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The Battle of Beersheba ((トルコ語:Birüssebi Savaşı), ),〔The several battles fought for the Gaza to Beersheba line between 31 October and 7 November, were all assigned the title Third Battle of Gaza although they took place many miles apart, and were fought by different corps. (Nomenclature Committee 1922 p. 32, Falls 1930 Vol. 2 Sketch Maps 1–9 )〕 was fought on 31 October 1917, when the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) attacked and captured the Yildirim Army Group garrison at Beersheba, beginning the Southern Palestine Offensive of the Sinai and Palestine campaign of World War I. After successful limited attacks in the morning, by infantry from the 60th (London) and the 74th (Yeomanry) Divisions of the XX Corps from the south-west, the Anzac Mounted Division (Desert Mounted Corps) launched a series of attacks. These attacks, against the strong defences which dominated the eastern side of Beersheba, eventually resulted in their capture during the late afternoon. Shortly afterwards, the Australian Mounted Division's 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments (4th Light Horse Brigade) conducted a mounted infantry charge with bayonets in their hands, their only weapon for mounted attack, as their rifles were slung across their backs. While part of the two regiments dismounted to attack entrenchments on Tel es Saba defending Beersheba, the remainder of the light horsemen continued their charge into the town, capturing the place and part of the garrison as it was withdrawing. After the EEF defeats at the first and second battles of Gaza in March and April 1917, the victorious German General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein (commander of the three divisions of the Fourth Army) further strengthened his defensive line stretching from Gaza to Beersheba, and received reinforcements of two divisions. Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Philip Chetwode (commanding the EEF's Eastern Force) began the Stalemate in Southern Palestine, defending more-or-less the same entrenched lines held at the end of the second battle, initiated regular mounted reconnaissance into the open eastern flank of the Gaza to Beersheba line, towards Beersheba. In June the Ottoman Fourth Army was reorganised when the new Yildirim Army Group was established, commanded by German General Erich von Falkenhayn. At about the same time, the British General Edmund Allenby replaced General Archibald Murray as commander of the EEF. Allenby reorganised the EEF to give him direct command of three corps, in the process deactivating Chetwode's Eastern Force and placing him in command of one of the two infantry corps. At the same time Chauvel's Desert Column was renamed the Desert Mounted Corps. As the stalemate continued through the summer in difficult conditions on the northern edge of the Negev Desert, EEF reinforcements began to strengthen the divisions (which had suffered more than 10,000 casualties during the two battles for Gaza). While the primary functions of the EEF and the Ottoman Army during this time were to man the front lines and patrol the open eastern flank, both sides conducted training of all units. By mid-October, while the battle of Passchendaele continued on the Western Front, the XXI Corps maintained the defences in the Gaza sector of the line. Further, Allenby's preparations for the manoeuvre warfare attacks on the Ottoman defensive line, beginning with Beersheba, and the subsequent advance to Jerusalem, were nearing completion with the arrival of the last reinforcements. Beersheba was defended by lines of trenches, supported by isolated redoubts on earthworks and hills, which covered all approaches to the town. The Ottoman garrison was eventually encircled by the two infantry and two mounted divisions, as they (and their supporting artillery) launched their attacks. The 60th (London) Division's preliminary attack and capture of the redoubt on Hill 1070, led to the bombardment of the main Ottoman trench line. Then a joint attack by the 60th (London) and 74th (Yeomanry) Divisions captured all their objectives. Meanwhile, to the north-east of Beersheba the Anzac Mounted Division cut the road from Beersheba to Hebron (which continued to Jerusalem). Continuous fighting against the main redoubt and defences on Tel el Saba (dominating the eastern approaches to the town), resulted eventually in its capture in the afternoon. During this fighting the 3rd Light Horse Brigade had been sent to reinforce the Anzac Mounted Division, while the 5th Mounted Brigade (armed with swords) remained in corps reserve. With all brigades of both mounted divisions already committed to the battle, the only brigade available (the 4th Light Horse Brigade), was ordered to capture Beersheba. These sword-less mounted infantrymen galloped over the plain, riding towards the town and a redoubt supported by entrenchments, on a mound of Tel es Saba south-east of Beersheba. While the 4th Light Horse Regiment on the right, jumped trenches before turning to make a dismounted attack on the Ottoman infantry (in the trenches, gun pits and redoubts on rising ground), most of the 12th Light Horse Regiment on the left rode on across the face of the main redoubt, to find a gap in the Ottoman defences. These squadrons rode on across the railway line and into Beersheba, to complete the first step of an offensive which would see the EEF capture Jerusalem, six weeks later.〔The claim that this was the last successful mounted cavalry charge in the history of modern warfare, () overlooks the 4th Light Horse Brigade Charge at Sheria on 7 November 1917, the 5th Mounted Brigade Charge at Huj on 8 November 1917 and in 1918, the 10th Cavalry Brigade Charge at Irbid on 26 September, the 14th Cavalry Brigade Charge at Kiswe and the 4th Light Horse Brigade Charge at Kaukab both on 30 September, the day before the Capture of Damascus during the Sinai and Palestine campaign. (1930 Vol. 2 pp. 95–595 )〕 == Background == After their second defeat at Gaza in April, General Archibald Murray sacked the commander of Eastern Force, Lieutenant General Charles Dobell. Lieutenant General Philip Chetwode was promoted to command Eastern Force, while Harry Chauvel was promoted to Lieutenant General with command of the Desert Column. Major General Edward Chaytor was promoted from the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, to command the Anzac Mounted Division replacing Chauvel. With the arrival of General Edmund Allenby in June, Murray was also relieved of command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), and sent back to England.〔Grainger 2006 pp. 61–2〕〔Powles 1922 pp. 108–9〕〔Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 351〕〔Erickson 2007 p. 99〕 Although the strategic priorities of Enver Pasha and the Ottoman general staff, were to push the EEF back to the Suez Canal and retake Baghdad, Mesopotamia, and Persia,〔Erickson 2001 p. 159〕 the EEF was fortunate that the victorious Ottoman forces, were not in a position in April 1917, to launch a large-scale counterattack immediately after their second victory at Gaza. Such an attack against rudimentary EEF defences on the northern edge of the Negev could have been disastrous for the EEF.〔Moore 1920 pp. 71–3〕 Instead, both sides constructed permanent defences stretching from the sea west of Gaza to Shellal on the Wadi Ghazzeh. From Shellal, the lightly-entrenched EEF line extended to El Gamli before continuing south to Tel el Fara. The western sector (stretching from Gaza to Tel el Jemmi) was strongly entrenched, wired and defended by EEF and Ottoman infantry. The eastern sector, stretching east and south across the open plain, was patrolled by Desert Column's mounted infantry and yeomanry. At every opportunity patrols and outposts harassed opposing forces, while wells and cisterns were mapped.〔Preston 1921 p. 12〕〔Massey 1919 p. 15〕〔Powles 1922 pp. 106,108–9〕 The town of Gaza was strongly defended, having been developed into "a strong modern fortress, well entrenched and wired, with good observation and a glacis on its southern and south–eastern face."〔Falls 1930 Vol. 2 p. 9〕 From Gaza, the formidable Ottoman front line stretching eastwards, dominated the country to the south, where the EEF was deployed in open, low-lying country cut by deep wadis.〔Hamilton p.28〕 The Ottoman defences in the centre of the line, at Atawineh and Hairpin redoubts (at Hareira and Teiaha), supported each other as they overlooked the plain, making a frontal attack virtually impossible.〔Massey 1919 p. 16〕 Between Gaza and Hareira, the Ottoman defences were strengthened and extended along the Gaza-to-Beersheba road, east of the Palestine Railway line from Beersheba. Although these trenches did not extend to Beersheba, strong fortifications made the isolated town into a fortress.〔Falls 1930 Vol. 1 p. 353〕〔One historian claims the Gaza to Beersheba line "stretch() continuously for almost fifty kilometres". (2001 p. 163 )〕 The open eastern flank was dominated by the Wadi Ghazzeh, which, at the beginning of the stalemate, could only be crossed in five places. These were at the mouth on the Mediterranean coast, the main Deir el Belah-to-Gaza road crossing, the Tel el Jemmi crossing (used during the first battle of Gaza), the Shellal crossing on the Khan Yunis-to-Beersheba road, and the Tel el Fara crossing on the Rafa-to-Beersheba road. The difficulty of crossing the wadi elsewhere was due to the perpendicular banks cut into the Gaza–Beersheba plain by regular floods. Additional crossings were constructed during the stalemate.〔〔Powles 1922 p. 106〕 Beersheba (Hebrew: ''Be-er Sheva''; Arabic: ''Bir es Sabe'') at the foot of the Judean Hills, was built on the eastern bank of the Wadi es Saba, which joins the Wadi Ghazzeh at Bir el Esani, before stretching to the Mediterranean Sea. Located at the north-west end of a flat, treeless plain about long by wide, the town is surrounded by rocky hills and outcrops. To the north–north–east, away on the southern edge of the Judean Hills, the Tuweiyil Abu Jerwal rises to behind the town, overlooking it by ; lower hills range east and south, with a spur of the plateau of Edom on the south-east, extending towards the town.〔Falls 1930 Vol. 2 pp. 19, 33〕〔Preston 1921 p. 20〕 Since ancient times, the town had been a trading centre, with roads radiating from it in all directions. To the north-east the only sealed, metalled motor road in the region, stretched along a spine of the Judean Hills to Jerusalem, via Edh Dhahriye, Hebron and Bethlehem, along the Wadi el Khalil (a tributary of the Wadi es Saba). To the north-west the road to Gaza away crossed the open plain, to the west the track to Rafa via Tel el Fara (on the Wadi Ghazzeh), while the southern road to Asluj and Hafir el Auja continued the metalled road from Jerusalem.〔Falls 1930 Vol. 2 p. 34〕〔Powles 1922 p. 135〕 Beersheba was developed by the Ottoman Empire from a camel-trading centre on the northern edge of the Negev, halfway between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It was on the railway line which ran from Istanbul to Hafir el Auja (the main Ottoman desert base during the raid on the Suez Canal in 1915 until the EEF advance to Rafa outflanked it), and which was damaged beyond repair in May 1917 during an EEF raid. Beersheba's hospital, army barracks, railway station (with water tower), engine sheds, large storage buildings, and a square of houses, were well-designed and strongly-constructed stone buildings, with red tiled roofs and a German beer garden.〔〔Massey 1919 p.33〕〔G. Massey 2007 p. 9〕 The inhabitants of the region from Beersheba northwards varied; the population was mainly Arabs belonging to Sunni Islam, with some Jewish and Christian colonists.〔British Army Handbook 9/4/18 p. 61〕 The EEF had already decided to invade Ottoman territory before the first battle of Gaza, on the basis of Britain's three major war objectives: to maintain maritime supremacy in the Mediterranean, preserve the balance of power in Europe, and protect Egypt, India and the Persian Gulf. Despite the EEF's defeats during the first two battles of Gaza (with about 10,000 casualties),〔Falls 1930 Vol. 1 pp. 315, 348 note〕 Allenby planned an advance into Palestine and the capture of Jerusalem to secure the region and cut off the Ottoman forces in Mesopotamia from those in the Levant and on the Arabian Peninsula. The capture of Gaza, which dominated the coastal route from Egypt to Jaffa, was a first step towards these aims.〔Woodward 2006, p. 68–9〕 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 Beersheba (1917)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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