Mediterranean Expeditionary Force

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Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF) (German: Expeditionsstreitkraft Mediterranean ) was the name of the expeditionary force of the British Army , which was used during the First World War in the Mediterranean region , in particular in the Battle of Gallipoli and on the Salonika Front. It is to be distinguished from the Egyptian Expeditionary Force , which was used in the later Sinai and Palestine campaigns.

history

Gallipoli theater of war

The Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was formed on March 11, 1915 under the command of General Ian Hamilton with headquarters in Alexandria . The amphibious landing planned on the Gallipoli peninsula was intended to force the march through the Dardanelles in order to establish the sea connection over the Black Sea to the allied Russian Empire and to eliminate the war opponent, the Ottoman Empire, by occupying its capital Istanbul .

Over the next few weeks, their troops were assembled on Limnos and Moudros , where they were prepared for the landings. These took place on April 25, 1915 at Cape Helles and at Gaba Tepe ( ANZAC Cove) after several purely naval operations had been repulsed by the Turks . Egypt acted as the base of operations for this campaign, the troops there were commanded by General John Maxwell .

On October 14, 1915, General Charles Monro took command of the MEF from General Hamilton. He referred his headquarters to Imbros . Command was split and the armed forces on Gallipoli were henceforth called the Dardanelles Army (General Birdwood ), while in Greece the British Salonika Army (General Mahon ) was formed. Monro then led the withdrawal from Gallipoli, after which he handed over command of the MEF to his successor Archibald Murray in Egypt on January 9, 1916 . Under this, the command structure in Egypt was combined in early March 1916 and the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was renamed the Egyptian Expeditionary Force .

Subordinate associations

April 1915 :

August 1915 :

  • VIII. Corps (Aylmer Hunter-Weston, Cape Helles)
    • 29th Division ( Henry de Beauvoir de Lisle )
    • 42nd (East Lancashire) Division (William Douglas)
    • 52nd (Lowland) Division (Granville GA Egerton)
    • Royal Naval Division (Archibald Paris)
  • IX. Corps ( Frederick Stopford , Suvla Bay)
    • 10th (Irish) Division ( Bryan Mahon )
    • 11th (Northern) Division (Edward Fanshawe)
    • 13th (Western) Division (Shaw FC)
    • 53rd (Welsh) Division ( William R. Marshall )
    • 54th (East Anglian) Division (Francis S. Inglefield)
    • 2nd Mounted Division ( William Peyton )
  • Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (William Birdwood, Anzac Cove)
    • Australian 1st Division (Harold Walker)
    • Australian 2nd Division (James Gordon Legge)
    • New Zealand and Australian Division (Andrew Hamilton Russell)
    • Indian 29th Brigade (Herbert Vaughan Cox)

literature

  • Edward J. Erickson: Gallipoli. Command under fire. Osprey, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-1-4728-0669-7 .
  • Michael J. Mortlock: The Egyptian Expeditionary Force in World War I. A History of the British-Led Campaigns in Egypt, Palestine and Syria. McFarland, Jefferson NC et al. a. 2010, ISBN 978-0-7864-4871-5 .
  • Andrew Rawson: The British Army 1914-1918. Sutton, Stroud 2006, ISBN 0-7509-3745-9 .
  • Kristian Coates Ulrichsen: The First World War in the Middle East. Hurst, London 2014, ISBN 978-1-84904-505-6 .

Web links