THE decisive defeat of the Turkish army in Palestine is collectively known as the Battle of Megiddo, which is something of a misnomer since there was very little fighting in or near that place; its selection, however, did allow the British to link their victory with the Bible and Old Testament fights. Every account on the British side makes these links, and even Falls's Official History Vol. II devotes two full pages to a discussion of the place of Megiddo – ‘Armageddon’ – in military history. The initial fight, on 19 September, also has a separate name – the Battle of Sharon – from the name of the coastal plain in which most of the fighting took place. This was an infantry fight: ‘Megiddo’ which followed was a cavalry action which was spread over much of central Palestine. There were also a number of distinct subsidiary encounters, each of which might be called a battle in itself.

Allenby had consistently tried to keep expectations of results from his attack low. Repeatedly he said that his target was to disrupt the enemy line and secure a new line passing east and west through Nablus. It was only at the end of the planning process that he raised his sights, and even then he carefully refrained from stating a particular geographical aim, instead focussing on the destruction of the two Turkish armies west of the Jordan.

The main attack in what became the battles of Sharon and Megiddo was due to be launched just before dawn on 19 September, but many preliminaries were undertaken before then.