1799 - The Battle of Aboukir

On July 25, 1799, at the Battle of Aboukir, the French under Napoleon and Murat defeated a Turkish-British army.

The Battle of Aboukir (Abukir) ended in triumph for Bonaparte and his cavalry commander Joachim Murat over a Turkish force which had landed at Aboukir with British support.

The Battle of  Aboukir (Abukir) was Napoleon Bonaparte's decisive victory over Seid Mustafa Pasha's Ottoman army on July 25, 1799, during the French invasion of Egypt (1798). No sooner had the French forces returned from a campaign to Syria, the Ottoman forces were transported to Egypt by Sidney Smith's British fleet to put an end to French rule in Egypt.

Seid Mustafa Pasha was an experienced commander who had fought against the Russians. He knew that cavalry charges against the French squares was futile. So, he sought to avoid them by fortifying his beachhead with two defensive lines. From this beachhead Mustafa could carry out the invasion of Egypt. However, Napoleon immediately saw the flaw in the tactic as it meant that the Turks had nowhere to run if routed.

The French attacked the Ottoman positions and quickly broke through the first defensive line before it was fully completed. The second line, however, proved tougher to defeat and the French withdrew for a while. As usual, the Ottoman army came out of their positions and began killing the wounded and mutilating the dead. At this point, cavalry general Murat saw his opportunity and attacked with his cavalry, quickly routing the exposed Turks.

Murat's charge was so rapid that he burst inside Mustafa's tent and captured the Turkish commander, severing two of the Turk's fingers with his sabre. In return, Mustafa shot Murat in the jaw. Immediately, Murat was operated on and resumed his duties the next day.

The Turkish army fled in panic. Some Ottomans drowned trying to swim to the British ships two miles away from shore, while others fled to Aboukir castle, but they surrendered shortly thereafter. The Turks suffered about 8,000 casualties and the French only 1,000. News of the victory reached France before Napoleon arrived in October and this made him even more popular, an important asset considering the troubles brewing in the French Directory. This battle temporarily secured France's control over Egypt.