Item 06: Letters sent by Robert Christian Wilson to his family, 1918-April 1919 - Page 259
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 259]
chaps; we called them "Mittens", on account of the "Gott mit uns" on their belts, and as they understood a word or two of arabic, and we did the same, we mostly spoke to them in that language, and it sounded funny to hear a chap when he wanted an orderly sing out "Taala Mittens", but the Germans did not seem to mind a bit.
There were some sick men there from the Jewish battalion and who could speak German well, and they told us that the Germans said they were glad to be taken prisoners, but they thought Germany would win just the same with out them; also they hated the turks and said they were not soldiers at all. One chap said that they thought the Australians were mad - they always came on too quickly - Ammon really should have helt [held]out for two or three days and let more turks get away, but the Australians came dashing in, in their mad style and so the town had to surrender at once!
We left Jericho on the evening of the 3rd and continued our journey, again per empty motor lorrie, but of course this time it was over splendid roads so it was not half so bad as the day before. On arrival in Jerusalem we were taken to two different hospitals but each was too full to take us in so we had to drive on out to the reinforcement camp along the Bethlehem road - here we were taken in alright