Battle of Megiddo (1918)
The Battle of Megiddo, fought in September 1918 during World War I, marked a significant military engagement between British forces, led by General Edmund Allenby, and the Ottoman Turkish army. Situated in the region of Palestine, the battle was characterized by a strategic surprise, as Allenby's forces attacked from Megiddo rather than the expected east of the Jordan River. The British had a numerical advantage of nearly ten to one and initiated the assault on September 20, beginning with infantry moves followed by a decisive cavalry charge. Within a remarkably short period of thirty-six hours, the British forces succeeded in routing the Turkish armies, leading to the capture of significant numbers of Turkish soldiers and the seizure of control over Palestine.
The battle is recognized for its impact on the broader context of the Middle Eastern theater during World War I, as it effectively destroyed the Turkish military presence in the region and symbolized a turning point in the conflict. Allenby noted the operation's success as not only a military victory but also a liberation of the area. The Battle of Megiddo is often studied for its tactical innovations and its implications for post-war territorial arrangements in the Middle East.
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Battle of Megiddo (1918)
Type of action: Ground battle in World War I
Date: September 20, 1918
Location: Megiddo, fifteen miles south of Haifa, Israel
Combatants: British vs. Turks and Germans
Principal commanders:British, Lord Allenby (1861–1936); German-Turkish, Otto Liman von Sanders (1855–1929)
Result: Allenby’s forces crushed the overwhelmed Turks and began the thirty-eight-day push to Aleppo, which resulted in the Armistice of Mudros
In 1918, the Turkish front stretched from Jordan westward to Jaffa. The original battle plan had called for Lord Allenby’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force to cross the Jordan Valley, destroy the Turks’ only supply line in the area, the Hejaz Railway, and follow the Mediterranean coastline to Beirut. Thanks, in part, to T. E. Lawrence’s Arab forces’ successful guerrilla raids on the railway, German Otto Liman von Sanders became convinced that the British assault would take place east of the Jordan river, and he placed the bulk of his Turkish defenses to the east of Allenby’s forces.
Allenby instead attacked through Megiddo. On the morning of September 20, with a numerical superiority of nearly ten to one, Allenby’s forces struck Megiddo, beginning with an infantry assault that cleared the way for a cavalry charge up the coastline. By the next morning, the entire Fourth Cavalry had reached the plains of Esdraelon. In the only significant skirmish, the Allied Second Lancers quickly routed the small Turkish advance guard; 46 Turks were killed and 470 captured compared with 1 Allied wounded.
Within thirty-six hours of launching the campaign, Allenby’s forces had achieved their goal, routing the Turkish armies and seizing control of Palestine.
Significance
In Allenby’s own words, the battle resulted in the destruction of the enemy’s army, the liberation of Palestine. It was the turning point in the war in the Middle East.
Bibliography
Hughes, Matthew. Allenby and British Strategy in the Middle East, 1917–1919. London: F. Cass, 1999.
Savage, Raymond. Allenby of Armageddon. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1926.