Desert Mounted Corps

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Staff of the Desert Mounted Corps in Rechovot , Palestine, March 1918

The Desert Mounted Corps , originally Desert Column called, was a corps of the British Army in World War I , which as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force at the Palestine front against the troops of the Ottoman Empire fought and its ally. It was set up as Desert Column under Philip Chetwode in al-Arish on Sinai in December 1916 and was first used in the Battle of Magdhaba that same month. After Harry Chauvel took command , the Desert Column was expanded from two to three divisions and renamed Desert Mounted Corps in August 1917 . The corps played an important role in the battles of the South Palestine offensive, which began at the end of October 1917, in the operations on the Jordan and in Transjordan and in the operations in northern Palestine and Syria until the end of the war in 1918. After the end of the war, units of the corps became, among other things, during the revolution in Egypt Used in 1919 . In June 1919 the corps was disbanded.

history

Desert Column, December 1916 to August 1917

Philip Chetwode, painting from 1919

The Desert Column was set up in December 1916 as part of the Eastern Force of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under Lieutenant-General Philip Chetwode . It initially comprised the following associations:

These had previously fought back the Ottoman troops on the Sinai under Friedrich Kreß von Kressenstein in the Battle of Romani in early August 1916 and had subsequently advanced to al-Arish . In the period that followed, the infrastructure to support and supply the troops on the Sinai (railway and water pipeline) was gradually expanded, which allowed the British to resume the offensive in December 1916.

In the Battle of Magdhaba on December 23, 1916, the British position was first expanded inland from al-Arish. Then began the advance on Rafah in what is now the Gaza Strip . In the Battle of Rafah on January 9, 1917, the Desert Column destroyed the Ottoman garrison in the border town of Rafah. On February 28th, Chan Yunis was captured without resistance.

In the first battle for Gaza (March 26, 1917) the Desert Column competed as follows:

In this battle she almost succeeded in taking the important city of Gaza , but because of darkness falling and news of approaching Ottoman reinforcements, the unit was withdrawn. After the battle, the Desert Column was reorganized as a purely mounted unit.

In the second battle for Gaza (April 17-19, 1917) the Desert Column competed as follows:

It was supposed to cover the right flank of the attacking infantry units and then take up the chase. This plan failed. As a result, the entire Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) was reorganized. First, the Eastern Force commander Charles Macpherson Dobell was replaced by Chetwode, followed by Harry Chauvel as the Desert Column commander. Chauvel, who thus became the first Australian to command a corps and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general, was given permission to form a new Yeomanry Mounted Division , which was subordinate to his armed forces. At the same time, the Imperial Mounted Division was renamed the Australian Mounted Division . The Desert Column now consisted of three mounted divisions of three brigades each instead of two divisions of four brigades each. Next, in June, the EEF Commander in Chief Archibald Murray was replaced by Edmund Allenby . Allenby converted the EEF into two infantry and one mounted corps. The renaming of the Desert Column to Desert Mounted Corps came into effect on August 12th.

Desert Mounted Corps, August 1917 to October 1918

Harry Chauvel

Allenby immediately planned an offensive that would lead to the capture of Gaza. Here, the Desert Mounted Corps (DMC) was a special role, it should (with the support of parts of the XX Corps) the upcountry Beersheba (now Beersheba in Israel) to attack and so the Ottoman defense on the Gaza-line Bring disorder. The operation was meticulously planned, it comprised a march over 100 kilometers of open terrain through the Negev desert.

The offensive that began on October 31 was a complete success, the 4,000-strong Ottoman garrison of Beersheba was smashed and had to withdraw in disorder. As a result, the British won and pursued the third battle for Gaza (November 1-7). The Ottoman army lost thousands of soldiers in the fighting , including 10,000 prisoners in the battle of El Mughar on November 13th. During the second half of November and early December, the Desert Mounted Corps was involved in the operations that led to the capture of Jerusalem on December 9th.

In early 1918, Jericho was captured in the Jordan Valley. In late March and early April, DMC units were involved in the attack on Amman in Transjordan. In April and May 1918 the DMC was reorganized: the Yeomanry Mounted Division was dissolved and its units relocated to the Western Front. It was replaced by the 4th Cavalry Division and 5th Cavalry Division of the British Indian Army . The second raid on Transjordan followed in late April and early May . Both attacks were repulsed by the Turks. On July 14th, the DMC won the battle of Abu Tellul against an Ottoman division.

On September 19, 1918, the decisive operation of the war began with the Battle of Megiddo . Parts of the DMC ( Chaytor's Force ) carried out the third, this time successful, Transjordan attack in which Amman was conquered. The two Indian divisions took part in the actual battle of Palestine. On October 1, Damascus was taken by units of the DMC, which was then occupied by Arab insurgents under Faisal and TE Lawrence . The defeated Ottoman army was then pursued as far as northern Syria until the Moudros armistice came into effect on October 31.

Commemoration

Several memorials to the Desert Mounted Corps have been erected in Australia . Worth mentioning are the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial (formerly Light Horse Memorial ) in Albany , Western Australia, and the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial on the ANZAC Parade , Canberra . The former was built in Port Said , Egypt, in 1932 , but was then destroyed during the Suez Crisis of 1956. In 1964 it was rebuilt in Albany. The monument in Canberra is a copy of that monument.

  • Desert Mounted Corps Memorial in Albany, Australia

  • Desert Mounted Corps Memorial at the ANZAC Parade, Canberra

  • Desert Mounted Corps Horse Memorial in Sydney

A memorial day for the corps is Beersheba Day , which is celebrated on October 31st.

Movie

The feature film The Lighthorsemen (Australia, 1987, director: Simon Wincer ) tells the story of Australia's participation in the Battle of Beersheba.

literature

contemporary:

  • RMP Preston: The Desert Mounted Corps: An Account of the Cavalry Operations in Palestine and Syria, 1917–1918. Houghton Mifflin, 1921 ( online ).

modern:

  • Cyril Falls: Armageddon, 1918: The Final Palestinian Campaign of World War I. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1964.
  • John D. Grainger: The Battle for Palestine 1917. Boydell Press, 2006.
  • David R. Woodward: Hell in the Holy Land: World War I in the Middle East. University Press of Kentucky, 2013.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Desert Mounted Corps Memorial, Albany on monumentaustralia.org.au