Battle of Tamanieh

Battle of Tamanieh

Part of: Mahdi uprising

Battle of Tamanieh ( Godfrey Douglas Giles )

date	March 13, 1884
place	Tamanieh near Suakin , eastern Sudan
output	British victory

Parties to the conflict
United Kingdom	Mahdists
Commander
Gerald Graham	Osman Digna
Troop strength
4500 soldiers, 22 cannons, 6 machine guns	10,000 soldiers
losses
214 injured and killed	4000 injured and killed

The Battle of Tamanieh (also Battle of Tamai ) was a battle that was fought on March 13, 1884 between British troops under the leadership of Sir Gerald Graham and supporters of Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad under the leadership of Osman Digna in Sudan .

Starting position

The Mahdi uprising broke out in Sudan in 1881. The Mahdist General Osman Digna carried the Mahdiya to eastern Sudan. On February 4, 1884, he was able to defeat an army under Baker Pasha . 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 . Graham defeated Osman Digna in the Second Battles of El Teb on February 29th . Despite his victory, Graham was aware that Osman Digna's troops were far from defeated and still received great popular support. British troops therefore left Suakin on March 10, with the intention of inflicting a definite defeat on the Mahdi supporters.

The British units were the same as those who fought at El Teb: 4,500 soldiers with 22 cannons and 6 machine guns . The Mahdists were about 10,000 fighters who came from the Hadendoa tribe .

The battle

On the night of March 12th, British troops set up camp not far from Osman Digna's positions. From about 1 a.m. until dawn, Mahdist riflemen approached and fired into the British camp, but their shots were inaccurate and wounded few soldiers.

At daybreak, British artillery was used to drive these shooters away. The infantry then formed two squares , each the size of a brigade, and marched towards the enemy camp. One square was commanded by Col. Davis and General Graham, and the other by Col. Buller . Scouts had found out that the Mahdist troops were hiding in a dry valley. General Graham then ordered part of his square to attack, creating a large gap in the square. The Mahdists suddenly stormed into this gap. The British forces of General Graham's Square withdrew in disorder in response.

The attack by the Mahdists was successfully repulsed by volleys from Colonel Buller's square, which had survived the counterattack unscathed, as well as by cavalry units that had not yet intervened in the action.

The British troops regrouped and resumed their attack. The British drove the Mahdists out of the dry valley and inflicted losses on them as they fled. The Osman Dignas camp was captured a little later that day, but he himself had already fled.

Result

The British lost more soldiers in this battle than in any other conflict during the Mahdi uprising. 214 soldiers, including 10 British officers, were either wounded or killed. The Mahdists suffered heavy casualties and lost 4,000 fighters, about 2,000 of whom were killed and the same number wounded.

The British hoped that this battle would reduce Osman Digna's reputation and weaken his troops so that he would lose control of the Hadendoa. The British hope was not to be fulfilled; when General Graham's forces withdrew from Sudan later that year, Osman Digna regained his old influence. The attacks by the British can thus be seen as pure punitive measures, in which the sole aim was to restore the offended pride; in the opinion of Winston Churchill , who would later fight in the Mahdi rebellion , their benefit was very questionable.

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

1. ↑ Winston Churchill: The river war - an account of the Reconquest of the Sudan. Eyre and Spottiswoode, London 1952, online at Projekt Gutenberg .