12th Sudanese Battalion awaiting the Dervish attack, Omdurman, 2 September 1898 (b/w photo)

12th Sudanese Battalion awaiting the Dervish attack, Omdurman, 2 September 1898. Photograph, 2nd Sudan War (1896-1899), 1898. Members of the 12th Sudanese Battalion man a makeshift line prior to the deciding battle of the 2nd Sudan War. Omdurman was situated just north of Khartoum and marked the culmination of Major-General Sir Horatio Herbert (later Field Marshal, 1st Earl) Kitchener's campaign for the re-conquest of the Sudan. Kitchener commanded a force of 8,000 British regulars and a mixed force of 17,000 Sudanese and Egyptian soldiers. Armed with modern rifles, Maxim guns and artillery they easily defeated the 50,000 strong Dervish army of Abdullah al-Taashi. Kitchener's force lost 48 men with 382 wounded as opposed to the 10,000 dead and 13,000 wounded of the Dervishes.