GAZA 



His chief work in physics was 

 the deduction that a simple ratio 

 exists between the volumes of 

 gases which combine, and that the 

 volume of the resulting compound 

 bears a simple ratio to the volumes 

 of the original gaseous constituents. 

 These are known as Gay-Lussac's 

 or Charles's laws. " His chemical 

 work included the discovery of 

 cyanogen and its compounds, and 

 an investigation of the properties 

 of iodine. He died May 9, 1850. 



Gaza. Town of Palestine, the 

 modern Guzze or Guz'zeh. Recog- 

 nized as the key to Palestine from 

 the south, it was always a place of 

 strategical importance. In Bibli- 

 cal times it was one of the five 

 chief cities of the Philistines. In 

 332 B.C. it was captured by 

 Alexander the Great after a siege 

 of five months, and afterwards 

 figured extensively in the chroni- 

 cles of Maccabees and Moslems, 

 Crusaders and Turks. Napoleon 

 took it in 1799. 



Situated in the midst of a fertile 

 country near the sea, on the edge 

 of the desert between Palestine and 

 Egypt, it has always been a 

 prosperous town, and before the 

 war was noted for its export of 

 fine barley. Pop. 15,000. 



Gaza, BATTLES OF. Fought 

 between the British and the Turks, 

 in March and in April, 1917. By 

 the victory at Rafa, Jan. 9, 1917, 

 Sir Archibald Murray accomplished 

 his plan of interposing the width of 

 the Sinaitic Peninsula on the N. 

 between the Suez Canal and the 

 Turks under Kressenstein. He 

 then began the conquest of south- 

 ern Palestine, after the rly. 

 from El Kantara had been con- 

 structed close up to the frontier. 



By the middle of March, 1917, 

 the rly. reached Rafa, but the 

 advance into Palestine had begun 

 with the occupation of the village 

 of Khan Yunus on Feb. 28. 

 Kressenstein took up a strong 

 position on a front stretching from 

 Gaza to Beersheba through Sheria. 

 On March 25 Dobell's desert 

 column, consisting of Anzacs, 

 yeomanry, and the 53rd division 

 of infantry, together with artillery, 

 was concentrated at Deir-el-Belah, 

 3 m. from the Wadi Ghuzze. 

 Dobell also had at his disposal the 

 52nd and 54th divisions, the 

 camel corps, and other artillery. 

 On March 26 the Wadi Ghuzze 

 was crossed without opposition by 

 the cavalry and camelry. It had 

 been designed that the cavalry 

 and camelry should envelop Gaza 

 from the E. and N., while the 

 53rd division attacked the town 

 frontally. This programme was 

 carried out, and the Turks in Gaza 

 were hemmed in by the afternoon, 



3453 



after offering a desperate resistance 

 on the height known as Ali Muntar. 

 Some Australians were fighting in 

 the streets of the town, but dark- 

 ness was coming on, and Turkish 

 reinforcements from Huj, Sheria, 

 and Hareira pressed heavily on the 

 British right. There was no water 

 for the horses, and during the night 

 the British abandoned Ali Muntar, 

 and the whole line fell back. Next 

 morning Ali Muntar was re- 

 occupied, but the Turks, heavily 

 reinforced, were too strong, and on 

 March 28 the British withdrew to 

 the Wadi Ghuzze. 



Gaza. The Great Mosque, originally 

 a 12th century Christian church 



But on April 17 the second 

 battle of Gaza began. Meanwhile 

 Kressenstein had turned his Gaza 

 front into a fortress, and his forces 

 had been increased to five infantry 

 and one cavalry divisions. To the 

 British had been added the 74th 

 division, but the event proved 



Gaza. Map of the battlefields of 

 March and April, 1917 



that they were in insufficient 

 strength for a frontal attack, which 

 alone was possible. On April 17 the 

 British, helped by tanks, carried 

 the Turks' outer defence line on 

 Sheikh Abbas, and next day con- 

 solidated the ground won. On 



GAZALAND 



April 19 the main effort was made, 

 and though Samson Ridge was 

 taken, it failed to carry Ali Muntar, 

 and was beaten off elsewhere, with 

 a loss to the British of 7,000 men. 

 The battle was broken off as night 

 fell, and was not renewed next day. 

 As a consequence of this reverse, 

 Sir Charles Dobell was relieved of 

 his command. Sir Archibald 

 Murray was replaced by Gen. Sir 

 E. H. Allenby at the end of June, 

 1917. See Sir A. Murray's 

 Dispatches, 1920. 



Gaza, CAPTURE OF. British suc- 

 cess over the Turks in Nov., 1917. 

 As part of his general offensive 

 against the Turks under Kressen- 

 stein, on the Gaza-Sheria-Beer- 

 sheba line, General Allenby had 

 fought and won the battles of Beer- 

 sheba, Oct. 31, and Sheria, Nov.6-7, 

 1917. The first broke the Turkish 

 left, the second the Turkish centre, 

 and on Nov. 6 at midnight Allenby 

 launched what proved to be the 

 final assault on the strong works 

 covering Gaza, the Turkish right. 



Before this attack Gaza, as well 

 as the region immediately N. of it, 

 containing the terminus of a 

 strategic rly. built by the Turks 

 from the Central Palestine 

 rly., had been incessantly bom- 

 barded by British land batteries 

 and warships from the sea. On 

 Nov. 2, 1917, after a tremendous 

 bombardment on Nov. 1, Scots and 

 East Anglians stormed Umbrella 

 Hill in front of Gaza, and the 

 Turkish first line of defences from 

 it to the coast, and held them, 

 despite repeated counter-attacks. 

 Thereafter the intense shelling of 

 Gaza by the British was continued, 

 and meanwhile Allenby 's threat 

 from Sheria, which had been 

 heightened by his moving on Huj 

 and Jemmameh, 9 and 11 m. re- 

 spectively N.E. of Gaza, had caused 

 Kressenstein to evacuate that town. 



On the night of Nov. 6 only a 

 few Turks remained to cover 

 Kressenstein's retreat, and when 

 western county and Indian troops 

 on the S.E., with East Anglians 

 and home county men on the 

 coast, moved to the assault, Gaza 

 fell into their hands with hardly a 

 struggle early on Nov. 7. An out- 

 lying position, known as the 

 Atwineh Ridge, E. of Gaza, was 

 taken on Nov. 8, and with it the 

 whole of the Gaza-Sheria-Beer- 

 sheba line was in the hands of the 

 victorious British forces See 

 Palestine, Conquest of. 



Gazalaud OR GASALAND. Coun- 

 try of S. Africa, in Portuguese 

 E. Africa. It is situated on the 

 border of S.E. Rhodesia. The 

 country is mountainous, has an 

 abundant rainfall, and is watered 

 by the Sabi river. 



