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The Battle of Mughar Ridge, officially known by the British as the Action of El Mughar, took place on 13 November 1917 during the Pursuit phase of the Southern Palestine Offensive of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in the First World War. Fighting between the advancing Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) and the retreating Yildirim Army Group, occurred after the Battle of Beersheba and the Third Battle of Gaza. Operations occurred over an extensive area north of the Gaza to Beersheba line and west of the road from Beersheba to Jerusalem via Hebron.〔Battles Nomenclature Committee 1922, p. 32〕 Strong Ottoman Army positions from Gaza to the foothills of the Judean Hills had successfully held out against British Empire forces for a week after the Ottoman army was defeated at Beersheba. But the next day, 8 November, the main Ottoman base at Sheria was captured after two days' fighting and a British Yeomanry cavalry charge at Huj captured guns; Ottoman units along the whole line were in retreat. The XXI Corps and Desert Mounted Corps attacked the Ottoman Eighth Army on an extended front from the Judean foothills across the Mediterranean coastal plain from 10 to 14 November. Beginning on 10 November at Summil in the foothills of the Judean Hills, an Ottoman counterattack by the Seventh Army was eventually blocked by mounted units while on 13 November in the centre a cavalry charge assisted by infantry captured two fortified villages and on 14 November, to the north at Ayun Kara an Ottoman rearguard position was successfully attacked by mounted units. Junction Station (also known as Wadi es Sara) was captured and the Ottoman railway link with Jerusalem was cut. As a result of this victory the Ottoman Eighth Army withdrew behind the Nahr el Auja and their Seventh Army withdrew toward Jerusalem. ==Background== After the capture of Beersheba on 31 October, from 1 to 7 November, strong Ottoman rearguard units at Tel el Khuweilfe in the southern Judean Hills, at Hareira and Sheria on the maritime plain, and at Gaza close to the Mediterranean coast, held the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in heavy fighting. During this time the Ottoman Army was able to withdraw in good order; the rearguard garrisons retiring under cover of darkness during the night of 8/9 November 1917.〔Grainger 2006, p. 159〕 The delay caused by these rearguards may have seriously compromised the British Empire advance as there was not much time to conclude military engagements in southern Palestine. The winter rains were expected to start in the middle of the month and the black soil plain which was currently firm, facilitating the movements of large military units would with the rains become a giant boggy quagmire, impassable for wheeled vehicles and very heavy marching for infantry. With the rains the temperatures which were currently hot during the day and pleasant at night would drop rapidly to become piercingly cold. In 1917 the rains began on 19 November just as the infantry began their advance into the Judean Hills.〔Gullett 1941, p. 491〕 The strength of the Seventh and Eighth Ottoman Armies, before the attack at Beersheba on 31 October, was estimated to have been 45,000 rifles, 1,500 sabres and 300 guns. This force had been made up of the Seventh Army's incomplete III Corps. The III Corps' 24th Infantry Division was at Kauwukah (near Hareira–Sheria) and its 27th Infantry Division was at Beersheba. Its 3rd Cavalry Division, as well as the 16th, 19th, and 24th Infantry Divisions were also in the area to the east of the Gaza–Beersheba line. The Seventh Army was commanded by Fevzi Çakmak.〔Bruce 2002, p. 125〕〔Wavell 1968, p. 114〕〔Erickson 2007, pp. 115–6〕 The Eighth Army's XXII Corps (3rd and 53rd Infantry Divisions) was based at Gaza while its XX Corps (16th, 26th and 54th Infantry Divisions) was based at Sheria in the centre of the Gaza–Beersheba line. Supporting these two corps had been two reserve divisions; the 7th and 19th Infantry Divisions. The Eighth Army was commanded by Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein and at that time had an estimated 2,894 officers; 69,709 men; 29,116 rifles; 403 machine-guns and 268 guns.〔〔Erickson 2007 p. 128〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Mughar Ridge」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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