1918 battle fought between 19 and 25 September in the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War.
The Battle of Tulkarm broke the Ottoman Eighth Army's front line, enabling British cavalry to encircle two Ottoman armies and begin the decisive Final Offensive in Palestine.
Key Facts
- Battle dates
- 19–25 September 1918
- Attacking formation
- British Empire 60th Division, XXI Corps
- Defending force
- Ottoman Eighth Army (German and Ottoman troops)
- Objective captured
- Tulkarm and Ottoman Eighth Army headquarters
- Follow-on reach
- Desert Mounted Corps reached Damascus six days after Megiddo
- Campaign end
- Armistice of Mudros signed five weeks after Megiddo
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
By September 1918, the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force sought to break the entrenched Ottoman front line in Palestine. The Ottoman Eighth Army held defensive positions near the Mediterranean coast, and British planners designed a combined infantry and artillery assault supported by naval gunfire to rupture that line and open a corridor for cavalry exploitation.
On 19 September 1918, the 60th Division attacked Ottoman trenches under an intense creeping artillery barrage. The infantry advanced and captured Nahr el Faliq, forcing the Eighth Army to withdraw. Tulkarm and the Eighth Army headquarters fell, cutting the front line and allowing Desert Mounted Corps cavalry to drive northward up the Plain of Sharon into the Ottoman rear.
The cavalry outflanked and nearly encircled the Ottoman Seventh and Eighth Armies, destroying the equivalent of one Ottoman army and forcing the retreat of two others. Thousands of prisoners and vast stretches of territory were captured. The pursuit reached Damascus within days, and Aleppo fell before the Armistice of Mudros ended hostilities with the Ottoman Empire on 30 October 1918.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Side B
1 belligerent