The raid on the Suez Canal, also known as actions on the Suez Canal, took place between 26 January and 4 February 1915 when a German-led Ottoman force advanced from southern Palestine to attack the British Empire-protected Suez Canal, marking the beginning of the Sinai and Palestine campaign (1915–1918) of World War I (1914–1918).
Substantial Ottoman forces crossed the Sinai Peninsula, and a few managed to cross the Canal. The primary objective of the Ottoman forces was not to capture British Egypt, but to seize the Suez Canal. Capturing this strategically vital channel would cut British communications with East Africa, India and Asia, and prevent British Empire troops from reaching the Mediterranean Sea and Europe. The Ottoman attack was a failure with the loss of nearly 2,000 troops.Bruce 2002, pp. 23–4Falls 1930 Vol. 1 pp. 46–50
Background Since its opening in 1869 the Suez Canal had featured prominently in British policy and concerns. Among the great advantages it provided were a line of communication and also the site for a military base; the well equipped ports at Alexandria and Port Said made the region particularly useful.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 8 However, the Egyptian public was becoming increasingly opposed to the British occupation of Egypt, in particular various policies and judgments issued by Britain during the occupation.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 9
The Convention of Constantinople of 1888 by the European great powers guaranteed freedom of navigation of the Suez Canal.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 pp. 11–2 In August 1914 Egypt was defended by 5,000 men of the Force in Egypt.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 11
Prelude Abbas Hilmi, the reigning Khedive, who had opposed the British occupation, was out of the country when the war started. When the British declared the Protectorate on 18 December 1914 they deposed Abbas Hilmi and promoted Prince Hussein Kamel as the Sultan of Egypt. The population agreed to these changes while the outcome of the war was unknown and the fighting continued.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 17
From 2 August 1914 when the Ottoman armies mobilised, Brigadier General Zekki Pasha commanding the Ottoman Fourth Army at Damascus was planning to attack the Suez Canal, with the support of Djemal Pasha Commander in Chief of Syria and Palestine.German and Ottoman sources in Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 34
The first hostilities occurred on 20 November when a 20-man patrol of the Bikaner Camel Corps was attacked at Bir en Nuss east of Qantara by 200 Bedouin. The Bikaner Camel Corps lost more than half their patrol.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 20 By December El Arish was occupied by an Ottoman force and the defence of the Suez Canal was organised.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 22 There had been a pre-war suggestion that a force of camels could hold Nekhel just to the south and in the centre of the Ottoman Empire and Egyptian frontier. The difficulty of supporting such a force of camels from bases on the western side of the Suez Canal was recognised when the decision was made that "the obvious line of actual defence of the eastern frontier of Egypt is the Suez Canal."Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 24
Suez Canal defences The long canal had a railway running along its whole length and was supplied with water from the west, as only brackish wells could be found to the east. The length of the canal included about of the Great and Little Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah, which divided the three sectors organised for the defence. These were, Suez to the Bitter Lakes Deversoir to El Ferdan El Ferdan to Port Said
with headquarters and a general reserve at Ismailia, while small detachments guarded the Sweet Water Canal and the Zagazig supply depot on the main Ismailia to Cairo road.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 pp. 23, 24
On 25 November, cutting the canal bank at Port Said flooded a portion of the desert stretching to El Kab, shortening the northern stretch of the canal by . On 2 January, another major cutting in the Asiatic bank north of Qantara enabled minor inundations between Qantara and Ismailia.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 25
On 15 January 1915 Sector I Headquarters at Suez 30th Indian Brigade (the 24th and 76th Punjabis, the 126th Baluchistan Infantry and the 2/7th Gurkha Rifles) 1 Squadron Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade 1 Company Bikaner Camel Corps half a company of Sappers and Miners 1 Battery Royal Field Artillery (RFA) 1 Indian Field Ambulance These troops were deployed at the Esh Shat, Baluchistan, El Kubri, Gurkha, Shallufa, Geneffe and Suez posts.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 31 Sector II Headquarters at Ismailia Old Camp 22nd (Lucknow) Brigade (the 62nd and 92nd Punjabis and the 2/10th Gurkha Rifles) 28th Indian Brigade (the 51st Sikhs (Frontier Force) and 53rd Sikhs, the 56th Punjabis and the 1/5th Gurkha Rifles) 1 Squadron Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade Bikaner Camel Corps (less three and a half companies) Machine Gun Section of Egyptian Camel Corps 1 Brigade of Territorial RFA 1 Battery Indian Mountain Artillery 2 Field Ambulances These troops were deployed at the Deversoir, Serapeum East, Serapeum West, Tussum, Gebel Mariam, Ismailia Ferry and Ismailia Old Camp posts.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 pp. 31–2 Sector III Headquarters at Qantara 29th Indian Brigade (the 14th Sikhs, the 69th and 89th Punjabis and the 1/6th Gurkha Rifles) 1 Battalion 22nd Brigade 1 Squadron Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade half a company of Sappers and Miners 2 Batteries of Territorial Royal Field Artillery (RFA) 26th Battery Mountain Artillery Armoured train with half company Indian Infantry Territorial Wireless Section Indian Field Ambulance Detachment of Territorial R.A.M.C. These troops were deployed at the Ballah, Qantara East, Qantara West, El Kab, Tina, Ras El Esh, Salt Works, New Canal Works and Port Said posts.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 32 Zagazig Advanced Ordnance Depot was defended by one battalion, 32nd (Imperial Service) Brigade Sweet Water Canal and the railway were defended by 1 Troop Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade, a half company of Bikaner Camel Corps and a half company of Indian Infantry Moascar General Reserve was formed by: 31st Indian Brigade (the 2nd Queen Victoria's Own Rajput Light Infantry), the 27th Punjabis, the 93rd Burma Infantry and the 128th Pioneers 32nd (Imperial Service) Brigade (the 33rd Punjabis, Alwar, Gwalior and Patiala Infantry) Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade (less three squadrons and one troop) 1 Egyptian R. E. Section (Camels) 1 Egyptian Mountain Battery 2 Sections Field Artillery with Cavalry Brigade 3 Indian Field Ambulances.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 pp. 32–3 This force would be supported by warships located in the Suez Canal and the lakes.
Located at these series of posts were trenches with sand bag revetments, protected by barbed wire on the eastern bank of the canal mainly covering ferries with an extensive bridgehead at Ismailia Ferry Post. Three floating bridges were constructed, at Ismailia, Kubri and Qantara. On the western bank trenches were dug at intervals between the posts.
These defences were augmented by the presence in the Suez Canal of , , , the armed merchant cruiser and near Qantara, Ballah, Sallufa, Gurka Post and Esh Shatt respectively, with the French protected cruiser D'Entrecasteaux just north of the Great Bitter Lake, at Port Said, the Royal Indian Marine Ship Hardinge south of Lake Timsah and north of Tussum, with the French coastal defence ship Requin in Lake Timsah. The canal was closed each night during the threat.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 30
Two battalions of the 32nd (Imperial Service) Brigade were deployed north of Lake Timsah to Ballah in Sector II commanded by Brigadier General H.D. Watson with the New Zealand Infantry Brigade and the Otago and Wellington Battalions reinforcing Sector I.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 pp. 29–31
To protect their strategic interests, by January 1915 the British had assembled some 130,000 troops in Egypt.This information is based on Tayyib Bey's reports from November and December 1914. See: ATASE Arşivi, K. 531, D. 2076, F. 4/3, 4/5, 4/7, Teşrin-i sâni 1330 (17 Kasõm 1914); ATASE Arşivi, K. 531, D. 2076, F. 4, 5, 17 Kanun-õ evvel 1330 (30 Aralõk 1914). Ayrõca bkz. ATASE Arşivi, K. 531, D. 2076, F. 16-2, 8 Kanun-õ sâni 1330 (21 Ocak 1915).. Major-General Sir John Maxwell, a veteran of Egypt and Sudan, was commander-in-chief and led mostly British Indian Army divisions, together with the 42nd (East Lancashire) Division, local formations and the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. 30,000 of the troops stationed in Egypt manned defences along the Suez Canal. The Ottomans had only three available routes to reach the Suez Canal through the road-less and waterless Sinai Peninsula. A coastal advance that would have water supplies and usable tracks, but would be within range of Royal Navy warships. A central route from Beersheba to Ismailia or a southern track between El Kossaima and the Suez Canal. The central route was chosen as it would provide the Ottoman soldiers with proper tracks to follow once they crossed the canal.
Attacking force The Bavarian Colonel Kress von Kressenstein had been appointed Chief of Staff of the VIII Corps, Fourth Army on arrival from Constantinople on 18 November 1914.Erickson 2001, p. 69Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 34 The VIII Corps comprised five infantry divisions, the 8th, 10th, 23rd, 25th, and 27th with contingents from Sinai Bedouins, Druzes, Kurds, Mohadjirs, Circassians from Syria and Arabs.Erickson 2001, pp. 69–70 These Muslim contingents were to foment revolt against the British in Egypt.Erickson 2001, p. 70 In January 1915 Kress von Kressenstein's force concentrated 20,000 men in southern Palestine with nine field batteries and one battery of 5.9 inch (15 cm) howitzers.Carver 2003, p. 8Kress von Kressenstein claims this force left Beersheba in mid January in "two echelons." [quoted in Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 34]
This force which was to cross the Sinai comprised the 10th Infantry Division and a cavalry regiment and the first echelon of about 13,000 infantrymen including the 23rd, 25th and 27th Divisions with 1,500 Arabs and eight batteries of field artillery. A second echelon of 12,000 infantrymen was made up of 20th and 23rd Divisions.Wavell 1968, p. 28 The plan was for a single infantry division to capture Ismailia and cross the canal before being reinforced by a second infantry division which would be supported on the east bank of the canal by two additional divisions. A further division would be available to reinforce the bridgehead on the west bank of the Suez Canal.
The Ottoman Empire constructed a branch railway line from the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway at Ramleh running south to reach Sileh about from the Suez Canal during the autumn of 1914.Powles 1922 p. 110Bruce 2002, pp. 29–30 The stretch of the railway to Beersheba was opened on 17 October 1915.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 85 By May 1916 it had been extended on to Hafir El Auja then south across the Egyptian frontier, to almost reached the Wadi el Arish in December 1916 when the Battle of Magdhaba was fought. German engineers directed the construction of stone Ashlar bridges and culverts along this railway line built to move large numbers of troops long distances quickly and keep them supplied many miles from base.
Any attack on the Suez Canal would require artillery and a bridging train to be dragged across the desert.Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 23 Two Ottoman divisions plus one more in reserve, with camel and horse units, were ready to depart in mid-January. The advance across the Sinai took ten days, tracked by British aircraft, even though German aircraft stationed in Palestine in turn aided the Ottomans and later flew some bombing missions in support of the main attack.First World War – Willmott, H.P. Dorling Kindersley, 2003, Page 87 Kress von Kressenstein's force moved south by rail, continuing on foot via el Auja carrying iron pontoons for crossing and attacking the Suez Canal at Serapeum and Tussum.Duguid 1919, p. 2