South Arabia during World War I

Campaign in South Arabia
Part of Middle Eastern theatre of World War I
A QF 15 pounder emplacement of B Battery, Honourable Artillery Company at Sheik Othman in 1915
Date 10 November 1914 – 31 March 1919 Location South Arabia (modern-day Yemen) Result Stalemate Ottoman occupation of Lahij British retention of Aden
Belligerents
Ottoman Empire Haushabi Sultanate Ahl Haydara Mansur tribe[1]	United Kingdom  India  New Zealand Lahij Fadhli Sultanate Baidah Sultanate[2] Emirate of Asir
Commanders and leaders
Ahmet Tevfik Pasha (Commander of the VII Corps) Ali Sait Pasha (Taiz Operational Region) Hüseyin Ragıp Bey (Tihamah Operational Region) Imam Yahya	H. V. Cox (Commander of the 29th Indian Brigade) D. G. L. Shaw (Commander of the Aden Brigade) George J. Younghusband (Commander of the Aden Brigade) Fadhl ibn Ali al Abdali †
Strength
14,000 Ottoman regulars Yemeni irregulars	34,500 (total)[3]
Casualties and losses
500–1,000	1,263+[4] 647 killed/missing 584+ wounded 32 captured

The campaign in South Arabia during World War I was a minor struggle for control of the port city of Aden, an important way station for ships on their way from Asia to the Suez Canal. The British Empire declared war on the Ottoman Empire on 5 November 1914, and the Ottomans responded with their own declaration on 11 November. From the beginning, the Ottomans had planned an invasion of Britain's Aden Protectorate in cooperation with the local Arab tribes. The Ottomans had gathered in some strength on the Cheikh Saïd, a peninsula which juts out into the Red Sea towards the island of Perim.^[5]

At the start of the war, the British had one force stationed in the Aden Protectorate, the Aden Brigade, which was part of the British Indian Army. In November 1914, an Ottoman force from Yemen attacked Aden, but was driven off by the Brigade.^[6] Although fighting in South Arabia effectively ceased after June 1916, the last Ottoman troops did not surrender until March 1919.