British Army during the Victorian Era dependency, the Sudan. There were some bloody battles near the Red Sea port of Suakin as the British tried to redeem earlier Egyptian defeats. General Charles George Gordon was originally sent to superintend a withdrawal but chose instead to defend Khartoum against the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmed. After a prolonged siege, the Egyptian defenders of Khartoum were overwhelmed and Gordon was killed. A British relief expedition by camel across the deserts of northern Sudan arrived two days too late. Several years later, having rebuilt an Egyptian army (including British and many Sudanese troops) and constructed railways and fleets of Nile steamboats
HMS Khartoum (F45) HMS Khartoum (F45) HMS "Khartoum" was a K-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, ostensibly named after the capital of Sudan, Khartoum. "Khartoum" was launched on 6 February 1939. Her initial action occurred on 19 December 1939, during deployment in the Firth of Clyde, when she was subject to an unsuccessful torpedo attack by a submarine near Holy Isle. She then carried out an anti-submarine search for 24 hours without success. In February 1940, she was deployed for escort of convoys to Norway based at Rosyth where she sustained structural damage during anti-submarine operations at high speed in heavy weather and