Battle of Atbara

Battle of Atbara Part of the Mahdist War The Battle of Atbara, by Richard Caton Woodville, Jr. Date 8 April 1898 Location Confluence of the Nile and Atbara rivers, Sudan Result British and Egyptian victory Belligerents United Kingdom Egypt Sudan Commanders and leaders Horatio Herbert Kitchener Mahmud Ahmed (POW) Osman Digna Strength 14,000 troops 12,000 infantry 3,000 cavalry Casualties and losses : 26 killed, 99 wounded : 57 killed, 386 wounded 3,000 killed and wounded 2,000 captured

Battles of the Mahdist War Aba El Obeid El Teb Tofrek Tamai Khartoum Abu Klea Kirbekan Emin Pasha Expedition Ginnis Suakin Guté Dili Dufile Gallabat Toski 1st Agordat Serobeti 2nd Agordat Kassala Ferkeh Redjaf Atbara Omdurman Umm Diwaykarat

The Battle of Atbara took place during the Second Sudan War. Anglo-Egyptian forces defeated 15,000 Sudanese rebels, called Mahdists or Dervishes. The battle proved to be the turning point in the conquest of Sudan by a British and Egyptian coalition.

The defeated Emir Mahmud with the British Director of Military Intelligence Francis Wingate after the battle.

By 1898, the combined British and Egyptian army was advancing down the Nile river into Sudan. The Sudanese Mahdist leader, the Khalifa Abdallahi ibn Muhammad ordered the Emir Mahmud Ahmad and his 10,000 strong army of western Sudan northward towards the junction of the Nile and Atbara rivers to engage the British and Egyptian army led by Herbert Kitchener. Encamping on the banks of the Atbara river by March 20, Mahmud, with Osman Digna's group of Dervish warriors were within 20 miles (32 km) of the British camp outpost at Fort Atbara at the confluence of the Atbara with the Nile. On April 4, after seeing that the Mahdists were unwilling to attack, Kitchener quietly advanced with the British and Egyptian army towards the Mahdist fortified camp just outside the town of Nakheila.

The British attack began at 06:20 on April 8, 1898; two brigades, the British Brigade led by William Gatacre, and the Egyptian Brigade led by Archibald Hunter, led the attack. After a brief artillery bombardment of the Mahdist camp, the combined British and Egyptian brigades attacked. Soon, the British and Egyptian troops were in the Mahdist camp, often fighting hand-to-hand with the Mahdist warriors. After 45 minutes, the battle was over as Osman Digna led a few thousand warriors on a retreat to the south, while most of the remainder were killed or captured, including Mahmud who was captured by loyal Sudanese troops of the Egyptian Brigade.

References

• Raugh, Harold E. (2004-01-01). The Victorians at War, 1815–1914: An Encyclopedia of British Military History. ABC-CLIO. pp. 37–38. ISBN 9781576079256.