The Battle of Tel El Kebir (often spelled Tel-El-Kebir) was fought on 13 September 1882 at Tell El Kebir in Egypt, 110 km north-north-east of Cairo. An entrenched Egyptian force under the command of Ahmed ʻUrabi was defeated by a British army led by Garnet Wolseley, in a sudden assault preceded by a march under cover of darkness. The battle was the decisive engagement of the Anglo-Egyptian War.
Background
Bombardment and invasion of Alexandria
On May 20, 1882, a combined Franco–British fleet arrived at Alexandria. At the same time, Egyptian troops were reinforcing the coastal defenses of the city in anticipation of an attack. These events heightened tension in Alexandria, and eventually triggered tumultuous rioting with loss of life on both sides. As a result of the riots, an ultimatum was sent to the Egyptian government demanding they order Urabi's officers in Alexandria to dismantle their coastal defence batteries. The Egyptian government refused. Meanwhile, tension increased between Britain and France over the crisis, as most of the losses had been non-French, the principal European beneficiaries of the revolution would be the French. Thus, the French government refused to support this ultimatum and decided against armed intervention.
When the ultimatum was ignored, Admiral Seymour gave the order for the Royal Navy to bombard the Egyptian gun emplacements at Alexandria. On July 11 at 7:00 am, the first shell was fired on Fort Adda by and by 7:10, the entire fleet was engaged. The coastal defenses returned fire soon after, with minimal effect and minimal casualties to the British fleet. No British ships were sunk. On July 13, a large naval force landed in the city. Despite heavy resistance from the garrison for several hours, the overwhelming superiority of the smaller British forces eventually forced the Egyptian troops to withdraw from the city.
Prelude
Lieutenant General Garnet Wolseley was placed in charge of a large force with the aim of destroying Urabi's regime and restoring the nominal authority of the Khedive Tawfiq. The total force was 24,000 British troops, which concentrated in Malta and Cyprus, and a force of 7,000 Indian troops which staged through Aden.
Wolseley first tried to reach Cairo directly from Alexandria. 'Urabi deployed his troops at Kafr El Dawwar between Cairo and Alexandria and prepared very substantial defences. There, attacks by British troops were repelled for five weeks at the Battle of Kafr El Dawwar.
Securing the canal
Wolseley then decided to approach Cairo from a different route. He resolved to attack from the direction of the Suez canal. 'Urabi knew that Wolseley's only other approach to Cairo was from the canal, and he wanted to block it. Ferdinand de Lesseps, upon knowing of Urabi's intentions, assured him the British would never risk damaging the canal, and would avoid involving it in operations at all costs according to Lutsky, he even "gave his word of honour to Urabi not to permit the landing of British troops in the Canal Zone, and Urabi trusted de Lesseps. By so doing, Urabi committed a grave military and political mistake". 'Urabi listened to his advice and did not block the canal, leaving it open for an invasion by British forces.
When Wolseley had arrived at Alexandria on 15 August he immediately began to organise the movement of troops through the Suez Canal to Ismaïlia. This was accomplished so quickly, Ismailia was occupied on 20 August without resistance.
Ismailia was quickly reinforced with 9,000 troops, with the engineers put to work repairing the railway line from Suez. A small force was pushed along the Sweet Water Canal to the Kassassin lock arriving on 26 August.
Egyptian attack at Kassassin
'Urabi attempted to repel the advance and attacked the British forces near Kassassin on 28 August. The British troops were caught by surprise, as they did not expect an attack. Fighting was intense but the two British battalions, with their 4 artillery pieces, held their position.
The British Heavy Cavalry, composed of the Household Cavalry and the 7th Dragoon Guards had been following the infantry and were encamped away. When the cavalry arrived, the British went onto the offensive and causing heavy casualties on the Egyptians, forced them to retreat .
A further attack by Egyptian forces at Kassassin was repulsed and the Egyptians retired to their lines to build defences.