The Battle of Romani was the last ground attack of the Central Powers on the Suez Canal at the beginning of the Sinai and Palestine campaign during the First World War. The battle was fought between 3 and 5 August 1916 near the Egyptian town of Romani and the site of ancient Pelusium on the Sinai Peninsula, east of the Suez Canal. This victory by the 52nd (Lowland) Division and the Anzac Mounted Division of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) over a joint Ottoman and German force, which had marched across the Sinai, marked the end of the Defence of the Suez Canal campaign, also known as the Offensive zur Eroberung des Suezkanals and the İkinci Kanal Harekâtı, which had begun on 26 January 1915.
This British Empire victory ensured the safety of the Suez Canal from ground attacks and ended the Central Powers' plans to disrupt traffic through the canal by gaining control of the strategically important northern approaches to it. The pursuit by the Anzac Mounted Division, which ended at Bir el Abd on 12 August, began the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Thereafter the Anzac Mounted Division supported by the Imperial Camel Brigade were on the offensive, pursuing the German and Ottoman army many miles across the Sinai Peninsula, reversing in a most emphatic manner the defeat suffered at Katia three months earlier.Battles Nomenclature Committee 1922, p. 31.
From late April 1916, after a German-led Ottoman force attacked British yeomanry at the Battle of Katia, British Empire forces in the region at first doubled from one brigade to two and then grew as rapidly as the developing infrastructure could support them. The construction of the railway and a water pipeline soon enabled an infantry division to join the Australian Light Horse and mounted rifle brigades at Romani. During the heat of summer, regular mounted patrols and reconnaissance were carried out from their base at Romani, while the infantry constructed an extensive series of defensive redoubts. On 19 July the advance of a large German, Austrian and Ottoman force across the northern Sinai was reported. From 20 July until the battle began, the Australian 1st Light Horse Brigade and 2nd Light Horse Brigade took turns pushing out to battle the advancing hostile column.
During the night of 3/4 August the advancing force, including the German Asia Corps (Pasha I) formation and the Ottoman 3rd Infantry Division, launched an attack from Katia on Romani. Forward troops quickly became engaged with the screen established by the 1st Light Horse Brigade. During fierce fighting before dawn on 4 August, the Australian light horse was forced to slowly retire. At daylight their line was reinforced by the 2nd Light Horse Brigade and about mid morning the 5th Mounted Brigade and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade joined the battle. Together these four brigades of the Anzac Mounted Division managed to contain and direct the determined German and Ottoman forces into deep sand. Here they came within range of the strongly entrenched 52nd (Lowland) Division defending Romani and the railway.
Coordinated resistance by the EEF formations, the deep sand, the heat and thirst prevailed, and the German, Austrian and Ottoman advance was checked. Although the attacking force fought strongly to maintain its positions the next morning, by nightfall they had been pushed back to their starting point at Katia. The retiring force was pursued by the Anzac Mounted Division between 6 and 9 August, during which the Ottomans and Germans forces fought several determined rearguard actions against the advancing Australian light horse, British yeomanry and New Zealand mounted rifle brigades. The pursuit ended on 12 August, when the German and Ottoman force abandoned their base at Bir el Abd and retreated to El Arish.
Background
At the beginning of the First World War the Egyptian police controlling the Sinai Peninsula had withdrawn, leaving the area largely unprotected. In February 1915 a German and Ottoman force conducted the First Suez Offensive on the Suez Canal.Falls 1930, pp. 13–14, 28–50. Minor Ottoman and Bedouin forces operating across the Sinai continued to threaten the canal from March through the Gallipoli campaign until June, when they practically ceased until the autumn.Falls 1930, pp. 61–64. The German and Ottoman Empires supported the Senussi campaign an uprising by the Senussi (a political-religious group) on the western frontier of Egypt which began in November 1915.
By February 1916, there was no sign of any unusual military activity in the Sinai, when the British began construction on the first stretch of standard gauge railway and water pipeline from Kantara to Romani and Katia.Bruce 2002, pp. 36–37.Keogh 1955, p. 37. Reconnaissance aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps and seaplanes of the Royal Naval Air Service found only small, scattered Ottoman forces in the Sinai region and no sign of any major concentration of troops in southern Palestine.Falls 1930, pp. 159–160.
By the end of March or early in April, the British presence in the Sinai was growing; of track, including sidings, had been laid. Between 21 March and 11 April the water sources at Wady Um Muksheib, Moya Harab and Jifjafa along the central Sinai route from southern Palestine were destroyed. In 1915 they had been used by the central group of about 6,000–7,000 Ottoman soldiers who moved across the Sinai Desert to attack the Suez Canal at Ismailia. Without these wells and cisterns, the central route could no longer be used by large forces.Falls 1930, p. 160.3rd LHB War Diary 10 April 1916 AWM 4,10/3/15.Keogh 1955, pp. 20, 38.
German General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein's raiding force retaliated to this growing British presence by attacking the widely dispersed 5th Mounted Brigade on 23 April—Easter Sunday and also St George's Day—when yeomanry were surprised and overwhelmed at Katia and Oghratina east of Romani. The mounted Yeomanry brigade had been sent to guard the water pipeline and railway as they were being extended beyond the protection of the Suez Canal defences into the desert towards Romani.Wavell 1968, pp. 43–45.Erickson 2001, p. 155.Bowman–Manifold 1923, p. 21. The British Empire presence in the region was doubled. The next day the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade and the 2nd Light Horse Brigade which had served dismounted during the Gallipoli campaign, of the Australian Major General Harry Chauvel's Anzac Mounted Division reoccupied the Katia area unopposed.Powles 1922, p. 14.
Prelude
On 24 April—the day after the Katia and Oghratina—Chauvel, commander of the Anzac Mounted Division, was placed in command of all the advanced troops: the 2nd Light Horse Brigade and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigades at Romani and the 52nd (Lowland) at Dueidar.Falls 1930, p. 169.Downes 1938, pp. 558–559. The infantry moved forward to Romani between 11 May and 4 June 1916.Falls 1930, p. 175.
The building of the railway and pipeline had not been greatly affected by the fighting on 23 April, and by 29 April four trains a day were running regularly to the railhead, manned by No. 276 Railway Company and the main line to Romani was opened on 19 May. A second standard-gauge railway line from Romani to Mahamdiyah on the Mediterranean coast was completed by 9 June. Conditions were extreme; after the middle of May and in particular from mid-June to the end of July, the heat in the Sinai Desert ranged from extreme to fierce, when temperatures could be expected to be in the region of in the shade. The terrible heat was not as bad as the Khamsin dust storms that blow once every 50 days for between a few hours and several days; the air is turned into a haze of floating sand particles flung about by a strong, hot southerly wind.Falls 1930, pp. 175–177.
No major ground operations were carried out during these midsummer months, the Ottoman garrisons in the Sinai being scattered and out of reach of the British forces.Falls 1930, p. 177. Constant patrolling and reconnaissance were carried out from Romani to Ogratina, to Bir el Abd and on 16 May to Bir Bayud, south-east of Romani, on 31 May to Bir Salmana east north-east of Romani by the New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade, when they covered in 36 hours.Kinloch 2007, p. 76.Falls 1930, p. 178. These patrols concentrated on an area of great strategic importance to large military formations wishing to move across the Sinai along the northern route. Here water was freely available in a large area of oases which extends from Dueidar, from Kantara on the Suez Canal, along the Darb es Sultani (the old caravan route), to Salmana away.Downes 1938, pp. 555–556.
Between 10 and 14 June, the last water source on the central route across the Sinai Peninsula was destroyed by the Mukhsheib column. This column, consisting of engineers and units of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, the Bikaner Camel Corps, and the Egyptian Camel Transport Corps drained of water from pools and cisterns in the Wadi Mukhsheib and sealed the cisterns. This action narrowed the area in which Ottoman offensives might be expected to the coastal or northern route across the Sinai Peninsula.In June, as a result of the start of the Arab Revolt, William Robertson, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) in London, directed Murray to seriously consider an advance to El Arish. [Falls 1930, p. 178]
Ottoman aircraft attacked the Suez Canal twice during May, dropping bombs on Port Said. British aircraft bombed the town and aerodrome at El Arish on 18 May and 18 June and bombed all the Ottoman camps on a front of parallel to the canal on 22 May. By the middle of June, the 1Squadron, Australian Flying Corps, had begun active service, with "B" Flight at Suez performing reconnaissance. On 9 July, "A" Flight was stationed at Sherika in Upper Egypt, with "C" Flight based at Kantara.Cutlack 1941, p. 36.
German and Ottoman force
At the beginning of July, it was estimated there were at least 28,000 Ottoman troops in the Gaza–Beersheba area of southern Palestine, and that just before the battle began at Romani, there were 3,000 troops at Oghratina, not far from Katia, another 6,000 at the forward base of Bir el Abd, east of Oghratina, 2,000 to 3,000 at Bir Bayud to the south-east, and another 2,000 at Bir el Mazar, some to the east, not far from El Arish.Bruce 2002, pp. 42–43.Kinloch 2007, p. 81.
The Ottoman Fourth Army was made up of the 3rd (Anatolian) Infantry Division with three regiments, the 31st, 32nd and 39th Infantry Regiments, totalling 16,000 men, of whom 11,000 to 11,873 were combatants, Arab ancillary forces and one regiment of the Camel Corps. Estimates of their arms range from 3,293 to 12,000 rifles, 38 to 56 machine guns, and two to five anti-aircraft gun sections; they also fielded four heavy artillery and mountain gun batteries (30 artillery pieces) and the Pasha I formation. Nearly 5,000 camels and 1,750 horses accompanied the advance.Falls 1930, vol. 1, p. 202.
Pasha I, with a ration strength of about 16,000, consisted of personnel and materiel for a machine gun battalion of eight companies with four guns each with Ottoman drivers, five anti-aircraft groups, the 60th Battalion Heavy Artillery consisting of one battery of two 100 mm guns, one battery of four 150 mm howitzers and two batteries of 210 mm howitzers (two guns in each battery). The officers, NCOs and "leading numbers" of this artillery battalion were German; the remainder were Ottoman Army personnel. In addition Pasha I also included two trench mortar companies, the 300th Flight Detachment, Wireless detachment, three railway companies and two field hospitals. Austria provided two mountain howitzer batteries of six guns each. With the exception of the two 210 mm howitzers, the trench mortars and the railway personnel the remainder of Pasha I took part in the advance to Romani.