Battle of Firket

Battle of Firket

Part of: Mahdi uprising

Egyptian troops storm Firket

date	June 7, 1896
place	Firket in Sudan
Exit	British victory

Parties to the conflict
United Kingdom Khedivat Egypt	Ansar (Mahdists)
Commander
Horatio Herbert Kitchener	Hamuda
Troop strength
approx. 9500 British, Egyptians and Sudanese	approx. 3000 men
losses
20 dead	1000 dead

In the Battle of Firket in northern Sudan on June 7, 1896, an Anglo - Egyptian army under Horatio Herbert Kitchener defeated the supporters of Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad, who died in 1885 . The battle was the culmination of the Dongola expedition against the Mahdi uprising .

prehistory

In Sudan, which came under the rule of the Ottoman viceroys ( Khedives ) of Egypt from 1821, the Mahdi uprising began in 1881 and culminated in 1885 with the conquest of Khartoum . Horatio Herbert Kitchener had been preparing for the reconquest of Sudan since his appointment as sirdar in the Egyptian army in 1892. On March 12, 1896, he was finally ordered to march along the Nile and attack the Mahdists. Thereupon the Anglo-Egyptian Nile Expeditionary Force was put on the march under his command. In the so-called Dongola expedition , the northern province of Sudan was first to be occupied and the logistical prerequisites for a campaign to Omdurman were created. Advance troops reached Akasheh on March 20. A railway line to Ambigole could be driven forward by the end of May. From here Kitchener prepared the attack on Firket, where the Mahdist army was located.

structure

Kitchener's troops

Kitchener's army was divided into the River Column and the Desert Column .

• River Column ( Horatio Herbert Kitchener )

  1st Infantry Division (Colonel Archibald Hunter )

  1st Brigade (Major Lewis)

  3rd Egyptian Battalion

  4th Egyptian Battalion

  10th Sudanese Battalion

  2nd Brigade (Major Hector Archibald MacDonald )

  9th Sudanese Battalion

  11th Sudanese Battalion

  13th Sudanese Battalion

  3rd Brigade (Major John Grenfell Maxwell )

  2nd Egyptian Battalion

  7th Egyptian Battalion

  8th Egyptian Battalion

  2 field batteries

  2 Maxim machine guns

  Field hospital

• Desert Column (Major Burn-Murdoch)

  Cavalry Brigade (Major Burn-Murdoch)

  Camel Corps (Captain Tudway)

  12th Battalion - Sudanese

  1 battery of mounted artillery

  2 Maxim machine guns

The River Column was 7,000 strong and the Desert Column 2,100 strong .

Mahdists

The Mahdist army was about 3000 strong. It was led by the Emir Hamuda. There were 57 other emirs in the Mahdist army in Firket.

course

The main Anglo-Egyptian force, the River Column , advanced along the Nile, the Desert Column marched through the desert. The River Column began its advance on the evening of June 6th. The units marched from Akasheh to Firket in complete silence. At 4:30 a.m. they formed into rifle line. The Desert Column had meanwhile bypassed the position of the Mahdists and took a position behind them. The three brigades attacked the various Mahdist camps near Firket and were able to completely surprise the Mahdists. At 7:00 a.m., the Mahdists were overcome and turned to flee. The Anglo-Egyptian army lost 20 men, the Mahdists mourned around 1,000 deaths, including 44 emirs. Kitchener could now have marched further in the direction of Dongola . He preferred, however, to await the arrival of the gunboats and to advance the railway line further south. As a result of the victory of Firket, Dongola was finally taken on September 23rd.

literature

• W. Dennistoun Sword, Henry SL Alford: Egyptian Soudan. Its loss and recovery. With Records of the Services of the Officers (1896-8) . Macmillan, London et al. 1898, (Reprinted by Naval & Military Press Ltd, Uckfield 2001, ISBN 1-84342-100-3 ).