Battle of Katia 1916
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 23 April 1916 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1916 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War I era (1914–1918) | derived from year |
| Location | Egypt | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Africa | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Middle Eastern theater of World War I | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Ottoman Empire | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 30.9667, 32.7500 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Katia, also known as the Affair of Qatia by the British, was an engagement fought east of the Suez Canal and north of El Ferdan Station, in the vicinity of Katia and Oghratina, on 23 April 1916 during the Defence of the Suez Canal Campaign of World War I. An Ottoman force led by the German General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein made a surprise attack on three and a half squadrons of the British 5th Mounted Brigade, which was widely scattered to the east of Romani. The mounted brigade had been ordered to the area to protect the new railway and water pipeline being built from Kantara on the Suez Canal, as this infrastructure extended out past the Canal's zone of defences into the Sinai Peninsula towards Romani. Kress Von Kressenstein's attack was completely successful, decimating the equivalent of little more than a regiment. On the same day, an associated Ottoman attack on Duidar, very close to the Suez Canal, failed when it met with strong British opposition.
Kress von Kressenstein's force had been active in the area since the First Suez Offensive of early 1915, when three columns attacked the Canal along the northern, central, and southern routes across the Sinai Peninsula.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Katia (revision 1373886727), 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 Middle Eastern theater of World War I
- Battle of Robat Karim 1915
- Battle of Bir el Abd 1916
- Battle of Romani 1916
- Battle of Ayun Kara 1917
- Battle of Buqqar Ridge 1917
- Battle of Mughar Ridge 1917
- Charge at Huj 1917
- First Battle of Gaza 1917
- Raid on Bir el Hassana 1917
- Raid on Nekhl 1917
All 27 battles of the Middle Eastern theater of World War I →
Browse more: battles in Egypt · Africa · World War I era battles