World War 1, Middle East, Lebanon, Tripoli, 10 Australian Light Horse, 1918

In October 1918 the allies took Damascus after a long campaign that had started way back in 1915. The Australian forces in Damascus found themselves crippled by an outbreak of malaria and tuberculosis. Nevertheless, mounted forces continued to press towards Aleppo.

The 7 Meerut Indian Infantry began to advance from Haifa to attack Beirut on 3 October 1918. They arrived at Beirut on 8 October and found two French warships already in the harbour with the Turkish troops either departed or surrendered to the local inhabitants. These were handed over to the Indian troops who then pressed on toward Tripoli.

The great move to the north of the Desert Mounted Corps also continued – almost to the Turkish border. The Turks saw that further resistance was hopeless and signed an armistice on October 31 – 11 days before the armistice on the Western Front.
In the final months of 1918, the demobilisation process began, and the Light Horse spent Christmas around Homs, in Syria then Tripoli, before sailing to Egypt in mid-March 1919.