Talk:Siege of El Arish

Military history: French / Napoleonic era

This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history articles

This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status:
Referencing and citation: criterion not met Coverage and accuracy: criterion met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met

Associated task forces:
/
	French military history task force
	Napoleonic era task force (c. 1792 – 1815)

Sources[edit]

I'm trying to make sense of this article, but it's not easy due to the lack of sources. The infobox claims that 2,460 French soldiers took part in the siege, while the article itself says a vanguard of 2,160 – neither number is supported by sources. Furthermore, a number of merely 2,160–2,460 soldiers seems incomplete, as Napoleon is later mentioned having arrived with the main body of French troops – why is he included in the infobox while his arriving forces are not? Regarding the Ottomans, the article mentions that the "fortress contained a total of 15,500 soldiers under the command of Mustafa Pasha", while the infobox have Abdullah Pasha as commander. Also, the infobox mentions 3,000 Ottoman casualties (including the preceding skirmish?) – what happened to the remaining 12,500 Ottoman troops supposedly contained inside the fortress? Were these actually routed in the skirmish? Also, is the "Initial Skirmish" section and the action in the beginning of the "Siege" section the same event, or is it a different one? It's a little bit confusing, that's all. Imonoz (talk) 23:41, 12 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]