Never mind the guns of November; what about the cudgels of December?
In late 1918, after the war had ended, New Zealand and Australian soldiers rounded up more than one hundred boys and men in the Palestinian village of Surafend, near Gaza, then methodically clubbed them to death. After that, the ANZAC soldiers burned the village to the ground.
General Allenby called these ANZAC troops “cowards and murderers”.
Far from apologizing for the massacre, the RSA ran poems in its magazine praising it.
Allenby was just doing his patrician thing. Policy was to avoid punishing the Arabs for crimes committed against Allied troops. Kiwis, less cowed by paternalism, motivated by natural justice, disagreed. Obviously it was overkill, but their solidarity and the solidarity of the OZ contingent with them, meant that Allenby could not impose punishment for the response to the shooting of the kiwi by the Arab thief. Impressive tribal solidarity from the Anzacs. Tough outcome for the Arab tribe. http://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog/1932432/surafend-the-massacre-palestine-10-december-1918-gullett-account/
Kiwis, less cowed by paternalism, motivated by natural justice, disagreed.
“Motivated by natural justice”, were they? Do you think that the man who shot Trooper Lowry in that scuffle was amongst the more than one hundred unarmed men and boys that they clubbed and bayoneted to death in that village?
Obviously it was overkill,
When exactly, according to your finely calibrated moral gauge, does a mass killing become “overkill”? Was it okay for these brave soldiers to kill half a dozen Arabs in their quest for “natural justice”? Twelve Arabs? Twenty? When does it become “overkill” in your book?
…but their solidarity and the solidarity of the OZ contingent with them, meant that Allenby could not impose punishment for the response to the shooting of the kiwi by the Arab thief. Impressive tribal solidarity from the Anzacs.
Impressive, all right. The RSA was still publishing humorous poems about it a generation later.
about the cudgels of December?
http://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog/1932432/surafend-the-massacre-palestine-10-december-1918-gullett-account/
Flight 11