THE MIDDLE EAST FRONT        

THE ARAB REVOLT 1916 - 1918

T.E. LAWRENCE (“LAWRENCE OF ARABIA”)      

THE CAPTURE OF AQABA:  JULY 1917

Acknowledgements

Map of Hejaz: en,wikipedia.org Arab Revolt: awayfromthewesternfront.org Arab Raid: britannica.com. film Lawrence of Arabia, directed David Lean, Columbia Pictures Lawrence of Arabia: by the Welsh artist Augustus John (1878-1961) Gertrude Bell: thedailybeast.com.

    The Arab Revolt which broke out in the state of Hejaz in western Saudi Arabia in June 1916 came as no real surprise. As the Ottoman Empire shrank in size, the Arabs became evermore conscious of their own identity – particularly in the Arabian Peninsula – and increasingly alarmed about the direction in which the Empire was going. The Young Turks, coming to prominence in 1908, had introduced a policy of Turkish nationalism to replace what they saw as the failure of a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society. As we have seen, Enver Pasha, Minister of War, called for the unity of the Ottoman Turks with the Turkish peoples of Russian Central Asia. He envisaged a Turkish Empire that stretched from the Balkans to the Far East. Understandably, given such a prospect, the other ethnic groups felt dangerously sidelined, and none more so than the Arabs, who made up something like 60% of the empire. They saw the need to take action and, with the British preparing to launch their Sinai-Palestine Campaign, this appeared to be an appropriate time. Havingxreceived a good measure of money and weapons from the British, the Sheriff of Mecca, Hussein Ibn Ali, proclaimed Arab independence on the 9th June, and an immediate attack was launched, led by Emir Hussein’s three sons, Ali, Faisal and Abdullah. With a force of some 5,000 camel riders and 5,000 foot soldiers, Mecca and Jedda were quickly seized by mid June (see map), and by the end of the year the Red Sea ports of Jiddah, Rabigh, Yanbo, Al Lith, and Al Qunfudah had also been captured, along with the ancient city of Al Taif in the Sarawat Mountains. By that point, however, the rebellion had lost much of its momentum. The Turks remained in full control of the Arabian interior, had kept a firm hold on Medina, and appeared poised to crush the revolt.

THOMAS EDWARD LAWRENCE (“LAWRENCE OF ARABIA”)

    Fortunately for the Arabs, additional help was at hand. Not surprisingly, General Edmund Allenby, the new commander of the Sinai-Palestine Campaign, welcomed the uprising and was prepared to increase British support. This revolt tied down Ottoman troops along the east coast of the Red Sea, thereby decreasing pressure on his planned invasion of Palestine. He was willing to provide the insurgents with more gold and war material, and a number of liaison officers were appointed to make the necessary arrangements and, where needed, to act as military advisors. Among these was a young Lieutenant named Thomas Edward Lawrence, an archaeologist who had worked for four years in Syria; had learnt to speak Arabic well; and had acquired a deep sympathy for the Arabs, burdened, as he saw it, by the corruption and inefficiency of their Turkish overseers. Given that background, he soon became a close friend of Prince Faisal and one of his trusted advisors. Initially – fully au fait as he was with the delicate negotiating process required – he won over a large number of local tribal leaders to the rebel cause, thereby adding to the strength of the coalition. This achieved, he, together with several other British and French officers, played a prominent part in the fighting itself. Overxthe next two years, as the Ottomans were pushed further and further north, he led more than a dozen successful attacks upon the Turks, mainly aimed at the Hejaz Railway that ran from Medina to Damascus (see map). Though he had had no military training as such, he showed a remarkable ability at guerrilla warfare in this particular type of terrain. He employed small unit tactics, with hit and run raids of no more than 100 to 200 tribesmen, and they proved highly effective. The damage caused by such attacks not only involved hundreds of Turks in the constant repair of the track, but also marooned a force of some 12,000 in the capital city ofxMedina.

    Opinion varies as to Lawrence’s contribution in the Arab Revolt. Given the publicity that his particular role later aroused, it may well have become exaggerated in some measure. However, it was certainly very significant.xApart from his hit and run attacks on the Hejaz railway (in common with a number of other Allied officers), as advisor to Prince Faisal, the commander of the Arab army (or Sharifian Army), he was often in the forefront of the action. He isxparticularly remembered for his plan of attack on the vital port of Aqaba (see map above). Launchedxfrom the Arab headquarters at the port of Wejh (captured in January 1917), this daring venture involved the outstanding Battle of Aba el Lissan, on the 2nd July. Around 460 Turks were killed or captured for the loss of two Arabs, and Aqaba was occupied four days later. Situated at the head of the Red Sea, this port proved of immense value for the supply of men and equipment, not only to the Arabs, but also to the Sinai-Palestinian Campaign already under way. For his part in this event, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, and described as “the mainspring of the Arab movement” by no less than General Allenby. And, as we shall see, with the ending of the war, he became deeply involved in the political struggle to give the Arabs their own state, as he and others had openly promised. He failed in that task but, at the Cairo Conference in March 1921, Faisal was put on the throne of Iraq, and his brother Abdullah was made Emir of Transjordan. That was some measure of consolation.  

    Lawrence’sxinternational fame, immortalized in the legend of “Lawrence of Arabia”, was launched in 1919 when Lovell Thomas, an accredited American war correspondent, met up with him in Jerusalem. They spent some time together during which Lovell learnt of his exploits in the desert and had photographs taken of him in his Arab robes. The romantic and adventurous “tales” of this dashing desert fighter quickly captured the public imagination, carried afar by illustrated lectures and then a series of film shows in New York and London. By 1922, this burst of media frenzy, together with his failure to achieve Arab freedom in full, weighed heavily upon him. In an attempt, it would seem, to become incognito and regain his privacy – though that was never to be likely – this enigma of a man joined the Royal Air Force as an aircraftsman in August of that year (taking the name John Hume Ross), and when this came to light and he was discharged, served for a while as a private in the Royal Tank Corps, (taking the name of T.E. Shaw). It was at that time that he bought his cottage, Clouds Hill, near Bovington Camp in Dorset, and it was close to there in 1935 – after another period of service in the Royal Air Force (including time in India) – that he met his death. He was returning home on his treasured motor bike, after a visit to the camp’s post office, when he was forced to swerve to avoid two young cyclists. As a result, he was thrown off his bike and fatally wounded. Among those who attended the funeral at the tiny chuch of St. Nicholas, Moreton, was the politician Winston Churchill and his wartime commander Field Marshal Viscount Allenby.

    Incidentally, worthyxof mention here is the remarkable British traveller, writer and archaeologist Gertrude Bell (1868-1926). After spending many years in Syria, she developed a love of the Arab peoples and was a force in Middle East politics during the Arab Revolt and the postwar settlement. She assisted Lawrence in rallying support from the various tribes within the Hejaz Region, and it is said that her situation reports where also of value to him during the advance towards Aquaba and beyond. At the Cairo Conference of 1921 – the only woman in attendance – she came out strongly in favour of Prince Faisal as the first monarch of Iraq. She travelled twice around the globe, was an accomplished mountaineer, and in the field of archaeology – her major interest – was responsible for the creation of the archaeological museum in Baghdad. It is not surprising, perhaps, that she became known as “the female Lawrence of Arabia”! ……

     …… The English poetxand writer Robert Graves, who saw action on the Western Front until being badly wounded at the Battle of the Somme, met Lawrence when he was studying at Oxford University in 1919. He got to know the legendary Lawrence quite well, and when he wrote his biography in 1927, he was in a good position to separate the man from the myth. It sold well, and both hoped that it would serve to discourage the reading of misleading and inaccurate works about “Lawrence of Arabia”. In this early period of his literary career, he wrote a number of war poems, including Over the Brazier in 1916, and his autobiography Goodbye to All That, published in 1929.

     Following the capture of Aqaba in July 1917, the Arab force (re-equipped and renamed the Arab Northern Army), continued its advance northwards, and was soon working in liaison with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, operating on the other side (the western side) of the Dead Sea and the River Jordan. This Force, as we shall see, having won the Third Battle of Gaza in November 1917 (under their new commander General Edmund Allenby), was also moving up the Mediterranean coast of Palestine, aiming to take the Holy City of Jerusalem by the end of the year. It was to do so, but only after some fierce fighting.

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