attacked Amman and partly destroyed sections of the Hedjaz Railway some east of Jericho. The Ottoman 48th Infantry Division together with the 3rd and 46th Assault Companies and the German 703rd Infantry Battalion successfully defended Amman and stopped the advance of Shea's Force. With his lines of communication threatened by 2,000 reinforcements moving towards Es Salt from the north the successful retirement was eventually ordered, even though the principal objective; the destruction of a large viaduct at Amman had not succeeded. The retirement was complete by the evening of 2 April leaving the only territorial gains two bridgeheads at Ghoraniye and Makhadet Hajla. This was the first defeat of units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force since the Second Battle of Gaza in April 1917. Along with the Second Transjordan attack on Es Salt the following month, these two attacks focused attention away from the Mediterranean coastal sector of the line where the British Empire attack in September 1918 would be comprehensively successful. Second Transjordan advance Following the unsuccessful first Transjordan attack on Amman by Shea's force, Allenby ordered a reluctant Chauvel to attack Shunet Nimrin and Es Salt with a force one third larger than that which attacked Amman. But in the five weeks between these two operations British GHQ estimated the German and Ottoman forces in the area had doubled. The second Transjordan attack was equally unsuccessful; risked the capture of one of Allenby's mounted divisions but is widely accepted as fulfilling his strategic aim of focusing his opponent's attention on the Transjordan area and away from the Mediterranean coast where he would make a successful breakthrough in September. German and Ottoman attack On 14 July two attacks were made by German and Ottoman forces; one in the hills on a salient held by Australian Light Horse which protected front line positions in the valley, where the mainly German force was routed. A second operation was to the east of the Jordan River on the plain, where an Ottoman cavalry brigade had deployed six regiments to attack the El Hinu and Makhadet Hijla bridgeheads. They were attacked by Indian lancers and routed. Focus moves to the Western Front The German spring offensive was launched by Ludendorff on the Western Front the same day the First Transjordan attack on Amman began and completely eclipsed its failure. The powerful assault launched on both sides of the Somme by a force of