The Senussi campaign took place in North Africa from November 1915 to February 1917, during the First World War. The campaign was fought by the Senussi, a religious order of Arabic nomads in Libya and Egypt, against the Kingdom of Italy and the British Empire. The Senussi were courted by the Ottoman Empire and the German Empire. Recognising French and Italian threats, the Ottoman Sultan, Abdul Hamid II, had twice sent his aide-de-camp Azmzade Sadik El Mueyyed to meet Sheikh Muhammed El Mehdi El Senussi to cultivate positive relations and counter the west European scramble for Africa.
In the summer of 1915, the Ottomans persuaded the Grand Senussi, Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi, to declare jihad, attack the Italians in Libya and the British in Egypt and foment insurrection to divert British forces from the Sinai Peninsula in the east. The Senussi crossed the Libyan–Egyptian border in November 1915 and fought a campaign along the Egyptian coast. British Empire forces withdrew, then defeated the Senussi in several engagements, culminating in the action of Agagia, followed by the re-capture of the coast in March 1916. In the interior, the band of oases campaign continued until February 1917, after which a peace was negotiated and the area became a backwater for the rest of the war, patrolled by British aircraft and armoured cars.
Background
Senussi
Before 1906, when the Senussi became involved in resistance against the French, they had been a "relatively peaceful religious sect of the Sahara Desert, opposed to fanaticism". In the Italo-Turkish War (29 September 1911 – 18 October 1912), Italian forces occupied enclaves along the Libyan coast and the Senussi resisted from the interior, maintaining generally friendly relations with the British in Egypt. In 1913, the Italians had been defeated at the action at Etangi but in 1914 Italian reinforcements led to a revival and by January the Senussi were in south-eastern Cyrenaica.
The Senussi had about 10,000 men armed with modern rifles, with ammunition from a factory which produced 1,000 rounds a day. Intermittent fighting continued between the Italians in fortified towns and the Senussi ranging through the desert. The British declared war on the Ottoman Empire on 5 November and the Ottomans encouraged the Senussi to attack Egypt from the west. Ottoman attacks against British forces from Sinai in the east had failed and the Ottomans wanted the Senussi to conduct operations against the rear of the defenders of the Suez Canal.
Ottoman Empire
In February 1915, Ottoman envoys, including Nuri Bey, the half-brother of Enver Pasha and Jaafar Pasha, a Baghdadi Arab in the Ottoman army, plotted to provoke trouble between the Grand Senussi, Sayyid Ahmed ash-Sharif and the British, by planning a raid on Sollum on 15 June but was thwarted. Nuri eventually gained command of Senussi military forces and began training the recruits of Aulad Ali. The Ottoman envoys negotiated an agreement with the Grand Senussi, in which his followers were to attack the British in Egypt from the west although his decision was not supported by all Senussi. The Ottomans provided machine-guns and artillery, using ships and German submarines to deliver weapons, equipment and money. By November 1915, the size of the British garrison in Egypt was much reduced by the expeditions to Gallipoli and Mesopotamia. The Western Frontier of Egypt was protected by the Egyptian Coast Guard (Lieutenant-Colonel C. L. Snow), whose commander was responsible for maintaining good relations with the local Bedouin and the Senussi.
Terrain
The western frontier of Egypt had not been defined in 1914 because negotiations with the Ottomans had been interrupted by the Italo-Turkish War (1911–1912) and then negated by the cession of Tripoli to Italy. A notional frontier ran south from Sollum, to the east of which was an area of 200,000 sq mi (520,000 km2) all desert south of the semi-desert coastal strip but with several oases, some quite big and supporting sizeable populations, administered by the Egyptian government. Bedouin (Arab nomads) moved between the oases, traded with the inhabitants and took refuge at them when wells ran dry.
Along the Mediterranean coast of Egypt is a strip of land, well-enough watered to support grazing for camels and sheep; digging for water generally succeeds but wells and cisterns are often far apart and can unexpectedly run dry. The earth is dusty in summer and glutinous in the rainy season from December to March, when the days are relatively cool and the nights bitter cold. South of the coastal strip is a bare limestone plateau, about 50 mi (80 km) wide at Dabaa and 150 mi (240 km) broad at Sollum. To the south lies the desert, with sand dunes for several hundred miles.
Siwa Oasis, a Senussi stronghold, lies 160 mi (260 km) south of Sollum on the edge of the sand sea. To the east is a string of oases, some close enough to the Nile Valley to be in range of Senussi raiders travelling on camels. A standard-gauge railway ran along the coast from Alexandria, intended to terminate at Sollum, which in 1915 had reached Dabaa. A track, known as the Khedival Motor Road, fit for motor vehicles in dry weather, continued to the frontier although when hostilities began; the wet season was imminent.
Prelude
Senussi–Ottoman preparations
German and Ottoman officers made their headquarters at Siwa Oasis with a Senussi force of 5,000 combatants, supported by mountain guns and machine-guns, to attack Sollum, Mersa Matruh and El Dabaa on the coast and the oases further south at Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga. On 15 August, a British submarine commander saw people onshore near Sollum and was fired on when he went to investigate, which caused a diplomatic incident until the Senussi pretended that the party mistook the submarine for an Italian boat. Sir John Maxwell, the commander of British troops in Egypt, pretended to believe the excuse, assuming that it had been a provocation to force the Grand Senussi's hand. Soon afterwards, the Senussi began training around Sollum with artillery and machine-guns, then Maxwell obtained documents from the Grand Senussi to Muslim leaders and journalists in Arabia and India, urging jihad.
The British continued to appease the Senussi, being in negotiations with the Sherif of Mecca and reluctant to inflame Muslim opinion. On 30 September, Snow met with the Grand Senussi and Jaafar Pasha, who discussed the undisciplined nature of desert nomads but Snow judged the Senussi forces to be potentially formidable. Soon afterwards, news arrived of another Senussi victory over the Italians near Tripoli and the capture of much weaponry and money. Senussi aggression against the British increased in November, when German submarines torpedoed an armed steamer HMS Tara and the transport ship Moorina, then handed over the crews to the Senussi at Port Suleiman in Cyrenaica. Sayed Ahmed affected ignorance when the British complained and negotiations began to persuade the Grand Senussi to dismiss the Ottoman envoys, in return for money; German submarine raids encouraged Senussi intransigence.
On 6 November, Egyptian coastguard boats in Sollum Bay were attacked by SM U-35, Abbas was sunk and Nuhr el Bahr was damaged. On the night of 17 November, Senussi fired into the camp at Sollum, two Bedouin were murdered and the coast telegraph was cut. The next night, a zawiet (cell, monastery or hermitage) at Sidi Barrani 48 mi (77 km) east of Sollum, was occupied by 300 muhafazalar (commanders, defenders or guards) Senussi regular troops. Sayed Ahmed ordered his followers to cross the Egyptian frontier by 21 November, to conduct the coastal campaign. On the night of 19/20 November, the barracks at Sollum was fired on and a coastguard was killed. On 20 November, a post 30 mi (48 km) south-east of Sollum was attacked and when the news arrived civil unrest began at Alexandria.
British preparations
The British commanders adopted a policy of avoiding reverses, before attempting to defeat the Senussi. Sollum was 280 mi (450 km) from Alexandria, too far west for a base and too exposed to German submarines, with the lack of fast patrol boats to guard ships in the bay. Mersa Matruh (Matruh) was 120 mi (190 km) closer to Alexandria and had a good water supply. The Western Frontier posts were ordered back to Matruh to concentrate and to be reinforced by troops moved along the coast by trawler and on the Khedival Railway as far as Dabaa, 75 mi (121 km) short of Matruh. Orders were given on 20 November to form a Western Frontier Force (Major-General William Peyton) made up of composite horse and infantry brigades and supporting arms. By the end of the year, the British had about 40,000 troops in the Western Desert.
On 21 November, the 2nd Battalion New Zealand Rifle Brigade, a company of the 15th Sikhs, parties of the Bikanir Camel Corps and an armoured train crewed by Egyptian gunners, was sent to Dabaa to guard the railway and patrol to the Moghara Oasis. Later on, the 1/1st North Midland Mounted Brigade was sent to Faiyum and a smaller force went to garrison Wadi Natrun, 45 mi (72 km) south of Alexandria. On the night of 23/24 November, about 300 men of the 15th Sikhs left Alexandria by trawler for Matruh and then to withdraw the garrison from Sollum but found that the 100-odd Egyptians from Sollum were already at Matruh, having sailed east on a coastguard ship Rasheed.
The garrison at Sidi Barrani repulsed an attack late on 22 November and retreated before dawn, arriving at Matruh on 24 November. Buq Buq (Baqbaq) 100 mi (160 km) west of Matruh was also abandoned, although about 134 members of the Egyptian coastguard deserted to the Senussi with their equipment and 176 camels, after which a small force of Egyptian cavalry and infantry at Matruh were sent back to the delta in disgrace. As soon as Sollum was evacuated, ships arrived full of munitions for the Senussi. By 3 December, the Matruh garrison had increased to 1,400 men and by 10 November, the Western Frontier Force (WFF) had arrived with an artillery battery, two 4 in (100 mm) guns of the Royal Marine Artillery Heavy Battery from Alexandria and two Royal Flying Corps (RFC) B.E.2c aircraft from A Flight of 14 Squadron RFC, which began operations on 5 December.
Senussi campaign
Coast
Affair of the Wadi Senab
On 11 December, Major-General Alexander Wallace sent a column (Lieutenant-Colonel J. L. R. Gordon) from Matruh to Duwwar Hussein 16 mi (26 km) to the west, with infantry, artillery and four armoured cars, three Ford light cars and a wireless car from the Royal Naval Armoured Car Division, the Composite Yeomanry Regiment and most of the Composite Infantry Brigade. The cavalry had moved about 9 mi (14 km) when they received small-arms fire from the right and tried to outflank their assailants, with support from the armoured cars but the column was recalled due to the volume of fire being received. The artillery joined in and an Australian Light Horse squadron arrived, after which the Senussi were driven back from the Wadi Senab. The force of about 300 Senussi lost 80 men killed and 7 captured against 16 killed and 17 wounded, one of whom was Snow, who was killed trying to capture a wounded Bedouin. Gordon heard the engagement and received a message dropped from an aeroplane but the distance, quantity of baggage and small size of his force led him to decide to rely on Wallace marching from Matruh and continued to Umm er Rakham, where the cavalry rallied for the night.
Gordon planned to advance to Wadi Hashefiat, after a reconnaissance aircraft dropped a note that Senussi were 7 mi (11 km) to the south-west and to move up the wadi to Duwwar Hussein. Wallace agreed to send four armoured cars to co-operate. Overnight, two companies of the Royal Scots arrived with a convoy of supplies and the march began at 8:30 a.m. behind a cavalry screen. Just east of Wadi Hashefiat, the force was fired on from the left at about 9:15 a.m. and the flank guard retired northwards, chased by what appeared to be British troops. They were identified as Senussi and observed advancing in open order and firing from behind cover and eventually seen to be a large force. Gordon ordered the main body to stop the Senussi advance while the advanced guard and cavalry enveloped the Senussi left flank. As both sides manoeuvred, the Senussi party appeared to be 1,000–1,500 men-strong and at 10:00 a.m. the infantry were supported by two field guns and three machine-guns.