Blood on the sand: The Affair at Katia, 23 April 1916
This talk, which was delivered 'live' to an online audience by Stuart Hadaway details how, in April 1916, the Ottoman Army made an attempt to cut the Suez Canal, described by Kaiser Wilhelm II as the 'jugular vein of the British Empire.'
Just over 20 miles short of the Canal, the Ottomans ran into the scattered outposts of a British Yeomanry Cavalry Brigade. A day long fight ensued among the sand dunes as the outnumbered Yeomen were cut off, surrounded, and overwhelmed piecemeal. Despite taking appalling casualties, they succeeded in blunting the Ottoman attack, and prevented a catastrophe that would have had severe repercussions on the British war effort.
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