South Arabia during World War I
Campaign in South Arabia | |||||||
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Part of QF 15 pounder emplacement of B Battery, Honourable Artillery Company at Sheik Othman in 1915 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Ahl Haydara Mansur tribe[1] |
Emirate of Asir | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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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
Capture of Cheikh Saïd
The
Seven months later they reoccupied Cheikh Saïd and endeavoured from there to effect a landing on the north coast of Perim. This attack was successfully repulsed by the garrison of the island, the 23rd Sikh Pioneers.[5]
Land campaign
Battle of Ad-Dakim
Sultanate of Lahij
In July 1915 an Ottoman force from North Yemen crossed the frontier of the Aden hinterland and advanced towards
Under our protection the Sultan of Lahaj had waxed very prosperous. His city, with its palace, its gallows— built for ornament rather than use—its purely Oriental life, its fine horses, its little show army, and its constant traffic in camels and caravans, seemed like a vision out of the
Arabian Nights. When war broke out the Abdali Sultan proved that his loyalty to Britain was real. Though other tribes turned against us he came to our side and prepared to help us. He soon made himself an object of special detestation to the [Ottoman] and to many of the surrounding tribes by his open and unwavering friendship for Britain.[5]
Siege
The sultan sent word to General
The British in the sultan's capital found themselves faced by several thousand Ottoman troops and twenty guns. In addition, Arab tribesmen had rallied by the thousand to help the Ottomans. The British were backed by the few hundred men of the sultan of Lahij's native army. The Arab camp-followers of the Aden detachment deserted them in a body at the most critical hour, taking with them all their camels. Fighting opened on the evening of Sunday, 4 July. The Ottoman forces made several attacks against the British line, but each was driven off. Although after the battle the efforts of the
Analysis
In the official report on the Battle of Ad-Dakim issued by the Government of India much stress was laid on "the intense heat, sand, and shortage of water", and "[t]he desertion of the camel-drivers and the severe climatic conditions so delayed and distressed the main body as to necessitate a withdrawal from Lahij". McKenzie notes that "we do not seem to have made such arrangements for transport and for water supply as would have prepared us for the difficulties which every experienced traveller knew we would have to face. . . But the severe heat of the climate, the potential treachery of hired Arabs, and the shortage of water were all of them factors which had been familiar from the beginning to the Indian authorities, and, one might suppose, ought to have been allowed for."[5]
Reinforcements from India
After the debacle at Lahij, the British force fell back on the
On 20 July 1915, troops from the Aden Brigade, the
Ottoman claims of victory
A series of minor engagements and skirmishes between the Ottomans and Arabs and the British followed, during which the latter were generally successful, but found it impossible to hold the country far inland. Early in 1916 the Ottomans claimed that the British had been driven back on to Aden itself, and had retreated to within range of the covering fire of their warships, where they had been inactive for some months. Many of the Ottoman claims were greatly exaggerated, and some wholly false. In February 1916, Major
Later on, the Ottomans officially claimed to have scored a substantial victory in further heavy fighting around Shaikh Othman and
Stalemate
The eruption of the British-sponsored Arab Revolt in the Hejaz diverted Ottoman attention from Aden in the summer of 1916. Those Ottoman troops which remained reverted to the defensive, while the British built an eleven-mile-long defensive perimeter around Aden. They did not attempt to resecure lost territories in the hinterland, and no major fighting with the British took place after 1916.[6]
End of the campaign
On 30 October 1918, the Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros, where it agreed to surrender all its garrisons outside of Anatolia.[6] However, the armistice failed to be immediately effective on Ottoman forces in Yemen, as some commanders initially refused to surrender:
- Some Ottoman officials (such as Ottoman governor Mahmood Nadim) refused to surrender to Britain as this would bolster the British political position in the region, instead preferring to align themselves with Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen.[8]
- In contrast, other Ottoman officials (such as Ismail Effendi, commanding troops at Taiz), refused to lay down their arms in the absence of British forces, as this would bolster Imam Yahya.[9]
- This also included 12 local sheikhs who wanted to the placed under British sovereignty, as this would allow them to remain independent within their own territory while receiving a stipend, whereas the Imam would make them pay tithes.[9]
- Some Ottoman officials in Asir were still owed debts and demanded to be paid 100,000 pounds before surrendering.Kamran Island on 7 February.[10]
- Elias Bey, Sheikh of Bajil and Kuhra, did not surrender before conferring with the Ottoman envoy from Constantinople, who arrived at Al Hudaydah on 13 January 1919 and explained the political situation.[11]
- Colonel Ghalib Bey, commanding forces at Az Zaydiyah, did not believe that the Ottomans had actually signed an armistice and refused to obey orders from the Commander-in-Chief of Yemen, Mahmud Tewfik Pasha, to surrender, instead opting to fight to the death.[12] Az Zaydiyah fell to the Idrisid Emirate of Asir in March 1919.[13]
On 15 December 1918, Britain recaptured Lahej from Ottoman forces in a swift military operation.[10] By 14 February 1919, 3100 Ottomans of all ranks remained active in Yemen.[9] By 31 March, all Ottoman forces in Yemen had surrendered, and Mahmud Tewfik Pasha, commander-in-chief of Yemen, was in Aden.[14]
Uses of the South Arab ports during the war
On 18 October 1914, a
On 9 November 1914, a small landing party, numbering five officers, one surgeon, and forty-seven petty officers and men, under Lieutenant
When the Arabs of the revolt of June 1916 attacked the port of Jiddah, they were supported by the
Occupation of Kamaran
On 17 February 1915, the British
References
- ^ "41st Weekly Letter". Aden Residency. 9 October 1915.
- ^ Mehra, Ram Narain (1988). Aden & Yemen, 1905-1919. Agam Prakashan. p. 125.
- ^ "Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire" (London: HMSO, 1920). Page 777. 8,219 British and 26,205 Indian troops sent to the "Aden Theatre" from India in total.
- ^ "Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire" (London: HMSO, 1920). Page 778. Considering age of figures, may be underestimated. Details for British Indian Army forces in Aden: 7 officers, 500 other ranks, and 79 followers dead from all causes. 16 officers, 548 other ranks, and 4 followers wounded. 1 officer, 15 other ranks, and 3 followers missing. 6 other ranks taken prisoner. Details for British Indian Army forces in Maskat: 1 officer, 39 other ranks, and 2 followers dead from all causes. Unknown officers and followers and 16 other ranks wounded. 1 officer and 25 other ranks taken prisoner.
- ^ McKenzie, F. A. "The Defence of India". The Great War: The Standard History of the All-Europe Conflict. H. W. Wilson, ed. Vol. 7, chapt. 128. This text is now in the public domain.
- ^ a b c d e Richard J. Shuster, "Aden". The Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social and Military History, Volume 1, Spencer C. Tucker, ed. (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), p. 37.
- ^ Farndale 1988, p. 357
- ^ "File 3300/1916 Pt 3 'Aden News-Letters: 1919-20' [633r] (620/633)". 23 May 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-85207-370-1.
- ^ a b c d e Mehra, Ram Narain (1988). Aden & Yemen, 1905-1919. Agam Prakashan. p. 177.
- ^ a b "1st Aden News Letter". Aden Residency. 5 February 1919.
- ^ "File 3300/1916 Pt 3 'Aden News-Letters: 1919-20' [634r] (622/633)". 23 May 2017.
- ^ "File 3300/1916 Pt 3 'Aden News-Letters: 1919-20' [617r] (588/633)". 23 May 2017.
- ^ "File 3300/1916 Pt 3 'Aden News-Letters: 1919-20' [614r] (582/633)". 23 May 2017.
- ^ Hirama Yoichi, "Anzac Convoy (October 1914)". The Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social and Military History, Volume 1, Spencer C. Tucker, ed. (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), p. 114.
- ^ Spencer C. Tucker, "Arab Revolt". The Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social and Military History, Volume 1, Spencer C. Tucker, ed. (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), pp. 116–17.
- ^ John Baldry (1978), "British Naval Operations Against Turkish Yaman, 1914–1919", Arabica 25(2): 159–60.
Further reading
- Bidwell, Robin L. "The Turkish attack on Aden 1915–1918", Arabian Studies, 6 (1982), 171–94.
- Bruce, Anthony. The Last Crusade: The Palestine Campaign in the First World War. London: Murray, 2002.
- Connelly, Mark. "The British Campaign in Aden, 1914–1918". Journal of the Centre for First World War Studies, 2:1 (2005) 65–96.
- ISBN 1-870114-05-1.
- Kühn, Thomas. "Shaping and Reshaping Colonial Ottomanism: Contesting Boundaries of Difference and Integration in Ottoman Yemen, 1872–1919." Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 27:2 (2007), 315–31.
- Mehra, R. N. Aden and Yemen, 1905–1919. Delhi: Agram Prakashan, 1988.
- Walker, G. Goold. Honourable Artillery Company in The Great War 1914–1919. London: Seeley, Service & Co. Ltd., 1930.
External links
- Turkey in the First World War: Arabian Campaign
- Photograph of camel being unloaded by crane in Aden, 15 September 1915
- Photograph of camels aboard a ship at Aden, 15 September 1915