Turkish march on the Suez Canal

On 26 January 1915 the British posts covering the Suez Canal from the east first came into contact with the Ottoman army approaching across the desert. At Kantara, in the northern part of the canal, there was an exchange of fire, and airmen reported Turkish concentrations several thousand strong deep in the Sinai. The British chronology of the war takes this day as the start of the Turkish expedition against Egypt. In fact the first units had set out in mid-January.

The objective: Egypt

Since the declaration of martial law at the beginning of November the British had expected the Turks to strike at the canal, through which troop transports from India and Australia passed. The expedition was led by Djemal Pasha, Minister of the Navy and, with Enver and Talaat, one of the three most powerful men in the Ottoman Empire, since the end of 1914 commander of the 4th Army in Syria. The operation was in fact planned and conducted by his German adviser, the Bavarian officer Friedrich Kress von Kressenstein, chief of staff of VIII Corps. The Turks and Germans hoped that the mere appearance of the army of the sultan-caliph on the canal, backed by the call to holy war, would set off a rising in Egypt against the British, who had recently proclaimed a protectorate there.

Across the desert

From Beersheba in southern Palestine to the canal lay some 300 kilometres of desert. Kress prepared the march carefully: depots were set up along the route, use was made of the winter rains that had filled the cisterns and wells, and some 10,000 camels were requisitioned from all over Syria and Palestine. The army dragged with it several dozen sheet-metal pontoons, built in Germany and smuggled into Turkey through Bulgaria. On them it was to cross the canal.

According to many studies the first units left Beersheba on 14 January. Estimates of the expedition’s strength vary, most often about 20,000 soldiers, although figures from 12,000 to 25,000 have also been given. Its core was the 25th Division, followed by the 10th Division. The main column moved through the middle of the peninsula towards Ismailia. Smaller detachments advanced in the north, through El Arish towards Kantara, and in the south, through Nakhl towards Suez. The soldiers marched mainly at night, to save water and to hide from British aircraft. Crossing the desert took the main column about ten days.

The British wait

The march did not remain a secret. General John Maxwell, commander of the British forces in Egypt, wrote in his report that around 15 January it became clear that the enemy had entered the Sinai. On 18 January a French seaplane spotted a force of 8,000–10,000 men near Beersheba, and in the following days airmen tracked the Turks in the desert. On 26 January groups of 2,000–3,000 soldiers were already standing in three places east of the canal, and skirmishes with the British screen began at Kantara. On the night of 26–27 January the Turks attacked posts on the southern sector of the canal, at El Kubri, and on 28 January at Kantara again. Both attacks were easily repulsed.

Some 30,000 soldiers were waiting on the canal, above all Indian brigades, reinforced by Egyptian artillery. The trenches ran mainly along the western bank, and British and French warships took station on the waters of the canal, among them the battleships Swiftsure and Ocean. Near Port Said engineers flooded part of the ground to narrow the sector on which the enemy could strike.

The skirmishes at the end of January were only reconnaissance and diversion. The main Turkish forces reached the canal on 2 February, and on the night of 2–3 February they were to attempt a crossing on pontoons near Ismailia.