Anglo-Egyptian War: Difference between revisions

The '''British conquest of Egypt (1882)''', also known as the '''Anglo-Egyptian War''' ({{Lang-ar|الاحتلال البريطاني لمصر|translit=al-iḥtilāl al-Brīṭānī li-Miṣr|lit=British occupation of Egypt}}), occurred in 1882 between [[Khedivate of Egypt|Egyptian]] and [[Turco-Egyptian Sudan|Sudanese]] forces under [[Ahmed ‘Urabi]] and the [[United Kingdom]]. It ended a [[‘Urabi Revolt|nationalist uprising]] against the [[Khedive]] [[Tewfik Pasha]]. It established firm British influence over Egypt at the expense of the Egyptians, the [[French colonial empire|French]], and the [[Ottoman Empire]], whose already weak authority became [[Nominalism|nominal]].

On 13 September, ‘Urabi redeployed to defend [[Cairo]] against Wolseley. His main force dug in at Tell El Kebir, north of the railway and the [[Ismaïlia Canal|Sweet Water Canal]], both of which linked Cairo to Ismailia on the canal. The defences were hastily prepared as there was little time to arrange them. ‘Urabi's forces possessed 60 pieces of artillery and breech loading rifles. Wolseley made several personal reconnaissances, and determined that the Egyptians did not man outposts in front of their main defences at night, which made it possible for an attacking force to approach the defences under cover of darkness. Wolseley sent his force to approach the position by night and attacked frontally at dawn.

OfficiallyThe losingBritish Army onlylost 57900 troops while killing approximately two thousand Egyptians,. theSome British armytroops hadcaptured moreby casualtiesEgyptians duewere tobrutally heatstroketortured thanto enemy actiondeath. <ref name="Kochanski"/>{{rp|130}} The ‘Urabi forces were routed, and British cavalry pursued them and captured Cairo, which was undefended.

During the buildup to the [[Battle of Tell El Kebir|battle at Tell El Kebir]] the specially raised 8th Railway Company RE operated trains carrying stores and troops, as well as repairing track. On the day of the battle (13 September) they ran a train into [[Tell El Kebir]] station between 8 and 9&nbsp;am and "found it completely blocked with trains, full of the enemy's ammunition: the line strewn with dead and wounded, and our own soldiers swarming over the place almost mad for want of water" (extract from Captain [[Sidney Smith (Royal Navy officer)|Sidney Smith]]'s diary). Once the station was cleared they began to ferry the wounded, prisoners and troops with stores to other destinations.<ref name=porter>{{cite book|last=Porter|first=Whitworth|author-link=Whitworth Porter|title=History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Vol. II|year=1889|publisher=[[Longmans, Green and Co.]]|location=London|url=https://archive.org/details/historycorpsroy00watsgoog}}</ref>

[[Category:'Urabi revolt]]