'Wise Well' pronounced [biʔr ħaˈkiːm] ⓘ) was a British raid in Italian Cyrenaica (modern Libya) on 17 March 1916 to recover prisoners of war held by the Senussi.

Following the capture of Sollum on 14 March the British discovered evidence that the prisoners, survivors from two ships sunk by a German U-boat, were being held at the Bir Hakeim oasis, about 99 mi (160 km) to the west.

As Caliph of the Islamic faith, the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed V had some influence over the Senussi, Bedouin pastoralists of Italian Libya and the western portion of British Egypt.

A mobile force, the Light Armoured Car Brigade (Major Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster), had played an important part, being directed in its movements by aircraft.

The contents of the letter indicated the whereabouts of the survivors of the crew of the armed boarding steamer TSS Hibernia and some from the horse transport HMT Moorina, ships sunk by SM U-35 in the Mediterranean on 5 and 7 November 1915.

[4][a] The WFF intelligence officer, Captain Leopold Royle, questioned the Senussi prisoners and established that the crews of the ships were at Bir Hakeim.

Royle had knowledge of the area from his pre-war service with the Egyptian Coastguard and knew that the first 50 mi (80 km) of the desert was traversable by motor car.

[10] An armoured car driver, Sam Rolls, who wrote of the event in his 1937 memoir Steel Chariots in the Desert, stated that the British were shocked by the sight of the prisoners, whose 135 days of half-starvation in captivity had left them "living skeletons" and took vengeance on the Senussi.

Four of the prisoners had died, mainly due to hunger and the survivors had suffered from illness, dysentery, lice and effects of the hot days and cold nights.