A war of reconquest
Kitchener advances along the Nile with a railway and depots that make it possible to employ a modern army far from the coast.
Battle
Omdurman
2 September 1898
Modern firepower turns a mass attack into disaster.
Military history
How did a prepared Anglo-Egyptian position turn the Mahdist attack into defeat before close contact?
Omdurman is a highly legible but politically charged battle. It reveals a massive disparity in firepower and organization in a colonial war: the Mahdist army can concentrate tens of thousands of men, but cannot cross a modern fire zone without suppressing the weapons that cover it.
A large Mahdist army
The Mahdi and his successor control a capital and can mobilize a large mass of men, but with little artillery or automatic weaponry.
An exposed plain
The terrain offers little protection from fire. The Mahdists’ only chance is to reach the camp quickly or break the position before exhaustion sets in.
Military history
Sources
Contemporary sourceWinston Churchill, The River War
Chapitre XV, « The Battle of Omdurman »
Contemporary British account, to be read in light of its colonial bias.
View ↗Military historyA. B. Theobald, The Mahdiya
Passages sur les dernières campagnes mahdistes
Mahdist organization and political consequences.
Study of empireDouglas Porch, Wars of Empire
Section sur la reconquête du Soudan
Technological and logistical asymmetry, and colonial context.
Military museumNational Army Museum, « The Battle of Omdurman »
Dossier et collections consacrés à Omdurman, 2 septembre 1898
Terrain, map reconstruction, sequence of attacks, the charge of the 21st Lancers, and the context of colonial reconquest.
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