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    Battle of Abu Klea

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    Saurav Rathod
    This article summarizes the Battle of Abu Klea, which took place in 1885 in Sudan between British and Mahdist forces. The British Desert Column of around 1,400 soldiers was marching across the Bayuda Desert to relieve General Gordon in Khartoum when they were ambushed by an estimated 12,000 Mahdist fighters. During a 15-minute battle, the Mahdists launched a heavy attack that caused a gap in the British square formation. While the British were ultimately victorious, they suffered heavy casualties including 76 killed and the renowned Colonel Burnaby. The Mahdists lost around 1,100 fighters but were able to delay the British relief effort.

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    Battle of Abu Klea

    Uploaded by

    Saurav Rathod
    40 views3 pages
    This article summarizes the Battle of Abu Klea, which took place in 1885 in Sudan between British and Mahdist forces. The British Desert Column of around 1,400 soldiers was marching across the Bayuda Desert to relieve General Gordon in Khartoum when they were ambushed by an estimated 12,000 Mahdist fighters. During a 15-minute battle, the Mahdists launched a heavy attack that caused a gap in the British square formation. While the British were ultimately victorious, they suffered heavy casualties including 76 killed and the renowned Colonel Burnaby. The Mahdists lost around 1,100 fighters but were able to delay the British relief effort.

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    This article summarizes the Battle of Abu Klea, which took place in 1885 in Sudan between British and Mahdist forces. The British Desert Column of around 1,400 soldiers was marching across the Bayuda Desert to relieve General Gordon in Khartoum when they were ambushed by an estimated 12,000 Mahdist fighters. During a 15-minute battle, the Mahdists launched a heavy attack that caused a gap in the British square formation. While the British were ultimately victorious, they suffered heavy casualties including 76 killed and the renowned Colonel Burnaby. The Mahdists lost around 1,100 fighters but were able to delay the British relief effort.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as txt, pdf, or txt
    40 views3 pages

    Battle of Abu Klea

    Uploaded by

    Saurav Rathod
    This article summarizes the Battle of Abu Klea, which took place in 1885 in Sudan between British and Mahdist forces. The British Desert Column of around 1,400 soldiers was marching across the Bayuda Desert to relieve General Gordon in Khartoum when they were ambushed by an estimated 12,000 Mahdist fighters. During a 15-minute battle, the Mahdists launched a heavy attack that caused a gap in the British square formation. While the British were ultimately victorious, they suffered heavy casualties including 76 killed and the renowned Colonel Burnaby. The Mahdists lost around 1,100 fighters but were able to delay the British relief effort.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient

    corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing


    more precise citations. (January 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template
    message)
    Battle of Abu Klea
    Part of Mahdist War
    Battle of Abu Klea, William Barnes Wollen.jpg
    The Battle of Abu Klea by William Barnes Wollen
    Date 17 January 1885
    Location
    Khartoum
    16.9833333°N 33.3°E
    Result British victory

    Belligerents
    United Kingdom Sudan
    Commanders and leaders
    United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Herbert Stewart Muhammad Ahmad
    Strength
    ~1,400 ~13,000 (~5,000 engaged in the battle)
    Casualties and losses
    76 killed
    82 wounded 1,100 killed, unknown wounded
    vte
    Mahdist War
    AbaShaykanEl TebTamaiKhartoumAbu KleaAbu KruKirbekanTofrekGinnisEmin Pasha
    ExpeditionSuakinGuté DiliDufileGallabatToski1st AgordatSerobeti2nd
    AgordatKassalaFerkehRejafAbu HamedAtbaraOmdurmanUmm Diwaykarat
    The Battle of Abu Klea, or the Battle of Abu Tulayh took place between the dates of
    16 and 18 January 1885, at Abu Klea, Sudan, between the British Desert Column and
    Mahdist forces encamped near Abu Klea. The Desert Column, a force of approximately
    1,400 soldiers, started from Korti, Sudan on 30 December 1884; the Desert Column's
    mission, in a joint effort titled "The Gordon Relief Expedition", was to march
    across the Bayuda Desert to the aid of General Charles George Gordon at Khartoum,
    Sudan, who was besieged there by Mahdist forces.

    The place is generally known in British military records as Abu Klea, which arose
    as a contemporary British spelling of its Arabic name, 'Abu Tͅuleiħ (‫)َأبُو ُطل َيْح‬.

    Contents
    1 Background
    2 Battle
    3 Aftermath
    4 See also
    5 References
    6 External links
    Background
    The British forces consisted of 1,100 British of the Desert Column under Sir
    Herbert Stewart, against a Sudanese force of approximately 12,000 fighters. While
    the main British force (the River Column), led by General Sir Garnet Wolseley
    travelled by river from Korti to Khartoum, Stewart's column was to cut across
    country by column directly for Khartoum, since time was running short according to
    what little information was available from the garrison. The force was composed of
    four regiments of camel-mounted troops (Guards, Heavy, Light and Mounted Infantry),
    detachments of the various infantry regiments in Egypt and of the River Column, and
    a detachment of the 19th Hussars, mounted on horses. Four light field pieces and a
    small Naval Brigade manning a Gardner machine gun completed the force.[1]

    Units involved included:[2]

    19th Hussars
    Heavy Camel Detachment
    Guards Camel Detachment
    Mounted Infantry Detachment
    Light Camel Detachment
    1st Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
    Royal Marines Light Infantry
    Royal Navy Brigade
    Battle

    Photograph of two Sikh soldiers of the Camel Corps, by Felice Beato, ca. 1884/85
    The Desert Column arrived on the salient overlooking the wadi of Abu Klea not long
    before sunset, and Stewart decided not to attack that night. The British built a
    defensive position (or zariba), but were sniped at from the high ground around them
    by Mahdist rifle-units - mainly soldiers from southern Sudan - all night. They took
    several casualties. At first light Stewart ordered them to form a square, which
    they achieved with perfect discipline, though still under fire from enemy snipers.
    The square moved slowly towards the wells along the side of the wadi, over very
    difficult, undulating, rocky ground. Suddenly the square was ambushed by a huge
    Mahdist force that had been concealing itself in the wadi. The British guns were on
    the leading face of the square, and the Naval Brigade, with their Gardner machine
    gun, at the rear left hand corner, nearest the wadi. Several officers and men of
    HMS Alexandra were killed at the battle. As the British halted to repel the Mahdist
    force, a gap opened up towards the rear left corner of the square. This was caused
    when Captain Lord Charles Beresford RN, commanding the Naval Brigade, ordered the
    Gardner gun to be run out on the left flank of the infantry square to provide
    covering fire. Colonel Frederick Gustavus Burnaby then gave an impromptu order for
    the Heavy Camel Regiment to wheel out of the square in support of the Gardner gun.
    The gun had been tested and found very reliable in Britain, but had not been tested
    in a desert with loose sand getting into its mechanism. It fired seventy rounds and
    then jammed, and as the crew tried to clear it they were cut down in a rush by the
    Dervishes. Out of the forty men in the Naval contingent, Lieutenants Alfred Piggott
    and Rudolph de Lisle were killed along with Chief Boatswain's Mate Bill (Billy)
    Rhodes and five other seamen and seven more were wounded. Beresford was 'scratched'
    on the left hand by a spear as he managed to duck under the gun. The weight of the
    rush pushed the sailors back into the face of the square. Several Dervishes got
    inside the square, but found the interior full of camels and could not proceed. The
    troops in the rear ranks faced about and opened fire into the press of men and
    camels behind them, and were able to drive the Dervishes out of the square and
    compel them to retreat from the field.

    Map of the Battle Field of Abu-Klea


    The battle was short, lasting barely fifteen minutes from start to finish.
    Casualties for the British were nine officers and 65 other ranks killed and over a
    hundred wounded. The Mahdists lost 1,100 dead during the fifteen minutes of
    fighting, made all the worse by only 5,000 of the Dervish force being engaged.[3]
    Among the Dervish dead was Musa wad Helu, one of the Mahdist chiefs. British
    national hero Colonel F. G. Burnaby of the Royal Horse Guards was killed by a spear
    to the throat. Frank Rhodes (brother of Cecil) distinguished himself when several
    horses were shot under him during the engagement, earning him a Distinguished
    Service Order. Gunner Alfred Smith fought bravely to save his officer, Lieutenant
    Guthrie, and was awarded a VC. Another action happened two days later at Abu Kru
    (the Battle of El Gubat) and the advance rescue force leader Major General Sir
    Herbert Stewart was mortally wounded by Remington rifle fire by the Mahdists that
    night. He knew it was a mortal wound, and he transferred command to a inexperienced
    leader, Brigadier General Sir Charles Wilson (the column's intelligence officer).
    Wilson was slow to organize his forces, and in tarrying another day, it was he who
    was the cause of that advance detachment's delay.

    A report in The Times newspaper says that Burnaby "fell while reforming a broken
    British square" (this being one of only two recorded cases of a British square
    breaking in the 19th century).[4]

    Aftermath

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