THE advance from the ‘Auja-Auja line’ had brought the British forces out of the region where major medical efforts had kept the toll of diseases within bounds The advance now took the soldiers into the regions were such efforts had not been made, or at least had not succeeded. Those troops who had been stationed for any length of time in the Jordan Valley had already been exposed to the local form of malaria, which was particularly virulent, but now just about all the troops were to be exposed to it.

This was not the only disease to attack them. The Spanish influenza ep idemic had begun to affect several battalions in September, and from 6 October the pneumonic variety attacked the advancing British forces and spread with great speed. This was just at the time that the forces in Damascus began to move against the Turks in the Bekaa Valley. These had, as the British discovered, mainly retreated through the Barada Gorge, and others had gone northwards towards Homs. Liman's account claims that in both cases most of the troops involved got through, but that his 43rd Division, which had not been engaged and was mainly composed of Arabs and Arab officers, was unreliable, two complete companies having deserted.

Colonel Olden's 10th Light Horse Regiment had got out of the city with the help of the guide provided by Abd el-Qadir at the Serail, though he was soon seen to be taking them by a roundabout route.