Battle of Hijla
31°49′00″N 35°33′00″E / 31.816667°N 35.55°E
| Battle of Hijla | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I | |||||
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| Belligerents | |||||
 British Empire |
 Turkish Empire | ||||
The Battle of Hijla (21 March 1918) was fought by the forces of the
"raid" across the Jordan toward Amman in an effort to sever the railroad and resistance was met at Hijla and to the north at Ghoraniyeh, where fords provided means to cross.[1]
The river crossing was resisted by the Ottomans at both sites. The
2/19th Battalion (St. Pancras) London Regiment of the 60th Division tried to cross at Hijla, sending swimmers repeatedly across with ropes to attempt the construction of a pontoon bridge. Major Vivian Gilbert reported the events later. Many of the British soldiers were shot in the Jordan before the bridgehead could be established. Once established, the bridgeheads were maintained against the Ottomans, but the raids on Amman basically failed. This was the prelude to the Battle of Megiddo farther north in what is now Israel.[2][3]
Notes
References
- Eames, F.W. (1930/2005). Second Nineteenth, being the History of the 2/19th London Regiment During the Great War. London: Waterlow, 1930, reprinted by Uckfield: Naval & Military, 2005, ISBN 978-1-84574-271-3.
- Gilbert, Vivian (1923). The Romance of the Last Crusade: With Allenby to Jerusalem, New York: D. Appleton.
- Woodward, David (2006). Hell in the Holy Land: World War 1 in the Middle East, University Press of Kentucky.
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