Battle for Jerusalem (1917)
Allenby enters Jerusalem, 1917
| date | November 17, 1917 to December 30, 1917 |
|---|---|
| place | Jerusalem |
| output | British victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| about 10 divisions | about 10 divisions |
| losses | |
|
18,000 |
25,000 |
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1915: Suez Canal
1917: Rafah - Gaza (1) - Gaza (2) - Beersheba - Gaza (3) - El Mughar - Jerusalem
1918: Jericho - Tell 'Asur - Jordan (1) - Jordan (2) - Abu Tellul - Megiddo
In the Battle of Jerusalem ( Turkish Kudüs Muharebesi ) during the First World War , British troops fought against Ottoman and German troops from November 19, 1917 . The surrender of the religiously important city of Jerusalem to the English took place on December 9th and brought the Ottomans a serious loss of prestige in the Arab world.
background
On June 28, 1917, Lieutenant General Edmund Allenby was appointed commander of British forces in Palestine ( Egyptian Expeditionary Force ). He had replaced General Archibald Murray , whose multiple attacks on the Gaza Line had so far failed.
In mid-July 1917, General Erich von Falkenhayn took over the command of Army Group F at the request of the Ottoman Army Command under Enver Pascha , whose forces gathered in Syria . After long arguments with the Turkish leadership, Falkenhayn was appointed commander in chief of the Ottoman 7th and 8th armies in Palestine on September 7th.
-
Ottoman 7th Army : General Mustafa Kemal
- III. Corps: General Mustafa İsmet Pasha
- XX. Corps: General Ali Fuat Bey
-
Ottoman 8th Army : General Ismail Cevat Pasha
- XXII. Corps: General Refet Bey
- Asia Corps Major General von Frankenberg and Proschlitz
On the morning of October 31, the British began a long-prepared major offensive on the Palestine Front with a surprise attack on Beersheba by the Australian 4th Light Horse Brigade and the British 5th Mounted Brigade . In the days that followed, the third battle of Gaza took place , which was heavily fortified by the Ottoman troops. On November 7, 1917, the British captured the city of Gaza and broke the Gaza Line positional system. As a result, the Ottoman resistance collapsed, and the defeated army lost thousands of soldiers as prisoners in the subsequent fighting of retreat.
On November 11, the Turkish 8th Army was initially withdrawn from the Jebna - Katra line, and the headquarters of the Army Group was withdrawn from Jerusalem to Nablus. On November 13th the British succeeded in breaking through the opposing front at Zernuka, the Ottoman 8th Army was pushed back onto the Jaffa - Wadi Nusra line and the 7th Army on the Ramlah - Jerusalem line. The Turkish 19th Infantry and 3rd Cavalry Divisions fought against the pursuers south of Hebron and near Bet Jibrin. The 7th Army remained anchored with the left wing in the area southwest of Hebron on the line Dura - Jutta. Corps under Ali Fuad Bey went back to the highlands of Judea and took responsibility for the defense of Jerusalem, while the III. Corps under Ismet Pasha in the Bet Shemesh area and defended the road to Nablus to the north . There was initially no significant direct pressure on Jerusalem itself, because General Allenby wanted to spare the city from war as much as possible.
The front of the Ottoman Army Group ran sharply from northwest to southeast after the badly beaten 8th Army had yielded much more deeply to English pressure towards the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. As a result, the western flank of the 8th Army was overstretched and asked the English directly to start their attack here. On November 16, the Desert Mounted Corps with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade under General Meldrum was able to occupy Jaffa and use the port for supplies after the inadequate infrastructure had been built up . The coastal road between Gaza and Beit Hanun was also heavily silted up by drifts. All available trucks and camels were organized in convoys and provisionally brought the necessary supplies along the Gaza Strait to the El Mejdel terminus near Deir el Belah.
Jerusalem lies geographically between the deep-lying Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and was protected to the south - towards the Negew - by the highlands of Judea. The highlands of Judea extended to the north adjoining highlands of Samaria to about 120 kilometers in length and on average 40 kilometers in width and offered good defensive possibilities. The heights vary between 900 meters above and 400 meters below sea level. To the east of it runs the low-lying Jordan Valley, which sinks to 370 meters below sea level. The distance of the Jordan from the peaks of the range of hills of Judea is between 13 and 19 kilometers. The alternation of day and night results in large temperature fluctuations in these highlands.
British division of forces
The fighting for the city of Jerusalem began on November 17, 1917, the attacks on the coast continued, the encirclement of the city was led from the west and against the highlands of Judea. Allenby's forces attacked with the following structure:
Left wing: Desert Mounted Corps (Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel )
- Anzac Mounted Division (Major General Edward Chaytor )
- Australian Mounted Division (Major General HW Hodgson)
- Imperial Camel Corps Brigade (Brigadier General CL Smith)
Right wing: XXI Corps (Lieutenant General Sir Edward Bulfin )
- 52nd (Lowland) Division (Major General J. Hill)
- 54th (East Anglia) Division (Major General SW Hare)
- 75th Division (Major General PC Palin)
- Yeomanry Mounted Division (Major General G. de S. Barrow)
Negev Group: XX Corps (Lieutenant General Sir Philip Chetwode )
- 10th (Irish) Division (Major General JR Longley)
- 53rd (Welsh) Division (Major General SF Mott)
- 60th (London) Division (Major General Sir JSM Shea)
- 74th (Yeomanry) Division (Major General ES Girdwood)
The battle
The Turkish 7th Army was deployed to defend the area on both sides of Jerusalem, the left flank was covered by the 3rd Cavalry Division. The 27th Division covered the road from Hebron to Jerusalem. The 53rd Division of the XX. Corps held positions at Nebi Samwil, the 26th Division acted as reserves. The 19th and 24th Divisions defended the road from Bireh to Jerusalem and Nablus. The Turkish 8th Army (Headquarters Tulkarem ) deployed the XXII Corps with the 3rd, 7th and 16th Divisions from the coast south of the Nahr el Auja to Lydda .
General Allenby directed attack operations at the XXI Corps headquarters in El Kastine. Two British infantry divisions, the 52nd and 75th divisions, and two mounted divisions, the Yeomanry and the Australian Mounted Divisions, were designated for the main attack in the direction of Jerusalem. On November 18, the 75th Division and the Australian Mounted Division began their assault on the range of hills of Judea. On the left, the 52nd Division had to go through smaller roads on Lydda, the 75th Division had to advance on the right over Amwas on the slopes of Bet-Horon. Deployed to the left of the 52nd Division, the Australian Mounted Division had to cover north and northeast. Their goal was to cut off the enemy lines at Bireh, 13 km north of Jerusalem. The Yeomanry Mounted Division (6th, 8th and 20th and 22nd Brigade) advanced over the old Roman road to Ramallah and through Berfilya and Beit Ur el Tahta towards Bireh. In the south the XX Corps had to advance the 53rd Division (Major General Mott) on the road from Beersheba to the north, to take Hebron and Bethlehem and to secure it to the east against Turkish flank attacks from the Jericho area.
On the evening of November 19, rain followed, which in a few hours flooded all wadis including their foothills, the ground became smooth and hard, making it more difficult for the troops and wheeled vehicles to pass. The Yeomanry Mounted Division advanced in long columns via Beit Ur el Tahta through the highlands to the east. On November 21, Ottoman reinforcements began to take effect from the north, the Ottoman III withdrawn from the Hebron area. Corps began to lead stronger counterattacks at Nebi Samwil. The western edge of the heights of Zeitun, west of Bireh, was occupied by 3,000 Turkish soldiers of the 3rd Cavalry Division and parts of the 24th Division and reinforced by several artillery batteries. The Turks forced the Yeomanry Division to retreat to the west side of the valley to Beit Ur el Foqa. On the coastal plain, the 54th Division was brought forward to strengthen the Desert Mounted Corps to defend the Jaffa-Ludd line. The Australian cavalry patrols headed for the villages of Shukba and Shebtin, where the Turks were holed up opposite on the heights at Deir el Kuddis. The Australian and New Zealand Mounted Divisions, supported by two infantry divisions, occupied the Midieh line via Hadrah to Muannis in front of the Nahr el Auja section.
On November 23, the headquarters of the XX Corps was moved from Gaza to the El Tine railway junction in Wadi Surar , the 60th Division moved over Mejdel to the heights at Latron, and the 74th Division was established at Deir El Belah. The 5th Yeomanry Brigade of the Australian Mounted Division had rested in Mejdel from November 19 to 27, before being deployed to the 60th (2/2 London) Division in the highlands at the request of General Chauvel. The 3rd Lighthorse Brigade under Major General Lachlan Chisholm Wilson marched on Berfilya (3.2 km west of El Burj) while the 4th Lighthorse Brigade under Brigadier General William Grant was deployed at Beit Ur el Tahta.
On November 28th, General Chetwode took command of the XXI Corps in front of Jerusalem, whose divisions were moved one after the other to the left wing on the coast until December 7th. A counterattack by the Turkish 19th Division on the positions of the English 157th Brigade at Beit Ur el Tahta and against the 3rd Lighthorse Brigade in the northeast of El Burj was repulsed with losses. On December 3, the Royal Devon Regiment of the 74th Yeomanry Division snatched Beit Ur el Foqa from the Turks. The next day the Imperial Camel Corps was replaced by the New Zealand-Rifles Brigade in front of Height 265, the enemy withdrew via Yebna to Shellal. That same night the 10th Division replaced the 229th and 230th Brigades of the 74th Division. The 231st Brigade of the 74th Division reinforced the worn out parts of the 60th Division at Beit Izza and Nebi Samwil. Eventually the 74th Division took over the line south of Abdul Aziz to southeast of Beit Surik.
On December 7th, the order was issued from the headquarters of the Turkish 7th Army to the troops of XX. Corps to evacuate Jerusalem. The German high command left its previous headquarters on the Mount of Olives and withdrew to Nazareth .
consequences
The surrender of Jerusalem took place on December 9, 1917. The mayor of Jerusalem, Hussein el Husseini, went with several dignitaries to the outpost of the British 60th Division to offer the surrender of the city. Major General Shea called the 180th Brigade under General Watson into the city and declared martial law. General Allenby had the surrender repeated for himself and wisely considered the concerns of the people and the religious significance of the city. On December 11th, Allenby moved into the Holy City on foot, not at the head of a motorized column, which was "liberated" from 400 years of Ottoman rule. For England, the capture of Jerusalem compensated for the unsuccessful attacks against the German troops on the Western Front.
After the security of Jerusalem, Allenby wanted to have his supply port Jaffa secured as a priority. On December 7th, the reinforced British XXI Corps under Lieutenant General Bulfin opened the Battle of Jaffa. Three infantry divisions (52nd, 54th and 75th) advanced on the coastal plain to the north and pushed the Turkish 3rd Division far back over the northern bank of the Nahr el Auja by December 20. The fighting itself lasted beyond December 30, 1917. After that, fighting came to a standstill until March 1918, and several units were transferred to the Western Front , where the German spring offensive was expected.
literature
- John D. Grainger: The Battle for Palestine 1917. Boydell Press Woodbridge, Rochester NY 2006, ISBN 1-84383-263-1 .
- Matthew Hughes: Allenby and British Strategy in the Middle East 1917-1919. Frank Cass Publishers, Abingdon 1999, ISBN 0-7146-4920-1 .
- Guy Powles: The New Zealanders in Sinai and Palestine. Whitcombe and Tombs, Auckland 1922.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Thomas Harding: Hanns and Rudolf. The German Jew and the Hunt for the Commander of Auschwitz. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-423-42432-5 . (Excerpt) .
- ^ Austria in the Middle East: The Great Power Policy of the Habsburg Monarchy in the Arabian Orient 1633–1918. (on-line)
- ↑ Ullstein image: Dossier 1st World War - Battle of Jerusalem 1917. ( Memento from May 6, 2016 in the web archive archive.today )
