Southern Palestine Offensive
| Southern Palestine Offensive | |||||||||
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| Part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 British Empire France Italy
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 Ottoman Empire German Empire
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Edmund Allenby
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Erich von Falkenhayn Fevzi Pasha Friedrich von Kressenstein
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| Units involved | |||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 25,000 | |||||||||
The Southern Palestine Offensive employing manoeuvre warfare, began on 31 October 1917, with the Battle of Beersheba, during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, of World War I. After the capture of Beersheba, by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), the Gaza to Beersheba line became increasingly weakened and seven days later, the EEF successfully forced the Ottoman Turkish Empire's Seventh and Eighth Armies to withdraw. During the following seven days of pursuit, the Turkish forces were pushed back to Jaffa. There followed three weeks of hard fighting in the Judean Hills before Jerusalem was captured on 9 December 1917. During five and a half weeks of almost continuous offensive operations, the EEF captured 47.5 miles (76.4 km) of territory.
After a joint attack by the XX and the Desert Mounted Corps, Beersheba at the eastern end of the Gaza to Beersheba line, was captured. The next day, on 1 November the Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe began, with an advance north of Beersheba into the Judean foorhills, by the 53rd (Welsh) and the ANZAC Mounted Divisions. This move up the road from Beersheba to Jerusalem, also threatened Hebron and Bethlehem. Then during the night of 1/2 November, the Third Battle of Gaza took place on the Mediterranean coast, when limited attacks by the XXI Corps, were made against strongly held, formidable defences. The next day, the fiercely contested fighting south of Tel el Khuweilfe by the EEF was not designed capture Hebron, but to create sufficient area for the deployment of the XX Corps, for a flank attack on the central defences of the old Gaza to Beersheba line. Fighting for the Beersheba to Jerusalem road, also encouraged the Turkish commanders to deploy their reserves, to hold the EEF threat. On 6 November the Battle of Hareira and Sheria was launched on the centre of the old line, half way between Gaza and Beersheba and Hareira captured, but it was not until late the next day, that the Sheria position was finally captured by the 60th (London) Division, after a failed Charge at Sheria by the 4th Light Horse Brigade (Australian Mounted Division). The Seventh and the Eighth Armies were by now in full retreat from the remains of the old Gaza to Beersheba line.
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Wikipedia