The Battle of Hareira and Sheria was fought on 6–7 November 1917 when the Egyptian Expeditionary Force attacked and captured the Yildirim Army Group's defensive systems protecting Hareira and Sheria in the centre of the Gaza to Beersheba line, during the Southern Palestine Offensive of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in World War I.
These defensive systems, which had successfully repelled frontal attacks during the Second Battle of Gaza, became vulnerable, after a six months' stalemate, to a flanking manoeuvre by the XX Corps on 6 November. This was made possible by the capture of Beersheba on 31 October after which Ottoman defenders had been pushed back north from the town into the Judean Hills, during the Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe. The 74th (Yeomanry) Division attacked the eastern end of the defences from the eastern flank, while the 60th (2/2nd London) Division attacked the Kauwukah and Rushdi defensive systems from the south-eastern flank.
The eastern end of the Ottoman defences was captured in a preliminary attack by the Yeomanry, which was followed by the main attack by the Londoners, supported by the 10th (Irish) Division on the left. The right flank of this attacking force was covered by the Yeomanry Mounted Division, while their left flank was covered by the Australian Mounted Division. The attacks by the three infantry divisions, supported by effective artillery barrages, resulted in the capture of the Kauwukah and Rushdi defences, after fierce fighting. Towards dusk the Londoners reformed in preparation for an attack on Sheria Station, and across the Wadi esh Sheria to the fortifications on Tel esh Sheria. The attack was progressing after sundown, when the Ottoman garrison destroyed a large ammunition dump near the station, lighting up the night sky. The Londoners attack across the wadi, having lost the benefit of darkness, was halted for the night. Although the Londoners captured a wadi and Tel esh Sheria, fierce fighting during a series of Ottoman counter-attacks on 7 November prevented the Londoners advancing.
The Australian Mounted Division was ordered to clear the way for the infantry, when the 4th Light Horse Brigade moved through the Londoners to charge the strongest Ottoman position. Although the light horsemen were ordered to dismount in the face of fierce fire, one troop which succeeded in gaining the redoubt were decimated in the process of dismounting to get their rifles off their backs. After being held through the day, late in the afternoon another attack by the 60th (London) and the Australian Mounted Divisions captured the Ottoman rearguard. This attack, along with the occupation of Gaza during the morning, broke the Ottoman line. Seven days later, as a consequence of the EEF victory at the Battle of Mughar Ridge, Jaffa was occupied and on 9 December 1917 after the Battle of Jerusalem, that city was occupied and a new EEF line established from Jaffa to Jerusalem.
Background
The Ottoman Army's main Desert Base at Hafir el Aujah was being reduced as a result of the victory at the Battle of Rafa in January 1917 which ended the Sinai campaign. By February Sheria, midway between Gaza and Beersheba on the railway line from Beersheba to Jerusalem and Jaffa, had become the main Ottoman base, and a major administrative and logistics centre. Here, a large proportion of the Ottoman defenders, were held in reserve. "Sheria was till June headquarters of the enemy force in the Gaza–Beersheba line. In consequence of the British air bombing it was moved in July to Huj." After the formation of the Seventh Army and Eighth Army headquarters, located at Huj and Hebron respectively, Sheria was not so strongly manned and relied on the Khawukah fortified defences to defend the place.
Here the Fourth Army established a central training facility staffed with German and Austrian instructors as well as experienced Ottoman officers from the European fronts of Galicia, Romania, and Macedonia. They routinely conducted courses on a regular basis in current tactics and weapons in use on the western front. In addition commanders received a 15-day course and divisional officers a six-week course focused on the use of machine guns, "which was vital to the newly reorganised Ottoman infantry battalions." Artillery training also included up to date methods and tactics.
Early in November, the commander of the Yildirim Army Group Erich von Falkenhayn was at Aleppo, but in "good telegraphic communications" with his Seventh and Eighth Armies in Palestine, his Sixth Army in Mesopotamia and with the Ottoman General Staff in Constantinople, on his way to Jerusalem at the beginning of his appointment. From Aleppo, von Falkenhayn ordered Fevzi's Seventh Army to "reassumed control of his original operational area, including all combat units, support units and line of communications troops north of Beersheba", and early on 1 November Fevzi ordered his army to establish a defensive line, while he also moved his headquarters to Hebron also known as al-Ḫalīl. He passed through Damascus on 4 November, to arrive at Jerusalem to begin establishing his headquarters in the German Hospice on the Mount of Olives, during the evening of 5 November.
Meanwhile, the main attack on Hareira and Sheria by the EEF was delayed for two days, by water and transport difficulties.
Prelude
The capture of the Ottoman defensive line, which had been held and strengthened since before the Second Battle of Gaza, required multiple attacks, after the Battle of Beersheba on 31 October. Gaza on the coast remained in Ottoman hands, along with the Ottoman front line stretching from there to Hareira and Sheria in the centre. The line continued to the road to Hebron and Jerusalem, manned by the Ottoman Beersheba garrison which had withdrawn north into the Judean Hills, to defend Tel el Khuweilfe and the road to Jerusalem. The defensive line had been bent back not broken.
Limited attacks were made on the strong Gaza defences by the XXI Corps on 1 November during the inconclusive Third Battle of Gaza, and towards the 2,500-foot-high (760 m) Tel el Khuweilfe and the road to Jerusalem, by the Desert Mounted Corps. These attacks at both ends of the Ottoman line were designed to keep the defenders from moving reinforcements to the centre. The 53rd (Welsh) Division (XX Corps) marched through Beersheba at 06:30 on 1 November, to occupy a line 3 miles (4.8 km) to the west of the town unopposed, placing them in a position to cover the right flank, of the proposed attacks by XX Corps on Hareria and Sheria. The Anzac Mounted Division on the right, extended the line eastwards to the Jerusalem road, where they met stiff opposition.
By the afternoon of 2 November 60th (London) Division headquarters and the 180th Brigade group had moved to bivouac about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south-west of Beersheba, with the 179th and the 181st Brigade group following the next day, before the 180th Brigade moved on during 4 November to bivouac south of El Muweileh, while the 181st Brigade relieved the 230th Brigade (74th (Yeomanry) Division). The capture of the Ottoman line after the victory at the Beersheba, required the capture of Hareira and Sheria, to create a gap sufficiently wide for the Desert Mounted Corps to advance north to Nejile and north-east to Huj, into the Ottoman rear to cut the enemy's lines of retreat. From 1 November the attacks by the Anzac Mounted and the 53rd (Welsh) Divisions and the days and nights of fighting, "played a vital part in the success of the subsequent operations, by engaging the enemy's principal reserves and defeating his counterstroke", while the concentration for the main attack on Sheria went ahead without interference. Although this fierce fighting for control of the high country north of Beersheba resulted in a drawn battle, Desert Mounted Corps was able to advance to gain a "position of vantage from which to roll up the enemy's flank."
Defenders
At the end of October, the estimated strength of the Yildirim Army Group holding the Gaza to Sheria line, was 40,000 rifles, which was later revised to 33,000 rifles, 1,400 sabres, and 260 guns. Tel el Sheria was defended by three Ottoman divisions of about 10,000 infantry in the Ottoman XX Corps. Part of the 26th Division defended the Hareria and Wadi esh Sheria area, while the 16th Division defended Tel el Sheria. The 26th Division linked the 16th Division with the 19th Division and III Corps headquarters at Edh Dhahriye on the road to Jerusalem. Only with one officer and 27 men of the 26th Regiment (27th Division), which had formed part of the Beersheba garrison arrived to defend Tel esh Sheria.
The 8 miles (13 km) of trenches known as the Kauwukah (also known as Qawuqa) and the Rushdi Systems, stretched east from the Wadi esh Sheria at Hareira, on either side of the Beersheba railway and the Wadi esh Sheria 2 miles (3.2 km) to the north. These defensive systems had been dug across an arid, dusty plain, devoid of cover except for the wadis, to the foot of the Judean Hills. They were defended by the 16th Division which deployed two regiments in the firing line. On the western side of the railway there was a continuous trench strengthened by an almost continuous second line of trenches connected to the first by many communication trenches. These fortifications were in the shape of a half moon facing south-east, south and south-west. On the eastern side of the railway the fortifications consisted of a series of strong points some as much as 400 yards (370 m) apart facing south. All the fortifications were well sited and constructed although the wire strengthening the defences west of the railway was not thick or continuous and there was no wire protecting the defences to the east of the railway.
Any EEF infantry or mounted attack on Sheria or attempted breakthrough northwards would be stopped by enfilade fire from a string of mutually supporting smaller works east of the railway line from Beersheba, 5–6 miles (8–9.7 km) south-east of Hareira. The western side of the railway line was defended by the Kauwukah system, which was in turn linked by a strong line of trenches with the Rushdi system covering Hareira, straddling the Gaza to Beersheba road, and extended towards Hareira and the Wadi esh Sheria. Here the strong Hareira redoubt extended the line from the other side of the Wadi, to the Mustapha trenches which re-crossed the Gaza to Beersheba road. A light railway ran back to ammunition dumps south of Sheria from the Rushdi system. This strong Ottoman front line stretched across ideal country for defence. The trenches were deep and well concealed, providing excellent cover, and dominating the gently undulating, very open and bare landscape to the south. Between each successive trench line, there was absolutely no cover for attacking infantry, forced to advance over the stony ground.
Aeroplane photos showed that the Rushdi and Kauwukah trenches were deep, well sited, and even more elaborate than was the case at Beersheba. They consisted of a fire trench, a control trench roughly parallel to it, and numerous communication trenches. Machine-gun positions seemed to be everywhere, and the flank was covered by series of detached positions on the hilltops to the east, finishing away in the very difficult terrain in the neighbourhood of the Beersheba–Hebron road.
— London Scottish Regimental Gazette July 1918
However, when he arrived at Jerusalem during the evening of 5 November von Falkenhayn ordered Kress von Kressenstein, to withdraw the Eighth Army's heavy guns at Gaza and east of the town, back to the north of the Wadi Hesi some being transported on the railway.
Zuheilika Group
The Seventh and Eighth Armies' reserve force known as the Zuheilika Group, commanded by Colonel Ali Fuad, was formed by withdrawing part of the Ottoman 26th Division at Khirbet Sihan and at the Hareria defences, during the night of 4/5 November. About 1,000 soldiers moved back from between Kh. Sihan and Hareira to Khirbet Zuheilika 5 miles (8 km) north-north-east of Hareira. They concentrated in a central position at Khirbet Zuheilika, so as to be able to reinforce seriously threatened parts of the Ottoman defences. By the evening of 6 November they were defending the Wadi esh Sheria during the 60th (London) Division's attack.
Attackers
The EEF's XX Corps (less the 53rd (Welsh) Division and the Imperial Camel Corps Brigade temporarily attached to Desert Mounted Corps) was to attack the Kauwukah system of trenches in the centre of the Gaza to Beersheba line. Allenby concentrated four divisions of 40,000 infantry for the main flank attack, south of Tel esh Sheria.
At dawn on 6 November the 74th (Yeomanry) Division was deployed close up to the defences east of the railway on the right, the 60th (London) Division in the centre north of Bir Abu Irqaiyiq, and the 10th (Irish) Division on the left. These three infantry divisions were supported by the XX Corps heavy artillery, the 15th and the 181st Heavy Batteries, as well as the 378th, the 383rd and the 440th Siege Batteries with the Australian Mounted Division on their left and the Yeomanry Mounted Division on their right connecting with the 53rd (Welsh) Division.
The XX Corps was concentrated to the east and the south-east of the Hareira defences, ready to attack in a north-westerly direction. Once the 74th (Yeomanry) Division had captured the defences east of the railway and the railway, the 60th (London) Division was to attack and capture the Kauwukah trenches, before moving on to capture Sheria. In preparation for these attacks on 6 November, careful reconnaissance was made of the Kauwukah system, including all possible lines of deployment, routes and gun positions. During the night of 5/6 November the divisions concentrated for the attack.