The DMC would be positioned immediately behind XXI Corps, exploiting the breakthrough and passing into the Plain of
Esdraelon. Chauvel's troopers would seize El Affule to block the enemy's withdrawal while simultaneously sending a detachment northward towards Nazareth and the Yilderim headquarters.
At the time of the unveiling of the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial in Canberra on 19 April 1968 (5), Abbott's prime memory was of the 12th Light Horse out on the
Esdraelon Plain just after the breakthrough of September 19th: In clear sunshine, between us and the sea, a whole division of cavalry was advancing at a fast trot, with the divisional commander and his staff leading it, his red pennant of rank snapping in the breeze.
Disappointed at the lack of British military action in the region, he developed a plan for a quick assault on Palestine, consisting of a landing in Haifa Bay, the seizure of the Mount Carmel ridges and the Valley of
Esdraelon, to be followed by a swift attack on Jerusalem.
Crossing this valley, also known by the names of Jezreel and
Esdraelon, we will pass through the Nazareth hill country.
A cult site was also found in Iron Age Tacanach, a city five miles southeast of Megiddo on the Plain of
Esdraelon. (121) During his excavations in the beginning of the twentieth century, Sellin found two cult stands.
According to the Bible (Rev 16:14-16), Armageddon--the final and conclusive battle between the forces of good and evil--will be fought on the Plain of
Esdraelon. In The Innocents Abroad (1869), Mark Twain wrote he "could stay here an age to see the phantom pageant" unfold.
Land purchases in support of expanded settlements should be confined to the
Esdraelon, Jezreel, and upper Jordan valleys since Palestine's coastal plain was already showing signs of over-development.