Sinai and Palestine campaign

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Sinai and Palestine campaign
Part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I
Ottoman artillerymen with a 10.5 cm Feldhaubitze 98/09 shortly before the Battle of Hareira and Sheria amidst the Southern Palestine offensive, 1917
Date 28 January 1915 – 30 October 1918 (3 years, 9 months and 2 days) Location Egypt Eyalet and Ottoman Syria Result Allied victory Territorial changes Partition of the Ottoman Empire
Belligerents
British Empire  United Kingdom  India  Australia  New Zealand  Newfoundland  South Africa  Rhodesia  Egypt  Sudan  Cyprus  Hejaz  France  Italy	Ottoman Empire  Germany  Austria-Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Julian Byng Archibald Murray Edmund Allenby Charles Dobell Philip Chetwode Edward Bulfin  Egypt Ahmad Helmy †  Egypt Mostafa Helmy Harry Chauvel T. E. Lawrence Hussein bin Ali Faisal bin Hussein	Djemal Pasha F. K. von Kressenstein Erich von Falkenhayn O. L. von Sanders Gustav von Oppen Mustafa Kemal Pasha Fevzi Pasha Cevat Pasha Mersinli Djemal Pasha
Units involved
Force in Egypt (to March 1916) Egyptian Expeditionary Force Eastern Force (until July 1917) XX Corps (formed in August 1917) XXI Corps (formed in August 1917) Desert Mounted Corps Chaytor's Force Sharifian Army	Fourth Army XX Corps XXII Corps III Corps Yildirim Army Group Seventh Army Eighth Army German Asia Corps
Strength
1,200,000 (total)[1] January 1915: over 150,000 men[2] September 1918: 467,650 total number of personnel 120,000 combat soldiers 134,971 wage workers 53,286 transport units[3][4][5]	Estimated 200,000–400,000 January 1918: 257,963[6]
Casualties and losses
61,877 battle casualties 16,880 killed/missing 43,712 wounded 1,385 captured 5,981+ died of disease c. 100,000+ evacuated sick French and Italian casualties: unknown Total: 168,000+ casualties	189,600 battle casualties 25,973 killed/missing ~85,497 wounded 78,735 captured ~40,900 died of disease Unknown total 3,200+ captured[Note 1]

The Sinai and Palestine campaign was part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, taking place between January 1915 and October 1918. The British Empire, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy fought alongside the Arab Revolt in opposition to the Ottoman Empire, the German Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It started with an Ottoman attempt at raiding the Suez Canal in 1915 and ended with the Armistice of Mudros in 1918, leading to the cession of Ottoman Syria.

Fighting began in January 1915, when a German-led Ottoman force invaded the Sinai Peninsula, then occupied by the British as part of a "Protectorate" Protectorate of Egypt, to unsuccessfully raid the Suez Canal. After the Gallipoli campaign, British Empire veterans formed the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) and Ottoman Empire veterans formed the Fourth Army, to fight for the Sinai Peninsula in 1916. In January 1917 the newly formed Desert Column completed the recapture of the Sinai at the Battle of Rafa. This recapture of substantial Egyptian territory was followed in March and April by two EEF defeats on Ottoman territory, at the First and Second Battles of Gaza in southern Palestine.

After a period of stalemate in Southern Palestine from April to October 1917, General Edmund Allenby captured Beersheba from the III Corps. The Ottoman defences were captured by 8 November, and the pursuit began. EEF victories followed, at the Battle of Mughar Ridge, 10 to 14 November, and the Battle of Jerusalem, 17 November to 30 December. Serious losses on the Western Front in March 1918, during Erich Ludendorff's German spring offensive, forced the British Empire to send reinforcements from the EEF. The advance stalled until Allenby's force resumed the offensive during the manoeuvre warfare of the Battle of Megiddo in September. The successful infantry battles at Tulkarm and Tabsor created gaps in the Ottoman front line, allowing the pursuing Desert Mounted Corps to encircle the infantry fighting in the Judean Hills and fight the Battle of Nazareth and Battle of Samakh, capturing Afulah, Beisan, Jenin and Tiberias. In the process the EEF destroyed three Ottoman armies during the Battle of Sharon, the Battle of Nablus and the Third Transjordan attack, capturing thousands of prisoners and large quantities of equipment. Damascus and Aleppo were captured during the subsequent pursuit, before the Ottoman Empire agreed to the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918, ending the Sinai and Palestine campaign. The British Mandate of Palestine and the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon were created to administer the captured territories.

The campaign was generally not well known or understood during the war. In Britain, the public thought of it as a minor operation, a waste of precious resources which would be better spent on the Western Front, while the peoples of India were more interested in the Mesopotamian campaign and the occupation of Baghdad.^[7] Australia did not have a war correspondent in the area until Captain Frank Hurley, the first Australian Official Photographer, arrived in August 1917 after visiting the Western Front. Henry Gullett, the first Official War Correspondent, arrived in November 1917.^[8][9]

The long-lasting effect of this campaign was the Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, when France won the mandate for Syria and Lebanon, while the British Empire won the mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine. The Republic of Turkey came into existence in 1923 after the Turkish War of Independence ended the Ottoman Empire. The European mandates ended with the formation of the Kingdom of Iraq in 1932, the Lebanese Republic in 1943, the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan and Syrian Arab Republic in 1946, and the State of Israel in 1948.

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