Battle of Hijla 1918
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 21 March 1918 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1918 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | Jordan | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Sinai and Palestine Campaign | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Ottoman Empire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 31.8167, 35.5500 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Hijla (21 March 1918) was fought by the forces of the British and Turkish Empires during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. Hijla (now called Makhadet Hijla', lit. 'Partridge Ford'; cf. nearby Deir Hajla) is on the River Jordan a few miles upriver from the Dead Sea. Today the river is the boundary between Jordan and the "West Bank" area presently administered by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but in 1918 it was territory of Ottoman Turkey. The British invasion had succeeded in taking Jerusalem at the end of 1917. British General Edmund Allenby attempted a "raid" across the Jordan toward Amman in an effort to sever the railroad and resistance was met at Hijla and to the north at Ghoraniyeh, where fords provided means to cross.
The river crossing was resisted by the Turks at both sites. The 2/19th Battalion (St. Pancras) London Regiment of the 60th Division tried to cross at Hijla, sending swimmers repeatedly across with ropes to attempt the construction of a pontoon bridge. Major Vivian Gilbert reported the events later. Many of the British soldiers were shot in the Jordan before the bridgehead could be established. Once established, the bridgeheads were maintained against the Turks, but the raids on Amman basically failed.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Hijla (revision 1370442973), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign
- Battle of Beersheba (1917) 1917
- Battle of Jaffa (1917) 1917
- Battle of Megiddo (1918) 1918
- Capture of Damascus (1918) 1918
- Charge at Kaukab 1918
- First Battle of Amman 1918
All 7 battles of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign →
Browse more: battles in Jordan · Asia · World War I era battles