Battle of Arara

Date	19 September 1918
Location	Wadi Ara (near Nablus), Palestine
Result	Franco-British victory

Belligerents

Commanders and leaders

Oberst G. von Oppen

Strength

Casualties and losses

218 Ottoman soldiers including six officers taken prisoner by the DFPS among 700 prisoners

535 including 23 French Armenian Legion dead
76 wounded

The Battle of Arara took place on 19 September 1918 during the Battle of Sharon, which along with the Battle of Nablus formed the set piece Battle of Megiddo fought between 19 and 25 September in the last months of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. During the infantry phase of the Battle of Sharon the British Empire 60th Division, XXI Corps attacked and captured the section of the front line nearest the Mediterranean coast under cover of an intense artillery barrage including a creeping barrage and naval gunfire while the 3rd (Lahore), 7th (Meerut) and 75th Divisions XXI Corps attacked the Tabsor group of trenches. These Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) victories over the entrenched Ottoman Eighth Army, composed of German and Ottoman soldiers, began the Final Offensive, ultimately resulting in the destruction of the equivalent of one Ottoman army, the retreat of what remained of two others, and the capture of many thousands of prisoners and many miles of territory from the Judean Hills to the border of modern-day Turkey. After the end of the battle of Megiddo, the Desert Mounted Corps pursued the retreating soldiers to Damascus, six days later. By the time an Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire five weeks later, Aleppo had been captured.