Katana VentraIP

10th (Irish) Division

53rd (Welsh) Division

60th (2/2nd London) Division

74th (Yeomanry) Division

The Corps was formed in Palestine in June 1917 under Lieutenant General Philip Chetwode.[1] Following the British failure in the Second Battle of Gaza, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force underwent a major rearrangement with the appointment of General Edmund Allenby as the new Commander-in-Chief. The infantry component of the force was divided into two corps; XX Corps and XXI Corps.


The corps initially comprised four infantry divisions:[2]


The XX Corps first saw action in the Beersheba phase of the Third Battle of Gaza on 31 October 1917.[2] The 60th and 74th Divisions captured Turkish outposts west of the town but were not involved in the final assault. Following Beersheba on 6 November, the corps made a frontal assault against the Turkish fortifications in the vicinity of Sheria where the 10th, 60th and 74th Divisions succeeded in breaking through. The 10th Division captured the Hareira Redoubt on 7 November[3] and the 60th Division advanced on Huj in support of the Australian Mounted Division's effort to cut off the retreating Turkish army.[4]


During the Battle of Megiddo the formation was:[5]

2 August – 20 August 1917 Lieutenant-General [6]

Sir Philip Chetwode

20 August – 31 August 1917 Major-General (acting)

John Shea

31 August 1917 – November 1918 Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Chetwode

Commanders included:

British military history

Doughty, Robert A. (2005). Pyrrhic Victory: French Strategy and Operation in the Great War. Cambridge, MA=London: Belknap Press.

Grainger, John D (2006). The Battle for Palestine, 1917. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.