Battle of Tulkarm | |||||||
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Part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I | |||||||
German photograph of Tulkarm taken in 1915 |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Ottoman Empire German Empire |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Edmund Allenby Edward Bulfin Harry Chauvel |
Fevsi Pasha Liman von Sanders Jevad Pasha |
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Units involved | |||||||
XXI Corps's 60th Division guns of the Destroyers HMS Druid and HMS Forester with most of the 383 land-based guns Desert Mounted Corps |
Yildirim Army Group Eighth Army
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Yildirim Army Group Eighth Army
The Battle of Tulkarm took place on 19 September 1918, beginning of the Battle of Sharon, which along with the Battle of Nablus formed the set piece Battle of Megiddo fought between 19 and 25 September in the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. During the infantry phase of the Battle of Sharon the British Empire 60th Division, XXI Corps attacked and captured the section of the front line nearest the Mediterranean coast under cover of an intense artillery barrage including a creeping barrage and naval gunfire. This Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) victory over the entrenched Ottoman Eighth Army, composed of German and Ottoman soldiers, began the Final Offensive, ultimately resulting in the destruction of the equivalent of one Ottoman army, the retreat of what remained of two others, and the capture of many thousands of prisoners and many miles of territory from the Judean Hills to the border of modern-day Turkey. After the end of the battle of Megiddo, the Desert Mounted Corps pursued the retreating soldiers to Damascus, six days later. By the time an Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire five weeks later, Aleppo had been captured.