100 years ago, on September 19, 1918, British forces launched the most brilliant operation in the Middle East during the war - the Battle of Megiddo, or the Battle of Armageddon. In Turkish-language sources, this operation is known as the "Defeat in Nablus" or "Battle of Nablus". The Palestinian operation, in a short time, led to the surrender of another German ally - the Ottoman Empire.
The situation at the front
The 1917 campaign on the Mesopotamian and Palestinian fronts was successful for the Entente. In Mesopotamia, the British, with the assistance of Baratov's Russian corps, defeated the 6th Turkish army in the Kut al-Amara region, and occupied Baghdad.
On the Palestinian front on October 31, 1917, the Battle of Beer Sheva began. On November 6, the Ottoman front at Gaza and Beersheba was broken through and Turkish troops began a general retreat. The allies invaded Palestine and captured the most important settlements - Jaffa and Jerusalem. The further offensive developed extremely slowly. By the end of the year, the fatigue of the troops and especially the rains that began, and the lack of roads forced the British to stop their offensive. There was a lull at the front, which continued at the beginning of 1918. The British command was engaged in improving communication lines and building a railway.
On January 21, 1918, the Supreme Military Council of the Entente made a decision "to launch a decisive offensive against Turkey in order to destroy the Turkish armies and crush the resistance of the Turks." The position of the Ottoman Empire during this period was critical. The Turkish army experienced an acute shortage of weapons and ammunition. The economy - industry, finance, trade, agriculture, which in peacetime barely breathed, collapsed under the weight of military problems and mediocre government policies. The people and troops were starving. The supply of clothing has actually ceased. An increase in epidemic diseases was observed. The soldiers deserted en masse, the size of the army was constantly decreasing. The corps, which were sent to the front in 1917, lost up to 40% of the personnel on the way to the front line. In military units, suicide and self-harm have become commonplace. The deserters created bandit, Chetnik detachments that responded to the terror of the state, army and police with their own terror. Fighting desertion, banditry and resistance from national minorities, the authorities responded with even greater cruelty. Punitive detachments destroyed and burned whole healers, devastated the area. Thus, the combat capability of the Turkish army fell sharply, and the country itself was falling apart, drowning in chaos.
In addition, the Turkish military-political leadership launched an intervention in the Caucasus, taking advantage of the collapse and turmoil in Russia. That is, the troops that could reinforce the defenses in the Mesopotamian and Syrian-Palestinian fronts operated in the Caucasus. The Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty of March 3, 1918 established peace between the Ottoman Empire and Soviet Russia. However, the Young Turkish government launched an intervention in Transcaucasia, still hoping to create a "common Turkic" empire and reward itself for the losses in the Hejaz, Palestine and Iraq. At the end of April 1918, the Turks captured Kars and Batum. Turkish agents were active among the highlanders of the North Caucasus, encouraging them to revolt. On May 15, 1918, the Turks took Alexandropol, on September 15 they captured Baku. The invaders staged a bloody massacre in Baku, massacred thousands of Armenians. Military adventure of the Turkish army in the Caucasus,the greed of the Young Turkish government made it easier for the British to defeat the Ottoman Empire.
On the Mesopotamian Front, hostilities began in March 1918. The troops of the 6th Turkish Army stretched out on a 500-kilometer front from Khanat-Makinsky to the Euphrates. The British forces included six infantry, a cavalry division and numerous separate units - a total of 447 thousand people (in combat units on the front line there were 170 thousand people). On the Mosul direction, British troops occupied a number of settlements (Hit, Kifri, Tuz, Kirkuk), but then left them and retreated to their former positions north of Baghdad. From May to September there was a lull, during which the British were preparing for larger operations.
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Source of the map: A. M. Zayonchkovsky. World War 1914-1918
The plans and forces of the parties
In the Syrian-Palestinian theater at the end of April 1918, it was planned to carry out an offensive to defeat the Turkish army. The British carried out a lot of work to improve the supply routes, a railway was built to Rantie. But the spring offensive of the German army on the French front thwarted the British plans in Palestine. The troops had to be transferred from here to France, and in Palestine they were limited to local operations. After the German offensive in France began to fizzle out, the British returned to preparing an offensive in Palestine. British troops under the command of Edmund Allenby, who received reinforcements, totaled 69 thousand people (including 12 thousand cavalry, 540 guns and 90 aircraft).
The Turkish 4th, 7th and 8th armies took up defenses at the front from the Mediterranean coast to the northern end of the Dead Sea and another 30-40 km east of the river. Jordan. The main command of the Turkish troops in Palestine in February 1918 was entrusted to the German general Liman von Sanders. Each Turkish army consisted of several divisions, but so weak that the size of the army was barely one normal division. The total number of Turkish troops in Palestine was 34 thousand people (including 2 thousand cavalry), 402 guns and 25 aircraft. The Turkish command planned to go on the offensive in late February - early March 1918 in order to push back the British troops and eliminate the threat they posed not only to Palestine and Syria, but also to Southern Anatolia and the Mesopotamian Front. But due to the collapse of the army,supplies and military adventures in the Caucasus did not dare to attack.
The British command's plan was to deliver powerful blows on the flanks and encircle the main Turkish forces. The development of success was assigned to the cavalry ("horse corps of the desert" - three divisions), for which it concentrated on the left flank in the Jaffa region. On the right flank, the operation was supported by detachments of Arab rebels against the Turks. In order to achieve surprise, operational camouflage measures were widely used (disinformation, false regroupings, imitation of the work of large headquarters, mock-ups). So, in the east of Palestine, in the Jordan Valley, the British built a false military camp with 15 thousand horse stuffed animals so that the Turks thought that the main blow would be here, and not in the seaside strip. Also, infantry was transferred here demonstratively, during the day, on foot and with a maximum of noise, and at night they secretly transported it back by trucks to the seaside region.
The entry of General Allenby's British army into Jerusalem.
Battle
The British offensive began at 4:30 on September 19. After 15 minutes of powerful artillery preparation, the infantry, under the cover of a barrage of fire, moved into the attack. British and Indian infantry divisions attacked Turkish positions in the Sharon area and broke through all defensive positions on a 13 kilometers wide front, encircling two Turkish corps in the adjoining mountains. Indian and Australian units captured communication centers deep in the Ottoman defenses, and British aircraft paralyzed the work of the Turkish headquarters by bombing, which destroyed command and control. At the same time, another successful British attack took place 20 kilometers to the east, in the Nablus region (the city was captured by September 20). The attackers from the sea and from Nablus united 20 kilometers to the north, in the Megiddo region, closing the encirclement ring.
The Turkish front was broken through from Rafat to the sea (40 km along the front) and a cavalry corps entered the breakthrough, which by the end of the day advanced 40 km in depth. In the surrounding cities, a series of small battles took place with demoralized Turks trying to break out of the encirclement: near Nazareth, which was occupied by the British on September 21, near the towns of Jenin and Afula. In Nazareth, where the headquarters of the Turkish army was located, Commander von Sanders was almost taken prisoner. Developing the advance to the north, on September 23, the allies occupied Haifa, and then Akra, which lies 10 kilometers to the north. At the same time, the Arab allies of the British, since September 17, attacked an important transport hub in Daraa (in southern Syria), through which the supply of the Turkish armies went, and destroyed the railway lines. On September 21, British units began to attack in the Jordan Valley in the direction of Amman. Not having the strength to offer serious resistance, the remaining Turkish troops fled. As a result, within a week the Turks in Palestine were defeated and virtually ceased to exist as a military force. Of the entire composition of the Ottoman troops in Palestine, only 6 thousand soldiers escaped capture.
Indian cavalry in Haifa. 1918 year.
Thus, the Turks in Palestine were defeated, but in Syria they did not resist. The numerical and qualitative superiority of the allied forces played out. The Turkish army was already so decayed that after the first setbacks it could not gather strength, regroup, transfer reserves and repulse the enemy in new positions. A complete catastrophe of the Turkish army and the country began, prepared by previous years. British aviation played an important role in the successful implementation of the operation. Seizing air supremacy due to its significant numerical superiority, it bombarded and bombarded the Turkish headquarters from the air, disrupting communications and command and control.
British military historian Neil Grant wrote: “During the battle itself there were no violent skirmishes: victory was achieved by superiority of strategy, plus a predominance in the number of soldiers and weapons, and also thanks to the rapid mobility of relatively lightly armed units. … Allenby also had complete control in the air, exercising it was so effective that Turkish aircraft could not get off the ground at all, and the successful bombing of telegraph and telephone centers disrupted Turkish communication lines. When the cavalry broke through to Nazareth, where the Turkish general staff was, the commanders themselves barely took their feet."
Edmund Allenby himself wrote: “I walked past the hospital and told the wounded that they had done the most important thing in the war - completely defeated two armies in 36 hours! The 7th and 8th Turkish armies currently do not exist, and these were the best troops in the Turkish Empire. The Allies were amazed how the Turkish army, which had resisted them for almost four years, collapsed so quickly in a matter of days.
Turkish prisoners captured during the Battle of Megiddo.
Chasing the enemy
After that, the allies were already advancing, practically not meeting enemy resistance. On September 25, the Australian cavalry broke through to the Sea of Galilee and captured the city of Tiberias. The small Ottoman garrison of the city did not expect the appearance of enemies here and was taken by surprise. The Turks preferred to capitulate. Also on this day, a small Ottoman-German military camp was destroyed in Samakh on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The Turks also suffered a major setback in the Amman region. The city had strong fortifications and natural protection in the form of swamps. But only a day was defended and 2,500 Turkish garrison preferred to lay down their arms. On September 27, the Arab allies of the British occupied the city of Daraa, and the British occupied the Bridge of the Daughters of Jacob across the Jordan. By September 30, the allies were already in Al-Kiswa (10 kilometers south of Damascus), entering Syria.
On October 1, the British occupied Damascus, the winners were led by the legendary British intelligence officer Thomas Lawrence and the son of the former Sheriff of Mecca and King of the Hejaz Faisal ibn Hussein, who later became king of Syria and then of Iraq. In Damascus, the British, Australians and Arabs surrendered up to 12 thousand demoralized Turks, among whom there were many wounded, sick and exhausted soldiers. Many of them soon died due to insufficient medical attention. The British advanced to the north and along the Mediterranean Sea: on October 4 they captured the city of Tire. The Turks had almost no troops here and offered no resistance. By October 7, British troops approached Beirut, and French troops were landed in the city itself. About 600 Ottoman soldiers were captured in the city. They surrendered without resistancebut British soldiers and officers complained of great fatigue from pursuing the Turks through Palestine and Lebanon. Here are the words of one of the officers: “If they asked me how I feel, I must say that I am like a cripple. I hope that I will never again experience such a march, where people stomp with hollow cheeks and goggle eyes, have not eaten anything except cookies for three weeks."
Turkish trench at the Dead Sea. 1918 year.
On October 10, the British occupied the city of Baalbek, on October 13, another detachment, moving on camels and armored vehicles, entered the city of Tripoli. Rayak was occupied on October 14th. The surviving detachments of the Turks retreated deep into Syria and tried to organize a defense in the area of the city of Homs. But even here they failed to gain a foothold. On October 16, British forces surrounded and captured Homs. The swift dash from Damascus was carried out in cars, and the storming of the city took place with the participation of armored vehicles. But not many Turks were captured in Homs, most of them managed to escape and flee further north to the city of Aleppo.
On October 25, the main battleground was already in the very north of Syria, where the combined troops of the Arabs and the British were left to take the last line of defense of the Turks - the large city of Aleppo. The city was of strategic importance and was an important transport hub. In Aleppo, the last remnants of Turkish troops were pulled from the Palestinian front - about 24 thousand soldiers and officers. General Mustafa Kemal Pasha (the future founder of the Turkish Republic of Ataturk) tried to organize them somehow. The former commander-in-chief of the Turkish troops in Palestine, German General von Sanders, actually abandoned his army to the mercy of fate and fled. Aleppo was attacked by Arab cavalry forces led by Prince Faisal, supported by British armored vehicles. The Allies captured positions south of Aleppo by 10 a.m. British armored cars broke into Aleppo. At the same time, 80 kilometers west of the city on the Mediterranean coast, the British approached Alexandretta. Mustafa Kemal, fearing another encirclement, began to hastily withdraw his troops. By evening, the British captured Aleppo. This relatively small battle was the last on the Palestinian front.
During the same period, the British won a victory in Mesopotamia. A new British offensive against Mosul began in mid-October 1918. Within one week, the 6th Turkish Army suffered a crushing defeat at Kalat Sherat. 11,300 Turkish soldiers and officers surrendered to the British with 51 artillery pieces. The British reached the southern borders of the Mosul vilayet and on October 31 freely entered Mosul.
Battle of Megiddo. British patrol with an armored car.
Outcome
During the autumn operations of the 1918 campaign in the Middle East theater, the Turkish army suffered a crushing defeat. In these battles, 75 thousand Turkish soldiers were captured, and a mass of weapons, including 360 guns, fell into the hands of the British. This was largely due to the aggressive policy of the Young Turkish government in the Caucasus. The Turks rushed to capture the Caucasus and could not strengthen the front in Mesopotamia and Palestine, although previous campaigns showed that it was there that the Allies would continue to attack. As a result, the Entente troops captured a significant part of Mesopotamia, all of Palestine and almost all of Syria. The Ottoman Empire, in the face of complete disaster, found itself in a difficult situation, which was aggravated by the surrender of Bulgaria. That is, the allies, after the surrender of Sofia, had the opportunity to launch an offensive against Constantinople from the Balkan Peninsula.
On October 5, the Turkish government approached US President Wilson with a peace proposal. At the same time, it tried to strike up direct negotiations with Britain and France. But the allies, especially the British, were in no hurry to respond until Mosul and Aleppo were captured. The truce negotiations did not officially begin until October 27. They were conducted on the English warship Forsyth in the port of Mudros on the island of Lemnos, which was then captured by the British.
On October 30, 1918 in Mudros aboard the British battleship Agamemnon, Turkey signed the difficult terms of an armistice. On behalf of the Entente, the treaty was signed by Admiral Kalthorpe on behalf of Turkey - Minister of the Navy Husein Rauf. Turkey pledged to open the straits for the passage of Allied ships into the Black Sea, the forts of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus were handed over to the victors. All other seaports on the Black and Mediterranean Seas were transferred to the disposal of the Entente. The entire Turkish navy was transferred to the Allies. Istanbul completely broke off relations with the allies (Germany and Austria-Hungary). The land army was subject to immediate demobilization. It was allowed to leave only a small part of the forces necessary to protect the borders and maintain internal order. All stocks of weapons, ammunition and military equipment were transferred to the Allies. The ceasefire marked the occupation of the Arab lands by the allies. Also, the Entente troops were given the right to occupy any military-strategic and economic points in the country, to establish their control over its railways, transport, fuel and food supplies. The right to occupy Batum and Baku, then still occupied by the Turks, was specially stipulated for the allies. At noon on October 31, 1918, the day after the armistice was concluded, hostilities on the Syrian-Palestinian and Mesopotamian fronts ceased.then still occupied by the Turks. At noon on October 31, 1918, the day after the armistice was concluded, hostilities on the Syrian-Palestinian and Mesopotamian fronts ceased.then still occupied by the Turks. At noon on October 31, 1918, the day after the armistice was concluded, hostilities on the Syrian-Palestinian and Mesopotamian fronts ceased.
The policy of the previous Turkish leadership suffered a complete collapse and led to the death of the empire. On the night of November 3, 1918, the leaders of the Ottoman Empire - Enver Pasha, Talaat Pasha, Jemal Pasha, prominent leaders of the central committee of the party and other high-ranking officials boarded a German warship and fled from Istanbul to Odessa, and from there to Germany. The Young Turkish Party was disbanded. Immediately after the signing of the armistice, the Entente powers began to occupy the most important military-strategic regions of the former Turkish Empire. Already on November 13, the allied forces of England, France, Italy, and after a while the United States entered the Golden Horn Bay, landed troops in Constantinople and occupied the fortified areas of the Black Sea straits, appeared in the Turkish ports of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. In Mesopotamia,citing the need to ensure the security of the communications of their troops, the British occupied the oil region of Mosul. The British also occupied an important port on the Mediterranean Sea - Alexandretta, established control over the Anatolian-Baghdad railway and the Black Sea ports. In late 1918 - early 1919, Anglo-French troops occupied Southeast Anatolia, and the Greeks, having landed in Izmir, began to move into Anatolia from the west.
This was the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The "Eastern question" was resolved in favor of the Western great powers by the actual destruction of the Ottoman state and the occupation of Turkey. The West also used the dismemberment of Turkey to intensify its intervention in the South of Russia.
Author: Samsonov Alexander