THE STORY OF THE OTTOMAN POW IN BRITISH CAPTIVITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST ..

 

Ottoman POWs in British captivity in the Middle East, 1918. Colourised by @omergelirtarih.

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Colourised by @omercolorize. 

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Today 106 years ago, on September 19, 1918, the Battle of Megiddo began on the Palestine Front, resulting in the Ottoman Empire's defeat in the First World War. 

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In the summer of 1918, the British forces on the Palestine Front had received significant reinforcements, notably Indian soldiers, which General Allenby sought to put to use for a final, decisive offensive to defeat the Ottomans.

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The main attack would fall westwards near the Mediterranean coast at Nahr el Faliq against the Ottoman 7th and 8th Armies. Once a breakthrough was achieved and the Ottomans forced to retreat eastwards, British and Commonwealth forces further east would attack northwards at Nablus to block off the Ottoman retreat and encircle them.

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Secrecy was an essential part of the Allied plan, and considerable efforts were made to deceive the Ottomans of where the attack was falling. The Arab Northern Army of the Arab Revolt would attack the vital railway city of Daraa in Jordan to distract them from the Mediterranean coast.

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The Ottomans were anticipating the attack, but 4 years of war had rendered their units weakened and demoralized, also suffering from a lack of reserves and supplies. On September 16, 1918, the Arab forces attacked at Daraa, which succeeded in luring Ottoman troops away from the coasts. 

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On September 19, 1918, following an intense 12-minute artillery bombardment of 385 guns, British Commonwealth and Indian troops attacked at Nahr el Faliq and broke through the Ottoman lines. The British Desert Mounted Corps soon advanced north, with no Ottoman reserves to resist them. The Ottoman 8th Army retreated northwards while the 7th Army retreated east towards Jordan, in order to prevent encirclement.

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On September 21, British aircrafts spotted the Ottomans retreating eastwards and began dropping bombs. The Ottoman 7th Army was effectively destroyed in under an hour. Nablus was captured on the same day.

The British forces intended to block off the retreating Ottoman 7th Army halted their advance once they realized it had been effectively destroyed.

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Meanwhile, the Ottoman 8th Army by the Mediterranean coast retreated northwards to form a defensive line alongside the Ottoman Yildirim Army Group at Samakh by the Sea of Galilee.

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The British Desert Mounted Corps captured the cities of Tasbor, Haifa and Nazareth, before breaking through at Samakh on September 25.

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The British Commonwealth advanced effectively unopposed to capture Damascus on October 1, leading to the surrender of 20,000 Ottoman soldiers.

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On October 26, Aleppo was conquered by British and Australian units, but they were halted at Mouslimmiye by Ottoman forces under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

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With the Ottoman situation seemingly hopeless, and Bulgaria having surrendered on September 29, the Ottomans signed the Armistice of Mudros on October 30, 1918.

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In the Battle of Megiddo, the British Commonwealth had suffered 5,343 casualties, of whom 782 were deaths and 382 were missing in action. The Allied plan had been executed brilliantly and has since been compared to the German Blietzkrieg of WW2, for its swiftness and element of surprise.

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Some 75,000 Ottoman soldiers were captured in total following the surrender in the Battle of Megiddo. 

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The name "Battle of Megiddo" is quite misleading, as very little fighting happened at Megiddo, but the British chose it for its biblical references.

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The Ottoman surrender on October 30, 1918 meant that only Germany and Austria-Hungary remained of the Central Powers, the latter which would soon surrender themselves to Italy less than a week later.