British XX Corps
|
|
The British XX Corps was a World War I army corps that was formed in Palestine in 1917. Following the British failure in the Second Battle of Gaza, the Eastern Expeditionary Force underwent a major rearrangement with the appointment of General Edmund Allenby as the new Commander-in-Chief. The infantry component of the force was divided into two corps; XX Corps and XXI Corps. The XX Corps was commanded by General Philip Chetwode, formerly the commander of the Desert Column.
The corps initially comprised four infantry divisions:
The XX Corps first saw action in the Beersheba phase of the Third Battle of Gaza on October 31, 1917. The 60th and 74th Divisions captured Turkish outposts west of the town but were not involved in the final assault. Following Beersheba on November 6, the corps made a frontal assault against the Turkish fortifications in the vicinity of Sheria where the 10th, 60th and 74th Divisions succeeded in breaking through. The 10th Division captured the Hareira Redoubt on November 7 and the 60th Division advanced on Huj in support of the Australian Mounted Division's effort to cut off the retreating Turkish army.