Turkish Forces Fall Back From Suez Canal

February 4, 2015

Turkish forces in Beersheba in January, before their departure for the canal.

February 4, Ismailia–The Turkish expedition to Egypt reached the Suez Canal on the night of February 2. The hope had been to cross the canal with pontoons under cover of darkness, surprising the British and Indian defenders. Unfortunately for Djemal, a sandstorm delayed the pontoons, and the attack had to be put off until 2 AM on February 3. Three pontoon bridges were successfully constructed, and the defenders did not even realize the Turks were there for an hour and a half. However, the delayed attack meant sunrise came sooner, at which point the Indians could concentrate fire on the pontoons, each of which were missing sections by 8 AM. Those troops that had crossed the canal were thrown back, as well.

That night, the Germans urged for another attack the next day. They desperately wanted to deprive the British of Suez, and believed the fresh Turkish reserves would do much better than the Arab troops used on the first day. Djemal disagreed; both the pontoons and the element of surprise were lost. On the night of the 4th, Djemal’s force began the retreat back across the Sinai. The retreat would be a hard one, as supplies and water were scarcer; he would lose 7,000 of his remaining 11,000 camels during the retreat.

The British chose not to pursue the retreating Turks, for a variety of reasons. As they would be following the Turks, they would have even worse supply problems. The sandstorms had limited British aerial reconnaissance, and their pre-sandstorm estimates of Turkish strength were greatly overinflated. Furthermore, he was worried about (and the Turks had counted on) an uprising in Egypt himself, and did not want to strip troops away from Cairo.

Sources include: Hew Strachan, The First World War (Volume I).

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