معركة القدس (1917)
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معركة القدس نتج عنها سقوط القدس في أيدي القوات البريطانية في ديسمبر 1917. ففي 11 ديسمبر، ولج إدموند ألنبي المدينة راجلاً احتراماً للمدينة المقدسة، ليصبح أول مسيحي يحكم المدينة منذ قرون.
خلفية
الجنرال البريطاني إدموند ألنبي، القائد الأعلى لـقوة التجريدة المصرية (EEF)، أحرز نصراً حاسماً على الجنرال الألماني إريك فون فالكنهاين، قائد القوات العثمانية في فلسطين، في Battle of Mughar Ridge on 13 November. The British Empire victory forced von Falkenhayn to withdraw his Seventh and Eighth Armies (commanded by Fevzi Pasha and Kress von Kressenstein respectively) and move his headquarters from Jerusalem to Nablus on 14 November. As the Ottoman III Corps (Seventh Army) reached Jerusalem عبر طريق الخليل after its defeat at Beersheba, it was ordered to develop defences around Jerusalem. This corps held the city while the XX Corps retreated from Junction Station into the Judean Hills towards Jerusalem. As they retired the XX Corps left strong rearguards to stop or slow the British advance. Time was needed to construct defences and for reorganisation of the depleted and disorganised Seventh Army. When they arrived in the city XX Corps took over responsibility for Jerusalem's defences, while III Corps continued to move northwards from Jerusalem along the طريق نابلس.
The British War Cabinet had cautioned Allenby not to commit to any operations that might not be sustainable in the long term if the strength of British forces in the area could not be maintained. Their concerns were possibly linked to a peace proposal published onثمانية November by the new Russian Bolshevik government بين روسيا وألمانيا. The document, scheduled to be signed on ثلاثة March 1918, would constitute a separate peace treaty and result in the withdrawal of all Russian troops from the war. All German forces on the eastern front could then turn their attention to fighting British and French forces elsewhere.
Allenby was aware of the lack of accurate maps of the Judean Hills and that the history of previous campaigns in the region gave clear warnings against hasty or lightly supported assaults on the strong western ramparts. His front-line forces had been fighting and advancing for an extended period fighting many miles from their bases and were tired and depleted. Now 35 ميلs (56 kم) from the railhead at دير البلح, Allenby's troops did not have a line of defensive entrenchments behind which they could stop a concerted push by these two Ottoman armies. Such a counterattack could well see them driven back to غزة وبئر سبع.
Allenby reviewed the threat of counterattack and his supply situation and decided that a force large enough to attack into the Judean Hills and a separate force to operate on the maritime plain could be maintained far from base. He decided to quickly attack Fevzi Pasha's Ottoman 7th Army in the Judean Hills with the hope of capturing Jerusalem. This would keep pressure on this army in the hope of denying them time to complete their reorganisation, dig deep trenches or worst of all, counterattack.
افتتاحية
خطوط امداد الامبراطورية البريطانية
The planned advance into the Judean Hills would rely heavily on the ability of the lines of communications to keep the front line troops supplied with food, water and ammunition. These were already operating at considerable distances from the railhead and base areas, and as a result the advance was forced to pause on 17 November to enable supplies to be brought forward by columns under corps control, which had been sent back to railhead for rations and supplies.
المعركة
بدء التقدم إلى جبال الخليل
Counterattacks on the maritime plain
Counterattacks on the Yeomanry Mounted Division
Ottoman counterattacks began on 27 November, when the Yeomanry Mounted Division's most advanced post at Zeitun on the western end of the Beitunia Ridge was attacked by a much larger force. They held off the Ottoman attackers until 28 November, when the division was forced to withdraw from their advanced posts, including Sheik Abu ex Zeitun and Beit Ur el Foqa.
دخول ألنبي
استسلام القدس
During almost continuous rain onثمانية December, Jerusalem ceased to be protected by the Ottoman Empire. Chetwode (commander of XX Corps), who had relieved Bulfin (commander of XXI Corps), launched the final advance taking the heights to the west of Jerusalem onثمانية December. The Ottoman Seventh Army retreated during the evening and the city surrendered the following day.
حاول عمدة القدس حسين الحسيني حتى يسلم رسالة الحاكم العثماني باستسلام القدس للرقيبين Sergeants James Sedgewick and Frederick Hurcomb of 2/19th Battalion, London Regiment, just outside Jerusalem's western limits on the morning ofتسعة December 1917. The two sergeants, who were scouting ahead of Allenby's main force, refused to take the letter. It was eventually accepted by Brigadier General C.F. Watson, commanding the 180th (2/5th London) Brigade.
Jerusalem was almost encircled by the EEF, although Ottoman Army units briefly held the Mount of Olives onتسعة December. They were overwhelmed by the 60th (2/2nd London) Division the following afternoon.
ملخص الحملة
The newly established, strategically strong defensive British line remained in place until mid September 1918 when the advance to Damascus and Aleppo, which ended the war in this theatre, took place. It stretched across from the Mediterranean coast in the west to north and east of Jerusalem. The line was extended during the middle of February 1918 when Jericho in the Jordan Valley was captured and the eastern end of the line was secured on the Dead Sea.
المصادر
- الملاحظات
- ^ This problem began to be addressed on 24 November as the advance into the Judean Hills ground to a halt أمام النبي صمويل. On that day the first stage of operations officially known by the British as the معركة يافا (even though Jaffa had been captured several days earlier, on 16 November 1917) began with the Anzac Mounted Division (commanded by Major General E. W. C. Chaytor) and the 54th (East Anglian) Division (commanded by Major General S. W. Hare) being sent north of Jaffa to attack and push back Kress von Kressenstein's Ottoman 8th Army. These Ottoman forces were pushed back northwards behind the نهر العوجة enabling the construction of a new line of defences by the EEF to begin على ساحل المتوسط. [Bruce 2002, p. 155] See also Battle of Mughar Ridge for a description of the operations which resulted in the capture of Jaffa.
- الهامش
- ^ Wavell 1968, pp. 149–51 & 156
- ^ Falls 1930, pp. 146–7, 151–4, 177–8
- ^ Bruce 2002, pp. 148–53
- ^ Keogh 1955, pp. 178 & 180
- ^ Keogh 1955, p. 177
- ^ "World Wars in-depth The Ending of World War One, and the Legacy of Peace; Russia's exit". BBC History UK. 15 October 2010. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
- ^ Moore 1920, p. 95
- ^ Bruce 2002, pp. 152, 155
- ^ Bruce 2002, p. 155
- ^ Wavell 1968, p. 157
- ^ Bruce 2002, p. 127
- ^ Falls 1930, p.142
- ^ The term "fantasies" was used to describe water tanks designed to be carried by camels. See Association Men, Vol. 43, October 1917, page 110.
-
^ خطأ استشهاد: وسم
<ref>غير سليم؛ لا نص تم توفيره للمراجع المسماةWavell163 - ^ Hill 1978, p. 136
- ^ Powles 1922, p. 167
- ^ Bruce 2002, p. 162
- ^ "Jerusalem surrender party". NZ History Online. Retrieved 12 June 2011.
- ^ Bruce 2002, p. 163
- ^ Jerusalem Memorial 1928, p. 10
- First World War.com: The Fall of Jerusalem, 1917
- Tucker, Spencer, The Great War: 1914-18 (1998)
- Grainger, John D, The Battle for Palestine, 1917 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006)
نطقب:Ottoman battles in the 20th century
