Charge at Huj

Charge at Huj
Part of the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I

Charge at Huj, by Lady Butler
Date8 November 1917
Location
Huj, southern Palestine
Result British victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom British Empire  Ottoman Empire
 German Empire
 Austria-Hungary
Units involved
Worcestershire Yeomanry
Warwickshire Yeomanry
Part of XXI Corps
Casualties and losses
26 dead
40 wounded
100+ dead
70 prisoners
11 artillery guns
4 machine guns
captured

The Charge at Huj (8 November 1917), (also known by the British as the Affair of Huj), was an engagement between forces of the British Empire' Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) and the Ottoman Turkish Empire's,[nb 1] Yildirim Army Group during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. It took place during the Pursuit phase of the Southern Palestine Offensive which eventually captured Jerusalem a month later.

The charge was carried out by units of the 5th Mounted Brigade, against a rearguard position of German, Austrian and Turkish artillery and infantry armed with machine guns. The charge was successful and the British captured the position, seventy prisoners, eleven pieces of artillery and four machine guns. However British casualties were heavy; of the 170 men taking part, twenty-six were killed and forty wounded. They also had 100 horses killed.

The charge is claimed to be one of the last British cavalry charges and was immortalised in a watercolour painting by the noted British artist Lady Butler.

  1. ^ Fewster, Basarin, Basarin 2003, pp.xi–xii


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