Battles of Ramadi (1917)

First Battle of Ramadi
Part of the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I
Date 8–13 July 1917 (5 days) Location Ramadi, west of Baghdad, present-day Iraq Result Ottoman victory
Belligerents
British Empire	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Charles Levenax Haldane	?
Strength
1 brigade	1,000
Casualties and losses
566	unknown

Second Battle of Ramadi
Part of the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I
Date 28–29 September 1917 (1 day) Location Ramadi, Iraq Result British victory
Belligerents
British Empire	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Harry Brooking	Ahmed Bey
Strength
1 infantry division, 1 cavalry brigade	3,500
Casualties and losses
1,000 (mostly light)	3,500 (mostly POW)

The two Battles of Ramadi were fought between the forces of the British and Ottoman Empires in July and September 1917 during World War I. The two sides contested the town of Ramadi in central Iraq, about 100 km (62 miles) west of Baghdad on the south bank of the Euphrates River, where an important Ottoman garrison was quartered. The town's strategic position on the road between Aleppo and Baghdad made it a key British target during the Mesopotamian campaign, but the hostile climatic conditions meant that it took two attacks over the course of three months for the town to fall.

The first battle in July 1917 resulted in a British defeat. This was caused by a combination of factors, including extreme heat that caused more casualties than enemy fire, bad weather, faulty British communications, and an effective Turkish defence. The lessons learned were utilized in the second battle two months later: the British adopted different tactics and trapped the garrison against the Euphrates, cutting off their lines of escape. It was consequently captured almost in its entirety with large amounts of ammunition and supplies.

In March 1917, the Ottoman Turks were driven out of Fallujah by the British and fell back to positions on the Madhij Defile, 29 km (18 miles) to the west. On their retreat they managed to breach the Sakhlawiya Dam on the Euphrates, significantly increasing the risk of flooding downriver. Although this had some tactical advantages for the British in that floodwaters would make the area west of Baghdad impassable, it also carried with it the risk – which was deemed unacceptable – that the Samarra and Musaiyib railways would be threatened and Fallujah cut off.

The British therefore sought to reconstruct the dam. This required the occupation of Dhibban, a town about 32 km (20 miles) south of Ramadi, in order to guard the working parties on the dam. General Frederick Stanley Maude decided that an operation should be mounted to occupy Dhibban and strike against the Turkish garrison at Ramadi, which was said to number "about 120 sabres, 700 rifles and 6 [artillery] guns" – in total about 1,000 men. Maude did not aim to occupy Ramadi but to drive out its garrison and capture as many prisoners and as much materiel as possible.

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