page_title: Battle of Nablus (1918)
section_title: Yildirim Army Group
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Nablus (1918) / Prelude / Yildirim Army Group
caption_attribution_description: English: General Otto Liman von Sanders at the Ottoneum circa 1913
context_page_description: The Battle of Nablus 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.
context_section_description: In August 1918, the Yildirim Army Group commanded by von Sanders consisted of 40,598 front line infantrymen, organised into twelve divisions and deployed along 90 kilometres (56 mi) of front line. They were armed with 19,819 rifles, 273 light and 696 heavy machine guns; the high number of machine guns reflecting the Ottoman Army's new tables of organization and the high machine gun component of the German Asia Corps.
  The Ottoman front line in the Judean Hills was well entrenched south of Nablus in terrain which favoured defence. The area consisted of "very difficult and broken ground" in a rugged area of the Judean Hills. The defenders were supplied by two railways, one from Haifa and the main railway via Beisan across the Jordan to Deraa, Damascus and on to Istanbul as well as good roads from Haifa and Damascus, via Nazareth.
caption: Otto Liman von Sanders
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