T.E. Lawrence. Perhaps no other name from
the First World War has the same almost mythlike status as Lawrence of Arabia, the modern Robin
Hood with his tales of courage and adventure that remain in our imagination even today,
and that’s the man I’m going to talk about right now.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to Great War bio special of who did what in world war one?
Today featuring Lawrence o f Arabia.
Thomas Edward Lawrence was born in Tremadoc in Wales August 16, 1888.
Quite early in life he developed an interest in medieval history and military fortifications
and would even choose “military history and strategy” as his field of expertise
for his exams as a young man. In 1908 he joined the Oxford University Officers’ Training
Corps. Britain did not practice conscription so such Corps gave students the chance to
practice at least basic military training. In June 1909, having been recommended for
a job in Palestine, he set off for the Ottoman Empire, but when Britain and t he Empire found
themselves on opposite sides of the Great War in 1914, Lawrence was assigned to Cairo
and promoted to Staff Captain.
Nick: Hey! That’s not T. E. Lawrence! That’s Peter O’Toole playing him in Lawrence of Arabia.
Indy: What? Who are you?
Nick: I am Nick from HistoryBuffs - I am reviewing historical movies all the time and was just
talking about the legendary Lawrence of Arabia. You should come over and check it out. I mean,
did you know that the soldiers in the movie are actually played by the real Jordanian Arab Legion?
Indy: The Arab Legion? You had my curiosity but now you have my attention.
See, I too like historical movies.
Nick: Great! I will make sure to send my fans over too if they want to learn more about
the real Lawrence of Arabia. See you around!
Indy: See you around!
His job at the official survey of Egypt at Giza was to collect maps for the war in the
Middle East. He would monitor the drawing and printing, and also supervised the encoding
and decoding of telegrams.
He apparently enjoyed his work, which he immersed himself in when his brothers Frank and William
were both killed in the European Theater. Britain had its hands full in the Middle East.
To protect the Suez Canal from the Turks and secure Egypt 400,000 men were needed, the
Gallipoli campaign was a big drain for most of a year, and the expedition up the Tigris
and the subsequent siege at Kut, with its multiple failed relief attempts, showed that
something different and drastic was necessary to disrupt the Ottoman Empire.
So the British High Commissioner in Egypt opened negotiations with Hussein bin Ali,
Sharif of Mecca, who wanted the creation of an Arab State that included the entire Arabian
Peninsula, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine. In return for British help, he would give
Britain economic privileges. Thing is, Chief of Intelligence Sir Gilbert Clayton didn’t
want to make concrete concessions, and had this to say, “We don’t want a powerful
and united Arabian kingdom. Not under the Sharif or anyone else. If it is even possible.”
And what Britain, along with France and Russia, was planning was carving up the Middle East
into spheres of interest after the war.
Lawrence had actually written a memorandum about Syria, and about the cultural and religious
differences throughout the region, and how for many outside of Damascus and Aleppo, the
concept “Syria” didn’t mean anything, and the whole was only really held together
by the force and bureaucracy of the Ottomans, as indeed, most of the Middle East was. He
was ignored. What happened was an agreement that the Arabs would support the British in
exchange for supplies and money, and to make the whole thing seem like a real Arab Revolt,
one major city must be taken, preferably Damascus. Lawrence was chosen to supervise the plan.
So on June 5, 1916, he set out with Near East Expert Ronald Storrs to support the Arab Revolt,
which Hussein’s sons had proclaimed against the Ottomans at Medina. They hadn’t had
much success so far, though, even against just local Turkish garrisons; indeed the population
of Mecca was mostly pro-Turkish and many Arabs began to desert, even in such early days.
The British provided a heavy field battery, machine guns, 5,000 rifles, and 100,000 pounds
worth of gold, but when Lawrence entered the camp of Faisal, one of Hussein’s sons, he
was underwhelmed.
“One company of Turks firmly entrenched in open country could have defied the entire
army of them, and a pitched defeat...would have ended the war by sheer horror. I concluded
that the tribesmen were good for defense only... they were too free-minded to endure command,
or to fight in a team. A man who could fight well by himself made generally a bad soldier.”
His words proved prophetic, and you could really see the clash between modern and traditional
attitudes. The Bedouins were courageous fighters, no question, but artillery and airplanes threw
them into disarray. Lawrence rode and fought with Faisal’s forces and their aim was not
to destroy the Turkish army, which they couldn’t, but things like bridges and railways. Still,
by the end of 1916, the Arab Revolt was in full retreat; Faisal’s and his brother Zaid’s
2,000 men on the run as the Turks advanced on Yanbu. But there, British warships were
at port and trenches were dug that could protect the city with machine gun emplacements. However,
the Bedouins refused to get into the trenches and panic swept the city, though Faisal and
Zaid managed to escape on the ships.
The revolt needed an urgent success, so with the help of Lawrence and a lot of British
money and guns Faisal recruited around 10,000 men to fight.
With huge numerical superiority they stormed a Turkish camp near Wagh, and even took and
plundered the city itself. The guerrilla war also continued, mainly against the Hejaz railway
between Damascus and Medina.
The main problem was that the revolt lacked support. There were, of course, intellectual
circles in the cities that supported an independent Syria, but the bulk of the population were
pro-Ottoman. Many Muslim theologians supported the Turks and outlawed the Sharif and the
expected conflagration did not materialize and the Ottoman soldiers were not deserting
in droves as hoped. Others would have to make the revolution for them.
In March 1917, the first attack on Gaza under General Archibald Murray began. It was a tough
defeat for the British. The second attack failed as well, but the general situation
was changing. The Ottoman hold on Palestine was weakening, as Turkish protection money
was drying up, and more and more Arab tribes joined Faisal, who- with his father- had been
given two million pounds of British money. Over the next few months, the Revolt avoided
the main Ottoman armies and laid ambushes for patrols and reserves. They raided railways
and telegraph stations, but as the British gained a greater foothold against the Ottomans
in Palestine, it became clear that they had no intention of making the Arabs independent.
“The cabinet raised the Arabs to fight for us by definite promises of self-government
afterwards... I had to join the conspiracy, and, for what my word was worth, assured the
men of their reward. In our two years of partnership under fire they grew accustomed to believing
me sincere... but of course, instead of being proud of what we did together, I was bitterly
ashamed.”
That was from Lawrence’s book “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”, published in 1922, which is
full of his adventures and encounters, about which many historians argue the veracity,
but it wasn’t really a historical record and more a literary source, so it’s uncertain
what happened and what was part of Lawrence’s exaggerations, which created his legend.
And that legend was indeed growing.
But the differences between Lawrence’s war and the war on the Western Front could not
have been greater. “No messages, no instructions, no superiors, no subordinates, no doctors,
no billing, no meals, and no liquor.” And the reports ignited British imagination. He
bragged about masterminding the Aqaba Campaign, but it was really just an attack on a barely
defended rundown town. He thought highly of himself and claimed that the Ottomans had
a bounty on his head, but in fact no military leader of Turkish or German forces ever mentioned
his name, but he was greatly admired and respected among the British, and was promoted and given
accolades.
One incident that is pretty controversial among historians is the Daraa Episode. Lawrence
wrote that one night he disguised himself and entered the town to spy on the Ottoman
garrison, but he was recognized and captured. He writes that he was then brutally beaten
and taken before Hajim Bey, the governor. Bey flogged him and sexually abused him and
Lawrence, bloody and bruised, was thrown in prison where an Armenian doctor washed him
and showed him how to escape. Was it all true? Maybe. Maybe not.
What is true is that in mid 1918 the Palestinian front collapsed for the Ottomans. Eventually,
they even gave up on holding Damascus and established new lines in the Taurus Mountains.
On October 1, 1918, Sharif Nasir and Lawrence of Arabia entered Damascus and the Arab Revolt
was complete. Two days later T.E. Lawrence began his return journey to Britain and for
him, his legend would only grow and grow to incredible heights in books and in films.
What remained in the Arab World was disillusion, and as the war ended the region was carved
up according to the Sykes-Picot agreement, which took no consideration of ethnic or religious
differences when dividing the land, and is a prime cause of the past 100 years of conflict
in the Middle East.
T.E. Lawrence himself had a troubled life postwar, and indeed died in only his 40s,
although that’s beyond the scope of this channel. But Lawrence of Arabia, what of him?
Was he a hero? Was he a liar? An actor who loved his unorthodox role in the romantic
Orient? Or maybe a tough warrior who pushed himself to the limit fighting a war that nobody
truly believed in? Whoever he was, his legend is going to live on for a long time to come.
Just a bizarre side note here. In 1991 I worked at a vintage and classic car auction, and
one of the cars being auctioned of was King Faisal’s old Rolls Royce. I noticed that
over the doors was the emblem of the Scottish Clan Mackay, which I recognized because my
mother’s family is Clan Mackay and we had the symbol over our fireplace when I was a
kid. I asked the guy who was selling the car if Faisal had in any way any Scottish blood
in him, and he said, “No, he just liked the emblem and used it as his own.” True
story.