First battle of El Teb

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First battle of El Teb
Part of: Mahdi uprising
date February 4, 1884
place El Teb , 14 km southeast of Trinkitat, eastern Sudan
output Victory of the Mahdists
Parties to the conflict

Flag of Egypt (1882-1922) .svg Khedivat Egypt

Ansar (Mahdists)

Commander

Valentine Baker

Osman Digna

Troop strength
3500 soldiers 1000 soldiers
losses

2,400 fallen or prisoners

unknown

The First Battle of El Teb (February 4, 1884) took place during the Mahdi Uprising in Sudan . A Mahdist army under Osman Digna succeeded in defeating the Egyptian troops.

Starting position

The Mahdi uprising broke out in Sudan in 1881. The Mahdist troops had achieved great successes against Egyptian troops in 1882 and 1883 and various places with Egyptian troops came under siege by the Mahdists. The British government urged that the situation be defused by evacuating the troops. The port of Sawakin on the Red Sea could be supplied by ships and thus assert itself against the troops of the Mahdists. But further inland the places Tokar and Sinkat were completely cut off by the Mahdist troops.

Since all available Egyptian army units were smashed in the battle of Sheican and the British government was unwilling to engage with its own troops, the Egyptian gendarmerie was dispatched under its leader, the British officer Valentine Baker and a number of European officers. In February 1884 a group of 3000 gendarmes was shipped from Suez to Sawakin to support the besieged places. The company struggled with problems from the start. Most of the infantry units consisted of barracked Egyptian police officers who performed their service on the condition that they were used solely for civilian tasks in Egypt. When these police officers heard that they were about to be shipped to Sudan, many of them deserted and those who stayed were severely demoralized and unwilling to fight.

The battle

On February 3, Baker moved his troops by ship along the coast from Suakin to Trinikat, near Tokar. He made camp on the beach and marched from there the next morning. The Egyptian troops were not used to marching in orderly formations and were a correspondingly disorganized mass. At the El Teb stop on the road to Tokar, a 1000-strong Mahdist unit attacked the marching column. Despite their numerical superiority and better weapons, the troops under British command panic and fled after firing a single volley. The Mahdists pursued them, inflicting heavy casualties on them, and thus killing almost all European officers who resisted. Only Baker was able to save himself with a group in the camp on the beach and successfully defend it. Of the 3,500 troops under British leadership, only 700 survived the battle.

Upon his return to Suakin, Baker tried to organize the defense of the city, but the Egyptian troops distrusted the British officers and refused to give orders. So this defeat sealed the downfall of the other troops. The Sinkat units attempted a sortie to march on Suakin, but they were all killed. The units in Tokar surrendered without further resistance.

Result

In Britain, Baker's defeat fueled calls for regular British troops to intervene. In order to hold the Red Sea coast, which is important for securing the sea routes to India , and to maintain an alternative to the route to Khartoum over the Nile, the British now sent their own troops to Sawakin. On February 12, the Suakin Field Force landed under General Gerald Graham . These had participated in the Anglo-Egyptian War and were now partly on their way back to India . On February 29, 1884, the Second Battle of El Teb took place , in which Graham succeeded in defeating Osman Digna.

literature

  • Michael Asher : Khartoum: The Ultimate Imperial Adventure . Penguin Global, London 2006, ISBN 978-0-14-025855-4 .
  • Henry Cecil Jackson: Osman Digna . Methuen & Co Ltd., London 1926.

Individual evidence