FIFTY YEARS AGO

Evening Star, Issue 21240, 22 October 1932, Page 2

FIFTY YEARS AGO

THE VICTORY OF TEL-EL-KEBIR [From the * Observer.’] Fifty years ago affairs in Egypt were in a parlous mess. The opening, or the , Suez Canal had been _ followed by an . immense amount of railway, telegraph, and other modern construction —in which a large amount -of European capital was involved—but the extravaganee of the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, . had reduced the country to ruptcy.Yielding to pressure by the Great . Powers of Europe, the Sultan superseded the Khedive, who, in the sums' raer of 1579, departed to Naples with bags of gold and seventy ladies from his harem. The dual control exercised by France and England then gave . Egypt two years of unexampled prosperity, until a military revolt under - Ahmed Arabi developed into a campaign against Europeans and then into a movement' against' Christians generally; ALEXANDRIA BOMBARDED. On June 11, 1882, a massacre took place in Alexandria, and the : French and British squadrons in Egyptian .waters were held in readiness for ; vigorous action. The new Khedive and the Sultan could do nothing, and on - July 11 the forts of Alexandria were bombarded by the British squadron, the French ships taking no part, having been recalled by orders from home. England then applied to Franco and Italy to assist her in operations on land, but, as both these countries declined, England undertook the task alone. An expeditionary force, under Sir > Carnet Wolseley, was therefore despatched to reinforce the small body .- of-' British.- troops already hurried to 1 ; Egypt from • the :• Mediterranean garrisons. Geographically, Cairo was his objective, and his intention was to deceive Arabi into" believing that a landing would take place near Alexandria, whereas the attempt was actually to be made from Ismaiiia, on the canal. ; From that, port an advance could be made along the Sweet Water Canal, .which conveyed drinking water from the Nile to Ismaiiia and Suez. SUCCESSFUL LANDING.

The landing at Ismaiiia was successfully accomplished, and, by September 12 the army was concentrated—though not without sharp fighting—at Kassassin, some twenty miles inland. Reconnaissance had shown that about a dozen miles further on Arabi now occupied a long entrenched position near Tel-el-Kebir with his right resting on the Sweet Water Canal and his left “in the air.” In order to avoid a long advance over open country and to save his men from

exposure to the Egyptian sun during the march, Sir Garnet determined to approach the enemy position under cover of darkness and to rush the works at daybreak. He had available for the movement about 12,000 infantry, 2,700 cavalry, and 60 guns. So far as was known there were sixty to seventy guns in the lines of Tel-el-Kebir, which were manned by some 18,000 infantry as well. When darkness fell on the evening of September 12, the troops moved out of their camp at Kassassin, and, after proceeding some miles, lay down in silence until 1.30 a.m. Then the real advance began—on the anniversary of Wolfe’s descent of tho St. Lawrence against Quebec in 1759. On the right was the Ist Division, the 2nd on the left, with the artillery in the centre between them. On the extreme right was the Cavalry Division, while on the other flank, south of the Sweet Water Canal—which here ran from west to east —were the Indian contingent and the Naval Brigade. The night was very dark, and the force was guided by Lieutenant Rawson, R.N., by observation of the stars. The difficulty of moving a force of such a size, and in such conditions, was very great, and more than, once the advancing columns got_ into crescent formation, which required time and infinite patience to straighten out. WOLSELEY’S ESCAPE.

On one occasion Sir Garnet Wolseley and his staff were within an ace of being fired upon, the sound of tho horses’ feet being taken for Bedouin cavalry. Fortunately a redoubt over I,oooyds in advance of tho main position was passed unseen, for action against it would, of course, have alarmed the defenders of Tel-el-Kebir. Sunrise was not due until about 5.40 a.m., but about ten minutes to 5 tho eastern horizon became bright. It was a moment of tense anxiety, for, short of a miracle, the only explanation could ho that “ someone had blundered ”; and an error of fifty minutes would spell disaster. Fortunately dawn seemed to delay, and actually the light was due to a comet which had chosen that moment to make its first appearance.

Gradually the attacking force neared its goal, but the-various checks had inevitably thrown the alignment out of gear, and instead of the front being parallel to the enemy lines the attackers were in the form of an irregular echelon with the left—the Highland Brigade—well in front. About 5 o’clock enemy pickets could bo dimly seen, and their sentries fired a few dropping shots. The Highlanders fixed bayonets without halting, and moved on still in perfect silence. From the position the Egyptian bugles rang out the alarm, a gun came into action, and then a roar of musketry crashed out from the whole Egyptian front of a mile or more.

HIGHLANDERS’ ATTACK. With a loud yell the Highlanders rushed forward in the half light, leapt into the shallow ditch, and scrambled up the scarp. The opposition encountered was here very stubborn, and in some places the attackers were thrown back over the parapet by sheer weight of numbers. But in ten minutes wave after wave of the attackers were surging over the position elsewhere, the British artillery came into action, and the defence crumbled swiftly. Meanwhile the cavalry on the extreme right had been galloping, and were soon amongst the runaways, the majority of whom threw away their arms in their flight. Cairo surrendered next day to a small force of cavalry, and Arabi gave himself up. The victory of Tel-el-Kebir had been achieved with a loss of merely fiftyseven killed and some 380 wounded. The campaign was now over, and Sir Garnet Wolseley, leaving a force of 10,000 men to occupy the country, was back in London on October 28—just twelve and a-half weeks since he had sailed from England.