Battle of Tell El Kebir

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.[7] 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 HMS Alexandra (1875) 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.

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,[9] 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.[10]^:67

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.

'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 4 miles (6.4 km) away. When the cavalry arrived, the British went onto the offensive and causing heavy casualties on the Egyptians, forced them to retreat 5 miles (8.0 km).[10]^:67

A further attack by Egyptian forces at Kassassin was repulsed and the Egyptians retired to their lines to build defences.[10]^:68

At around the same time as the first battle at Kassassin, the British scored a major success with the capture of the Egyptian chief military engineer, General Mahmoud Fehmy.[11] The exact circumstances of his capture are unclear - according to one account, he had changed into civilian clothes due to the heat, and had gone for a walk accompanied by only one other officer when he was ambushed by a group of British cavalrymen.[12] The loss of Fehmy was "a blow to the defence of Tel-el-Kebir for which there was no remedy", for the highly-regarded General had only recently arrived to oversee the construction of fortifications at the site.[13]