Battle of Magdhaba - Background

Background

At the beginning of the First World War, the Egyptian police which had controlled the Sinai Desert, were withdrawn leaving the area largely unprotected. In February 1915, a German and Ottoman force unsuccessfully attacked the Suez Canal. After the Gallipoli Campaign, a second joint German and Ottoman force, again advanced across the desert to threaten the canal, during July 1916. This force was defeated in August at the Battle of Romani, after which the Anzac Mounted Division, also known as the A. & N. Z. Mounted Division, under the command of the Australian Major General Henry G. Chauvel, pushed the Ottoman Army's Desert Force commanded by the German General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, out of Bir el Abd and across the Sinai to El Arish.

By mid-September 1916 the Anzac Mounted Division had pursued the retreating Ottoman and German forces from Bir el Abd along the northern route across the Sinai Peninsula to the outpost at Bir el Mazar. The Maghara Hills, in the interior of the Sinai Desert, were also attacked in mid-October by a British force based on the Suez Canal. Although not captured at the time, all these positions were eventually abandoned by their Ottoman garrisons in the face of growing British Empire strength.