Cemal Paşa’s memoirs tell us about the ‘heroes of Gaza’: “The greatest hero of the Gaza defence is Major Hayri Efendi, who is the commander of the 125th Regiment. This distinguished person managed to protect his resistance and cold-bloodedness even in the most difficult situations and took the Mushroom Hill twice from the British with his regiment. His third capture of the hill was for good. During those attacks Lieutenant Cordier from the German machine gun detachment proved his gallantry and became a martyr. Captain Truschkowski, commander of Austrian batteries, died at one of his guns, in a way deserved by the most distinguished heroes.”

Where Turkish forces had previously been demoralized by the retreat through the Sinai, and were contemplating withdrawal towards Jerusalem, they were now motivated to defend the Gaza-Beersheba line. A second attempt to capture Gaza was launched on 17 April by which time the Turkish defenses were even more formidable. It started with the preliminary bombardment of the fortifications by British heavy guns south of Gaza joined by naval gunfire for two days. The infantry attack commenced on 19 August and this time the British were using 8 tanks and gas shells as well.

The attack came in three flanks; between Gaza and the Mediterranean shore, in the centre and between Gaza and the "Tank" Redoubt. All along the front the infantry were brought to a halt well short of their objectives while suffering heavy casualties from machine gun fire. The British left three of their tanks within the Turkish trench lines. After sustaining around 7,000 casualties the British called off the attack. Turks had to manage to hold Gaza at a cost of 2,000 casualties.

The second battle of Gaza was a disastrous defeat for the British. They made no progress, inflicted little damage and suffered heavy casualties that they could not easily afford. The War Office in London replaced General Murray with the cavalry commander, General Edmund Allenby, whose forces were expanded to contain three full army corps; two infantry and one mounted.

As of May 1917, the Turkish Fourth Army was consisting of 174,908 men, 36,225 animals, 5,351 camels, 145,840 rifles, 187 machine guns and 282 artillery pieces. Recruitments were arriving in order to strengthen the Turkish defensive line, which General Allenby was preparing to break.

The Yıldırım Army Group

Enver Paşa was seeing nightmares. He could not accept the fact that Baghdad was gone. In addition, troubles in Hejaz, Mecca’s loss and the desperation in Medina were making him anxious. He knew that Syria had to be saved. But at the same time the German High Command was asking him to capture Baghdad.

Enver Paşa was seized with this idea and planned to accomplish this goal by forming the Yıldırım (Lightning) Army Group. The Sixth Army was to be combined with a newly formed Seventh Army, which would then be deployed to upper Mesopotamia, under the command of the German General Erich von Falkenhayn, who arrived in Turkey on 7 May accompanied by a military/political mission of 100 officers and 5 million German marks.