Omdurman
by Philip Ziegler
Category: Omdurman, Battle of, Omdurman, Sudan, 1898

General Kitchener amassed his Anglo-Egyptian troops in Cairo and set off into the desert with a motley arm which, as time went on, included the Grenadier Guards, the Rifle Brigade and kilted Highlanders; The Camel Corps with 5,000 camels, infantry packed into trucks on the newly constructed railway line; and a flotilla of gunboats overloaded with cavalry and supplies. The going was often tough and the opposition from the Government in London seemed sometimes as obdurate as that provided by the Dervishes. But, in 1898 the army at last came in sight of Omdurman capital of the Mahdi's successor, the Khalifa. The story of the battle which followed, a clash between spears, swords and frenzied courage on the one hand and the grim application of rifle and gunboat fire on the other, is breathtaking, bizarre and beautifully handled by the author.