The story
On September 2, 1898, an Anglo-Egyptian army of about 25,000 under Herbert Kitchener met the army of the Khalifa Abdullahi, successor to the Mahdi, outside Omdurman, across the Nile from Khartoum. Kitchener's troops had rifles, artillery, Maxim machine guns and river gunboats. The Mahdist army, which was perhaps twice as large, attacked in waves and was cut down. Roughly 10,000 Mahdists were killed, against fewer than fifty on the Anglo-Egyptian side by the usual count.
The battle avenged the death of General Gordon at Khartoum in 1885 and ended thirteen years of Mahdist rule. Kitchener slowly built a railway south through the desert to supply the advance. Soon afterward he met a French expedition under Jean-Baptiste Marchand at Fashoda on the Nile, and France backed down. In 1899, Britain and Egypt set up a joint rule, the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, over Sudan. The young Winston Churchill took part in the 21st Lancers' cavalry charge.
Why it mattered
- Omdurman gave Britain control of the upper Nile and Sudan.
- The Fashoda Incident that followed ended French hopes of a belt of colonies across Africa.
- It became a famous example of machine guns against much larger forces in colonial war.
Sources
- Al-Mahdiyyah Britannica
- History of Sudan Britannica
- Imperial trophies: Collecting on campaign during the reconquest of the Sudan National Army Museum
Drafted by AI (Claude) from the sources above and checked against them by AI; no historian has reviewed this page. Spot a mistake? Suggest a correction. How pages are made
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