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The Battle of Romani was the last ground attack of the Central Powers on the Suez Canal at the beginning of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign during the First World War. The battle was fought between 3 and 5 August 1916 near the Egyptian town of Romani and the site of ancient Pelusium on the Sinai Peninsula, east of the Suez Canal. This victory by the 52nd (Lowland) Division and the Anzac Mounted Division of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) over a joint Ottoman and German force, which had marched across the Sinai, marked the end of the Defence of the Suez Canal campaign, also known as the ''Offensive zur Eroberung des Suezkanals'' and the ''İkinci Kanal Harekâtı'', which had begun on 26 January 1915. This British Empire victory, the first against the Ottoman Empire in the war, ensured the safety for the Suez Canal from ground attacks, and ended the Central Powers' ambitions of disrupting traffic through the canal by gaining control of the strategically important northern approaches to the Suez Canal. The pursuit by the Anzac Mounted Division which ended at Bir el Abd on 12 August began the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Thereafter, the Anzac Mounted Division supported by the Imperial Camel Brigade were on the offensive, pursuing the German and Ottoman army many miles across the Sinai Peninsula, reversing in a most emphatic manner the defeat suffered at Katia three months earlier.〔Battles Nomenclature Committee 1922 p. 31〕 From late April 1916, after a German-led Ottoman force attacked British yeomanry at Katia, British Empire forces in the region at first doubled from one brigade to two and then grew as rapidly as the developing infrastructure could support them. The construction of the railway and a water pipeline soon enabled an infantry division to join the light horse and mounted rifle brigades at Romani. During the heat of summer, regular mounted patrols and reconnaissance were carried out from their base at Romani, while the infantry constructed an extensive series of defensive redoubts. On 19 July, the advance of a large German, Austrian and Ottoman force across the northern Sinai was reported. From 20 July until the battle began, the Australian 1st and 2nd Light Horse Brigades took turns pushing out to clash with the advancing hostile column. During the night of 3/4 August 1916, the advancing force including the German Pasha I formation and the Ottoman 3rd Infantry Division launched an attack from Katia on Romani. Forward troops quickly became engaged with the screen established by the 1st Light Horse Brigade (Anzac Mounted Division). During fierce fighting before dawn on 4 August, the Australian light horsemen were forced to slowly retire. At daylight, their line was reinforced by the 2nd Light Horse Brigade, and about mid morning, the 5th Mounted Brigade and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade joined the battle. Together these four brigades of the Anzac Mounted Division, managed to contain and direct the determined attackers into deep sand. Here the attackers came within range of the strongly entrenched 52nd (Lowland) Division defending Romani and the railway. Coordinated resistance by all these EEF formations, the deep sand, the heat and thirst prevailed, and the German, Austrian and Ottoman advance was checked. Although the attacking force fought strongly to maintain its positions the next morning, by nightfall they had been pushed back to their starting point at Katia. The retiring force was pursued by the Anzac Mounted Division between 6 and 9 August, during which the Ottomans and Germans forces fought a number of strong rearguard actions against the advancing Australian light horse, British yeomanry and New Zealand mounted rifle brigades. The pursuit ended on 12 August, when the German and Ottoman force abandoned their base at Bir el Abd and retreated back to El Arish. ==Background== At the beginning of the First World War, the Egyptian police controlling the Sinai Peninsula had withdrawn, leaving the area largely unprotected. In February 1915, a German and Ottoman force unsuccessfully attacked the Suez Canal.〔Falls 1930 pp. 13–4, 28–50〕 Minor Ottoman and Bedouin forces operating across the Sinai continued to threaten the canal from March through the Gallipoli Campaign until June, when they practically ceased until the autumn.〔Falls 1930 pp. 61–64〕 Meanwhile, the German and Ottoman Empires supported an uprising by the Senussi (a political-religious group) on the western frontier of Egypt which began in November 1915. By February 1916, however, there was no apparent sign of any unusual military activity in the Sinai itself, when the British began construction on the first stretch of standard gauge railway and water pipeline from Kantara to Romani and Katia.〔Bruce 2002, pp. 36–7〕〔Keogh 1955, p. 37〕 Reconnaissance aircraft of the Royal Flying Corps and seaplanes of the Royal Naval Air Service found only small, scattered Ottoman forces in the Sinai region and no sign of any major concentration of troops in southern Palestine.〔Falls 1930 pp. 159–60〕 By the end of March or early in April 1916, the British presence in the Sinai was growing; 16 miles (26 km) of track, including sidings, had been laid. Between 21 March and 11 April, the water sources at Wady Um Muksheib, Moya Harab and Jifjafa along the central Sinai route from southern Palestine were destroyed. In 1915, they had been used by the central group of about 6,000 or 7,000 Ottoman soldiers who moved across the Sinai Desert to attack the Suez Canal at Ismailia. Without these wells and cisterns, the central route could no longer be used by large forces.〔Falls 1930 p. 160〕〔3rd LHB War Diary 10 April 1916 AWM 4,10/3/15〕〔Keogh 1955 pp. 20, 38〕 German General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein's raiding force retaliated to this growing British presence, by attacking the widely dispersed 5th Mounted Brigade on 23 April, Easter Sunday and also St George's Day, when Yeomanry were surprised and overwhelmed at Katia and Oghratina east of Romani. The mounted Yeomanry brigade had been sent to guard the water pipeline and railway as they were being extended beyond the protection of the Suez Canal defences into the desert towards Romani.〔Wavell 1968, pp. 43–5〕〔Erickson 2001, p. 155〕〔Bowman–Manifold 1923, p. 21〕 In response to this attack, the British Empire presence in the region doubled. The next day, the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade and the 2nd Light Horse Brigade which had served dismounted during the Gallipoli Campaign,〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Australian War Memorial )〕 of the Australian Major General Harry Chauvel's Anzac Mounted Division reoccupied the Katia area unopposed.〔Powles 1922 p. 14〕 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 Romani」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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