How Great Generals Win by Bevin Alexander

Author:Bevin Alexander [Alexander, Bevin]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 1993-08-16T16:00:00+00:00

T. E. LAWRENCE

UPI/Bettmann

Lawrence was impressed with Feisal and sized up the military situation with great acumen, recommending that money, weapons, and a few British officers be sent to Feisal but no Allied troops. He believed the proud Arabs would fight better on their own as guerrillas than with European troops, who would consider them second-class soldiers. Murray, who wanted to keep all his forces in Egypt and Palestine, favored this recommendation and sent Lawrence back to the Hejaz.

Lawrence worked on a joint expedition to capture the port of Wejh (Al Wagh) on the Red Sea, 400 air miles northwest of Mecca. A force under Feisal and Lawrence was to attack the port from the interior while six British warships with Arab infantry and British marines assaulted it from the sea. Despite an arduous march through the desert, Feisal’s men arrived too late, after the seaborne attack had already seized Wejh. This seemed to confirm suspicions by professional army officers that the Arabs were unreliable, and Lawrence and a few attached British officers began training Feisal’s men to carry out military duties more proficiently.

On advice of the British, the Arabs’ attention now centered on breaking Turkish hold on the railway that ran down to Medina from Damascus, Syria, the sole means of supply for the Turkish army in the Hejaz. To establish a base from which to operate guerrilla teams against this railway, Lawrence conceived the idea of seizing the port of Aqaba, at the northern end of the Red Sea, 250 air miles northwest of Wejh. Instead of marching directly against Aqaba, however, Lawrence and Feisal undertook a long and extremely difficult roundabout 800-mile journey through deserts considered to be impassable and descended from the rear on July 6, 1917, achieving complete surprise and quickly capturing the port.

This superb strategic move gave the Arabs a firm base and transformed a liaison officer with the Arab army into Lawrence of Arabia, the active leader of the revolt.

The capture of Aqaba came only a few days after the general who was to develop and carry out the Palestine campaign, Sir Edmund Allenby, arrived at Cairo to replace Murray as supreme commander.

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