The British Colonial Auxiliary Forces were the various military forces (each composed of one or more units or corps) of Britain's colonial empire which were not considered part of the British Army proper.
123-783: The Sudan Defence Force ( SDF ) was a British Colonial Auxiliary Forces unit raised in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1925 to assist local police in internal security duties and maintain the condominium's territorial integrity. During World War II , it also served in East Africa as part of the East African campaign and in North Africa during the Western Desert campaign . Between 1898 and 1925 Sudanese soldiers served in separate infantry battalions of
246-794: A balloon to see the French Army of the Loire in action. Commissioned into the Royal Engineers on 4 January 1871, Kitchener was reprimanded by the Duke of Cambridge , the commander-in-chief, as his service in France had violated British neutrality. He served in Palestine , Egypt and Cyprus as a surveyor, learned Arabic , and prepared detailed topographical maps of the areas. His brother, Lt. Gen. Sir Walter Kitchener , had also entered
369-581: A paper tiger . The Yeomanry was maintained as a back-up to the constabulary in maintaining law and order. In the 1850s, the Crimean War highlighted the problems of British military organisation, leading to the abolishment of the Board of Ordnance, with its military corps and various previously civilian transportation, stores, and other departments absorbed by the British Army. The Indian Mutiny led to
492-451: A SDF patrol. The aircraft was able to take off and make good its escape, but it did so with casualties and flying on two engines. By the end of the war, the SDF was an experienced military force with about 70 Sudanese officers, almost all of them Muslim northerners. Gradually Sudanese officers were appointed to replace British officers in the years that preceded independence. "From mid-1945 to
615-546: A clergyman, of Aspall Hall, and his third wife, Elizabeth ( née Cole). Both sides of Kitchener's family were from Suffolk , and could trace their descent to the reign of William III ; his mother's family was of French Huguenot descent. His father had only recently sold his commission and bought land in Ireland, under the Encumbered Estates Act of 1849 designed to encourage investment into Ireland after
738-572: A customs and railway union with the Cape Colony and the Natal . During Kitchener's posting in South Africa, Kitchener became acting High Commissioner for Southern Africa , and administrator of Transvaal and Orange River Colony in 1901. Kitchener, who had been promoted to the substantive rank of general on 1 June 1902, was given a farewell reception at Cape Town on 23 June, and left for
861-726: A damn good dusting". As the British and Egyptians advanced in columns, the Khalifa attempted to outflank and encircle the columns; this led to desperate hand-to-hand fighting. Churchill wrote of his own experience as the 21st Lancers cut their way through the Ansar : "The collision was prodigious and for perhaps ten wonderful seconds, no man heeded his enemy. Terrified horses wedged in the crowd, bruised and shaken men, sprawling in heaps, struggle dazed and stupid, to their feet, panted and looked about them". The Lancers' onslaught carried them through
984-424: A drinking cup or ink well. Other historians state that he had the head buried unmarked in a Muslim cemetery. In a letter to his mother, Churchill wrote that the victory at Omdurman had been "disgraced by the inhuman slaughter of the wounded and ... Kitchener is responsible for this". There is no evidence that Kitchener ordered his men to shoot the wounded Ansar on the field of Omdurman, but he did give before
1107-559: A formal welcome at St James's Palace . He also visited King Edward VII , who was confined to his room recovering from his recent operation for appendicitis , but wanted to meet the general on his arrival and to personally bestow on him the insignia of the Order of Merit (OM). Kitchener was created Viscount Kitchener , of Khartoum and of the Vaal in the Colony of Transvaal and of Aspall in
1230-512: A hell of whistling metal, exploding shells, and spurting dust – suffering, despairing, dying". By about 8:30 am, much of the Dervish army was dead; Kitchener ordered his men to advance, fearing that the Khalifa might escape with what was left of his army to the fort of Omdurman, forcing Kitchener to lay siege to it. Viewing the battlefield from horseback on the hill at Jebel Surgham, Kitchener commented: "Well, we have given them
1353-669: A large element of camel-borne soldiers to patrol the vast desert expanses; the Western Arab Corps in Darfur consisting of a few mounted companies; and the Equatoria Corps (often referred to as the Southern Corps) in the three southern provinces, consisting of infantry companies - as, even leaving the tsetse fly out of account, camels and horses were of little value in the forest and swamp. Additionally, there
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#17327661684241476-569: A local militia or an indigenous regular force. Prior to 1925, the garrison of the Sudan comprised a British battalion near the capital, and battalions of the Egyptian Army, both Egyptian and Sudanese, in the regional capitals. British military involvement in the Sudan goes back to the days of Generals Charles Gordon and Herbert Kitchener who were sent by London to defend British interests in
1599-449: A long war that would last at least three years, require huge new armies to defeat Germany, and cause huge casualties before the end would come. Kitchener stated that the conflict would plumb the depths of manpower "to the last million". A massive recruitment campaign began, which soon featured a distinctive poster of Kitchener , taken from a magazine front cover. It may have encouraged large numbers of volunteers, and has proven to be one of
1722-419: A new Sudanese force was formed under the first Kaid Lewa Huddleston who had previously been acting Sirdar (Commander-in-Chief) of the Egyptian Army. The structure of the new force of about 6,000 troops was slightly different: a little looser and more territorial, to give a better esprit de corps and sense of responsibility in each 'Corps' for its own territory. Unlike the old battalions, with anonymous numbers,
1845-659: A peace treaty proposed by Louis Botha and the other Boer leaders, although he knew the British government would reject the offer; their proposal would have maintained the sovereignty of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State while requiring them to sign a perpetual treaty of alliance with the UK and grant major concessions to the British, such as equal language rights for English with Dutch in their countries, voting rights for Uitlanders , and
1968-465: A programme of restoring good governance. The programme had a strong foundation, based on education at Gordon Memorial College as its centrepiece – and not simply for the children of the local elites, for children from anywhere could apply to study. He ordered the mosques of Khartoum rebuilt, instituted reforms which recognised Friday – the Muslim holy day – as
2091-413: A round trip of about 1,300 miles to keep the garrisons at Kufra supplied with petrol, food, and other vital supplies. The overall scarcity of petrol meant that LRDG patrols could do little more than guard Kufra against attacks from the north. They were unable to raid northwards from Kufra. In February 1941, the situation was somewhat improved when twenty 10-ton trucks were added to the convoys. Ultimately
2214-481: A special sealed letter from Salisbury that told him that Salisbury's real reason for ordering the conquest of the Sudan was to prevent France from moving into the Sudan, and that the talk of "avenging Gordon" had been just a pretext. Salisbury's letter ordered Kitchener to head south as soon as possible to evict Marchand before he got a chance to become well-established on the Nile. On 18 September 1898, Kitchener arrived at
2337-708: A third soldier, Lt. George Witton , who served 32 months before being released. In late 1902 Kitchener was appointed Commander-in-Chief, India , and arrived there to take up the position in November, in time to be in charge during the January 1903 Delhi Durbar . He immediately began the task of reorganising the Indian Army . Kitchener's plan "The Reorganisation and Redistribution of the Army in India" recommended preparing
2460-631: Is more like a machine than a man. You feel that he ought to be patented and shown with pride at the Paris International Exhibition . British Empire: Exhibit No. 1 hors concours , the Sudan Machine". The shooting of the wounded at Omdurman, along with the desecration of the Mahdi's tomb, gave Kitchener a reputation for brutality that was to dog him for the rest of his life, and posthumously. After Omdurman, Kitchener opened
2583-460: Is that within eighteen months of the outbreak of the war, when he had found a people reliant on sea-power, and essentially non-military in their outlook, he had conceived and brought into being, completely equipped in every way, a national army capable of holding its own against the armies of the greatest military Power the world had ever seen. However, Ian Hamilton later wrote of Kitchener "he hated organisations; he smashed organisations ... he
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#17327661684242706-426: The Ansar first with artillery, then machine guns and finally rifles as the enemy advanced. A young Winston Churchill , serving as an army officer, wrote of what he saw: "A ragged line of men were coming on desperately, struggling forward in the face of the pitiless fire – black banners tossing and collapsing; white figures subsiding in dozens to the ground ... valiant men were struggling on through
2829-512: The Ansar had broken through the thin khaki line. At about 5 a.m. on 2 September 1898, a huge force of Ansar , under the command of the Khalifa himself, came out of the fort at Omdurman , marching under their black banners inscribed with Koranic quotations in Arabic; this led Bennet Burleigh , the Sudan correspondent of The Daily Telegraph , to write: "It was not alone the reverberation of
2952-534: The Ansar . Burleigh summed the general mood of the British troops: "At Last! Gordon has been avenged and justified. The dervishes have been overwhelming routed, Mahdism has been "smashed", while the Khalifa's capital of Omdurman has been stripped of its barbaric halo of sanctity and invulnerability. Kitchener promptly had the Mahdi's tomb blown up to prevent it from becoming a rallying point for his supporters, and had his bones scattered. Queen Victoria , who had wept when she heard of General Gordon's death, now wept for
3075-558: The Battle of Omdurman in September 1898. After marching to the walls of Khartoum, he placed his army into a crescent shape with the Nile to the rear, together with the gunboats in support. This enabled him to bring overwhelming firepower against any attack of the Ansar from any direction, though with the disadvantage of having his men spread out thinly, with hardly any forces in reserve. Such an arrangement could have proven disastrous if
3198-568: The Bermuda Volunteer Engineers with the Royal Engineers in the official Army Lists, which also listed the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps and Bermuda Militia Infantry officers as part of the British Army, whereas most colonial units were listed separately or did not appear at all), whereas others that did not receive Army Funds were considered auxiliaries (British military units, but not part of
3321-634: The British Empire were militia formations in England's American colonies (specifically, in the Colony of Virginia , settled in 1607, and Bermuda, which was settled by shipwreck of the Sea Venture in 1609, becoming an extension of Virginia in 1612) a century before the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland unified to create the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 (at which point
3444-800: The Delhi Durbar to assume the titles of Emperor and Empress of India. In June 1911 Kitchener then returned to Egypt as British Agent and Consul-General in Egypt during the formal reign of Abbas Hilmi II as Khedive . At the time of the Agadir Crisis (summer 1911), Kitchener told the Committee of Imperial Defence that he expected the Germans to walk through the French "like partridges" and he informed Lord Esher "that if they imagined that he
3567-637: The Egyptian Army . Egypt had recently become a British puppet state, its army led by British officers, although still nominally under the sovereignty of the Khedive (Egyptian viceroy) and his nominal overlord the Ottoman sultan . Kitchener became second-in-command of an Egyptian cavalry regiment in February 1883, and then took part in the failed Nile Expedition to relieve Charles George Gordon in
3690-679: The English Channel ; however, at Fashoda itself, despite the stand-off with the French, Kitchener established cordial relations with Marchand. They agreed that the tricolor would fly equally with the Union Jack and the Egyptian flag over the disputed fort at Fashoda. Kitchener was a Francophile who spoke fluent French, and despite his reputation for brusque rudeness was very diplomatic and tactful in his talks with Marchand; for example, congratulating him on his achievement in crossing
3813-617: The German intelligence ( Abwehr ) commandos and their Hungarian guide, desert explorer László Almásy . Even after the Tunisian Campaign had ended in Allied victory, SDF patrols were busy thwarting German efforts to land agents behind the lines. The Germans continued attempts to make contact with Arab rebels. On 15 May 1943, a four-engine aircraft with German markings attempted to land at El Mukaram only to be engaged and shot up by
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3936-557: The Horn of Africa . A French expedition under the command of Jean-Baptiste Marchand had left Dakar in March 1896 with the aim of conquering the Sudan, seizing control of the Nile as it flowed into Egypt, and forcing the British out of Egypt; thus restoring Egypt to the place within the French sphere of influence that it had had prior to 1882. Salisbury feared that if the British did not conquer
4059-615: The Irish Famine . In later life Kitchener only once revisited his childhood home, in the summer of 1910 at the invitation of Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne ; he astonished the estate's owners by recalling the Irish names of many of the fields. Although sometimes labeled by military historians as Irish or Anglo-Irish (a group which provided a disproportionate number of senior British officers - see Irish military diaspora ), Kitchener did not regard himself as such and
4182-582: The Middle East for several reasons: In 1878, having completed the survey of western Palestine, Kitchener was sent to Cyprus to undertake a survey of that newly acquired British protectorate. He became vice-consul in Anatolia in 1879. On 4 January 1883 Kitchener was promoted to captain , given the Turkish rank binbasi (major), and dispatched to Egypt, where he took part in the reconstruction of
4305-538: The Permanent Active Militia of the Province of Canada . These units consisted of professional soldiers . They supplied a reserve force either to be called up in war time to reinforce regular British Army garrisons for home defence, or in some cases were entirely responsible for home defence. Many units, however, took part in active campaigns outside of the role of home defence in various conflicts
4428-1012: The Royal Bermuda Regiment ; the Royal Gibraltar Regiment ; the Falkland Islands Defence Force ; and the Royal Montserrat Defence Force . The British Government is currently (2020) working with the local governments of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands to raise reserve military units in those territories, also, with recruitment for the new Cayman Islands Regiment starting in January 2020. Herbert Kitchener Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener ( / ˈ k ɪ tʃ ɪ n ər / ; 24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916)
4551-810: The Royal West African Frontier Force , were funded only by the Colonial Office or local Governments and therefore not considered part of the British Army. Additional to the Regular military forces, the British Military also included various Reserve Forces. The main ones by the time of the Napoleonic Wars included the Militia (or Constitutional Force , composed of infantry regiments), mounted Yeomanry , and
4674-524: The Second World War ). The prime minister, H. H. Asquith , was sympathetic to Kitchener but was unwilling to overrule Morley, who threatened resignation, so Kitchener was finally turned down for the post of Viceroy of India in 1911. From 22 to 24 June 1911, Kitchener took part in the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary . Kitchener assumed the role of Captain of the Escort, responsible for
4797-574: The Sudan in late 1884. Fluent in Arabic, Kitchener preferred the company of the Egyptians over the British, and the company of no-one over the Egyptians, writing in 1884 that: "I have become such a solitary bird that I often think I were happier alone". Kitchener spoke Arabic so well that he was able to effortlessly adopt the dialects of the different Bedouin tribes of Egypt and the Sudan. Promoted to brevet major on 8 October 1884 and to brevet lieutenant-colonel on 15 June 1885, he became
4920-521: The Survey of Western Palestine because it was largely confined to the area west of the Jordan River . The survey collected data on the topography and toponymy of the area, as well as local flora and fauna. The results of the survey were published in an eight-volume series, with Kitchener's contribution in the first three tomes (Conder and Kitchener 1881–1885). This survey has had a lasting effect on
5043-418: The Viceroy Lord Curzon , who eventually resigned. Kitchener then returned to Egypt as British Agent and Consul-General ( de facto administrator). In 1914, at the start of the First World War , Kitchener became Secretary of State for War , a Cabinet Minister. One of the few to foresee a long war, lasting for at least three years, and having the authority to act effectively on that perception, he organised
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5166-534: The Volunteer Force , although there were various others at different times and places. The Militia system was duplicated in many colonies, many of which would also raise volunteer units. These Reserve Forces were under the control of local authorities (the Lords Lieutenant of counties in the British Isles, and Governors in their separate offices of Commanders-in-Chief of colonies; Normally, neither Lords Lieutenant nor colonial Governors had any authority over regular forces in their territories), and locally funded. After
5289-425: The Western Desert Campaign along the Sudanese border with ASI in North Africa . The SDF was used to supply the Free French and then the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) garrisons of the former Italian Fort Taj at the Kufra oasis in southeastern Libya . In March 1941, French and LRDG forces had wrested control of the fort from the Italians during the Battle of Kufra . SDF convoys of 3-ton trucks had to make
5412-468: The concentration camps , which had been conceived by Roberts as a form of control of the families whose farms he had destroyed, began to degenerate rapidly as the large influx of Boers outstripped the ability of the minuscule British force to cope. The camps lacked space, food, sanitation, medicine, and medical care, leading to rampant disease and a very high death rate for those Boers who entered. Eventually 26,370 women and children (81% were children) died in
5535-409: The de facto British ruler of Egypt, thought Kitchener "the most able (soldier) I have come across in my time". In 1890, a War Office evaluation of Kitchener concluded: "A good brigadier, very ambitious, not popular, but has of late greatly improved in tact and manner ... a fine gallant soldier and good linguist and very successful in dealing with Orientals" [in the 19th century, Europeans called
5658-438: The 12-men-deep Ansar line with the Lancers losing 71 dead and wounded while killing hundreds of the enemy. Following the annihilation of his army, the Khalifa ordered a retreat and early in the afternoon, Kitchener rode in triumph into Omdurman and immediately ordered that the thousands of Christians enslaved by the Ansar were now all free people. Kitchener lost fewer than 500 men while killing about 11,000 and wounding 17,000 of
5781-449: The British Army). Many colonial units started out as auxiliaries and later became regular units and forerunners to the current militaries of those colonies which have become politically independent. While most of the units listed here were army units, colonial marines were raised at various times, as were colonial naval and air force reserve units. Today, only four British Overseas Territories regiments remain (not including cadet corps):
5904-409: The British Empire was involved in, including the two world wars. Some of the reserve colonial units, especially in the strategically important imperial fortress colonies (consisting of Halifax, Gibraltar, Bermuda and Malta), were funded by the War Department out of Army Funds and considered part of the British Army (by example, the Bermuda Militia Artillery was grouped with the Royal Artillery and
6027-435: The British government. Milner was a hard-line conservative and wanted to Anglicise the Afrikaans -speaking people (the Boers) by force, and both Milner and the British government wanted to assert victory by forcing the Boers to sign a humiliating peace treaty; Kitchener wanted a more generous compromise peace treaty that would recognize certain rights for the Afrikaners and promise them future self-government. He even entertained
6150-413: The British member of the Zanzibar boundary commission in July 1885. He became Governor of the Egyptian Provinces of Eastern Sudan and Red Sea Littoral (which in practice consisted of little more than the Port of Suakin ) in September 1886, also Pasha the same year, and led his forces in action against the followers of the Mahdi at Handub in January 1888, when he was injured in the jaw. Kitchener
6273-408: The British military, (referring to land, rather than naval,components of the British armed forces ) by the end of the Napoleonic Wars (by which time the Kingdom of Ireland had been absorbed into the Kingdom of Great Britain , forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , and the Irish military forces had been absorbed into those of Great Britain), included two regular forces (employed in
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#17327661684246396-402: The Commandant carried the Arabic title of al-qa'id al-'amm ("the Leader of the Army") and was often referred to simply as "the Kaid". British Colonial Auxiliary Forces Whether a British ("Home" or "Colonial") military unit or corps was considered part of the British Army was ultimately decided by whether it received Army funds from the War Office. Within and without the British Isles,
6519-495: The Commander-in-Chief directly. In order to deal with the Military Member, a request had to be made through the Army Secretary, who reported to the Indian Government and had right of access to the Viceroy. There were even instances when the two separate bureaucracies produced different answers to a problem, with the Commander-in-Chief disagreeing with himself as Military Member. This became known as "the canonisation of duality". Kitchener's successor, General Sir Garrett O'Moore Creagh ,
6642-642: The County of Suffolk, on 28 July 1902. In the Breaker Morant case, five Australian officers and one English officer of an irregular unit, the Bushveldt Carbineers , were court-martialed for summarily executing twelve Boer prisoners, and also for the murder of a German missionary believed to be a Boer sympathiser, all allegedly under orders approved by Kitchener. The celebrated horseman and bush poet Lt. Harry "Breaker" Morant and Lt. Peter Handcock were found guilty, sentenced to death, and shot by firing squad at Pietersburg on 27 February 1902. Their death warrants were personally signed by Kitchener. He reprieved
6765-510: The Egyptian Army with the local rank of brigadier in April 1892. Kitchener was worried that, although his moustache was bleached white by the sun, his blond hair refused to turn grey, making it harder for Egyptians to take him seriously. His appearance added to his mystique: his long legs made him appear taller, whilst a cast in his eye made people feel he was looking right through them. Kitchener, at 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m), towered over most of his contemporaries. Sir Evelyn Baring ,
6888-431: The Egyptian Army, under British and Egyptian officers. These were designated as either "Sudanese Battalions" or "Arab Battalions" according to their region of recruitment within the Sudan. By contrast to the bulk of the Egyptian Army, who were recruited through annual conscription, the Sudanese units enlisted only long-serving volunteers. Following a mutiny of Sudanese troops in 1924, and at a time of unrest in Egypt itself,
7011-418: The English Empire became the British Empire). By the Victorian era , the colonial auxiliary military forces were generally followed the pattern of the auxiliary military forces of the British Isles. There were also British military units, separate from those of the British Army (such as the West India Regiments and the Canadian Regiment of Fencible Infantry ) that were raised and recruited in colonies, such as
7134-477: The French fort at Fashoda (present day Kodok , on the west bank of the Nile north of Malakal ) and informed Marchand that he and his men had to leave the Sudan at once, a request Merchand refused, leading to a tense stand-off as French and British soldiers aimed their weapons at each other. During what became known as the Fashoda Incident , Britain and France almost went to war with each other. The Fashoda Incident caused much jingoism and chauvinism on both sides of
7257-399: The Governor-General Sir Lee Stack was assassinated by a group of Egyptian nationalists, while being driven through Cairo. Sudanese soldiers in Khartoum mutinied, the Egyptian Army garrison of the Sudan was deemed unreliable and the Egyptian battalions were sent home, while the Sudanese battalions were disbanded. One hundred and forty British officers were transferred from the Egyptian army and
7380-527: The Indian Army for any potential war by reducing the size of fixed garrisons and reorganising it into two armies, to be commanded by Generals Sir Bindon Blood and George Luck . While many of the Kitchener Reforms were supported by the Viceroy , Lord Curzon of Kedleston , who had originally lobbied for Kitchener's appointment, the two men eventually came into conflict. Curzon wrote to Kitchener advising him that signing himself "Kitchener of Khartoum" took up too much time and space – Kitchener commented on
7503-400: The Italians probed various positions in the Jebel Uweinat area along the poorly defined border between the Kingdom of Egypt , the Sudan, and ASI. Responding to the Italian probes in the area, the SDF was ordered to occupy the Merga oasis and then the area around the Karkur Marr spring. The Italian conquest of Ethiopia led to a reorganisation and an increase in scope of the force. By June 1940
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#17327661684247626-438: The Middle East the Orient]. While in Egypt, Kitchener was initiated into Freemasonry in 1883 in the Italian-speaking La Concordia Lodge No. 1226, which met in Cairo. In November 1899 he was appointed the first District Grand Master of the District Grand Lodge of Egypt and the Sudan, under the United Grand Lodge of England . In 1896, the British Prime Minister , Lord Salisbury , was concerned with keeping France out of
7749-402: The Reserve Forces were generally referred to as the Auxiliary Forces (i.e., auxiliary to, but not part of, the British Army), or as the Local Forces (as they were originally all for home defence). With the threat of invasion by France, the Reserve Forces in the British Isles were also re-organised throughout the latter half of the 19th Century, into the first decade of the 20th Century. The Militia
7872-410: The Russian Emperor Nicholas II that the Franco-Russian alliance applied only to Europe, and that Russia would not go to war against Britain for the sake of an obscure fort in the Sudan in which no Russian interests were involved; and the possibility that Germany might take advantage of an Anglo-French war to strike France. Kitchener became Governor-General of the Sudan in September 1898, and began
7995-435: The SDF and used them in numerous operations during the North African campaign in the Second World War. In 1942 on instructions from London, British Military Intelligence, Cairo and elements of the Sudan Defence Force were involved with countering Operation Salaam , the infiltration of German Brandenburger commandos into Egypt. Together with British intelligence agents, members of the SDF were ordered to intercept and capture
8118-429: The SDF comprised twenty-one companies—including five (later six) Motor Machine Gun Companies— totalling 4,500 men. As part of the Anglo-Egyptian "Condominium," the Sudan was at war with the Axis from the time Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany . Initially the war was limited to Europe and so the Sudan Defence Force had little to do other than preparation work should
8241-441: The SDF took over the garrison duties at the oasis from the LRDG. In September 1942 Force Z the battalion of SDF working with the LRDG launched a raid on Jalo Oasis. Captain Preston John Hurman discusses this action in his war memories held by the Imperial War Museum. on Operation Nicety in support to Operation Agreement . The SDF provided the garrison for Jalo Oasis . British Military Intelligence in Cairo worked very closely with
8364-472: The SDF were British Army officers on secondment for a few years. The attraction was independence of command, sporting (game-hunting) opportunities in leisure hours and local promotion (1 rank). On the outbreak of war, many young men of the Sudan Political Service , the administrative service for the Condominium, were allowed to join up. Those who served in the SDF included: Commandants of the Sudan Defence Force included those officers listed below: In this role
8487-527: The SDF were internal security: assisting the police in the event of unrest, including restraining inter-tribal violence, cattle raiding and slave trading; or natural disaster. In such a vast country, companies could be detached on garrison duties far from the actual Corps headquarters. In the mid to late 1930s, the SDF was used to counter the aggressive actions of Italian military forces under Marshal Italo Balbo based in Italian North Africa ( Africa Settentrionale Italiana , or ASI) Libya . In December 1933,
8610-548: The SDF were part of Gazelle Force , a mobile reconnaissance and fighting force commanded by Colonel Frank Messervy . The Frontier battalion from the SDF was part of Gideon Force commanded by Major Orde Wingate . In January 1941, during the British and Commonwealth offensive into the AOI, the SDF took part in the successful invasion of Eritrea . During this invasion, the SDF contributed machine gun companies, howitzer batteries, and other forces (including some homemade armoured cars ). The SDF also played an active role during
8733-404: The Sahara in an epic trek from Dakar to the Nile. In November 1898, the crisis ended when the French agreed to withdraw from the Sudan. Several factors persuaded the French to back down. These included British naval superiority; the prospect of an Anglo-French war leading to the British gobbling up the entire French colonial empire after the defeat of the French Navy ; the pointed statement from
8856-593: The Second Boer War he played a key role in Lord Roberts ' conquest of the Boer Republics , then succeeded Roberts as commander-in-chief – by which time Boer forces had taken to guerrilla fighting and British forces imprisoned Boer and African civilians in concentration camps . His term as Commander-in-Chief (1902–1909) of the Army in India saw him quarrel with another eminent proconsul ,
8979-699: The Sudan Defence Force. In this post from 1950 onward was Major General Reginald 'Cully' Scoones . The last British troops, 1st Battalion Royal Leicestershire Regiment , left the country on 16 August 1955. Ibrahim Abboud was Commander of the SDF in 1949 and Assistant Commander in Chief in 1954. He was appointed Commander in Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces at independence. Aboud later served as Prime Minister of Sudan from 1958 to 1964 and as president in 1964. One source wrote that Sudan
9102-464: The Sudan) battalions.; the later was officered by both British and Egyptians, the soldiers being Egyptian fellaheen and Sudanese." In peacetime, the SDF comprised approximately 4,500 regular Sudanese soldiers. During the Second World War , the SDF expanded greatly to counter the threat from the four neighbouring Italian territories: to the north-west, Libya , to the east Eritrea , Italian Somalia ; and
9225-631: The Sudan, the French would. He had supported Italy 's ambitions to conquer Ethiopia in the hope that the Italians would keep the French out of Ethiopia. The Italian attempt to conquer Ethiopia , however, was going very badly by early 1896, and ended with the Italians being annihilated at the Battle of Adowa in March 1896. In March 1896, with the Italians visibly failing and the Mahdist State threatening to conquer Italian Eritrea , Salisbury ordered Kitchener to invade northern Sudan, ostensibly for
9348-749: The United Kingdom in the SS Orotava on the same day. He received an enthusiastic welcome on his arrival the following month. Landing in Southampton on 12 July, he was greeted by the corporation, who presented him with the Freedom of the borough . In London, he was met at the train station by the Prince of Wales , drove in a procession through streets lined by military personnel from 70 different units and watched by thousands of people, and received
9471-539: The War Office. Most were Home corps and units (i.e., those depoted and recruited in the British Isles, wherever they might be deployed) though some were raised in colonies. The regular forces also included at various times, usually in particular locations, invalid , fencible , and other units, utilised primarily for garrison or defensive duties. Some regular forces raised in colonies, such as those grouped in
9594-633: The abolishment of the East India Company, with the India Office taking over administration of India. The company's military forces were split, with the white units absorbed into the British Army and the native ones composing the Indian Army . The British Army saw significant change through the latter half of the century, with the British Army Regular Reserve formed in the 1850s, following which, to avoid confusion,
9717-574: The appointment in the newspapers. Kitchener pushed hard for the Viceroyalty, returning to London to lobby Cabinet ministers and the dying King Edward VII , from whom, whilst collecting his field marshal's baton , Kitchener obtained permission to refuse the Malta job. However, Morley could not be moved. This was perhaps in part because Kitchener was thought to be a Tory (the Liberals were in office at
9840-721: The army and was Governor of Bermuda from 1908 to 1912. In 1874, aged 24, Kitchener was assigned by the Palestine Exploration Fund to a mapping-survey of the Holy Land , replacing Charles Tyrwhitt-Drake , who had died of malaria. By then an officer in the Royal Engineers , Kitchener joined fellow officer Claude R. Conder ; between 1874 and 1877 they surveyed Palestine, returning to England only briefly in 1875 after an attack by locals at Safed , in Galilee . Conder and Kitchener's expedition became known as
9963-489: The battle what the British journalist Mark Urban called a "mixed message", saying that mercy should be given, while at the same time saying "Remember Gordon" and that the enemy were all "murderers" of Gordon. The victory at Omdurman made Kitchener into a popular war hero, and gave him a reputation for efficiency and as a man who got things done. The journalist G. W. Steevens wrote in the Daily Mail that "He [Kitchener]
10086-564: The concentration camps. The biggest critic of the camps was the English humanitarian and welfare worker Emily Hobhouse . She published a prominent report that highlighted atrocities committed by Kitchener's soldiers and administration, creating considerable debate in London about the war. Kitchener blocked Hobhouse from returning to South Africa by invoking martial law provisions. Historian Caroline Elkins characterized Kitchener's conduct of
10209-722: The conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars and the American War of 1812 , the British Government slashed defence spending, down-sizing the regular forces, including disbanding the fencibles (most of which units had been raised in Scotland due to the lack of Militia there in the 18th Century as a result of fears of rebellion), disbanding the Volunteer Force in the British Isles, and allowing the Militia there to become
10332-453: The country. In 1896-98 Kitchener led the advance on Khartoum in command of an Anglo-Egyptian Expeditionary Force composed of British, Egyptian and Sudanese troops. As a young Army officer Winston Churchill saw military service in the Sudan. Since 1819 the Sudan had been a territory loosely administered by Egypt, but in the 1880s it had fallen to the forces of the Mahdi . From 1885 to 1898 it
10455-472: The defeat of the conventional Boer forces, Kitchener succeeded Roberts as overall commander in November 1900. He was also promoted to lieutenant-general on 29 November 1900 and to local general on 12 December 1900. He subsequently inherited and expanded the successful strategies devised by Roberts to force the Boer commandos to submit, including concentration camps and the burning of farms. Conditions in
10578-723: The garrisoning and defence of the British Isles, other parts of the British Empire, and deploying to foreign countries as required), the Ordnance Military Corps (including the Royal Artillery , Royal Engineers , and Royal Sappers and Miners ), administered and funded under the Board of Ordnance , and the British Army (mostly composed of cavalry and infantry regiments), administered and funded under
10701-481: The garrisoning of the Sudan was put on a new basis. Egyptian military units and Egyptian officers of Sudanese battalions were transferred back to Egypt itself. The Sudanese troops remaining were incorporated into the newly created Sudan Defence Force. The junior commissioned officer and NCO positions previously held by Egyptian personnel, were now open to "Sudanisation". A military academy was opened in Omdurman to train
10824-634: The introduction of self-determination in January 1954, the number of men serving in the SDF remained roughly constant, between 4500 and 5000." In March 1954 British troops in the Sudan consisted of one battalion stationed in Khartoum, reporting ultimately to the Governor-General. The Governor-General's military commander was the Major-General Commanding British Troops in the Sudan, who was also Commandant of
10947-559: The job himself as a stopgap following the resignation of Colonel Seely over the Curragh Incident earlier in 1914. Kitchener was in Britain on his annual summer leave, between 23 June and 3 August 1914, and had boarded a cross-Channel steamer to commence his return trip to Cairo when he was recalled to London to meet with Asquith. War was declared at 11pm the next day. Against cabinet opinion, Kitchener correctly predicted
11070-728: The land war reach Africa . From 10 June 1940, when Fascist Italy declared war on Britain and France , the SDF was involved in the East African Campaign . At first, the SDF went on the defensive against attacks into the Sudan by forces of the Italian Royal Army ( Regio Esercito ) and the Italian Royal Air Force ( Regia Aeronautica ) based in Italian East Africa ( Africa Orientale Italiana , or AOI). The Italians occupied
11193-510: The largest volunteer army that Britain had seen, and oversaw a significant expansion of material production to fight on the Western Front . Despite having warned of the difficulty of provisioning for a long war, he was blamed for the shortage of shells in the spring of 1915 – one of the events leading to the formation of a coalition government – and stripped of his control over munitions and strategy. On 5 June 1916, Kitchener
11316-547: The man who had vanquished Gordon, asking whether it had been really necessary for Kitchener to desecrate the Mahdi's tomb. The body of the Mahdi was disinterred and beheaded. This symbolic decapitation echoed General Gordon's death at the hands of the Mahdist forces in 1885. The headless body of the Mahdi was thrown into the Nile. Kitchener is sometimes claimed to have kept the Mahdī's skull and rumoured that he intended to use it as
11439-604: The most enduring images of the war, having been copied and parodied many times since. Kitchener built up the " New Armies " as separate units because he distrusted the Territorials from what he had seen with the French Army in 1870. This may have been a mistaken judgement. The British reservists of 1914 tended to be much younger and fitter than their French equivalents a generation earlier. Cabinet Secretary Maurice Hankey wrote of Kitchener: The great outstanding fact
11562-426: The names of the four main corps were Camel Corps, Eastern Arab Corps, Western Arab Corps and Equatoria Corps. These were intended to give a distinct, and regional, identity, like English county regiments. Recruitment in each Corps reflected the local ethnicities. These corps were supported by artillery, engineer, armoured car and machine-gun units; plus medical, signals and transport services. However, some continuity
11685-673: The new Sudanese officer corps, most of whom were Muslims from the north. By 1939 the SDF numbered 5,000 officers and men. O'Ballance describes the SDF on its formation as divided into five regions, with '..four "corps", all dissimilar: the Eastern Arab Corps , based at Kasala , comprising mostly infantry companies, with a small mounted detachment; the Camel Corps in Kordofan , (another source refers to it as 'the Hajana') with
11808-401: The official day of rest, and guaranteed freedom of religion to all citizens of the Sudan. He attempted to prevent evangelical Christian missionaries from trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. At this stage of his career Kitchener was keen to exploit the press, cultivating G. W. Steevens of the Daily Mail who wrote a book With Kitchener to Khartum . Later, as his legend had grown, he
11931-761: The personal protection of the royals during the coronation. In this capacity, Kitchener was also the Field Marshal, In Command of the Troops, and assumed command of the 55,000 British and imperial soldiers present in London. During the Coronation ceremony itself, Kitchener acted as Third Sword, one of the four swords tasked with guarding the monarch. Later, in November 1911, Kitchener hosted the King and Queen in Port Said , Egypt while they were on their way to India for
12054-551: The pettiness of this (Curzon simply signed himself "Curzon" as a hereditary peer, although he later took to signing himself "Curzon of Kedleston"). They also clashed over the question of military administration, as Kitchener objected to the system whereby transport and logistics were controlled by a "Military Member" of the Viceroy's Council . After what Curzon's most recent biographer described as "prolonged intrigue" and "deceitful methods", including correspondence which Kitchener asked
12177-651: The purpose of distracting the Ansar (whom the British called " Dervishes ") from attacking the Italians. Kitchener won victories at the Battle of Ferkeh in June 1896 and the Battle of Hafir in September 1896, earning him national fame in the United Kingdom and promotion to major-general on 25 September 1896. Kitchener's cold personality and his tendency to drive his men hard made him widely disliked by his fellow officers. One officer wrote about Kitchener in September 1896: "He
12300-506: The railway junction at Kassala , the small fort at Gallabat , and the villages of Ghezzan, Kurmuk , and Dumbode on the Blue Nile . In the first days of August, an Italian force of irregular Eritreans raided as far north as Port Sudan . The Sudan Defence Force fought during the East African Campaign on the "Northern Front" under the command of Lieutenant-General William Platt . In October 1940, three motor machine-gun companies from
12423-488: The recently (1936) occupied Abyssinia ( Ethiopia ). To accommodate the extra numbers, a new war-service battalion was formed, the Sudanese Frontier Force . In wartime, the SDF grew to as many as 20,000 men. There were also two regiments of irregular special forces linked with the SDF during World War II: The British did not garrison their Empire exclusively with British troops; almost every territory had
12546-566: The recipients to destroy after reading, the Commander-in-Chief won the crucial support of the government in London, and the Viceroy had no option but to resign. Later events proved Curzon was right in opposing Kitchener's attempts to concentrate all military decision-making power in his own office. Although the offices of Commander-in-Chief and Military Member were now held by a single individual, senior officers could approach only
12669-626: The same regimental name). Although the Auxiliary forces remained organised as, and nominally, separate forces (until the Territorial Army was renamed the British Army Reserve in 2014), their being funded by the War Office meant they were also considered parts of the British Army. Outside the British Isles, the funding of auxiliary forces remained largely with the local governments. The first colonial units established in
12792-470: The time); perhaps due to a Curzon-inspired whispering campaign; but most importantly because Morley, who was a Gladstonian and thus suspicious of imperialism, felt it inappropriate, after the recent grant of limited self-government under the Indian Councils Act 1909 , for a serving soldier to be Viceroy (in the event, no serving soldier was appointed Viceroy until Lord Wavell in 1943, during
12915-458: The title of chief of staff, he was in practice a second-in-command and was present at the relief of Kimberley before leading an unsuccessful frontal assault at the Battle of Paardeberg in February 1900. Kitchener was mentioned in despatches from Roberts several times during the early part of the war; in a despatch from March 1900 Roberts wrote how he was "greatly indebted to him for his counsel and cordial support on all occasions". Following
13038-427: The tread of horses and men's feet I heard and seemed to feel as well as hear, but a voiced continuous shouting and chanting-the Dervish invocation and battle challenge "Allah e Allah Rasool Allah el Mahdi!" they reiterated in vociferous rising measure, as they swept over the intervening ground". Kitchener had the ground carefully studied so that his officers would know the best angle of fire, and had his army open fire on
13161-522: The war as a " scorched earth policy", as his forces razed homesteads, poisoned wells and implemented concentration camps, as well as turned women and children into targets in the war. The Treaty of Vereeniging ending the war was signed in May 1902 following a tense six months. During this period Kitchener struggled against the Governor of the Cape Colony ( Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner ), and against
13284-537: Was "the one African Country south of the Sahara to emerge from the colonial period with a military establishment possessing the attributes of an independent national army." However internal religious and racial divisions led to the mutiny and disbandment of the Equatoria Corps (recruited from southern black Africans) in 1955 and the commencement of a 17-year civil war . Most middle-ranking and senior officers of
13407-550: Was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. Kitchener came to prominence for his imperial campaigns, his involvement in the Second Boer War , and his central role in the early part of the First World War . Kitchener was credited in 1898 for having won the Battle of Omdurman and securing control of the Sudan , for which he was made Baron Kitchener of Khartoum . As Chief of Staff (1900–1902) in
13530-625: Was a Master of Expedients". At the War Council (5 August) Kitchener and Lieutenant General Sir Douglas Haig argued that the BEF should be deployed at Amiens , where it could deliver a vigorous counterattack once the route of German advance was known. Kitchener argued that the deployment of the BEF in Belgium would result in having to retreat and abandon much of its supplies almost immediately, because
13653-592: Was a detachment of cavalry at Shendi (other sources refer to the 'Shendi Horse') and of engineers at Omdurman , the total establishment being just under 5,000.' Ibrahim Abboud commanded the Camel Corps after the Second World War . (OB 50) "Before the establishment of the SDF, under the early Condominium, troops in the Sudan had been part of the Egyptian Army , which then basically consisted of eight Egyptian (that is, serving in Egypt) and seven Sudanese (serving in
13776-688: Was able to be rude to the press, on one occasion in the Second Boer War bellowing: "Get out of my way, you drunken swabs". He was created Baron Kitchener , of Khartoum and of Aspall in the County of Suffolk , on 31 October 1898. During the Second Boer War , Kitchener arrived in South Africa with Field Marshal Lord Roberts on the RMS Dunottar Castle along with massive British reinforcements in December 1899. Officially holding
13899-513: Was always inclined to bully his own entourage, as some men are rude to their wives. He was inclined to let off his spleen on those around him. He was often morose and silent for hours together ... he was even morbidly afraid of showing any feeling or enthusiasm, and he preferred to be misunderstood rather than be suspected of human feeling." Kitchener had served on the Wolseley expedition to rescue General Charles George Gordon at Khartoum, and
14022-622: Was convinced that the expedition failed because Wolseley had used boats coming up the Nile to bring his supplies. Kitchener wanted to build a railroad to supply the Anglo-Egyptian army, and assigned the task of constructing the Sudan Military Railroad to a Canadian railroad builder, Percy Girouard , for whom he had specifically asked. Kitchener achieved further successes at the Battle of Atbara in April 1898, and then
14145-540: Was extended by two years in 1907. Kitchener was promoted to the highest Army rank, field marshal , on 10 September 1909 and went on a tour of Australia and New Zealand . He aspired to be Viceroy of India , but the Secretary of State for India , John Morley , was not keen and hoped to send him instead to Malta as Commander-in-Chief of British forces in the Mediterranean , even to the point of announcing
14268-449: Was going to command the Army in France he would see them damned first". He was created Earl Kitchener , of Khartoum and of Broome in the County of Kent , on 29 June 1914. During this period he became a proponent of Scouting and coined the phrase "once a Scout, always a Scout". At the outset of the First World War , the prime minister, Asquith, quickly had Kitchener appointed Secretary of State for War ; Asquith had been filling
14391-630: Was known to quote the saying misattributed to the Duke of Wellington that "a man may be born in a stable, but that does not make him a horse". In 1864 the family moved to Switzerland , where the young Kitchener was educated at Montreux , then at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich . Pro-French and eager to see action, he joined a French field ambulance unit in the Franco-Prussian War . His father took him back to Britain after he caught pneumonia while ascending in
14514-439: Was maintained. The Egypt ruler, the Khedive , or Viceroy , had been, nominally, a subject of the Ottoman Sultan and so the SDF continued to use Egyptian ranks, which in turn were derived from former Ottoman titles. The result was that British officers in the Sudan were called Bimbashi not Major, or an Arabic equivalent, and Kaimakam . The use of Turkish military terms extended beyond the rank structure. The main duties of
14637-535: Was making his way to Russia on HMS Hampshire to attend negotiations with Tsar Nicholas II when in bad weather the ship struck a German mine 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Orkney , Scotland, and sank. Kitchener was among 737 who died; he was the highest-ranking British officer to die in action in the entire war. Kitchener was born in Tarbert near Listowel , County Kerry , in Ireland , son of army officer Henry Horatio Kitchener (1805–1894) and Frances Anne Chevallier (1826–1864); daughter of John Chevallier ,
14760-430: Was nicknamed "no More K", and concentrated on establishing good relations with the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge . Kitchener presided over the Rawalpindi Parade in 1905 to honour the Prince and Princess of Wales's visit to India. That same year Kitchener founded the Indian Staff College at Quetta (now the Pakistan Command and Staff College ), where his portrait still hangs. His term of office as Commander-in-Chief, India,
14883-410: Was promoted to brevet colonel on 11 April 1888 and to the substantive rank of major on 20 July 1889 and led the Egyptian cavalry at the Battle of Toski in August 1889. At the beginning of 1890 he was appointed Inspector General of the Egyptian police 1888–92 before moving to the position of Adjutant-General of the Egyptian Army in December of the same year and Sirdar (Commander-in-Chief) of
15006-650: Was re-organised as a voluntary force from the 1850s, and the Volunteer Force restored as a permanent part of the peacetime military establishment. Both now included units other than infantry. These changes were copied to some degree in the colonial Reserve Forces. From the 1870s, administration and funding of the Auxiliary Forces in the British Isles passed from the Lords Lieutenant to the War Office and their units were increasingly integrated into British Army units (new infantry regiments, by example, being formed to include two regular battalions, with one or more Militia battalions and one or more Volunteer Force battalions, all bearing
15129-421: Was ruled, de facto, by the Mahdi and his successor the Khalifa (literally 'Successor'). Following the defeat of the Mahdists at the Battle of Omdurman , the Sudan was reorganised as an Anglo-Egyptian Condominium . The Head of the Egyptian Army was the Governor-General and there was still a large garrison, as the territory was huge and the remoter parts, such as Darfur , were not pacified until 1916. In 1925,
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