Megiddo, battles of (c.1468 bc, 609 bc, and ad 1918) (see also Armageddon). Tel Megiddo, in the fertile coastal strip of Palestine, now Israel, was the site of the first battle of which we have record of battle tactics, of another of which we know little except that the Israelites did poorly, and of the culminating battle of the Palestine campaign in 1918. It stands at a vital crossroads from Egypt into Mesopotamia and from the coastal plain into Galilee. The earliest settlement was built in the early 4th millennium bc and was occupied until c.450 bc.
In around 1476 bc Egyptian Pharaoh Thotmes (Thutmosis) III led perhaps 10, 000 men in a rapid march against rebel Palestinian chieftains. They had sent outposts to hold the Megiddo pass, a covering force which was easily scattered leaving the king of Kadesh to face the pharaoh on the Megiddo plain. Thotmes' army advanced in a concave formation, its southern wing enveloping the rebels while the northern wing was driven between them and the town of Megiddo itself. They used surprise, shock action (chariots) and firepower (archers), cut communications, and enveloped the enemy.
Solomon built a fort on the site and in 609 bc King Josiah of Judah was killed there when opposing the march of the Egyptian King Necho II towards Assyria. Here also, between 19 and 21 September 1918, British and Commonwealth forces under Allenby defeated Turkish forces under Liman von Sanders. Following the loss of Jerusalem in December 1917 the Turkish Seventh and Eighth Armies had regrouped on a well-fortified line from Jaffa to the Jordan. Allenby deceived Liman into believing that the attack would fall inland, whereas he attacked on the left, on the coastal plain. An intense artillery bombardment opened a breach for the British XXI Corps, through which Allenby then pushed his cavalry, the Desert Mounted Corps. Local Jewish settlers helped by showing them the way through the marshes, enabling them to penetrate the Turkish positions and then exploit the breakthrough using cavalry, armoured cars, and aircraft. The RAF attacked the retreating Turkish columns, and helped force the Turks back to the Jordan. In just under a month the British and Commonwealth forces destroyed three Turkish Armies (Seventh, Eighth, and Fourth, to the east), advanced 350 miles, and took 36, 000 prisoners at a cost of only 853 dead.
Bibliography
- Wavell, Col Archibald, The Palestine Campaigns (London, 1928)
— Christopher Bellamy
