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They succeeded in crossing the waterless Sinai desert, carrying assault rafts with them. The attackers were beaten back at the point of the bayonet, chiefly around the Tussum area where the 62nd Punjabis were opposing them, but not before managing to cross the Canal to the west bank.

The Indians took 600 prisoners in the action, during which the Turks sustained over 1,000 casualties. Allied casualties numbered no more than 150. From that point of view the enterprise was a Turkish failure. But by crossing the Sinai and then the Suez Canal, the Turks had severely shaken Allied confidence in their ability to hold the Canal. The incident compelled the British to expend huge amounts of manpower, effort, time and money in improving defences.

In 1916 the canal's defences were strengthened and extended eastward into the Sinai desert. Skirmishes between British and Turkish troops, and a steady undercurrent of Arab revolt against their Ottoman Empire masters, weakened the Turks, and by the beginning of 1917 they had withdrawn their forces from the Sinai peninsula.


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