WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 Welcome to this custom tailored deep dive. We 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.919 are we're looking at a really fascinating stack 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:07.860 of material today. Yeah, it's a heavy one for 00:00:07.860 --> 00:00:11.279 sure. It really is. So we are anchoring our conversation 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:14.140 today on the comprehensive Wikipedia article 00:00:14.140 --> 00:00:17.719 detailing the third battle of Gaza. And, you 00:00:17.719 --> 00:00:19.600 know, if you've ever found yourself just staring 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:22.420 down a massive, seemingly impossible project. 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:25.059 We've all been there. Right. Or an obstacle in 00:00:25.059 --> 00:00:28.120 your professional life that just absolutely refuses 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:30.449 to budge no matter how much force you apply to 00:00:30.449 --> 00:00:32.270 it, you are going to want to hear this. Definitely. 00:00:32.329 --> 00:00:34.890 The lessons here are incredibly applicable. Exactly. 00:00:35.170 --> 00:00:38.310 Because we are exploring how General Edmund Allenby 00:00:38.310 --> 00:00:41.149 dismantled an allegedly impenetrable fortress. 00:00:41.630 --> 00:00:45.130 Our mission today is to head back to November 00:00:45.130 --> 00:00:47.950 1917 to the grueling desert theater of southern 00:00:47.950 --> 00:00:51.030 Palestine in World War I. Where the British -Egyptian 00:00:51.030 --> 00:00:54.490 Expeditionary Force, the EEF, finally broke a 00:00:54.490 --> 00:00:56.469 brutal stalemate against the Ottoman Empire. 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:01.159 Yes, and we are going to unpack the brilliant, 00:01:01.799 --> 00:01:05.140 often totally chaotic blend of ancient cavalry 00:01:05.140 --> 00:01:08.819 tactics, cutting edge modern technology, and 00:01:08.819 --> 00:01:11.379 elaborate psychological warfare that ultimately 00:01:11.379 --> 00:01:13.959 decided this battle. Okay, let's unpack this. 00:01:13.980 --> 00:01:16.599 Sounds good. To really understand the strategic 00:01:16.599 --> 00:01:19.200 masterpiece that happened in November, we have 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.480 to look at the absolute nightmare that was the 00:01:21.480 --> 00:01:23.459 setup. Right. It was a true nightmare scenario, 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:26.239 both tactically and psychologically. I mean, 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:28.620 to give you the proper context, you have to realize 00:01:28.620 --> 00:01:31.959 that by late 1917, the EEF had already tried 00:01:31.959 --> 00:01:34.959 to take Gaza twice. And failed both times. Miserably. 00:01:35.159 --> 00:01:37.280 They fought the first and second battles of Gaza 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:40.340 in March and April that same year, and both were 00:01:40.340 --> 00:01:42.620 bitter, incredibly costly defeats for the British. 00:01:42.780 --> 00:01:45.159 The first one is especially agonizing to read 00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:47.260 about. It is. In the first battle, they actually 00:01:47.260 --> 00:01:49.780 had the city practically surrounded, but withdrew 00:01:49.780 --> 00:01:52.260 due to a catastrophic miscommunication. Just 00:01:52.260 --> 00:01:54.459 a total failure of command and control. And then 00:01:54.459 --> 00:01:57.189 the second one was just brute force. Exactly. 00:01:57.430 --> 00:01:59.230 In the second, they launched a frontal assault 00:01:59.230 --> 00:02:01.950 and were simply slaughtered. So following those 00:02:01.950 --> 00:02:05.129 two massive losses, a deeply demoralizing stalemate 00:02:05.129 --> 00:02:07.109 just kind of settled over the region through 00:02:07.109 --> 00:02:09.990 this scorching, unforgiving summer months. And 00:02:09.990 --> 00:02:12.310 Gaza wasn't just a typical city anymore by this 00:02:12.310 --> 00:02:14.629 point, was it? The Ottoman defenders had spent 00:02:14.629 --> 00:02:17.289 that entire summer turning it into an absolute 00:02:17.289 --> 00:02:20.370 meat grinder. They really had. Under the command 00:02:20.370 --> 00:02:22.629 of the German general Kress von Kressenstein, 00:02:23.090 --> 00:02:25.250 the Ottomans completely transformed Gaza into 00:02:25.250 --> 00:02:28.530 a modern fortress. We are talking about heavy, 00:02:28.889 --> 00:02:31.889 reinforced entrenchments and extensive deep -wire 00:02:31.889 --> 00:02:34.069 entanglements. The kind of stuff that just halts 00:02:34.069 --> 00:02:37.389 an army in its tracks. Exactly. But most dangerously, 00:02:37.490 --> 00:02:39.930 they had engineered a cleared slope. What's called 00:02:39.930 --> 00:02:42.110 a glaceon on the southern and southeastern edges 00:02:42.110 --> 00:02:44.330 of the city. Meaning there was absolutely zero 00:02:44.330 --> 00:02:46.370 natural cover for any attacking force. None. 00:02:46.569 --> 00:02:48.810 You'd have to run up a totally barren climb. 00:02:49.050 --> 00:02:52.009 And this fortress was manned by a veteran garrison 00:02:52.009 --> 00:02:55.550 of 8 ,000 riflemen, supported by 116 artillery 00:02:55.550 --> 00:02:58.490 guns. And they were dug in deep. They knew the 00:02:58.490 --> 00:03:01.949 terrain intimately. So, you know, the EEF is 00:03:01.949 --> 00:03:05.849 staring. at this open slope covered by 116 guns, 00:03:06.430 --> 00:03:08.870 knowing full well that a daytime frontal assault 00:03:08.870 --> 00:03:11.530 is essentially a suicide mission. Yeah, that 00:03:11.530 --> 00:03:14.069 was off the table. Which forces them to get creative. 00:03:14.229 --> 00:03:16.669 And this is the part I love. Before a single 00:03:16.669 --> 00:03:19.729 shot of the main battle is even fired, the EEF 00:03:19.729 --> 00:03:22.750 initiates this master level deception campaign 00:03:22.750 --> 00:03:27.110 to totally blind. Ottoman intelligence. The misdirection 00:03:27.110 --> 00:03:30.270 was on a massive scale. It really was. When the 00:03:30.270 --> 00:03:32.409 British finally started secretly moving their 00:03:32.409 --> 00:03:34.789 troops inland to concentrate for their actual 00:03:34.789 --> 00:03:37.669 attacks, they left their old camps completely 00:03:37.669 --> 00:03:40.349 intact at places like Khan Yunus and Rafa. And 00:03:40.349 --> 00:03:43.000 they didn't just leave the tents up. actively 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:45.520 maintained the illusion of daily life. They kept 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:48.080 campfires burning. They had skeleton crews moving 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:50.879 around specifically to trick the German and Ottoman 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:52.800 aerial reconnaissance planes flying overhead. 00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:54.919 Because they knew they were being watched. Right. 00:03:55.259 --> 00:03:57.180 They wanted the Ottoman commanders to look at 00:03:57.180 --> 00:03:59.659 those aerial photographs and think, excellent, 00:03:59.719 --> 00:04:01.960 there are still six infantry divisions sitting 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:04.099 idle right there on the coast in front of Gaza. 00:04:04.219 --> 00:04:06.919 It's a massive commitment of resources just to 00:04:06.919 --> 00:04:09.659 sell a lie. But, you know, visual tricks only 00:04:09.659 --> 00:04:12.719 go so far on land. What's incredible is how they 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:14.680 extended this theater to the coastline to make 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:17.519 the Ottomans deeply paranoid about an amphibious 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:19.920 assault. What's fascinating here is the sheer 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:22.899 logistical theatricality of their misdirection 00:04:22.899 --> 00:04:26.000 at sea. The EEF controlled the coastal sea lanes, 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:28.319 right? So their intelligence service started 00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:31.120 actively seeding rumors. through local channels 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:34.519 about amphibious landings behind Gaza. Just whispering 00:04:34.519 --> 00:04:37.899 in the right ears. Exactly. But to provide proof 00:04:37.899 --> 00:04:40.620 for these rumors, they actually had naval ships 00:04:40.620 --> 00:04:43.819 taking visible soundings off the coast, literally 00:04:43.819 --> 00:04:45.699 measuring the water's depth right in front of 00:04:45.699 --> 00:04:47.519 the Ottoman observers. Which is exactly what 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:50.079 you do when preparing to bring in large troop 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:52.360 landing vessels. Precisely. They were pantomiming 00:04:52.360 --> 00:04:54.660 an invasion. And they culminated this with a 00:04:54.660 --> 00:04:57.019 massive fake embarkation on November 1st, right 00:04:57.019 --> 00:04:59.480 before the attack. They used the Egyptian labor 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:01.500 corps. These were the logistics and support workers, 00:05:01.620 --> 00:05:04.160 not even combat troops, and had them visibly 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:06.740 boarding motor launches, trawlers, and tugs at 00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:10.199 a place called Dirbella. In broad daylight. Right 00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:13.120 into the fading light of evening, yeah. Making 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:15.759 it look for all the world like a massive flanking 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:19.319 maneuver by sea was officially underway. It forced 00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:21.899 the Ottoman defenders to constantly look over 00:05:21.899 --> 00:05:24.839 their shoulders toward the water. It split their 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:28.000 attention and their defensive posture. But as 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.160 you hinted at earlier, they were also attacking 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:33.079 the minds of the defenders directly. Right, because 00:05:33.079 --> 00:05:35.040 they didn't just mess with the troop movements. 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:38.879 They engaged in literal psychological warfare 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:42.639 from the sky. The airplane drops. Yes. There's 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:45.800 this amazing detail from a letter General Allenby 00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:48.120 wrote to his wife describing airplanes flying 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:50.560 over the Ottoman lines. But instead of dropping 00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:52.860 bombs, they were dropping packets of cigarettes. 00:05:53.220 --> 00:05:54.980 Which the soldiers would obviously pick up. Of 00:05:54.980 --> 00:05:56.879 course. And bundled with those cigarettes were 00:05:56.879 --> 00:05:59.480 printed proclamations from the Sharif of Mecca. 00:05:59.839 --> 00:06:02.379 Which is a brilliantly targeted move. I mean, 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:05.279 to understand why that matters, you have to know 00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:07.399 that the Sharif of Mecca wasn't just a political 00:06:07.399 --> 00:06:10.379 figure. He was the traditional steward of Islam's 00:06:10.379 --> 00:06:13.079 holiest cities. His word carried immense weight. 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:16.100 Immense religious and cultural weight. So when 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:18.240 he issued proclamations actively encouraging 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:20.360 the Arab soldiers within the Ottoman ranks to 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:22.959 defect and join the Arab rebellion, it struck 00:06:22.959 --> 00:06:25.399 a deep nerve. Because the Ottoman army wasn't 00:06:25.399 --> 00:06:27.839 a monolith. Not at all. It was highly diverse. 00:06:28.100 --> 00:06:29.819 And many Arab conscripts were already feeling 00:06:29.819 --> 00:06:32.730 highly marginalized by the Turkish command. Allenby 00:06:32.730 --> 00:06:35.629 noted that this propaganda actually worked. Quite 00:06:35.629 --> 00:06:37.949 a few soldiers crossed the lines to defect after 00:06:37.949 --> 00:06:40.189 finding those drops. When you look at all these 00:06:40.189 --> 00:06:42.389 elements together, the fake camps, the Phantom 00:06:42.389 --> 00:06:45.089 naval landings, the targeted propaganda drops. 00:06:45.660 --> 00:06:48.180 It feels like a highly coordinated attack on 00:06:48.180 --> 00:06:50.920 the enemy commander's sanity. That is precisely 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:53.019 the strategic takeaway here. And it's something 00:06:53.019 --> 00:06:55.180 highly applicable to modern strategic thinking 00:06:55.180 --> 00:06:57.560 or leadership today. This wasn't just about fighting 00:06:57.560 --> 00:06:59.959 a physical battle of attrition. It was about 00:06:59.959 --> 00:07:02.360 overwhelming the enemy's decision making process. 00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:05.459 Cognitive overload. Yes. By feeding Kress von 00:07:05.459 --> 00:07:07.680 Kressenstein and his command staff a constant 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:10.560 stream of false data, Allenby engineered that 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:13.459 cognitive overload. He forced the Ottomans to 00:07:13.459 --> 00:07:16.029 expend immense metro energy guessing where the 00:07:16.029 --> 00:07:18.209 real threat was coming from. Which means they 00:07:18.209 --> 00:07:21.050 keep resources in reserve to defend against ghosts. 00:07:21.430 --> 00:07:25.069 Exactly. Managing information and sometimes deliberately 00:07:25.069 --> 00:07:27.870 manufacturing it is just as critical a weapon 00:07:27.870 --> 00:07:30.310 as managing your actual troops. Here's where 00:07:30.310 --> 00:07:32.550 it gets really interesting because once they 00:07:32.550 --> 00:07:35.889 had the Ottoman forces sufficiently confused, 00:07:36.209 --> 00:07:38.449 paranoid, and pinned down by these phantoms, 00:07:38.769 --> 00:07:43.189 the EEF unleashed the real physical hammer. The 00:07:43.189 --> 00:07:46.370 bombardment. Yes. On October 27th, the bombardment 00:07:46.370 --> 00:07:49.370 of Gaza began. But this wasn't just standard 00:07:49.370 --> 00:07:52.029 land artillery lobbing shells. It was a massive 00:07:52.029 --> 00:07:54.509 coordinated joint operation involving both the 00:07:54.509 --> 00:07:56.629 British and the French navies pulling up right 00:07:56.629 --> 00:07:58.750 off the coast to provide offshore fire support. 00:07:59.430 --> 00:08:01.230 The hardware they brought to bear was staggering, 00:08:01.430 --> 00:08:03.829 especially for the Middle Eastern theater. Sitting 00:08:03.829 --> 00:08:05.870 offshore, you had a naval flotilla that included 00:08:05.870 --> 00:08:08.769 British destroyers, the cruiser HMS Grafton and 00:08:08.769 --> 00:08:10.949 several monitors. And monitors are pretty unique 00:08:10.949 --> 00:08:13.509 vessels. They are. For those unfamiliar, monitors 00:08:13.509 --> 00:08:16.050 were essentially floating gun platforms, shallow 00:08:16.050 --> 00:08:18.589 draft vessels designed specifically for shore 00:08:18.589 --> 00:08:20.750 bombardment rather than ship -to -ship combat. 00:08:21.230 --> 00:08:23.930 They were equipped with massive 9 .2 -inch and 00:08:23.930 --> 00:08:26.810 6 -inch guns. This floating artillery, basically. 00:08:26.990 --> 00:08:30.529 Pretty much. You also had the HMS Raglan, featuring 00:08:30.529 --> 00:08:33.929 enormous 14 -inch guns, which could hurl a shell 00:08:33.929 --> 00:08:36.929 weighing over 1 ,000 pounds. And joining them 00:08:36.929 --> 00:08:39.649 were French vessels, including the coastal defense 00:08:39.649 --> 00:08:42.470 ship, Raclan. So you have these floating fortresses 00:08:42.470 --> 00:08:45.230 firing inland combined with the land -based heavy 00:08:45.230 --> 00:08:48.690 artillery, which consisted of 68 medium and heavy 00:08:48.690 --> 00:08:51.870 guns and howitzers. Over the course of the bombardment 00:08:51.870 --> 00:08:54.610 leading up to the infantry attack, the EEF fired 00:08:54.610 --> 00:08:58.250 15 ,000 rounds of heavy artillery. It's just 00:08:58.250 --> 00:09:00.250 a punishing amount of steel. The sources point 00:09:00.250 --> 00:09:02.730 out that this was actually the heaviest bombardment 00:09:02.730 --> 00:09:05.149 of World War I anywhere outside of the European 00:09:05.149 --> 00:09:07.809 Western Front. The sheer logistics of moving 00:09:07.809 --> 00:09:10.690 15 ,000 heavy shells across the Sinai desert 00:09:10.690 --> 00:09:13.830 to fire at Gaza is an incredible feat in itself. 00:09:14.490 --> 00:09:16.669 And the tactical application was relentless. 00:09:17.169 --> 00:09:19.529 They were engaging in sustained anti -battery 00:09:19.529 --> 00:09:21.450 bombardments. Meaning they were targeting the 00:09:21.450 --> 00:09:23.950 other side's guns. Exactly. They were specifically 00:09:23.950 --> 00:09:26.429 using their heavy guns to hunt and destroy the 00:09:26.429 --> 00:09:28.389 Ottoman artillery positions so they couldn't 00:09:28.389 --> 00:09:30.820 fire back at the British infantry later. There's 00:09:30.820 --> 00:09:33.399 this really visceral detail from the source material 00:09:33.399 --> 00:09:36.279 that paints such a grim picture of this. The 00:09:36.279 --> 00:09:39.340 bombardment was so incredibly intense that by 00:09:39.340 --> 00:09:42.000 the sixth night, the concentration of fire from 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:44.899 onshore and offshore guns falling on one specific 00:09:44.899 --> 00:09:47.779 small area of the Ottoman lines was actually 00:09:47.779 --> 00:09:50.080 heavier than the bombardment on the first day 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:52.519 of the Battle of the Somme. We're just saying 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:54.899 something. It's terrifying. They were just systematically 00:09:54.899 --> 00:09:57.720 erasing the landscape. They even fired gas shells 00:09:57.720 --> 00:10:00.299 during these anti -battery missions. Though the 00:10:00.299 --> 00:10:03.559 gas shells proved largely ineffective in this 00:10:03.559 --> 00:10:05.409 specific environment. Because of the weather. 00:10:05.750 --> 00:10:08.190 Yeah, the desert winds and heat disposed the 00:10:08.190 --> 00:10:10.789 gas quickly, sometimes just producing a sickly 00:10:10.789 --> 00:10:13.629 yellow smoke that caused momentary confusion 00:10:13.629 --> 00:10:16.610 rather than mass casualties. Yet what really 00:10:16.610 --> 00:10:18.730 stands out here is the incredible resilience 00:10:18.730 --> 00:10:20.929 of the Ottoman defenders. They didn't break. 00:10:21.330 --> 00:10:24.379 No. Despite this apocalyptic level of firepower 00:10:24.379 --> 00:10:27.559 raining down on them for days, the Ottoman 7th 00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:29.879 and 53rd Divisions held the line. They didn't 00:10:29.879 --> 00:10:32.379 just cower, either. They actively fought back 00:10:32.379 --> 00:10:35.100 against the warships. They did. An Ottoman shore 00:10:35.100 --> 00:10:37.320 battery managed to track the French ship, the 00:10:37.320 --> 00:10:40.379 Requin, and scored a direct hit on its mess deck, 00:10:40.740 --> 00:10:44.000 causing 38 casualties. It's a stark reminder 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:47.539 for anyone studying conflict. Even the most overwhelming, 00:10:47.539 --> 00:10:50.299 mathematically superior technological advantage 00:10:50.299 --> 00:10:53.659 doesn't instantly break a well -entrenched, determined 00:10:53.659 --> 00:10:56.539 defending force. Right. And because that massive 00:10:56.539 --> 00:10:59.000 bombardment made it blindingly obvious exactly 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:01.460 where the British were focusing their fire, any 00:11:01.460 --> 00:11:03.519 lingering element of tactical surprise on the 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:05.720 ground was totally gone. Completely erased. And 00:11:05.720 --> 00:11:07.759 because the Ottoman machine gunners had survived 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:10.139 in their deep bunkers, daytime attacks across 00:11:10.139 --> 00:11:12.220 that open glasses were still considered suicide. 00:11:12.139 --> 00:11:16.480 So that forced the EEF into an incredibly dangerous 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:19.000 alternative, a massive infantry assault in the 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:21.240 pitch black of night. So we shift to the night 00:11:21.240 --> 00:11:23.159 of November 1st heading into the early hours 00:11:23.159 --> 00:11:26.340 of November 2nd. The British plan was a phased 00:11:26.340 --> 00:11:29.360 infantry assault. They were targeting a specific 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:32.480 series of sand dunes and trench complexes that 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:35.740 formed the outer shell of Gaza's defenses. Phase 00:11:35.740 --> 00:11:38.799 1 kicked off at 11 zero p .m. with an attack 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:41.379 on a prominent sand dune called Umbrella Hill, 00:11:41.820 --> 00:11:43.820 which overlooked the main objectives. And this 00:11:43.820 --> 00:11:46.980 was the Scottish Rifles, right? Yes, the 17th 00:11:46.980 --> 00:11:49.399 Battalion of the Scottish Rifles. They were supported 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:52.659 by a heavy, sudden 10 -minute bombardment, and 00:11:52.659 --> 00:11:54.899 then they charged the hill. And against the odds, 00:11:55.080 --> 00:11:57.220 they took it in just 10 minutes. To keep their 00:11:57.220 --> 00:11:59.220 direction in the dark, they had actually laid 00:11:59.220 --> 00:12:01.940 down a white tape on the ground beforehand to 00:12:01.940 --> 00:12:04.360 guide the troops forward. A very common night 00:12:04.360 --> 00:12:06.440 tactic. But reading through the outcome of that 00:12:06.440 --> 00:12:09.179 assault, you see the devastating paradox of their 00:12:09.179 --> 00:12:12.279 own successful artillery fire. It's a classic, 00:12:12.440 --> 00:12:15.340 tragic World War I problem. Yeah. The massive 00:12:15.340 --> 00:12:17.379 bombardment we just talked about had actually 00:12:17.379 --> 00:12:20.039 been too effective on Umbrella Hill. It had virtually 00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:22.460 obliterated the Ottoman trenches. Which sounds 00:12:22.460 --> 00:12:26.000 good until you have to occupy them. Right. Specifically, 00:12:26.659 --> 00:12:29.779 it destroyed all the resitments, the wooden planks 00:12:29.779 --> 00:12:32.240 and sandbag retaining walls that keep a trench 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:35.039 from caving in on itself. So when the Scottish 00:12:35.039 --> 00:12:37.659 rifles captured the hill, they weren't jumping 00:12:37.659 --> 00:12:40.220 into a fortified trench. They were basically 00:12:40.220 --> 00:12:43.379 standing in shallow, unstable sand pits. Just 00:12:43.379 --> 00:12:45.759 totally exposed. They had almost zero cover. 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:48.740 When the Ottomans inevitably launched their counter 00:12:48.740 --> 00:12:50.879 -artillery fire onto the hill they had just lost, 00:12:51.419 --> 00:12:53.860 the Scottish rifles suffered 103 casualties over 00:12:53.860 --> 00:12:56.679 the next 24 hours, simply trying to hold a bare 00:12:56.679 --> 00:12:58.990 sand dune. The reality on the ground for these 00:12:58.990 --> 00:13:01.889 soldiers was just sheer chaos. There's an incredible 00:13:01.889 --> 00:13:04.590 firsthand account in the sources from Lance Corporal 00:13:04.590 --> 00:13:07.330 R. Loudon. He was a signaller with the Royal 00:13:07.330 --> 00:13:09.649 Scots who were involved in the phase two attack 00:13:09.649 --> 00:13:12.289 on the L. Erich Redoubt a few hours later, around 00:13:12.289 --> 00:13:15.990 3 a .m. Oh, this story is wild. It is. He recalls 00:13:15.990 --> 00:13:17.889 sitting there in the dark, the tension so thick 00:13:17.889 --> 00:13:19.490 you could cut it just waiting for the whistle 00:13:19.490 --> 00:13:22.350 to attack, and suddenly a soldier who had clearly 00:13:22.350 --> 00:13:24.789 gotten way too much of his pre -battle rum allowance 00:13:24.789 --> 00:13:27.250 to start singing at the top of his lungs. Just 00:13:27.250 --> 00:13:29.529 belted it out. Right in the middle of no man's 00:13:29.529 --> 00:13:32.059 land. A non -commissioned officer had to sprint 00:13:32.059 --> 00:13:34.759 over and physically haul the guy away before 00:13:34.759 --> 00:13:37.399 the Ottomans heard him and opened fire on the 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:40.299 whole line. It adds such a human gritty dimension 00:13:40.299 --> 00:13:43.320 to the tactical maps. Loudon describes lying 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:46.419 down along that white guiding tape, waiting for 00:13:46.419 --> 00:13:49.440 the signal and then plunging into the dark amid 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:53.120 intense shell and machine gun fire. His account 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:55.299 really brings home the terrifying reality of 00:13:55.299 --> 00:13:57.759 night combat. You can't see anything. You can't. 00:13:57.759 --> 00:13:59.759 He mentions that the first wave of the Royal 00:13:59.759 --> 00:14:02.559 Scots advancing on the redoubt hit a field of 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:05.740 hidden Ottoman contact mines. The men were blown 00:14:05.740 --> 00:14:08.039 to pieces, and because of the darkness and the 00:14:08.039 --> 00:14:10.200 noise, the subsequent waves pushing forward didn't 00:14:10.200 --> 00:14:11.519 even know what was happening until they were 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:13.679 right on top of it. And as the attacks spread 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:16.720 to the coastal defenses in phase three, the environment 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:19.279 itself became an enemy. The dust kicked up by 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:21.700 thousands of artillery explosions combined with 00:14:21.700 --> 00:14:24.039 the smoke of battle and the hazy, cloudy night 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:27.799 sky just caused utter confusion. Complete disorientation. 00:14:27.950 --> 00:14:30.490 Whole regiments, like the Norfolk and the Essex, 00:14:30.889 --> 00:14:32.669 completely lost their direction in the dark. 00:14:33.269 --> 00:14:35.450 They ended up attacking the wrong trench lines, 00:14:35.649 --> 00:14:37.750 or were forced to withdraw simply because they 00:14:37.750 --> 00:14:39.509 couldn't coordinate with the units right next 00:14:39.509 --> 00:14:41.769 to them. And right in the middle of this chaotic, 00:14:42.110 --> 00:14:44.809 terrifying trench assault, we see the introduction 00:14:44.809 --> 00:14:47.129 of a brand new, highly disruptive technology 00:14:47.129 --> 00:14:49.950 on this front tank. Yes. The Palestine tank contaction 00:14:49.950 --> 00:14:52.919 was deployed here. But listeners shouldn't picture 00:14:52.919 --> 00:14:56.240 the sleek, fast armor of modern warfare. They 00:14:56.240 --> 00:14:58.679 only had eight tanks available, and mostly they 00:14:58.679 --> 00:15:01.480 were obsolete Mark I models. Right, these were 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:04.419 the early clunky diamond -shaped metal boxes 00:15:04.419 --> 00:15:06.299 originally designed for the mud of Flanders, 00:15:06.460 --> 00:15:09.080 not the soft, shifting sand and scorching heat 00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:11.620 of the Middle East. I mean, inside those things, 00:15:11.740 --> 00:15:14.039 the temperature could easily hit 120 degrees. 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:16.840 And the crew were breathing in exhaust and cordite 00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:19.620 the whole time. Miserable. Very. They were utilized 00:15:19.620 --> 00:15:21.919 in a very experimental way to support the infantry. 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:24.929 They were driven forward to physically roll over 00:15:24.929 --> 00:15:27.629 the Ottoman wire entanglements and crush them 00:15:27.629 --> 00:15:29.769 so the infantry could pass. Which is a great 00:15:29.769 --> 00:15:33.129 use for them. It is. In one fascinating case, 00:15:33.529 --> 00:15:35.690 they didn't just use them as weapons. A tank 00:15:35.690 --> 00:15:37.990 drove along the front line acting as an armored 00:15:37.990 --> 00:15:41.389 tractor, literally unrolling new spools of barbed 00:15:41.389 --> 00:15:43.909 wire behind it to secure a position the British 00:15:43.909 --> 00:15:46.070 had just captured. That's brilliant. But they 00:15:46.070 --> 00:15:48.740 were incredibly vulnerable. Many of them broke 00:15:48.740 --> 00:15:51.440 down mechanically in the sand. Others were easily 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:54.480 spotted and disabled by concentrated Ottoman 00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:57.220 artillery fire. Because they're big, slow targets. 00:15:57.460 --> 00:16:00.639 Exactly. In one particularly grim instance, reserve 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:02.659 tanks that were brought forward to carry engineering 00:16:02.659 --> 00:16:05.620 supplies had their payloads of sandbags set on 00:16:05.620 --> 00:16:08.500 fire by hostile shots. How does a sandbag catch 00:16:08.500 --> 00:16:11.240 fire? Well, early armor was highly prone to drawing 00:16:11.240 --> 00:16:13.740 sparks from bullet impacts, which could ignite 00:16:13.740 --> 00:16:16.340 anything flammable strapped to the outside. Wow. 00:16:17.100 --> 00:16:19.179 So if we take a breath and look at everything 00:16:19.179 --> 00:16:21.600 we've covered so far, the massive fake naval 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:23.960 landings, the propaganda drops, the heaviest 00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:26.279 bombardment outside of Europe, the devastating 00:16:26.279 --> 00:16:28.580 night attacks, the contact mines, the burning 00:16:28.580 --> 00:16:31.779 tanks, we have to step back and ask the big question. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:34.220 So what does this all mean? Why throw all of 00:16:34.220 --> 00:16:38.100 this at Gaza? Well, here is the absolute biggest 00:16:38.100 --> 00:16:41.659 twist of this entire deep dive. This whole brutal, 00:16:41.659 --> 00:16:45.759 massive, complex assault on Gaza wasn't actually 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:48.379 designed to capture Gaza. That is the pivotal 00:16:48.379 --> 00:16:50.919 strategic revelation of this entire campaign. 00:16:51.799 --> 00:16:54.080 General Allenby never intended for this frontal 00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:56.580 assault to take the city. The third battle of 00:16:56.580 --> 00:17:00.980 Gaza was, at its core, a massive, bloody, highly 00:17:00.980 --> 00:17:02.909 elaborate pinning maneuver. It's like holding 00:17:02.909 --> 00:17:04.750 someone by the collar so they can't move while 00:17:04.750 --> 00:17:07.289 someone else delivers the knockout punch. Exactly. 00:17:07.849 --> 00:17:10.049 Allen B knew that if he wanted to genuinely break 00:17:10.049 --> 00:17:12.910 the Ottoman lines, he had to do it miles away 00:17:12.910 --> 00:17:15.490 to the east, at places like Beersheba and Sharia, 00:17:15.789 --> 00:17:17.970 where the defenses were slightly less concentrated. 00:17:18.430 --> 00:17:20.849 But to do that, he needs the Gaza garrison to 00:17:20.849 --> 00:17:23.210 stay put. He needed the 8 ,000 veteran defenders 00:17:23.210 --> 00:17:25.769 of Gaza to stay exactly where they were. If those 00:17:25.769 --> 00:17:28.089 8 ,000 Ottoman troops had realized the main attack 00:17:28.089 --> 00:17:30.890 was happening inland and moved to reinforce Beersheba, 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:32.740 the whole British offensive would have collapsed. 00:17:32.920 --> 00:17:35.380 So he gives them a very loud, very deadly reason 00:17:35.380 --> 00:17:39.440 to stay. Yes. He threw this terrifying, overwhelming, 00:17:39.980 --> 00:17:42.519 multi -day assault at Gaza purely to lock them 00:17:42.519 --> 00:17:45.339 in place. He had to make it look and feel like 00:17:45.339 --> 00:17:48.400 the main event. And it worked perfectly. The 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:50.579 Ottoman forces were thoroughly convinced Gaza 00:17:50.579 --> 00:17:53.240 was the primary target. They kept their forces 00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:55.480 there, fighting desperately to hold the ruined 00:17:55.480 --> 00:17:57.599 trenches. Doing exactly what Allenby wanted. 00:17:57.660 --> 00:18:00.299 Right. But by doing so, they allowed their lines 00:18:00.299 --> 00:18:03.519 to be shattered inland. By November 5th, the 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:06.220 Ottoman artillery at Gaza was exhausted. They 00:18:06.220 --> 00:18:08.940 only had about 300 shells left. Which is nothing 00:18:08.940 --> 00:18:11.460 after days of fighting. Nothing. When the Ottoman 00:18:11.460 --> 00:18:13.839 High Command realized their eastern flank had 00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:17.299 collapsed, they knew Gaza was completely untenable. 00:18:17.559 --> 00:18:19.940 During the night of November 6, then into the 00:18:19.940 --> 00:18:22.779 early hours of the 7th, the Ottoman forces skillfully 00:18:22.779 --> 00:18:25.819 and very quietly evacuated the city. Which is 00:18:25.819 --> 00:18:28.440 incredibly difficult to do. Retreating while 00:18:28.440 --> 00:18:30.559 in active contact with an enemy is one of the 00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:32.660 hardest military maneuvers to execute without 00:18:32.660 --> 00:18:34.700 turning it into a total rat. But they managed 00:18:34.700 --> 00:18:37.720 it. They did. They withdrew in good order to 00:18:37.720 --> 00:18:39.880 form a new defensive line further to the north. 00:18:40.380 --> 00:18:43.420 But the fact remains, Allenby's massive feint 00:18:43.420 --> 00:18:46.940 accomplished its strategic goal. The entire Gaza 00:18:46.940 --> 00:18:49.920 to Beersheba defensive line, which had held strong 00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:52.680 and frustrated the British since March, was finally 00:18:52.680 --> 00:18:55.220 broken. So the sun comes up on November 7th. 00:18:55.299 --> 00:18:57.960 The British infantry patrols creep forward, expecting 00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:01.259 machine gun fire, and find Gaza basically deserted 00:19:01.259 --> 00:19:05.150 and in ruins. The EEF occupies the city. But 00:19:05.150 --> 00:19:07.170 the deep dive doesn't end there because the fight 00:19:07.170 --> 00:19:10.349 is absolutely not over. Now begins the pursuit. 00:19:10.769 --> 00:19:12.890 And this pursuit is where the contrast between 00:19:12.890 --> 00:19:15.269 eras of warfare becomes incredibly stark. It 00:19:15.269 --> 00:19:17.509 really does. With the static trench lines broken, 00:19:17.849 --> 00:19:20.640 the cavalry was finally unleashed. specifically 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:23.720 the Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade, which included 00:19:23.720 --> 00:19:25.779 the Hyderabad and Mysore Lancers. These were 00:19:25.779 --> 00:19:28.240 traditional mounted cavalry troops armed with 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:31.579 lances and swords. Yes. On the morning of November 00:19:31.579 --> 00:19:34.259 7th, they literally rode their horses through 00:19:34.259 --> 00:19:38.160 the destroyed, smoking ruins of Gaza to chase 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:42.000 down the retreating Ottomans. By 1 .00 p .m., 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:44.299 they had reached a settlement called Beit Hanun, 00:19:44.599 --> 00:19:47.019 just north of Gaza, where they encountered a 00:19:47.019 --> 00:19:50.000 heavily armed Ottoman rearguard defending a ridge 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:53.279 with numerous machine guns. And in a scene straight 00:19:53.279 --> 00:19:55.849 out of the 19th century? the cavalry charged 00:19:55.849 --> 00:19:58.190 them. They charged machine guns on horseback. 00:19:58.289 --> 00:20:00.210 They fought their way up the ridge from the east 00:20:00.210 --> 00:20:02.690 and actually captured the position, taking prisoners 00:20:02.690 --> 00:20:05.569 and capturing artillery pieces. But amidst this 00:20:05.569 --> 00:20:07.910 dramatic charge, the sources highlight one of 00:20:07.910 --> 00:20:11.250 those wonderfully quirky logistical details that 00:20:11.250 --> 00:20:13.809 dictate the reality of desert warfare. I love 00:20:13.809 --> 00:20:15.930 this detail. During this capture, they secured 00:20:15.930 --> 00:20:18.230 the town's water pumping machinery completely 00:20:18.230 --> 00:20:20.809 intact. In the middle of the desert, an intact 00:20:20.809 --> 00:20:23.430 water pump is worth its weight in gold for a 00:20:23.430 --> 00:20:26.240 thirsty cavalry. Brigade, but there was a catch. 00:20:26.480 --> 00:20:28.160 Right. The pump didn't run on standard liquid 00:20:28.160 --> 00:20:30.740 fuel. It ran on gas made from charcoal. Which 00:20:30.740 --> 00:20:32.799 they didn't have. The cavalry couldn't even use 00:20:32.799 --> 00:20:34.980 it. They actually had to fall back to a different 00:20:34.980 --> 00:20:37.900 town entirely just to get water for their horses, 00:20:38.279 --> 00:20:40.859 while specialist engineers were brought up to 00:20:40.859 --> 00:20:42.599 completely convert the machinery so it could 00:20:42.599 --> 00:20:44.960 actually be utilized. It's a great reminder that 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:47.660 an army marches on its logistics. Absolutely. 00:20:48.259 --> 00:20:50.880 And speaking of the clash of eras, while the 00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:52.880 cavalry is dealing with charcoal water pumps 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:55.579 on the ground, the skies above them are painting 00:20:55.579 --> 00:20:57.920 a very different picture. If we connect this 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:00.960 to the bigger picture, the juxtaposition is stunning. 00:21:01.740 --> 00:21:04.640 Up in the sky, a completely new era of warfare 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:07.740 is dawning. The Royal Flying Corps took to the 00:21:07.740 --> 00:21:10.079 air in force to harass the retreat. Dropping 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:13.680 the cigarettes was over. Long over. They relentlessly 00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:16.579 bombed the retreating Ottoman trains, their aerodromes, 00:21:16.700 --> 00:21:18.920 their transport hubs, and the columns of marching 00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:21.759 troops. They were dropping bombs and strafing 00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:24.380 from low altitudes with machine guns. It was 00:21:24.380 --> 00:21:26.900 the terrifying new reality of combined air and 00:21:26.900 --> 00:21:29.700 ground warfare, happening simultaneously with 00:21:29.700 --> 00:21:32.759 the traditional cavalry pursuit. It really is 00:21:32.759 --> 00:21:35.920 a mind -bending clash of eras. To wrap this deep 00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:38.799 dive up, The Third Battle of Gaza is an incredible 00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:41.859 case study of how a seemingly unbreakable deadlock 00:21:41.859 --> 00:21:44.140 was finally shattered. It wasn't just brute force. 00:21:44.339 --> 00:21:48.539 No, it was this wild calculated cocktail of massive 00:21:48.539 --> 00:21:52.500 naval artillery power, the very first clunky 00:21:52.500 --> 00:21:56.599 tanks, literal ancient cavalry charges, and master 00:21:56.599 --> 00:21:58.960 level psychological deception that overloaded 00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:01.980 the enemy's ability to respond. This raises an 00:22:01.980 --> 00:22:03.799 important question. Something for you to think 00:22:03.799 --> 00:22:05.980 about as you tackle your own complex projects. 00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:08.259 We've talked a lot about the kinetic action today, 00:22:08.380 --> 00:22:11.059 the tanks, the ships, the Lancers. The loud stuff. 00:22:11.240 --> 00:22:13.400 Right, the loud stuff. But think back to the 00:22:13.400 --> 00:22:15.569 Egyptian labor corps. These are the logistics 00:22:15.569 --> 00:22:18.849 and supply workers. Yet Allenby used them to 00:22:18.849 --> 00:22:21.589 visibly board ships and sell the massive fake 00:22:21.589 --> 00:22:23.849 naval landing that kept the Ottomans paralyzed. 00:22:24.150 --> 00:22:26.829 He used his support staff as a primary weapon. 00:22:27.349 --> 00:22:29.309 Exactly. Yeah. In modern business leadership 00:22:29.309 --> 00:22:32.450 or strategy, we so often focus entirely on the 00:22:32.450 --> 00:22:34.339 soldiers. the engineers building the product, 00:22:34.440 --> 00:22:36.940 or the salespeople closing the deal. But how 00:22:36.940 --> 00:22:39.299 often do we overlook our logistics, our support 00:22:39.299 --> 00:22:42.279 structures, and our operational routines, failing 00:22:42.279 --> 00:22:44.380 to realize that they too can be leveraged as 00:22:44.380 --> 00:22:46.539 active instruments of strategy, misdirection, 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:49.279 and competitive advantage? That is an incredibly 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:51.559 profound thought to leave on, looking at every 00:22:51.559 --> 00:22:53.779 asset you have, not just the obvious ones, as 00:22:53.779 --> 00:22:56.319 a tool for strategy. Thank you so much for joining 00:22:56.319 --> 00:22:58.339 us on this deep dive into the source material 00:22:58.339 --> 00:23:00.880 behind the Third Battle of Gaza. We hope we've 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:02.960 given you some fresh perspectives on strategy, 00:23:03.500 --> 00:23:05.779 cognitive overload, and overcoming immovable 00:23:05.779 --> 00:23:08.799 obstacles. Until next time, stay curious.