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The Battle of Nablus took place, together with the Battle of Sharon during the set piece Battle of Megiddo between 19 and 25 September 1918 in the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. Fighting took place in the Judean Hills where the British Empire's XX Corps attacked the Ottoman Empire's Yildirim Army Group's Seventh Army defending their line in front of Nablus. This battle was also fought on the right flank in the Jordan Valley, where Chaytor's Force attacked and captured the Jordan River crossings, before attacking the Fourth Army at Es Salt and Amman capturing many thousands of prisoners and extensive territory. The Battle of Nablus began half a day after the main Battle of Sharon, which was fought on the Mediterranean section of the front line where the XXI Corps attacked the Eighth Army defending the line in front of Tulkarm and Tabsor and the Desert Mounted Corps which rode north to capture the Esdrealon Plain. Together these two battles, known as the Battle of Megiddo, began the Final Offensive of the war in the Sinai and Palestine campaign.〔Battles Nomenclature Committee 1922 p. 33〕 By the afternoon of 19 September, it was clear that the breakthrough attacks in the Battle of Sharon by the XXI Corps had been successful, and the XX Corps was ordered to begin the Battle of Nablus by attacking the well-defended Ottoman front line, supported by an artillery barrage. These attacks continued late into the night and throughout the next day, until the early hours of 21 September when the continuing successful flanking attack by the XXI Corps, combined with the XX Corps assault and aerial bombing attacks, forced the Seventh and Eighth Armies to disengage. The Ottoman Seventh Army retreated from the Nablus area down the Wadi el Fara road towards the Jordan River, aiming to cross at the Jisr ed Damieh bridge, leaving a rearguard to defend Nablus. The town was captured by the XX Corps and the 5th Light Horse Brigade, while devastating aerial bombing of the Wadi el Fara road, blocked that line of retreat. As all objectives had now been won, no further attacks were required of the XX Corps, which captured thousands of prisoners in the area and at Nablus and Balata. Defending the right flank and subsidiary to the Nablus battle, the Third Transjordan attack began on 22 September when Meldrum's Force, a section of Chaytor's Force captured the 53rd Ottoman Division on the Wadi el Fara road, running from Nablus to the bridge at Jisr ed Damieh over the Jordan River. Further sections of the retreating Seventh Army column were attacked and captured, during the subsequent battle for the bridge when several fords were also captured along with the bridge, cutting this main Ottoman line of retreat eastwards. As the Fourth Army began its retreat, Chaytor's Force supported by reconnaissance and attacking aircraft, advanced from Jisr ed Damieh to the east to capture Es Salt on 23 September. This force continued its advance eastwards, to capture Amman on 25 September, after a strong Fourth Army rearguard was defeated there. The southern Hedjaz section of the Fourth Army was captured to the south of Amman, at Ziza on 29 September, ending military operations in the area. Following the victory at Megiddo, the Final Offensive continued when Damascus was captured on 1 October, after several days of pursuit by the Desert Mounted Corps. A further pursuit resulted in the occupation of Homs. On 26 October, the attack at Haritan, north of Aleppo, was under-way when the Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire, ending the Sinai and Palestine campaign. ==Background== After the Ottoman Army's defeat at the Battle of Beersheba, the loss to the Central Powers of southern Palestine, the retreat to the Judean Hills and the loss of Jerusalem at the end of 1917, several Ottoman army commanders in Palestine were replaced. The Yildirim Army Group's German commander, General Erich von Falkenhayn, was replaced by the German General Otto Liman von Sanders. The commander of the Eighth Army, Kress von Kressenstein, was replaced by Djevad Pasha and Cemal commander of the Ottoman Army, appointed Cemal Kucjuk Pasha to command the Fourth Army.〔Kinloch 2007 p. 303〕 Mustafa Kemal had resigned as commander of the Seventh Army in 1917 but was back by early September 1918.〔Falls 1930 Vol. 2 p. 674〕 Following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, which ended the war on the Eastern Front between Imperial Russia and Imperial Germany, the main focus of the Ottoman Army turned to the Anatolian provinces and territories lost in 1877–1878 during the Russo-Turkish War.〔Bruce 2002 pp. 207–8〕 The Ottoman Army embarked on a series of territorial conquests in the Caucasus beginning in northern Persia. Erzerum which had been captured by the Russians in 1916, was retaken on 24 March 1918, followed by Van on 5 April and later Batum, Kars and Tiflis. Reoccupation of these former possessions brought little strategic advantage to the Ottoman Empire, compared with the potential benefits of military success in Palestine.〔 Major offensive operations in Palestine also became a low priority for the British Army in March; being postponed because of the Spring Offensive in France, but by July, it was clear that the German offensive had failed resulting in a return to the battle of attrition in the trenches. This coincided with the approach of the campaign season in Palestine.〔Woodward 2006 p. 190〕〔Bruce 2002 p. 207〕 General Edmund Allenby, commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) was "very anxious to make a move in September" when he expected to capture Tulkarm and Nablus, the headquarters of the Seventh and Eighth Armies, along with the road to Jisr ed Damieh and Es Salt. "Another reason for moving to this line is that it will encourage both my own new Indian troops and my Arab Allies."〔Allenby letter to Wilson 24 July 1918 in Hughes 2004 pp. 168–9〕 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 Nablus (1918)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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