Palestine: The Ottoman Campaigns of, 1914–1918

Edward J. Erickson

Oct 2016 · Pen and Sword

About this ebook

The campaigns fought by the Ottomans against the British in Palestine are often neglected in accounts of the Great War, yet they are fascinating from the point of view of military history and critically important because of their impact upon the modern Middle East. Edward Erickson's authoritative and absorbing account of the four-year struggle for control of Palestine between 1914 and 1918 of the battles fought for Suez, Sinai, Gaza, Jordan and Syria opens up this little-understood aspect of the global conflict and it does so in a strikingly original way, by covering the fighting from the Ottoman perspective. Using Turkish official histories and military archives, he recounts the entire course of the campaigns, from the initial attack by German-led Ottoman forces on Sinai and the Suez Canal, the struggle for Gaza and the outbreak of the Arab Revolt to the British offensives, the battle for Jerusalem, the Ottoman defeat at Megiddo and the rapid British advance which led to the capture of Damascus and Aleppo in 1918.

About the author

Dr. Ed Erickson is a retired regular US Army lieutenant colonel, who served with the 3rd Armored Division in Operation Desert Storm (1991), headquarters IFOR in Operation Joint Endeavor (1995) and the 4th Infantry Division in Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003). He has a PhD in history from the University of Leeds in the UK and he specializes in the the Ottoman Army from 1877-1923. Dr. Erickson is a professor of military history at the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia and can be reached at [e-mail].

Edward J. Erickson was born in Norwich, New York, USA. He recently retired from a long distinguished US Army career which included service in senior positions in Europe and the Middle East, in particular in Turkey and Iraq. He is one of the foremost authorities on the Ottoman Army during the Great War.