Military Operations, Egypt and Palestine, vol. 1

22–25 November 1915

Battle of Ctesiphon (1915)

THE BEERSHEBA RAILWAY 85

back to Eg3^t with. Sir J. Maxwell, Major-General H. S. Horne, who had accompanied him to the Near East, so that the latter's experience of the Western Front might be available for the reconnaissance of a new hne of defence. Sir J. Maxwell returned to face an unhappy situation. Fresh calls had come from Mesopotamia, where affairs had gone ill, the advance on Baghdad had failed, and the Battle of Ctesiphon been followed by the retreat of General Townshend to Kut and its investment by the enemy in the first week of December. The 28th Indian Brigade and a number of individual Indian battalions were despatched to Basra. There were 60,000 troops still in Eg37pt, but the vast bulk of these were details of various formations and recruits from Australia and New Zealand, which had been organized into temporary battalions for training. There were no staffs and no formations, save those of the remaining Indian brigades. The Force in Eg57pt was almost reduced to the functions of a training and reinforcement camp.

31 October – 7 November 1917

Third Battle of Gaza

PREFACE.

The present volume covers events from the outbreak of war with Germany — though Great Britain remained at peace with Turkey until three months later — ^to June 1917, when, after deadlock had followed the Second Battle of Gaza, the War Cabinet decided upon the invasion of Palestine and despatched General Sir E. H. H. Allenby to succeed General Sir Archibald Mxirray, It is therefore a record of nearly three years ; whilst the second and final volume will cover a period of less than eighteen months, but a period of larger and more continuous active operations. The first volume is concerned with the defence of Eg3^t against invasion, both against the Turks from the east, and their allies, the tribesmen of the Western Desert who fought under the banner of the Senussi ; with the period when Egypt formed the base of the Gallipoli Campaign ; with the concentration of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in Eg5rpt after Gallipoli's evacuation ; witii the advance to the Turkish frontier and the expulsion of the enemy from the Sinai Peninsula ; and with the First and Second Battles of Gaza. It also includes the earlier stages of the Arab campaign against the Turks in the Hejaz.

Chapter XVI, page

The First Battle of Gaza.

Chapter XVII.

The First Battle of Gaza (Continued).

Chapter XVIII.

The Second Battle of Gaza.