Battle of Sharqat

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Sharqat
partof=Mesopotamian Campaign
(World War I)


caption=
date=October 23—30, 1918
place=North of Baghdad, present-day Iraq
result=Decisive British victory.
combatant1=flagicon|United Kingdom British Empire
*flagicon|India|British British India
combatant2=flag|Ottoman Empire
commander1=Sir William Raine Marshall,
Sir Alexander Cobbe
commander2=Ismail Hakki Bey
strength1=2 infantry divisions, 2 cavalry brigades
strength2=Ottoman 6^th Army
casualties1=1,800
casualties2=18,000 POW

The Battle of Sharqat was the final action between the British and the Ottomans during the Mesopotamian Campaign in World War I. It took place near the end of October 1918.

Anticipating a Turkish armistice following the defeat of the Ottomans in Palestine, British Premier David Lloyd George ordered Sir William Marshall, Commander-in-Chief on the Mesopotamian front, to remove any residual Ottoman presence from that theater by twin advances up the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and capture the oil fields near Mosul on the Tigris. There was a lack of available transport, after a large amount had been supplied to Dunsterforce for its advance across Persia, so Marshall persuaded the government to limit the advance to the Tigris Front only.

An Anglo-Indian force comprising of the 17th Indian Division and 18th Indian Division and the 7th and 11th Cavalry Brigades led by Sir Alexander Cobbe, left Baghdad on October 23 1918. In just 39 hours they covered 120 kilometers (77 miles) to the Little Zab River, where the Ottoman 6^th Army, led by Ismail Hakki Bey was awaiting them.

But, seeing his army's rear threatened, Hakki Bey withdrew another 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the north to Sharqat, where Cobbe attacked him on October 29, sending the 11th Cavalry Bde to pin the Turkish front while the 17th Infantry Div came up to support them. The 17th were delayed in arriving, and the cavalry were shelled by Turkish guns overnight. In the morning the 13th Hussars charged the hill where the guns were, and made a dismounted charge up it with fixed bayonets. They took the guns, and when the 17th Div arrived and advanced on the Turkish positions, the Turks surrendered all along the line. The Turkish commander on the Tigris Front, Ismail Hakki Bey, was captured. The 18th Div advanced on Mosul, 50 miles further north, and were 12 miles short of the town when the armistice was declared.

On November 14, 1918, Mosul was peacefully occupied by the 7th and 11th Indian cavalry brigades, after the British forces ignored the request of the Turkish Commander-in-chief, Ali Ishan, to withdraw to the positions they had held at the armistice.

Notes and references

Moberly, F.J. (1923). "Official History of the War: Mesopotamia Campaign", Imperial War Museum. ISBN 1870423305

External references

* [http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/sharqat.htm Battle of Sharqat, 1918] , at FirstWorldWar.com
* [http://www.westernfront.co.uk/thegreatwar/articles/timeline/sharqat.htm Battle of Sharqat] , at The Western Front Association