The Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe, part of the Southern Palestine Offensive, began on 1 November 1917, the day after the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) victory at the Battle of Beersheba during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I. After the Stalemate in Southern Palestine a series of coordinated attacks were launched by British Empire units on the Ottoman Empire's German commanded Yildirim Army Group's front line, which stretched from Gaza inland to Beersheba. During the fight for the town, the road from Beersheba to Jerusalem via Hebron, was cut just north of the town in the southern spur of the Judean Hills. Here Ottoman units strongly defended the road and the Seventh Army headquarters at Hebron.
Over the next week, attacks by the 53rd (Welsh) Division, the Anzac Mounted Division, and the 5th Mounted Brigade (Australian Mounted Division) attempted to capture the Tell el-Khuweilifeh position. Attacks were launched by the British infantry and Yeomanry cavalry, and Australian and New Zealand mounted brigades.
Despite their failure to dislodge the Ottoman defenders, the continuing pressure drew in Ottoman reserves, which could have made the EEF attacks at Gaza during the night of 1/2 November, and at Hareira and Sheria on 6–7 November, more strongly contested. On 6 November, in coordination with the attacks on Hareira and Sheria, the 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division, with the Imperial Camel Brigade covering their flanks, made another inconclusive assault with artillery support. This fight continued the following day, until the Ottoman defenders began to withdraw, as a consequence of the loss of Hareira, the evacuation of Gaza, and the weakening of the Sheria position, all of which threatened to outflank the Tell el-Khuweilfeh position.
Background
After the two EEF defeats at Gaza in March and April, the defences held at the end of the Second Battle of Gaza were fortified, while the severely depleted infantry divisions were reorganised and reinforced. Both sides constructed extensive entrenchments, which were particularly strong where the trenches almost converged, near Gaza. These trenches resembled those on the Western Front, except they were not as extensive and they had an open eastern flank.However, the conditions on the northern edge of the Negev desert were extremely difficult, with both sides camped in the open during the summer. Although the EEF railway, which had reached Deir al-Balah before the second battle of Gaza, was extended by a branch line to Shellal to aid the supply of the front line,serious food shortages and the prevalence of sandfly fever (a debilitating illness) were made almost intolerable by the regular hot desert winds known as khamsin, which swept off the Negev Desert.
Just prior to the arrival of General Edmund Allenby in July, Desert Column was expanded and reorganised into three divisions, with the establishment of the new Yeomanry Mounted Division. Allenby reorganised the EEF to reflect contemporary thinking, deactivating Eastern Force to establish two infantry and one mounted corps, all under his direct command: the XX Corps, the XXI Corps and the Desert Mounted Corps.
The Ottoman forces in the area were also reorganised into the Yildirim Army Group in June, commanded by German General and Ottoman Marshall Erich von Falkenhayn,and reinforced by surplus Ottoman units transferred from Galicia, Macedonia, Romania, and Thrace. Within Yildirim Army Group, while the Fourth Army headquarters and units in Syria commanded by Cemal Pasa, continued to operate as previously, the Fourth Army in Palestine was renamed and reorganised into the Seventh Army commanded by Fevzi Çakmak after the resignation of Mustafa Kemal and the Eighth Army, commanded by German General Kress von Kressenstein with responsibility for the Palestine front. Although these were significant organisational changes, they did not change the tactical deployments of the Ottoman III, XX and XXII Corps, defending the Gaza to Beersheba line.
Prelude
The loss of Beersheba on 31 October stunned the Yildirim Army Group commander and staff.The Beersheba garrison withdrew to the Ottoman defences around Tel es Sheria and northwards to Tel el Khuweilfe, to the north of Beersheba, and about the same distance east of Sheria, to hold a line stretching from west of the road from Beersheba to Jerusalem. All available reserve units would soon be deployed in the Kuweilfeh area.Here, the Ottoman defenders were able to establish new defences, and the 19th Division was sent from the XXII Corps defending Gaza to reinforce them.
Although the Ottoman forces had been driven out of Beersheba, they had not been dislodged from the rest of the Ottoman defensive line stretching westward to the Mediterranean coast, which had been destabilised and "thrown back on its left, but not broken".The remainder of their line continued to be strongly defended, particularly at Hareira, Sharia and Gaza, but the loss of Beersheba had placed EEF mounted units across the Beersheba to Hebron and Jerusalem road, and three Eighth Army infantry battalions were sent by Kress von Kressenstein to reinforce the Ottoman troops fighting at Khuweilfe. They were to protect the only metalled road heading north in the region, which ran direct to Hebron and Jerusalem only about 50 miles (80 km) to the north, from the threat of an EEF mounted advance.
The area between Beersheba and the wells and cisterns at Bir Khuweilfe, where the rocky hills rise to become part of the Judean Hills, has been described as a "stone desert"of "waterless, rocky ridges and ravines", where small patches of cultivation are interspersed between "jagged outcrops" of loose stones and boulders. Scarce water was mainly found in little gullies, while the road to Jerusalem via Edh Dhahariye, Hebron and Bethlehem, ran along a series of ridges.
The strategically important height of Tel el Khuweifle not only dominated all the surrounding country, but was also the site of the best water supply in the area. However, the EEF had discovered important but scarce water supplies during the day of battle on 31 October. Water was found east of Beersheba by the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, in the Wadi el Malah, while the 2nd Light Horse Brigade found sufficient water for three brigades in a small wadi north of Bir Hammam, and a good supply in the Wadi Hora.Anzac Mounted Division General Staff War Diary October 1917 AWM4-1-60-20PART1 The Auckland Mounted Rifle Regiment also found enough water for a whole brigade in the Bir Salim Abu Irgeig wadi.Auckland Mounted Rifle Regiment War Diary October 1917 AWM4-35-2-29
Defenders
Four Ottoman divisions fought in the area: the 19th, 24th and 27th Divisions, and the 3rd Cavalry Division.During the battle on 31 October, the Ottoman III Corps headquarters had retreated from Beersheba to Tel es Sheria but, the next day (1 November), moved to support the defence of the Jerusalem road from Edh Dhahriye. They were followed by the 143rd Regiment (24th Division) and 1,500 rifles of the Beersheba Group, which had been reorganised at Tel es Sheria. This latter group moved to defend Tel el Khuweilfe. On 1 November, the 125th Regiment (16th Division) also moved west into the hills coming under the command of the 27th Division, while the 6th Cavalry Regiment covered the Ottoman left flank to Yutta.Kress von Kressenstein also sent the 19th Division to reinforce the Seventh Army in the area. This strong Ottoman presence defending the area was designed to encourage Allenby to commit more units to the attack, to take the pressure off the Ottoman forces defending Gaza and Sharia, and to lessen the possibility of an EEF breakthrough.
Attackers
Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel's Desert Mounted Corps deployed the attached 53rd (Welsh) Division, and the Imperial Camel Corps Brigade, along with the Anzac Mounted and Yeomanry Mounted Divisions, to threaten the Ottoman forces defending the road to Jerusalem. Their advance pushed back the Ottoman forces into the Judean Hills to the north of Beersheba, creating sufficient space for the XX Corps to get into position for a flank attack on the centre at Hareira and Sheria. This advance was also designed to isolate the Eighth Army forces on the maritime plain, supplied by the roads and railways from Ramla, from those of the Seventh Army, supplied by the motor road from Jerusalem in the hills.
Newcombe's detachment
The southern end of the Beersheba to Jerusalem road, which was defended by the Ottoman 6th and 8th Regiments (3rd Cavalry Division) in the high ground of the foothills of the Judean Hills northeast of the town,was cut by the 2nd Light Horse Brigade's 5th and 7th Light Horse Regiments. These light horsemen continued to hold the section of the road just north of Beersheba during 31 October, when they were targeted by Ottoman machine guns from the high ground north of Sakaty.7th Light Horse Regiment War Diary October 1917 AWM4-10-12-255th Light Horse Regiment War Diary October 1917 AWM4-10-10-34
In order to further disrupt Ottoman reinforcements travelling south along the Jerusalem to Beersheba road during the battle, a camel detachment of Hejaz Arabs with EEF machine guns, was to attack and cut the road well to the north of Beersheba. Lieutenant Colonel S. F. Newcombe (Royal Engineers) and his detachment of 70 British camelry and Arab scouts, armed with 10 machine guns, some Lewis Guns, and explosives, left Asluj with three days' rations on 30 October to circle around to the east, arriving to the northeast of Beersheba. During the battle on 31 October, this raiding force cut the road and telegraph between Hebron, the site of the Seventh Army headquarters and Jerusalem.
However, they were unable to attract reinforcements from local Arab soldiers, although the locals did provide guides. Therefore, when 100 Ottoman soldiers attacked Newcombe's detachment, they were scattered, suffering "considerable loss". By the time they were attacked a second time on the morning of 2 November, the detachment had blocked all Ottoman communications between Hebron and Edh Dhahriye for 40 hours. They were attacked by two companies of the Ottoman 143rd Regiment advancing northwards from Edh Dhahriye, as well as 100 German soldiers moving south from Hebron and Bethlehem, which forced the remnants of the detachment to surrender, suffering 20 killed. An Ottoman communiqué described the capture on the left of their line of 100 cavalry, including a lieutenant colonel.EEF War Diary 5 November 1917 AWM4-1-6-19part2
Battle
Despite continuing fierce fighting for control of the high country around Khuweilfe being unresolved, Chauvel, commanding the EEF units in the area including the 53rd (Welsh) Division, had advanced to gain a "position of vantage from which to roll up the enemy's flank". Allenby had hoped that, if the hostile Ottoman forces could be held by the EEF units assigned the task, they could be "immobilised at the critical moment", and unable to reinforce the garrisons at Hareira and Sheria during the planned attack.The Khuweilfe fighting had drawn in all the local reserves including the 19th Division, the 3rd Cavalry Division, the remains of the 27th Division, which had formed the Beersheba garrison, and part of the 16th Division, which fought determinedly for Ain Kohleh, Tel Khuweilfeh and the road to Hebron and Jerusalem. None of these units left the area to reinforce the defences in front of Sheria.