Arabs take Jeddah

The British chronology of the war records the capture of Jeddah by the Arabs under 9 June 1916. In fact the fighting for the port only began that day. According to the British official history of the campaign in Egypt and Palestine, on 9 June Arabs of the Harb tribe attacked the town for the first time, and the British official history of the war in the air states that at nine in the evening that day warships opened fire on the Turkish positions. The Lebanese historian George Antonius dates the attack to 10 June, the day the revolt broke out in Mecca. The Turkish garrison surrendered only a week later, on 16 June, after a bombardment from the sea and a seaplane raid.

The gateway to Mecca

Jeddah was the main port of the Hejaz, through which pilgrims and food flowed to Mecca, several dozen kilometres inland. Whoever held it controlled access to the whole province from the sea. In November 1914 the British had promised not to attack the holy places of Arabia or Jeddah as long as the Turks did not interfere with the pilgrimage. The proclamations distributed in the Hejaz, however, left a loophole in case the protection of Arab interests required it. Now the ships of the Royal Navy were to support Sharif Hussein bin Ali, who on 5 June had begun a revolt against the Turks. On 8 June Commander David Hogarth and other envoys of the Arab Bureau in Cairo met the sharif’s youngest son, Zeid, near Jeddah. They learned that the revolt was already under way and that the sharif was asking for money, food, at least 10,000 rifles and above all mountain artillery with Muslim crews.

Attack and bombardment

The garrison of Jeddah numbered about 1,400–1,500 soldiers and had guns and machine guns. It was attacked by 3,500 to 4,000 Arabs of the Harb tribal confederation, led, according to Antonius, by Sharif Muhsin. Without artillery they had no chance of taking the town by storm, and after their first attack was repulsed they settled down to a siege. Among those taking part was Muhammad Sharif al-Faruqi, an officer who had gone over to the British in 1915 and in Cairo had presented himself as an envoy of the secret Arab societies. From the sea the insurgents were supported by the old cruiser HMS Fox, with Captain William Boyle, who directed the operation, on board, and by armed ships of the Royal Indian Marine, among them the Hardinge. According to the British official history, on 11 June Fox and Hardinge shelled the Turkish positions north of the town. According to Antonius, the ships shelled the outer Turkish positions and not the walled town itself.

Seaplanes over Jeddah

On the morning of 15 June the seaplane carrier HMS Ben-my-Chree, which had earlier bombed the Turks at Lahej near Aden, arrived in the roads. Three machines were lowered onto the water at once. Two dropped one bomb each of about 30 kilograms. The third was flown by the commander of the seaplane squadron, Charles Samson, with William Wedgwood Benn, a Liberal member of the House of Commons, as observer. They flew low in front of the town, photographed the walls, the fortress and the so-called Tomb of Eve, and then dropped a bomb of about 50 kilograms on the Turkish trenches. The Turks replied with heavy fire, shot through the propeller and severed one of the control wires, but all the machines returned. In the evening a signal came from Fox to cancel further flights, because Jeddah had surrendered. Boyle added: “Probably the seaplanes decided it.” Benn later wrote that this was a result achieved almost entirely by aircraft. The British official history of the war in the air considered this an exaggeration, but admitted that the raid broke the resistance of the defenders, already weakened by the bombardment.

Surrender

On 16 June the garrison formally surrendered. Forty-five officers and about 1,400 men (1,460 according to the history of the war in the air) were taken prisoner, and the insurgents captured 16 guns and supplies. According to the British official history, a lack of water also contributed to the surrender, and according to Antonius a message from the Turkish commander in Mecca that no reinforcements would come. The capture of Jeddah opened the way for supplies to the insurgents. At the end of June Egyptian mountain batteries, rifles and food arrived here from Port Sudan, and in the following weeks the Arabs took further ports on the Red Sea, including Yanbu on 27 July. Jeddah became the main base of British aid to the revolt and the seat of the British representative to the sharif.