Landing at Fao
| date | November 6th to 8th, 1914 |
|---|---|
| place | Fao , today's Iraq |
| output | British victory |
| consequences | British conquers Fao |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
? |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 1 brigade , 1 old battleship, 2 sloops |
approx. 350 soldiers, 3 guns |
| losses | |
|
? |
300 prisoners of war |
Landing at Fao - Basra - al-Qurna - Shaiba - Ktesiphon - Siege of Kut - Sheikh Saad - Wadi - Hanna - Dujaila - Kut II - Baghdad - Samarra - Ramadi - Sharqat
The Landing at Fao was an attack by British soldiers on Fao during the First World War . The British conquered the fortress there, marking the beginning of the war in Mesopotamia .
background
When the Ottoman Empire entered the First World War, the British feared for the safety of their oil facilities in Khusistan on the Persian Gulf . Therefore they decided to occupy Ottoman coastlines in the Persian Gulf. The fortress on Fao, located at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab , was the most important Ottoman fortress on the Gulf.
The 16th Brigade of the 6th (Indian) Division under Brigadier General Delamain, originally intended for transport to the Western Front , arrived in the Gulf from Bombay in mid-October . According to the sealed orders she received upon embarkation, she should prepare for her mission in Bahrain . On November 5, Great Britain declared war on the Ottoman Empire after the German warships Goeben and Breslau, sailing under the Turkish flag , shot at Russian Black Sea ports in late October.
landing
Delamain, whose brigade was already in readiness at sea, landed several hundred Royal Marines from HMS Ocean on November 6th . The troops were immediately under fire from the fortress. When the brigade tried to attack the fortress, it was attacked by the Ottoman infantry . The British managed to repel the attack, but they could not attack the fortress because their heavy artillery had not yet landed. So they dug trenches around the fortress. The landing of the Indian brigade, supported by coastal shelling by sloops Odin and Espiegle , was severely hindered by the tides and lack of training, and some boats came ashore in Abadan .
battle
British artillery arrived on November 8th and immediately began bombarding the fortress. After the walls of the fortress were destroyed, the British stormed the fortress and captured 300 Ottoman soldiers. The British then occupied the port of Fao, and the next day the remainder of the division landed .
consequences
With the capture of Fao, the Ottoman Empire no longer had access to the Persian Gulf. The British next planned to take Basra from the base in Fao .
media
The landing at Fao was processed in the video game Battlefield 1 , released in 2016 and developed by DICE for Electronic Arts , in the multiplayer map "Fao Fortress". This made it known to a wider public.
literature
- Arnold Wilson : Loyalties Mesopotamia 1914-1917. A personal and hist. Record. Milford, London 1930.
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 29 ° 54'52.3 " N , 48 ° 34'38" E.