Affair of Magdhaba

On 23 December 1916 the Australian and New Zealand mounted troops of General Harry Chauvel and the Imperial Camel Brigade crushed the Turkish garrison at Magdhaba, in the valley of the Wadi el Arish, about 35 kilometres south-east of El Arish. The British official history (MacMunn and Falls, Military Operations: Egypt and Palestine, vol. I) modestly calls the engagement an affair (the Affair of Magdhaba), but its consequences were considerable. Only a handful of the defenders escaped: 1,282 soldiers were taken prisoner, including the commander, while the attackers lost 146 men. After this defeat the Turks withdrew from their last posts in Sinai.

The pursuit

When the mounted troops entered El Arish unopposed on 21 December, it was not known where the Turkish garrison had gone: along the coast towards Rafah, or up the Wadi el Arish towards the railway at El Kossaima. On the morning of 22 December the commander of the Desert Column, Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Chetwode, arrived by sea from Port Said and decided to set off in pursuit at once. That day Australian airmen dropped 120 bombs on Magdhaba and reported that considerable forces with guns were there. Chetwode therefore abandoned a simultaneous raid on Rafah and threw all available mounted troops at Magdhaba: the Anzac Mounted Division (less the 2nd Light Horse Brigade) and the Imperial Camel Brigade of Brigadier-General C.L. Smith, formed only on 19 December, with the Hong Kong and Singapore Mountain Battery, manned by Indian soldiers.

There was no water in the bed of the wadi, so it had to be carried by a camel convoy. In the darkness the convoy was cut by the arriving columns of the 52nd Infantry Division, and Chauvel did not set off until midnight. The night was clear and cold and the ground hard, so the march went quickly. At 3.50 a.m. the soldiers saw the fires of the Turkish camp. At dawn smoke shrouded the valley and Chauvel had difficulty making out the position: several redoubts and connecting trenches on both sides of the wadi, in a square with sides of about three kilometres. It was held by the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 80th Infantry Regiment with a mountain battery and a few dozen camel-mounted soldiers, under the command of Khadir Bey. An airman reported that no Turkish reinforcements were visible in the immediate area. Chauvel’s time was limited only by water.

The order to withdraw

In the morning Chauvel sent two brigades under Brigadier-General Edward Chaytor to attack from the north and east, and the camel troops straight at Magdhaba. The 10th Light Horse Regiment galloped right round the position from the south and cut off the line of retreat, rounding up several hundred prisoners on the way. Part of the garrison had begun to withdraw; according to the Turkish General Staff, Arab soldiers left their positions in whole units. The redoubts, however, put up a stubborn defence, and the artillery could not pick out targets in the mirage. The camel troops, who had to advance over flat, open ground, were held up. At about 1 p.m. Chauvel learned that the engineers had found no water at Bir Lahfan, about 22 kilometres down the wadi. Most of the horses had not drunk since the start of the march. At 1.50 p.m. he reported to Chetwode that he intended to break off the fight and ordered the brigades to withdraw.

The order reached Brigadier-General Charles Cox, commander of the 1st Light Horse Brigade, just as his 3rd Regiment was preparing to storm a redoubt north of the wadi. According to the Australian official history (Gullett), Cox replied: “Take that damned thing away and let me see it for the first time in half an hour”. The light horsemen and two companies of camel troops charged the redoubt with the bayonet, and most of the day’s losses were suffered here. The defenders, however, did not wait for the bayonets: they stood up and surrendered. Meanwhile Chetwode replied to Chauvel that he should not break off the fight, even at the cost of some of the horses. By about 2.30 p.m. Chauvel was already reporting by telephone that victory was certain. The Australians, New Zealanders and camel troops took one redoubt after another, and at about 4 p.m. Khadir Bey was taken prisoner. By 4.30 p.m. organised resistance had ceased.

The balance

The British buried 97 Turkish dead and took 1,282 prisoners, as well as four mountain guns, more than 1,200 rifles and a large quantity of ammunition. Gullett estimates the number of Turkish wounded at about 300. Chauvel’s column lost 22 killed and 124 wounded. Men and horses had marched and fought without a break for about 30 hours, many after three nights without sleep, and the wounded endured a nightmarish journey to El Arish in cacolets strapped to camels. Gullett called Magdhaba a classic example of the proper use of mounted riflemen. The official history stresses that the battle also proved the value of the new Camel Brigade.

After the fall of El Arish and Magdhaba the Turks withdrew their remaining posts from Sinai. By the New Year they had abandoned Bir el Maghara, Nekhl and Bir el Hassana. According to the official history, for the first time since the outbreak of war the peninsula was practically free of Turks. The next objective was Rafah, on the very border of Palestine.