Abu Hamed (7 August 1897)
The Dervishes had fortified the town of Abu Hamed and had to be dislodged before the railway line could be completed. The Sirdar gave the task to Major-General Archibald Hunter, an experienced Sudan frontier veteran. With a mainly Egyptian force Hunter set out from Kassingar, near Merowe, on the 4th cataract, on 29 July. The Dervishes were pretty well taken by surprise, and Abu Hamed was attacked and, after a very spirited resistance, captured at dawn on the 7 August. In all 5 officers and 82 men were killed or wounded.
In the meantime, Girouard’s railway was being driven relentlessly across the desert. At some points nearly 2000 yards of track were being laid every four hours. So harsh were the conditions, that the medal clasp ‘Sudan 1897’ was granted to all troops already in possession of the Khedive's Medal, and those who served at, and south of Kerma between 15 July and 6 November 1897.
The Atbara (8 April 1898)
In early 1898, the Emir Mahmoud fortified a large entrenched zeriba at Nakheila, on the seasonally dry Atbara river. This was directly in Kitchener’s line of march. The frontal assault by the 13,500 men of the Anglo-Egyptian Army took place on Good Friday, 8 April 1898, after an artillery barrage, and rocket fire from the Royal Marine Artillery. The Dervish defence force of about 15,000 men was broken only after very intense fighting, the Egyptian Army acquitting itself most honourably. Casualties were heavy on both sides, the British Brigade having 17 killed and 100 wounded, while the Egyptian Brigade had 57 killed with 368 wounded. Emir Mahmoud, who was captured after the battle and later exiled, lost over 2000, with more being taken prisoner. Many Egyptians, who had been captured by the Dervishes over the years, were found dead in the trenches having been chained together to ensure that they would fight and not run away as many of their masters did when the zeriba was broken. Girouard’s desert railway soon arrived at the Atbara, now over 380 miles from Wadi Halfa, a prodigious feat of engineering in a mere 18 months or so.
The way was now clear for the advance to Khartoum. Khartoum (2 September 1898) Known as the Battle of Omdurman by Europeans and as Karreri by the Sudanese
At 4 a.m. on the morning of 2 September, all 14,000 troops in the Sirdar's zeriba, a semi-circular fortified position backed by the Nile, and centred on the village of Egeiga on the Karreri plain, a few miles from Omdurman, were stood to arms to await the Dervish Army. From left to right were the British Brigades of Lyttelton and Wauchope, then the Egyptian Brigades of Maxwell, MacDonald and Lewis. At about 6 a.m. half the Ansar of the Green Standard under the Emir Osman Azrack, numbering about 12,000, emerged from behind the Jebel Surgham, on the left of the zeriba, supported by 4,000 more under Ibrahim el Khalil, to make a frontal attack on the left side (Lyttelton) and centre (Wauchope and Maxwell) of the Anglo- Egyptian position.
While this assault was progressing, the other 16,000 Ansar of the Green Standard, under Emirs Ali Wad Helu and Osman Sheiku el Din, were moving against the Camel Corps and Cavalry holding the Karreri Hills in support of the right flank of the zeriba. The Dervishes swarmed up the hillsides giving the mounted force a tough time of it until they were slowed down by the artillery and Maxim fire from the gunboats patrolling the Nile, giving the mounted troops sufficient time to escape to the zeriba.
By the time these mounted troops had returned, the frontal assault was over. The attacking Dervishes had run into a hail of Maxim, rifle, and artillery fire, and although showing fanatical bravery and a total disregard for death, none reached the zeriba - the standard bearers being amongst the last to fall, only some 50 yards away. The shattered remnants of Azrack and Khalil’s forces now began streaming back towards the Jebel Surgham hills on the left of the zeriba. At about 8 a.m., the 21st Lancers were despatched by Kitchener to ‘annoy them on their flank and prevent them from reaching Omdurman’, as he still expected Omdurman to be fanatically defended. Unbeknown to the Sirdar the elite 12,000 men of the Khalifa’s personal Black Standard were stationed behind these hills awaiting orders. Unseen by the Lancers the wily old Emir Osman Digna, who had joined the Khalifa from the Suakin region, had hidden some 700 of his Hadendowa (the “fuzzy-wuzzies” who broke the square at Tamaii) reinforced by 2000 men of the Black Standard, in a dried up water-course known as the Khor Abu Sunt, which lay directly across the path chosen by the Lancers. The thin line of men on the lip of the Khor were the bait, and Colonel Martin fell for it, ordering his regiment to charge. It was only when their headlong charge led them straight into the trap did they realise what they had done. After a brief but ferocious hand to hand fight, with great bravery shown on both sides, the Lancers managed to break free and return to the zeriba. Martin had lost 70 men killed and wounded, and 120 of his horses. A large part of his regiment was gone for nothing, as he had not carried out his orders, or detected the Black Standard behind the hills - a failure with potentially devastating consequences. The press fired up the public imagination with the story of the spectacular, magnificent, charge (Winston Churchill rode with the Lancers as a war correspondent) so Kitchener ended up biting his tongue, at least in public, and Martin got a C.B. Three members of the regiment were awarded the Victoria Cross for their gallantry.
At 9 a.m. the Sirdar ordered the force to advance on Omdurman, some seven miles away. Due to his own, and his other officers’ inexperience in moving a force this large on a battlefield, the advance was somewhat chaotic and very nearly lost him a brigade. Each brigade was supposed to move forward out of the zeriba, then bear left to march in line for Omdurman, but the two British Brigades who were first in the line began racing for the city and the Egyptian Brigades, having further to move, could not keep pace with them, and soon substantial gaps began to appear in the line. By 10 a.m. there was a mile gap between the two right hand Egyptian Brigades of MacDonald and Lewis. Now the Khalifa ordered the re-enforced and still unseen 16,000 Ansar of his Black Standard, led by his brother, Yakub, to attack. Hector MacDonald’s isolated Egyptian Brigade on the right was the target. Fortunately for the Sirdar, the attack, by coming from the left crossed the face and concentrated fire of the other brigades, which caused substantial casualties. However, the isolated MacDonald now had another problem, as not only having to contend with the assault of the Black Standard, the 16,000 or so men of the Green Standard that had given the Camel Corps and cavalry a rude awakening in the Karreri Hills were seen approaching from his right. Kitchener ordered his other brigades to bear right and attack Yakub in support of MacDonald, while MacDonald
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