90th Anniversary of Battle of Rafa

[TerryK]

On 27 December 1916, an enemy defensive position was detected on a low knoll called Magruntein, near the police and customs post at Rafah. At least two battalions and four mountain guns were seen on the position, but no other enemy forces were nearby. It seemed too good to be true – another small Turkish garrison was sitting on its own, seemingly far from any support, but within reach of the EEF's mounted troops. General Chetwode decided to launch a surprise ‘cutting out raid’ with his mounted troops - the Anzac Mounted Division (less the 2nd LH Brigade), three battalions of the ICC Brigade, the 5th Mounted Brigade, and four light cars armed with machine guns.

The enemy position at Magruntein was skilfully-sited and well-constructed. The key to the position was a redoubt (The Reduit) on Point 255, a sixty-metre-high, smooth, grassy knoll. The Reduit was linked by communications trenches to an irregular and nearly-invisible outer ring of trenches arranged in three ‘systems’ - the A, B, and C works. A gently-sloping and grass-covered plain extended for at least 1,000 metres in front of this ring of defences. Overall, it looked to be a formidable proposition.

At 8.30 a.m. on 9 January 1917, Chetwode issued his orders for the attack. The NZMR Brigade was to encircle the position and attack the C4 and C5 trench systems, and the 1st LH Brigade was to assault C1, C2, and C3. Once these outer defences were taken, these two brigades were to go for the Reduit. Meanwhile, the Camel Brigade was to attack the B works from the south. The 3rd LH Brigade was General Chauvel’s reserve, and Chetwode retained the 5th Mounted Brigade as his reserve.

Chetwode decided to ‘soften up’ the defences with an artillery barrage. The bombardment was to begin at 9.30 a.m. and end thirty minutes later. This was to be the signal for the attack to begin. By 9.45 a.m. the New Zealand mounted regiments, with Brigade Headquarters in the lead, had galloped to within two thousand metres of the nearest trenches.

As it seemed possible that the enemy might attempt to escape via the coastal sand dunes, Chaytor was told to block any such move. The CMR captured the customs and police post at Rafah at 10.40 a.m., and cut the telegraph line, isolating the enemy garrison.

When the artillery bombardment ceased, the New Zealanders dismounted and began their attack. The Canterbury and Auckland regiments led the assault, with the Wellingtons in reserve. To their left, the 1st LH Brigade advanced against the enemy trenches at C1, C2, and C3. To the south, the cameliers began their attack on the B system of trenches, while Chetwode ordered his reserve brigade to attack the western-most trenches. As soon as he was assured that all exits were sealed, Chetwode ordered all reserves to be thrown into the battle and for the attacks to be pressed home. The 3rd LH Brigade came into the line between the Camel Brigade and the 1st LH Brigade, and the Wellington regiment joined the fight between the other two New Zealand regiments. By 11 a.m. all of the troops were committed.

By 12.15 p.m. the New Zealanders had closed to within five hundred metres of the enemy trenches, but they could make no further progress. When their machine guns began to run out of ammunition, the quartermaster of the WMR brought up 24,000 rounds of small arms ammunition at the gallop. By early afternoon the CMR, on the New Zealand right flank, had gained touch with the left flank of the 5th Mounted Brigade, completing the encirclement of the enemy. The New Zealanders had made little other progress since noon. The attack everywhere was grinding to a halt. The ground was so open and the enemy positions were so dominating that the attackers were all plainly visible to the Turks – as were the supporting horse artillery batteries and machine guns.

General Chetwode was becoming worried. Prisoners told him that he was facing 2,000 Turks, supported by four mountain guns and by German machine gunners, and that another regiment was on its way to reinforce the garrison. Chetwode called for a last concentrated effort by all assault forces.

This attack gained no ground, and by 4 p.m. the situation was critical. Chetwode decided to break off the attack. Orders for the withdrawal were issued, and some assault units immediately pulled back. However, the withdrawal order had not reached Chaytor when his New Zealanders clinched the victory. At 4 p.m. Chaytor issued orders for a brigade advance. Squadrons of the Wellington and Auckland regiments, supported by the Canterbury regiment, got up and advanced in a series of rushes, with the machine gunners providing close-range covering fire. Chaytor wrote afterwards that ‘the brigade had to advance for over a mile across an open, grassy slope, devoid of any cover. The covering fire from machine guns and rifles was excellent, made the Reduit appear a smoking furnace, and kept the Turks' fire down. The men covered the last 600 to 800 yards in two grand rushes, everyone having made up his mind to get home, and the result was that the position was taken with very little loss to ourselves.’

The Turks facing the NZMR charge surrendered, but German machine gunners on the right flank fired into the New Zealanders, causing several casualties. The mounted riflemen immediately brought up machine guns, and, covered by their fire, climbed out of the captured redoubt and attacked the next one. However, before they reached it, its garrison stood up and surrendered. With the loss of the vital high ground, the lower enemy positions were immediately rendered indefensible, and they quickly collapsed. The Australian light horsemen and cameliers quickly secured the remaining enemy positions. By 5.15 p.m., it was all over.

At 6.30 p.m. the Desert Column withdrew to Sheikh Zowaiid, where it spent the night. The Anzac Mounted Division’s field ambulances remained on the battlefield overnight to collect the last of the wounded, protected by two regiments of light horsemen. A force of enemy cavalry and camel men made a half hearted attack on the rearguard early the next day, but they were easily beaten off.

Two hundred Turks were killed, and 162 wounded and 1,473 unwounded prisoners were captured. Soon afterwards, the Turks withdrew their remaining forces from Sinai. Egypt and the Suez Canal were safe.

The attacking force lost seventy-one men killed and 415 wounded (three times the casualties at Magdhaba). In the Anzac Mounted Division, forty-two men and twenty-three horses were killed, and 242 men were wounded; the NZMR Brigade’s share was seventeen men killed and ninety-three wounded.

The Sinai campaign of 1916 had been won almost entirely by Australian, New Zealand, and British horse and camel-mounted troops. The British infantry divisions were unable to march far enough or fast enough to take part in any of the desert battles. This was about to change. Once the EFF entered southern Palestine (modern Israel) and encountered better marching conditions for its infantry, and stiffer enemy resistance, the Anzac horsemen would gradually become a smaller and smaller part of the strike force