The Battle of Magdhaba took place on 23 December 1916 during the Defence of Egypt section of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. The attack by the Anzac Mounted Division took place against an entrenched Ottoman Army garrison to the south and east of Bir Lahfan in the Sinai desert. In August 1916, a combined Ottoman and German Empire army had been forced to retreat to Bir el Abd, after the British victory in the Battle of Romani. During the following three months the defeated force retired further eastwards to El Arish, while the captured territory was consolidated and garrisoned by the EEF.
About Battle of Magdhaba in brief
The Battle of Magdhaba took place on 23 December 1916 during the Defence of Egypt section of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in the First World War. The attack by the Anzac Mounted Division took place against an entrenched Ottoman Army garrison to the south and east of Bir Lahfan in the Sinai desert. In August 1916, a combined Ottoman and German Empire army had been forced to retreat to Bir el Abd, after the British victory in the Battle of Romani. During the following three months the defeated force retired further eastwards to El Arish, while the captured territory stretching from the Suez Canal was consolidated and garrisoned by the EEF. By December 1916, construction of the infrastructure and supply lines had sufficiently progressed to enable the British advance to recommence, during the evening of 20 December. By the following morning a mounted force had reached ElArish to find it abandoned. All of the well-camouflaged redoubts were eventually located and captured and the Ottoman defenders surrendered in the late afternoon. At this time the Egyptian Expeditionary Force had a ration strength of 156,000 soldiers, plus 13,000 Egyptian labourers. The Ottoman Army’s Desert Force commanded by Kress von Kressenstein was sustained and supported by their principal desert base at Hafir El Auja, located on the Ottoman-Ottoman frontier. This major German and Ottoman base supplied the area with ammunition, ammunition rations, rations and support, for periods away from the front line.
If left intact, the Ottoman forces at Magdabha and Hafir el Auja could seriously threaten the advance of the E EF along the north-east route. The area of oases which extended from Dueididar, along the old caravan route, to Sultani, 52 miles from Kantara esbultar, was taken by the British Empire in 1916. The British then established garrisons along their supply lines, which stretched across the Sinai from the Suez Canal. Although not captured at the time, all of the positions were eventually abandoned by their Ottoman garrison in the face of growing British Empire strength. The Maghara Hills, 50 miles from Romani, were also attacked in mid-October by a British force based on the Samese Canal. In mid-September 1916, British forces pursued the retreating Ottoman and Germany forces from Bir el Salmana 20 miles along the northern route across Sinai Peninsula to the outpost at Bir el Mazar. This force was defeated in August at the Battle of Romani, after which the Australian major general Harry Chauvel, under the command of the Australian Major General, pushed the Ottomans out of Bir El Abd. The EEF then took control of the area from the German general Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein and established a base in the central Sinai desert, supported by a railway and railway road and supplied by the central Egyptian base at Hafir el El Auja.
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This page is based on the article Battle of Magdhaba published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 25, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
