The Rumble

Did a bit of snooping and came up with a revised British army count, there were closer to 8000 soldiers. This really didn't matter that much against them, as I've noted above, the Dervishes, as they have been called, were not used to modern warfare, and lacked the dicipline to fight underground in any effective way. Unlike the modern Middle East conflicts where fighters adapt new to new methods and technology very quickly, tradition and trust in the old ways spelled their doom.


Sudanese tribesmen (Dervishes) led by the Khalifa Abdullah el Taashi attacked the British early on September 2nd. Rifle and cannon fire cut them down like hay. Witnesses saw few make it it close enough to the British lines to wack off any heads. The Mahdis had broken their forces into about 5 groups stationed at various opportunistic points. They held superiority in numbers and may have known that before the fight, making use of a good local spy network of sympathetic Sudanese. This is why perhaps they just went at the British and Egyptians head on instead of a slower, guerilla style battle.

General Horatio Kitchener led the British side and at first he too didn't make use of field intelligence. After the first fighting was over and he clearly was winning he mistakenly supposed that was it and headed after the remaining Dervishes. He was anxious to occupy Omdurman and found there were enemies behind every hill and tree.

The rear guard was led by Major General Hector MacDonald, "Fighting Mac". His was easily the tougher of the fights and most of the Britsh casualties came from his battles. Kitchener had good field communications set up and sent units back and forth throughout the battle to shore up sagging lines.

In a battle where over 10,000 were killed and 15,000 wounded( almost all Mahdist Sudanese) it stuns the mind to think that most of it took place before lunch.