Abstract :
The British victory at the Battle of Romani marked a turning point in the campaign of the Middle East. From January 1917 till the end of the First World War, the British were the aggressors to settle in Palestine. On the other hand, from the very outset of the war, the new British Prime Minister in December 1916, David Lloyd George’s conviction that only a military action in the Middle East could hasten an Allied victory in the First World War. The campaign in Palestine combined the two objectives. Great stress was laid on the moral and political advantages to be expected from an advance in Palestine, and particularly from the occupation of Jerusalem, which would be hailed with the utmost satisfaction in all parts of the country. A success in Palestine, quite apart from its purely military aspects, would counteract the depressing influences of a difficult economic situation in Britain. For these purposes British attacked the Gaza, but defeated by the Turks in the First and Second Battles of Gaza, and thus British political and strategic objectives were not achieved temporarily. After Edmund Allenby’s appointment as the commander in chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in June 1917, situation had changed in Palestine. Lloyd George informed Allenby that “he wanted Jerusalem as a Christmas present for the British nation”. In order to capture Jerusalem, Allenby made a decisive attack and the city was conquered by the British on 9 December 1917.
NaturalLanguageKeyword :
Palestine Front , Egyptian Expeditionary Force , Jerusalem , David Lloyd George , Sir William Robertson
