Ottoman soldiers leaving Yemen from Hudaydah in early 1919.

December 16 1918, Hudaydah–The Turks had had the upper hand in Yemen for most of the war, even nearly capturing Aden in 1915. The area remained relatively quiet in the war’s latter years, however, as the British did not want to commit troops to such a remote theater and the Turks were largely cut off by the Hashemite revolt. The Armistice of Mudros drastically changed the situation, as it called for the surrender of all Turkish garrisons in the area to the Allies. However, this was easier said than done. First of all, there was at this point no direct communication with the Turkish forces there, as all telegraph lines had been cut and they had no radio receivers; this meant the order had to be relayed through the British, and it was received skeptically at best. Furthermore, Imam Yahya, who had poor relations with the Allies (who had aligned with the Idrisids), was reluctant to let the Turks depart, and refused to let them surrender.

The British, fearing that the Italians (who had a presence across the Red Sea in Eritrea) would try to take advantage of the confusion, decided to force the issue by seizing the port of Hudaydah, giving them a port in northern Yemen from which they could accept the surrender of the Turkish forces. The British landed north of the town on the 15th, and captured it after a couple of hours of fierce fighting, and defended it from a Turkish counterattack that night. The capture of Hudaydah, over six weeks after the Armistice of Mudros, marked the last conflict with the Turks of the war, though it would take some time for the Turkish forces to surrender–they would not begin in earnest until late January, and the last would not surrender until March 1919. The British would remain in Hudaydah until January 1921, when they turned the port over to their Idrisid allies. Imam Yahya would ultimately come out on top in the civil war in northern Yemen, however, and his forces took control of the town in March 1925.

In 2018, Hudaydah is once again the locus of fighting in Yemen, with Saudi-backed forces having launched an offensive against the city in an effort to cut off supplies from the Houthis.

Sources include: John Baldry, The British Military Administration of Al-Hudaydah, Yemen.