From the Suez Canal to Megiddo: The British Imperial Army's War in Sinai and Palestine, 1916-18. Dr James Kitchen

Event

Monday 30 November 2015, 12:30 - 23:59

Organised by National Army Museum

The First World War is principally seen as a European conflict, and often simply as mired in the mud and blood of France and Belgium. For all of the major belligerents, however, 1914-18 was a global war and one of its most intense and significant theatres was in the Middle East, where the Ottoman and British Empires clashed. Here a campaign both of imperial defence and aggrandisement took place, one which would fundamentally re-shape the political map of the region, solidifying British and French imperial control behind the facade of the inter-war mandatory system, and in the process ignoring the nascent national aspirations of various local communities.
The history of the British Army’s campaign in the Middle East has been explored from the strategic perspective, but its operational and tactical elements have been somewhat neglected since the inter-war years. Moreover, the experiences of the soldiers that made up the multi-ethnic and multinational imperial army that the British constructed to defeat the Ottoman Empire need to be integrated into the wider historiography of the First World War, rather than just being viewed as participants in a remote sideshow.
This talk will look at the series of battles fought by the British across Sinai and Palestine in 1916-18, which culminated in the battle of Megiddo, described by Basil Liddell Hart as one of the most decisive battles in history. The focus will not just be on how these engagements played out and how the British achieved victory, but on how British, Australian, New Zealand, and Indian troops coped with the difficulties of campaigning in a harsh environment against a tenacious opponent. High levels of disease and combat casualties took their toll on the morale of these imperial warriors. Nevertheless, this imperial army did not break in battle and was able to endure longer than its opponent. The army’s robust morale, rooted in sophisticated and tough training regimes, played a fundamental role in securing British victory over the Ottomans by 1918.
Dr Kitchen is an academic and writer and is currently Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.