Sinai and Palestine campaign
The Sinai and Palestine campaign was part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, taking place between January 1915 and October 1918. The British Empire, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy fought alongside the Arab Revolt in opposition to the Ottoman Empire, the German Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It started with an Ottoman attempt at raiding the Suez Canal in 1915 and ended with the Armistice of Mudros in 1918, leading to the cession of Ottoman Syria.
Fighting began in January 1915, when a German-led Ottoman force invaded the Sinai Peninsula, then occupied by the British as part of a "Protectorate" Protectorate of Egypt, to unsuccessfully raid the Suez Canal. After the Gallipoli campaign, British Empire veterans formed the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) and Ottoman Empire veterans formed the Fourth Army, to fight for the Sinai Peninsula in 1916. In January 1917 the newly formed Desert Column completed the recapture of the Sinai at the Battle of Rafa. This recapture of substantial Egyptian territory was followed in March and April by two EEF defeats on Ottoman territory, at the First and Second Battles of Gaza in southern Palestine.
After a period of stalemate in Southern Palestine from April to October 1917, General Edmund Allenby captured Beersheba from the III Corps. The Ottoman defences were captured by 8 November, and the pursuit began. EEF victories followed, at the Battle of Mughar Ridge, 10 to 14 November, and the Battle of Jerusalem, 17 November to 30 December. Serious losses on the Western Front in March 1918, during Erich Ludendorff's German spring offensive, forced the British Empire to send reinforcements from the EEF. The advance stalled until Allenby's force resumed the offensive during the manoeuvre warfare of the Battle of Megiddo in September. The successful infantry battles at Tulkarm and Tabsor created gaps in the Ottoman front line, allowing the pursuing Desert Mounted Corps to encircle the infantry fighting in the Judean Hills and fight the Battle of Nazareth and Battle of Samakh, capturing Afulah, Beisan, Jenin and Tiberias. In the process the EEF destroyed three Ottoman armies during the Battle of Sharon, the Battle of Nablus and the Third Transjordan attack, capturing thousands of prisoners and large quantities of equipment. Damascus and Aleppo were captured during the subsequent pursuit, before the Ottoman Empire agreed to the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918, ending the Sinai and Palestine campaign. The British Mandate of Palestine and the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon were created to administer the captured territories.
The campaign was generally not well known or understood during the war. In Britain, the public thought of it as a minor operation, a waste of precious resources which would be better spent on the Western Front, while the peoples of India were more interested in the Mesopotamian campaign and the occupation of Baghdad.[7] Australia did not have a war correspondent in the area until Captain Frank Hurley, the first Australian Official Photographer, arrived in August 1917 after visiting the Western Front. Henry Gullett, the first Official War Correspondent, arrived in November 1917.[8][9]
The long-lasting effect of this campaign was the Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, when France won the mandate for Syria and Lebanon, while the British Empire won the mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine. The Republic of Turkey came into existence in 1923 after the Turkish War of Independence ended the Ottoman Empire. The European mandates ended with the formation of the Kingdom of Iraq in 1932, the Lebanese Republic in 1943, the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan and Syrian Arab Republic in 1946, and the State of Israel in 1948.
1st Herts. Yeomanry in the Suez Canal trenches, 1915
Mysore and Bengal Lancers with Bikanir Camel Corps in the Sinai Desert 1915.
Mysore Lancers Memorial at Bangalore for lives lost in Suez & Palestine
Ottoman soldiers in the trenches.
Ottoman soldiers with machine gun
Winter 1917–18[edit]
Administration of captured territory[edit]
When Allenby first assumed command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force he quickly joined the army in the field leaving the political and administrative problems related to the Egyptian Mandate to a Government appointee with a suitable staff. The area of formerly Ottoman territory now under occupation also required management, and with the approval of the Government, Allenby appointed a Chief Administrator for Palestine. He divided the country into four districts: Jerusalem, Jaffa, Majdal and Beersheba, each under a military governor. Under this administration the immediate needs of the people were provided for, seed grain and live–stock were imported and distributed, finance on easy terms was made available through the Army bankers, a stable currency was set up and postal services restored.[259]
The British and their Dominions suffered a total of 51,451 battle casualties: 12,873 killed/missing, 37,193 wounded, and 1,385 captured. An additional 503,377 were hospitalized as non-battle casualties, mostly from disease; 5,981 of these died, and most of the rest were returned to duty.[373] It is unknown how many of the non-battle casualties were in serious enough condition to require evacuation out of theater, though comparison to the Mesopotamia campaign (where 19% were evacuated) would suggest the number is around 100,000. Indian non-battle casualties are unknown,[374] while Indian battle casualties were 10,526: 3,842 dead, 6,519 wounded, and 165 missing/captured.[375]
Total Ottoman losses are harder to estimate but almost certainly much larger: an entire army was lost in the fighting and the Ottoman Empire poured a vast number of troops into the front over the three years of combat. American historian Edward J. Erickson, with access to the Ottoman Archives, attempted to estimate Ottoman battle casualties from this campaign in 2001. He did not attempt to estimate losses due to disease for this campaign, but noted that the Ottomans had some 2.66 times the number of disease deaths as KIA throughout the war (466,759 v 175,220), with the highest ratio of non-battle casualties to battle casualties being found in the Caucasus and Mesopotamia.[376] His estimates for Ottoman battle casualties by battle were as follows:[377]
A total of 138,367 battle casualties (15,364 KIA, 34,199 WIA, 10,069 MIA, 78,735 POW). The WIA figures only include irrecoverable losses (crippled or later died of wounds). Going by the Erickson's estimates, total wounded outnumbered seriously wounded by 2.5:1 for the war.[378] Applying that same ratio to the Sinai and Palestine campaign produces a total battle casualty count of about 189,600 (15,364 KIA, 10,069 MIA, 85,497 WIA, 78,735 POW). Furthermore, his listed ratio of disease deaths to KIA implies about 40,900 disease deaths in Sinai-Palestine. This would add up to total casualties of roughly 230,500 (15,364 KIA, 10,069 MIA, 40,900 died of disease, 85,497 WIA/DOW, 78,735 POW).
Despite the uncertainty of casualty counts, the historical consequences of this campaign are easy to discern. The British conquest of Palestine led directly to the British mandate over Palestine and the Trans-Jordan which, in turn, paved the way for the creation of the states of Israel and Jordan.