Masters of Mayhem by Stejskal James;

Author:Stejskal, James; [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War I
Publisher: Casemate UK
Published: 2018-08-18T20:00:00+00:00

the two gun-instructors, Sergeant Yells A. I. F. and Corporal Brooke 25/R. W. F. who came with me on this trip. Neither spoke a word of Arabic, and they went into action with only Bedouin support, against superior numbers. They accounted for about half the Turkish casualties and behaved well on the march as in action. I do not think the Arabs could possibly have carried the train before Turkish relief came had they not been present.

For their actions both awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

The fort at Mudowarra was the most important stop between Medina and Ma’an but it could not yet be attacked with the forces available to the Arabs. It would have to wait. Returning to Akaba, Lawrence and Joyce continued their discussions on operations.8 Through Clayton, Lawrence tried to communicate his displeasure to Sykes over the agreement to partition Arabia after the war. He penned an extremely negative letter on the politics and deception he was required to undertake with Feisul and the movement. Clayton chose not to forward the letter and counselled Lawrence to drop his disagreement with the issue for the time being. It was an indicator of the burden Lawrence and a number of the politically attuned officers of the Mission had to silently deal with while advising the Arabs.

More French advisors had joined the operation at Akaba, including Captain Rosario Pisani, a French Algerian officer who commanded around 200 colonial troops. They also brought four Schneider quick-firing mountain guns to the fight, which would later prove valuable. Pisani was not as politically attuned or demonstrative as Brémond, but he did know that France intended to occupy Syria at war’s end and was determined that he and his men should not accompany any of Feisul’s expeditions into that territory.

At the end of September, Lawrence departed on another mission while Joyce was left to deal with the supply conundrum at the port. The Arabs were becoming restless because the Arab Bureau could not compute their numbers and how short they were of supplies.

Lawrence took Pisani on this raid to introduce him to the Bedouin way of war, tempting him with the mention of the possible award of a British Military Cross in the future.9 After Hallat Amar, there was no shortage of volunteers and many had to be denied participation. Only 150 men would go out on the trip. That said, a huge caravan of camels was brought along in anticipation of much loot. They looked at one possible raid site but found it too heavily guarded by newly constructed blockhouses and backed off to search for another location. Finding a more suitable spot with over two miles between guard posts, they laid a new type of automatic mine and then retired up a valley to wait. It seemed like an interminable amount of time for a train to pass. While waiting, hidden in the bushes, Lawrence was stung by a scorpion. He was dealing with the pain when a water train passed but the mine did not fire.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.