TELFIT
1/40,000
Field Survey Coy., R.E,
GHQ, E.E.F., April 1918
(2nd Edition, Provisional)
Printed by The SURVEY OF EGYPT, April 1918
A very rare original 1918 ‘Secret’ edition of this British army trench map. This large, linen-backed folding map, (51cm x 72cm), covers part of the the area around Telfit in Palestine, and the Judean hills south east of Nablus. The map shows enemy positions - including trenches and gun emplacements. This map was produced for G.H.Q. Egyptian Expeditionary Force by the 7th Field Survey Company, Royal Engineers and the Survey of Egypt in April 1918, with additional information from RAF aerial reconnaissance photographs. Intended for use by British forces during the final stages of the Palestine Campaign of WW1, the map includes an overlaid artillery squared grid and lettering system. It would have been issued just after the Battle of Tell Asur (also known as the Battle of Turmus ‘Aya) which took place between 8th - 12th March 1918.
There are several handwritten pencil annotations - including notes of artillery barrage details, and barrage area symbols added at the bottom margins of the map. Barrages mentioned include: '85 or London Barrage', '109 Barrage', and “A” Barrage. These barrages were concentrated in the area around Turmus and Turmus Top. There are also several small hand-drawn marks in blue ink on one section - possibly denoting allied or enemy positions. These additions to the map most probably date from the time of the Battle of Megiddo and Battle of Nablus which were fought between 19th - 25th September 1918.
7th Field Survey Company, E.E.F.: produced a series of contoured maps on the scale of 1:40,000 of the coastal belt of Northern Sinai up to Rafa before July 1917. Work on this scale was continued up to the Gaza-Beersheba line, and a further series of 1:10,000 maps was started, showing the enemy trenches, barbed wire, and gun positions in greater detail. The work of the field parties included triangulation, detailed surveying with plane tables, showing contours, intersecting points in and beyond enemy’s lines, and fixing battery positions and datum points for the artillery. The RAF and Australian Flying Corps photographed enemy trench lines and copies were supplied to the Field Survey Company, and these were used in drawing up the maps. All enemy defence works and details of military importance were plotted by the Survey Company onto the maps. By August 1917 all the country from the sea near Gaza to south of Beersheba was mapped, including all enemy trenches, and published in nine sheets on the 1:40,000 scale, and seventeen sheets on the 1:10,000 scale.
Owing to the large number of 1:10,000 scale sheets required to cover the whole line of trench systems, the scale of 1:20,000 was adopted and eighteen sheets were prepared, and twenty-eight editions printed, nineteen of them by the Survey Company, Printing Section, and nine by the Survey of Egypt, Cairo. Of the area covered by these sheets, 282 square miles were surveyed, and 403 square miles were compiled from over 3,000 aerial photographs. The scale of 1:20,000 was continued for a time, but the extent of the country to be mapped meant the scale of 1: 40,000 was adopted again for the general map, while shortly before the British attack in September, five sheets were printed at 1:20,000, covering areas where enemy trench systems were most extensive. The operations maps of the 1:40,000 scale series were printed in four colours: the wadis, roads, railways, villages, wells, and other topographical features, the lettering and also the numbered reference grid, were in black, contours in brown, trees in green, and enemy trenches, gun emplacements, and barbed wire in red over black. Different classes of roads were also indicated in red. Contours were surveyed at twenty metres vertical interval in the hilly country and at ten metres on the plain, with spot heights on the hills. A small number of sheets were also overprinted with a special grid sub-division and enemy battery numbers in blue, for the use of the artillery in counter-battery work.
Battle of Nablus 1918: took place, together with the Battle of Sharon during the set piece Battle of Megiddo between 19 and 25 September 1918 in the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. Fighting took place in the Judean Hills where the British Empire's XX Corps attacked the Ottoman Empire's Yildirim Army Group's Seventh Army defending their line in front of Nablus. This battle was also fought on the right flank in the Jordan Valley, where Chaytor's Force attacked and captured the Jordan River crossings, before attacking the Fourth Army at Es Salt and Amman capturing many thousands of prisoners and extensive territory. The Battle of Nablus began half a day after the main Battle of Sharon, which was fought on the Mediterranean section of the front line where the XXI Corps attacked the Eighth Army defending the line in front of Tulkarm and Tabsor and the Desert Mounted Corps which rode north to capture the Esdrealon Plain. Together these two battles, known as the Battle of Megiddo, began the Final Offensive of the war in the Sinai and Palestine campaign.
By the afternoon of 19 September, it was clear that the breakthrough attacks in the Battle of Sharon by the XXI Corps had been successful, and the XX Corps was ordered to begin the Battle of Nablus by attacking the well-defended Ottoman front line, supported by an artillery barrage. These attacks continued late into the night and throughout the next day, until the early hours of 21 September when the continuing successful flanking attack by the XXI Corps, combined with the XX Corps assault and aerial bombing attacks, forced the Seventh and Eighth Armies to disengage. The Ottoman Seventh Army retreated from the Nablus area down the Wadi el Fara road towards the Jordan River, aiming to cross at the Jisr ed Damieh bridge, leaving a rearguard to defend Nablus. The town was captured by the XX Corps and the 5th Light Horse Brigade, while devastating aerial bombing of the Wadi el Fara road, blocked that line of retreat. As all objectives had now been won, no further attacks were required of the XX Corps, which captured thousands of prisoners in the area and at Nablus and Balata.
Defending the right flank and subsidiary to the Nablus battle, the Third Transjordan attack began on 22 September when Meldrum's Force, a section of Chaytor's Force captured the 53rd Ottoman Division on the Wadi el Fara road, running from Nablus to the bridge at Jisr ed Damieh over the Jordan River. Further sections of the retreating Seventh Army column were attacked and captured, during the subsequent battle for the bridge when several fords were also captured along with the bridge, cutting this main Ottoman line of retreat eastwards. As the Fourth Army began its retreat, Chaytor's Force supported by reconnaissance and attacking aircraft, advanced from Jisr ed Damieh to the east to capture Es Salt on 23 September. This force continued its advance eastwards, to capture Amman on 25 September, after a strong Fourth Army rearguard was defeated there. The southern Hedjaz section of the Fourth Army was captured to the south of Amman, at Ziza on 29 September, ending military operations in the area. Following the victory at Megiddo, the Final Offensive continued when Damascus was captured on 1 October, after several days of pursuit by the Desert Mounted Corps. A further pursuit resulted in the occupation of Homs. On 26 October, the attack at Haritan, north of Aleppo, was under-way when the Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire, ending the Sinai and Palestine campaign.
Palestine Campaign in WW1: The British invasion of Ottoman-held Palestine in 1917–18 was the third campaign launched by the British against the Ottoman Turks in the Middle East in the First World War. It built on the advances made in Mesopotamia (Iraq) and the Sinai in 1916. Having defeated Ottoman forces in the Sinai Desert campaign, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) – which included the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade and the Imperial Camel Corps – attacked Gaza, the gateway to Palestine, in March 1917. But the First and Second Battles of Gaza ended in failure. Following a major reorganisation and with more thorough preparation, the British forces won a brilliant victory in the Third Battle of Gaza in October–November 1917. The EEF went on to capture Jaffa, most of southern Judea and the city of Jerusalem – a victory hailed as a ‘Christmas present for the British nation’. After a series of raids into Jordan in early 1918 were beaten back, the EEF went on the defensive for some months because of the urgent need for reinforcements on the Western Front. A final drive, beginning with the Battle of Megiddo in September 1918, led to the destruction of three Ottoman field armies, the capture of 76,000 prisoners of war and the rapid conquest of Palestine, Jordan and southern Syria. Within two weeks the EEF’s old enemy was in total disarray and the war in the Middle East was effectively over.
Condition:
In fair to good condition, with general signs of use, wear at the edges and folds, some marks, creases, and some marks and wear to the linen backing. The worn areas at the folds have been carefully reinforced with archival paper tape. There are several small hand-drawn marks in blue ink on one section - possibly denoting allied or enemy positions. There are also some pencil annotations to the map and its bottom margins, with details of artillery barrages around the area of Turmus and Turmus Top.
Published: 1918
Linen-backed folding map
Scale: 1:40,000
Dimensions: 51cm x 72cm
