The Hyderabad connection to the historic Battle of Haifa

Hyderabad: Far away in the northern Israeli coastal city of Haifa, when the people every year remember the city’s liberation from Ottoman rule during World War I, on what is known as Haifa Day, the celebratory literature inevitably mentions Hyderabad. On Wednesday too, when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar unveiled a plaque at Ra’anana in […]

Hyderabad: Far away in the northern Israeli coastal city of Haifa, when the people every year remember the city’s liberation from Ottoman rule during World War I, on what is known as Haifa Day, the celebratory literature inevitably mentions Hyderabad.

On Wednesday too, when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar unveiled a plaque at Ra’anana in Israel, it was the same. Wondering how?

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More than 100 years ago, it was one of the most remembered cavalry campaigns in which three Indian Cavalry Regiments – Mysore, Hyderabad and Jodhpur Lancers – participated that helped liberate Haifa. They were part of the 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade of the then British Indian Army, with the action later coming to be known as the Battle of Haifa, 1918.

The three cavalry units were merged after Independence and came to be known as the Indian Army’s 61st Cavalry.

On Wednesday, when Jaishankar unveiled the plaque, he said the plaque was a step towards establishing an India Trail, marking the major points where Indian soldiers fought and paid supreme sacrifice in the line of duty in the region.

Unveiled the memorial plaque for Indian Army soldiers who fought at the Battle of Tabsor in the Megiddo Offensive of September 1918.

This is part of a larger India Trail that will bring out the role of our soldiers in shaping the history of this region. pic.twitter.com/YTVKdyARGU

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) October 20, 2021

According to agency reports, it is envisaged that the trail, India’s military war path, will involve six plaques at six places, of which Haifa and Ra’anana are a part. The trail is envisaged to be completed in 2022 to commemorate the 75th year of India’s Independence.

Fought on September 19-20, 1918, the Battle of Tabsor was an important battle that played a crucial role in the victory of the Entente Forces over the Ottoman armies in Palestine during WWI. A vast majority of the soldiers were Indian troops, comprising Punjabis, Sikhs, Gurkhas and soldiers from various other regions of undivided India.

Eran Tearosh, Chairman of the Society for the Heritage of World War I in Israel, participating in the ceremony, said the battle was a military masterpiece in terms of ‘deception and execution’ strategy.

“We owe a deep sense of gratitude to the Indian soldiers,” he said.

It is said that about 900 Indian soldiers are interred in cemeteries across Israel in Jerusalem, Ramle and Haifa. The Indian Army commemorates September 23 every year as Haifa Day to pay its respects to the three Cavalry Regiments of Mysore, Hyderabad and Jodhpur Lancers. The Israel Post had issued a commemorative stamp in 2018 in appreciation of the role of Indian soldiers in liberating the city.

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