What Happened At The Battle of Omdurman, Sudan 1898?

the battle of omdaman in 1898 in sudan was the high point of queen victoria's british empire and in many ways it sort of provides the final closure to the story of gordon of cartoon in 1885 general charles gordon was killed in the city of khartoum in sudan he'd been defending the city against an islamic insurgency led by muhammad ahmed the self-proclaimed mahdi the british relief column marching up the river nile under general woolsey was too late the british public were filled with anger and indignation that they hadn't been able to save their hero gordon in khartoum and queen victoria herself was shouting for revenge the british government however preferred to withdraw all their forces out of sudan back to egypt where they were in de facto control and the british officer was actually appointed commander-in-chief or sirdar of the egyptian army meanwhile sudan became a fundamentalist islamic state ruled over by the mahdi's successor the khalifa not to not content just to transform sudam he attempted to spread his form of islamic revolution up into egypt itself where the british commander siddhar of the jo of the egyptian army a man called general francis grenfell met them and defeated the sudanese or dervish army at the battle of toski incidentally general grenfell gave his name to a road in kensington west london which in turn gave its name to a tower block grenfell tower the site of a tragic fire in 2017. in 1892 a new cidar was appointed general horatio herbert kitchener a gifted linguist an arab file socially cold but with incredible energy and a methodical planner as you'd probably expect from a royal engineer kitchen had a burning ambition nearly a decade before he'd been part of that relief column that had failed to rescue gordon he was a man bent on revenging his fellow royal engineer and finally in march 1896 kitchener was given the order from the british government he'd been waiting for retake sudan kitchener was about to realize his dream of avenging gordon meanwhile back in london prime minister the british prime minister lord salisbury wasn't too fussed about any symbolic act of revenge he was actually far more interested in real politic which meant keeping the french out of sudan during the final part of the scramble for africa kitchener led a principally egyptian and sudanese exile army into sudan with limited british support it seems the british government liked the idea of controlling the sudan instead of the french but not actually spending any british taxpayers money doing so kitchener had learned valuable lessons from the failed relief expedition nearly a decade beforehand trying to move an army up the river nile had been incredibly time consuming so kitchener the royal engineer came up with an alternative plan he would take a shortcut by building a railway 230 miles across the harsh anubian desert reaching the river nile further up despite skepticism from many military and political and indeed engineering quarters about the feasibility kitchener achieved this ambitious goal his only problem was that the terminus of his proposed railway on the river nile was at a place called abu hamad a town that was held by the dervish army he decided to send a flying column of egyptian and sudanese troops under major general sir archibald hunter up the nile to surprise the dervish army hunter covered 146 miles in seven days through the desert and indeed he did surprise and defeat the dervish army there the way was now open for the railway to be finished and for the advance on khartoum to really begin and now kitchener turned around to the government in london and said actually it would be very helpful if we had some british troops uh to augment his local army and london obliged in january 1898 battalions from the the royal warwickshires the seaforth highlanders the queen zone cameron highlanders and the lincolnshire regiment landed in egypt and started to head south to join kitchener by april 1898 his enlarged army of ten thousand fought a dervish army of fifteen thousand at the battle of atbara uh just off the river nile with a loss of just 80 men dead his army inflicted over 2 000 dead on the dervish he captured the town and indeed they captured the dervish commander emir mahmoud the door was now absolutely open to march on the khalifa's capital at omdahman just across the river nile from khartoum more reinforcements were sent the northumberland fusiliers the lancashire fusiliers the rifle brigade and the grenadier guards all came to join kitchener's army by now kitchener's nile army had grown to about 8 000 british troops and 17 000 egyptian and sudanese as they advanced upstream they were supported by a flotilla of 10 steamships commanded by commodore keppel from the royal navy mounted with 36 guns and 24 machine guns they were a lethal backup for his army the immediacy of a showdown with gordon's murderers and an imperial adventure produced a stampede of young officers seeking secondments to kitchener's army including their grandson or a grandson of the queen queen victoria herself adventure seeking officers were particularly drawn to the 21st lancers a cavalry unit which was on demand in fact the old uh siddhar's nephew lieutenant grenfell joined them as after considerable amount of pestering did another young officer namely winston churchill on the 28th of august 1898 kitchener's anglo-egyptian army made their final advance from their forward base at what what towards the khalifa's capital at omdaman moving inland they skirted they uh the shablooka hill before returning back to follow the course of the river nile uh upstream by the 31st of august they had reached the last physical barrier before their goal the carrera the carrera hills the following day the first of september kitchener sent out mountain mounted reconnaissance parties to see what lay in store ahead would the khalifa fight as kitchener hoped he would or would he simply melt away into the vastness of the the uh the sudanese hinterland and fight a never-ending guerrilla war by 7am on the the 1st of september the 21st lancers had reached the summit of the carrera hills ahead of them across a three-mile sand and scrub plane with the denial to their left lay the black stone outcrop of jebel sugam which blocked their view of ondemand beyond moving wary across the open plain they reached the outcrop and ascended unopposed where was the dervish army now at the top of the rocky outcrop they trained their binoculars south they could see the mud city of andaman with its massive minarets and shimmering in the center an egg-shaped dome of the mahdi's tomb to the left across the river where the two mild niles meet with the remains of khartoum where gordon had died in his within the governor's palace the city had actually been left derelict uh since since that since that defeat by the order of the khalifa panning their binoculars through the haze heat they could see to the right of wonderment about four miles from their position a brown smear of a as of a zeriba which is like an an encampment and then something strange happened the zareba started to move if you're enjoying this story then please click the like button below and also subscribe to hear more stories in the future the men of the 21st lancers suddenly realized they were not looking at a mud wall of an encampment but the front line of the khalifa's massive army this huge army now started to advance towards them moving at a swift walk it covered the that came across the scrub and then just before 2pm as suddenly as the mass had started it came to a stop firing a volley of shots into the air the khalifa's whole army settled down to sleep before the sun became stronger meanwhile the flotilla of steamboats under commodore keppel and a junior officer david beatty had been sailing alongside the lancers and had now moved on closer to wondermen an opened fire on the city breaching the walls in several places and demolishing the entrenched dervish batteries on either side of the nile they then moved to the east bank and met up with arab irregulars who'd been recruited by kitchener who'd been moving up the left bank securing the bank just before tutti island a keppel was now able to offload a company of artillery with howitzers protected by the arab irregulars this battery now proceeded to bombard onderman causing significant damage not least to the mahdi's tomb itself kitchener's main army was now uh in between the the carrera hills and the the jebel suham on that that three-mile plane that the the lancers had observed the day before he moved in position for what was obviously going to be the coming battle with the nile at his back he positioned his army in a a crescent shape bulging out into the plane with the british brigade at the north end closest to the jebel and anondoma and the ejection the egyptian and sudanese brigade at the southern southern the carrera carrera hill end the naval flotilla was moved to provide artillery and machine gun support at the each end of the crescent and then kitchener's army waited all afternoon and then into the night kitchen had prepared his army for the obvious nighttime attack that must be coming but it never came and i wonder what thoughts must have been going through his men's head in that eerie desert darkness as they waited that night you know i wonder how highly strong the nerves were as they listened for any sound of a stealthy advance by the dervish army and whilst there were a lot better armed than the dervishes yet they knew that these fanatical warriors had previously managed to break into british squares back during the gordon campaign you know if they'd done it once they could do it again and when they did suddenly all those superior rifles versus the razor sharp swords and spears well what would happen at 4 30 a.m on the 2nd of september 1898 bugles in the anglo-egyptian camp sounded the revalli kitchener wondered if the dervish army had slipped away during the night before dawn broke kitchener had sent out a unit of egyptian cavalry commanded by another british officer captain bearing westwards across the plain to see if the dervish army were coming towards them and around dawn the 21st lancers were once again sent forward to scout the jebel suram re-chasing their steps from the previous day the lancers ascended the black rocky outcrop half expecting to meet the dervish army coming over the slopes towards them but they didn't and reaching the summit they peered north in the growing light to where the dervish army had last been seen yesterday afternoon had they slipped away under the cover of darkness no they were exactly where they had sat down waiting for the british at 5 50 am the dervish army 50 000 strong let out a huge cheer and started to advance the khalifa's army broke into four roughly equal columns each led by a coloured flag the green flag column came round the western end of the jebel outcrop but instead of swinging right towards kitchener's encampment they continued north across towards the carreray hills in between them and the hills was colonel broadwood with an egyptian cavalry and uh the camel corps the swift moving dervish forces were coming were coming on to really too fast for comfort especially as the camel's soft feet were not coping well with the stony ground the naval flotilla gave them covering fire as they fell back towards the british encampment and meanwhile broadwood and his egyptian cavalry continue to move back towards the carrery hills and the green flags gave chase the khalifa had actually ordered the green flag column to go towards the carrery hills and wait for developments during the battle if kitchener attempted to advance on khartoum the green flag were to attack him from the rear but now as they were faced by this annoying egyptian cavalry snapping at them firing at them they set off in pursuit and broadwood was able to actually draw the egyptian egyptian the green flag three miles away from the main battle meanwhile what was happening elsewhere on the battlefield the khalifa ordered the white flags to advance over the jebel outcrop onto the plane that faced face kitchener's encampment whilst the red flag column under veteran commander osman azrik swept round the western end of the jabal joining with the white flag on that plane facing kitchener and then they advanced that left the khalifa under his black flag in reserve with 15 000 of his best warriors under the command of his most trusted commander jacob as the red column advanced onto the plane and met the white flags the anglo-egyptian army opened fire with their 44 guns and 20 maxim machine guns punching huge holes in the dervish host as it advanced towards them despite their mounting losses the brave dervish army continued to advance all the time shouting passages from the holy quran they now came into range of the infantry to open fire the british brigade were armed with lee metford bolt action magazine rifles capable of firing 20 rounds a minute with an effective range of 800 yards the dervish at the troops attacking this end of kitchener's position did not get within 800 yards of his army and making absolutely no progress in the face of this withering fire they lay down and those with rifles started to fire back meanwhile at the other end of the crescent the egyptian and the northern end the egyptian and sudanese battalions were armed with a slightly more antiquated martini henry rifles which were used by the british in campaigns such as you know the zulu wars 20 years beforehand with a rate of fire of about 12 rounds a minute which is about half the lee metfords and an effective range of about 400 yards again about half the lee metfords this effectively meant that the northern end of the crescent was the most vulnerable to the mass attack of the dervish but even here the well-disciplined egyptian and sudanese put the brakes on the uh on the advance 300 yards from their line one lone flag wake evening dervish warrior managed to charge to within 150 yards whilst the dervish dervish rifleman lying on the stony ground were inflicting casualties on kitchener's troops it was nothing in comparison to the massacre that was taking place to the red and white flag sections of the khalifa's army blind courage and religious faith were basically no match for industrial warfare osman azerek the veteran commander of the red flag continued to charge towards the british lines until he was mowed down making no progress the shocked dervishes started to fall back around the jabel towards omdam kitchener dryly observed that the khalifa's army had received a good dusting and now decided to advance rapidly on ondaman before the dervish could regroup or organize some sort of urban defense and trying to take a town as we all know costs lives costs an attacker a lot of lives and kitchener wanted to avoid that at all costs the decision to give chase almost immediately however was a costly decision which nearly ended in disaster the 21st lancers advanced out of the southern end of the the zariba and once more towards the jeb al-suram outcrop an advanced scout lieutenant grenfell rode back to the commander of the 21st lancers lieutenant colonel martin and he reported there was a force of about 700 to a thousand dervish blocking the route to omdaman on the other side of the outcrop martin decided to clear them from kitchener's path the 21st lancers were the newest cavalry regiment in the british army they'd only been established after the indian mutiny 40 years beforehand they'd never seen proper action and by proper action i mean a cava for a cavalry regiment a proper full-blown cavalry charge in fact other cavalry units in the british army unkindly said that the 21st lance's motto was thou shalt not kill this or lack of action and the ridicule that it attracted uh rankled lieutenant colonel martin and now finally here was a chance to do what they'd been set up to do he ordered all four squadrons of his regiment forward beyond the black rocked jebel towards omdam about 250 yards away was a line of white robed dervish who proceeded to open fire on the lancers martin ordered his cavalry to wheel into an extended line facing the enemy and then they charged and as they galloped towards the dervish lines a terrifying sight met them the white rogue rifleman was standing on the edge of a core which like a dip in the ground and inside that core were two and a half thousand dervish warriors it was too late for the lancers to stop momentum carried them straight into this host for many of the lancers the sheer momentum of their charge carried them all the way through the dervish ranks and up the other side of the coal but for those whose momentum was checked it became a fight for their lives the mardis warriors used their razor sharp swords to cut the hamstrings of the horses bringing them crashing down riders were then pulled from their horses and cut to shred shreds by the enraged dervishes with their swords and spears winston churchill taking part in this famously taking part in this charge used a pistol to fire at attackers up point blank range and was able to actually run right through the this throng three victoria crosses were awarded to the riders who went back to rescue their comrades including a daring rescue of an injured officer a lieutenant molineux who was trapped and surrounded by the dervish but was at rescued by his men regrouping his men 200 yards beyond the core martin decided that one cavalry charge was enough for that day an order is meant to fire with their gut with their guns instead at a safe distance the dervish army melted away and so ended one of the last great cavalry charges of the british army it was a charge that had cost 21 lancers their lives including lieutenant grenfell and a further 50 were injured including lieutenant molyneux who we've just talked about whilst the 21st lancers were finally conducting a cavalry charge kitchener was assembling his army for their march into omdam at 9 15 am just an hour after the dervish army had withdrawn from the plane the army formed into a column to move forward the british brigades who were at the end of the sibera closest andaman were therefore placed in the vanguard moving abreast of each other and three sudanese and one egyptian battalion under lieutenant under colonel maxwell were next in line followed by four egyptian battalions under colonel lewis and finally uh private colonel hector mcdonald would bring up the rear with his sudanese egyptian battalions the vulnerable point in this whole advance was going to be mcdonald's rear guard if the dervish attacked out of the carrera hills they would fall upon his brigade and kitchener was well aware of that vulnerable point in his column and had deliberately chosen mcdonald for this role hector mcdonald is a bit of a bit of a hero actually he was the son of a scottish crofter who had risen through the ranks something incredibly rare in a class-ridden victorian army during the second afghan war he'd served with such gallantry that he was actually offered a choice a victoria cross the highest gallant reward for gallantry in the british army or a commission and he chose the latter he had already drilled his sudanese egyptian brigade into a proven fighting force who had more than held their own against the dervish at the battle of abu hamed and at athbara during the advance up the nile to make way for lewis's brigade to move past him and into line macdonald moved his brigade slightly out to the west of on the plane but you know so far so good we were all moving forward and then kitchener looked to his right and saw the khalifa's black flag and 15 000 warriors coming round the jabal towards him onto the plane his army turned to engage them meanwhile macdonald who was sort of out on a limb at the far end brought three of his battalions the sudanese 9th 10th and 11th at right angles facing facing the black the black flag almost creating a crossfire uh he left one battalion his egyptians are facing the creery hills yeah just in case so he had sort of formed like an inverted l british troops uh in the vanguard stormed the cat to the top odd to the top of the gerbil carrying a maxim machine gun and now jacob's black flag came into a into like a tunnel with facing the whole of kitchener's army with mcdonald's uh firing from the right and the maxim machine gun up on the jabal from the left it was a bloodbath lacking any advantage except blind courage and bravery the dervish army was decimated the remnants of the black flag column streamed past the khalifa towards omdam and now the green flag column suddenly came out of the carrera hills straight towards mcdonald's isolated position on the far exposed at the very back of the column just his egyptian battalion facing them it was now that hector mcdonald came into his own his nearest sudanese battalion i felt confident enough to pivot away from the the black face in the black flag and came alongside their egyptian comrades and macdonald swiftly brought the other two battalions alongside them this is like a parade ground marching maneuver conducted in the midst of a battle and he pulled it off just in time with his whole brigade firing as rapidly as a martini henry rifle would allow them they managed to stop the green flag column just 300 yards from their line if the green flag column had attacked maybe 15 minutes beforehand whilst mcdonald was facing the black flags it could have all been very different at the battle of alderman when the smoke cleared mcdonald's men had fired 60 rounds some only had two rounds left in their pouches this time the battle of onderman was well and truly over the battle of onderman was a completely one-sided victory the anglo-egyptian army had lost under 500 men killed and wounded a fifth of those were from the charge of the 21st lancers the dervish army on the other hand had lost over ten thousand dead and a similar number wounded kitchener advanced into omdam which despite the khalifa's orders had been abandoned without a fight the khalifa himself had fled with what remained of his army to the southern expanses of sudan kitchener ordered the mahdi's tomb to be destroyed and his bones to be scattered it was a vindictive revenge for the death of charles gordon all those years before he then crossed the river to khartoum wherein the grounds of the governor's derelict palace a service of memorial was heard as the final hymn abide with me finished many soldiers noted that kitchener the cold methodical scientific soldier was weeping gordon had finally been avenged kitchener returned to britain as an imperial hero elevated to the peerage as lord kitchener of khartoum he presented queen victoria with the khalif's captured black flag strangely seeing as the raging queen have been one of the most vocal avenge gordon cheerleaders she was rather disturbed that the mahdi's tomb had actually been desecrated by by kitchener and indeed reports of wounded dervish being killed by british soldiers on their commander's orders and rumors that kitchener had actually kept the mahdi skull skull as an inkwell took a bit of a shine off the victory and the empire's latest hero but despite that he was a victor and he was a man who proved that if you wanted to win he was the man you wanted in charge the khalifa remained at large until the following year when an anglo-egyptian force under reginald wingate killed him in a battle and it effectively ended the modest cause for good sudan was to remain under angelo egyptian control really just anglo control until it achieved independence in 1956 and in 2011 the country divided into sudan and the new nation of south sudan many of the officers at onderman went on to feature heavily in britain's last great imperial war the boer war in south africa and the first world war lieutenant colonel smith dorian was to command the retreat at mons in world war one david beatty from the flotilla was to command the british fleet at the battle of jutland and major douglas hague was to go on to command the british army on the western front kitchener himself was to command the second part of the board the british in the second part of the boer war where he overcame a tenacious guerrilla campaign mounted by the boers and at the outset of world war one he oversaw a massive mobilization which saw over 2 million british men volunteer to join the armed forces in the opening 12 months of the war he actually died when a ship he was traveling on to wartime ally russia hit a german mine off the coast of scotland and here's my final anecdote from the battle of wondermen of 1898. do you remember lieutenant molyneux from the charge of the 21st lancers he'd been unseated he had to be rescued he was badly injured he actually needed a skin graft well the man who gave him that skin graft was another onderman veteran who would feature in the war war and world war one and world war ii yeah you've guessed it winston churchill if you enjoyed this video and like what i'm about then become a supporter for less than the cost of a pint a month details are appearing in a link right at the top of the screen right now and they're also in the description below keep safe and i'll see you with some more great stories very soon [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The History Chap

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Keywords: british history, the battle of omdurman 1898, the battle of omdurman, battle of omdurman, battle of omdurman documentary, battle of omdurman casualties, the sudan campaign 1898, the sudan campaign, sudan, 21st lancers, general grenfell, general gordon, british empire, battle of omdurman sudan, battle of omdurman sudan 1898, battle of omdurman cavalry charge, battle of omdurman winston churchill, omdurman battle, omdurman, the battle of omdurman sudan 1898, sir hector macdonald

Id: P8vE-f869WE

Length: 28min 54sec (1734 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2022