Revolt in the Desert: Revolt in the Desert

by T.E. Lawrence

An epic account of the Great War in the Middle East

T. E. Lawrence-Lawrence of Arabia-needs no introduction. His renowned work about his experiences with King Feisal's Arab army as it fought its campaign to Damascus-The Seven Pillars of Wisdom-has become a classic of twentieth century English literature. Revolt in the Desert is not a work of literature, or even a history of the campaign. It is an account of the experiences of one remarkable British officer's war from his own perspective. His was a fluid irregular's war of lightning raids, of blown up railway tracks and trains, ambuscade and-towards the end-of open battle as the defeated Ottoman Turkish Army were harried as they retreated northwards. Here are the Imperial Camel Corps, armoured car squadrons, daring RAF pilots and their aircraft, Ghurkha and Indian infantry and a bevy of 'specialists' who are the forerunners of today's special forces like the SAS. It is, of course, unlike any other straightforward military memoir.—Amazo

393 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 12, 2019

About the author

Thomas Edward Lawrence, British soldier, adventurer, and writer, who, known as "Lawrence of Arabia," from 1916 led the revolt against the Turks to 1918 and later wrote The Seven Pillars of Wisdom , an account of his adventures, in 1926.

The professional world came for Thomas Edward Lawrence. In 1922, he used John Hume Ross, the name, to enlist in the royal air force, which discovered and forced him. Afterward, he took T.E. Shaw to join the tank corps in 1923. The royal air force in 1925 eventually let him back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._E._L...

Reviews

[Kenneth]

Just finished! Of course educated on the Arab Revolt against the Turks in the First World War by the film Lawrence of Arabia, reading Lawrence's writing created shortly after the actual events was much more detailed and revealing. The characters of the players in the desert revolt, Europeans and Middle Easterners certainly are fascinating and their motivations diverse, though under the umbrella of a formative Arab nationalism.

The actions of the desert tribes with British support were in support of Gen. Allenby's all out movement against the Turkish Ottomans...well everyone says Ottoman, but the Committee of Union and Progress had taken over after the 1908 Young Turk revolution against the Old Turk Ottoman Empire. The Pre-Republic of Turkey.

Under the leadership of Faisel with Lawrence advising their actions, in raiding and demolition, especially the all important railway lines, stations, and bridges the Arab Army seriously damaged the Turkish Military's ease of movement, and communications links between it's rapidly disappearing provinces of the Middle East and Constantinople (Istanbul). This also prevented the Turks from hitting Allenby's forces from behind as they moved into Palestine and Syria towards Damascus.

I found particularly interesting the increasing reliance on an Air Force to dislodge troops from trenches and other fortifications. And also the old fashion dogfights in the sky between British and Turko-German crews. The panic caused by aerial bombardment by a new technology for the time was not unlike the recent attacks on stationary Armenian troops by Turkish drones during the 44 Artsakh, Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, with new technology once again changing the battlefield balance. An interesting Armenian related note is that there were Armenians survivors of the 1915-16, Genocide freshly carried out by the Turkish Government, who joined the Arabian forces to fight against Turkey and there were also Armenian officers and troops still in the Turkish Army who had not been killed perhaps because they had entered the military before the orders to kill the entire Armenian population began. Unfortunately for 1.5 million dead Armenians there was no Lawrence of Armenia sent by the Allies to help.