little while, knowing that a retirement had been decided on, the Camelier who had brought in the message, offered to go along the hill to see what was taking place. He made his way cautiously from cover to cover in the darkness, but could find no trace of any troops except the piles of empty cartridge shells where earlier in the night he had seen machine-guns. Rifle shots still rang out in the darkness, but from what direction he could not tell. Not knowing whom he might encounter, he cautiously made his way to the highest point of the ridge, when his guarded hail was answered by a voice challenging him, "Who goes there?" He replied, "A friend," and advanced to find Captain M. Johnson of the Auckland M. Rifles who was covering the retirement with his troop, and was keeping up a desultory fire to lead the Turks to believe that the line was still occupied, but who was just on the point of withdrawing his men. The Captain advised the Camelier to tell his section to retire immediately or they would be left to the tender mercies of the Turks. On his way back to his companions, and he did not waste any time on the way, the Camelier thought if the Turks decided to advance on the position, page 175that the British army was rather poorly represented in numbers (but not in quality) in that sector. When Captain Johnson went back to his post he found that his lieutenant had already withdrawn the men, but a sergeant was waiting impatiently for the Captain lest he should lose touch with his troop. It seems to be a fairly common custom at Amman for individual soldiers to be left "in the forefront of the hottest battle," but in the case of the Cameliers this was not intentional as it was in the case of Uriah, as three out of the four officers of the 16th Company had been killed or mortally wounded during the day, so it was not to be wondered at that one small group should be overlooked in the dark.

The Camelier rejoined his section, and led them to where the camel was barracked. A small quantity of tea still remained in the fantassi, and this quenched the thirst of the small party. The Lewis gun with its drums and boxes of ammunition, a spare rifle or two picked up, a spare overcoat containing a wristlet watch and some coins in the pocket, were packed on the saddle, and the section retired with all the honours of war, and safely made its way across the tableland to the camel-lines. It evidently pays to know the contents of letters you carry to Commanders at Amman. Poor Uriah’s education must have been neglected, or he lacked the initiative given by a training in a Colonial Camel Corps.