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Lawrence of Airpower

Lawrence of Airpower

While one of the most famous people in the world, T. E. Lawrence enlisted under a pseudonym in the RAF. Twice.

Lawrence of

Airpower By S. Dudney 66 Magazine / April 2012 AIR FORCE Magazine Magazine FORCE AIR / April 2012 April / would be won. be would the Turks against war their , huge the of rival - ar the with that convinced Deraa, at bomber Page Handley a of landing the celebrate forces

By Stuart Reid, via the T. E. Lawrence as an Army in 1915. I sweeping attacks across the . the across desert. attacks Yetsweeping white robes and riding a camel, leading knows him as an Englishman in flowing long preceded his RAF tours. The public ranks. enlisted lowly the from so did and Britain’s to contributions important made nymity, ano in laboring figures, charismatic most history’s recent of One too. able, Yet Lawrence’s life after 1916-1918. is Arabia remark in Empire Ottoman the against tribesmen Bedouin led he young, as officer -educated glamorous, the of exploits earlier the on limited attention to this period and focus life. his of weeks final the until stayed he There 338171). No. as in 1925 again and T. E. Shaw (A/C2 352087) No. (A/C2 Hume John the alias the RAF in under 1922 joined celebrity, of sick Lawrence, der assumed names. The world-famous enlisted man in the , un Arabia passed most of those years as an legendary figureknown as Lawrence of 17 more years, until 1935. Moreover, the real Thomas Edward Lawrence lived for soon after the ended in 1918. Lawrence’s Lawrence’s involvement in airpower Most of Lawrence’s biographers give the tale, Hollywood the to Contrary T. E. Lawrence died young, young, died T.Lawrence E. cident. The implication is that ac motorcycle a in killed is , to back gone war and desert his left having character, the Arabia,” n the epic film“Lawrence of 67 - - - - Historians assert Lawrence individuals, hiding for their lives in was one of the first every fold of the vast hills. ... The RAF men to use to support lost four killed. The Turks lost a .” ground assaults directly. He Lawrence used his knowledge of had the backing of then-Brig. airpower in the immediate postwar Gen. , RFC years, when he served in the Colonial in the Mideast. Office as a Mideast expert. He did so Lawrence became a committed most openly in connection with the airpower proponent. As he later newly created kingdom of , a Brit- wrote, “The war showed me ish protectorate. that a combination of armored In 1921, Lawrence advised his minis- cars and aircraft could rule the ter——to “hand over desert.” defense [of Iraq] to the RAF instead Air reconnaissance was one of the Army.” His wartime experience key to the revolt’s most famous proved to him that a handful of aircraft victory—at . Lawrence’s could control tribal forces, allowing official biographer, Jeremy Wil- to avoid bloody ground-force son, says that in 1916, while in operations. Air Chief Hugh Cairo, Lawrence extensively Trenchard, the RAF chief, supported studied air photos of Aqaba, a him on this. port town guarded by Turkish According to Lawrence biographer naval guns. A year later Law- H. Montgomery Hyde, “The new policy rence boldly seized the fortress [was] somewhat contemptuously de- from its landward side, using scribed by Sir Henry Wilson, the chief his detailed knowledge of sur- of the Imperial Staff, as one of rounding terrain. ‘hot air, aeroplanes, and .’ ” Despite At Um el Surab, in what is this boots-on-the-ground view, Churchill now , his force built an accepted the “air policing” plan. Lawrence in 1917, near Aqaba, the site airstrip for a huge Handley “From its creation in 1921 to ... World of his most famous victory. Page bomber. Its arrival caused a “wild- War II, Iraq was a proving ground eyed Bedouin” to ride off announcing for Lawrence’s visionary ideas about Lawrence always was bound up with he had seen “the biggest aeroplane in airpower,” Korda writes. “For several . the world.” As Korda notes, “Even the decades the principal RAF base at Hab- His attraction to airpower first most skeptical tribesmen were now baniya, outside Baghdad, was one of the emerged in 1915, when he worked convinced that the Turks were done for.” largest military airfields in the world.” in intelligence in Cairo. In 1922, Lawrence’s life took a In his recent book, Hero, Michael Hot Air, Aeroplanes, and Arabs strange turn. He moved decisively to Korda reports that the young Lawrence Lawrence, by war’s end, was operat- abandon fame, fortune, and career, pioneered aerial photography for map- ing his own small air force east of the become a humble RAF , making and intelligence. According to . He controlled “X ,” and simply vanish. Korda, “He devised his own system of airplanes devoted to specific missions. In January 1922, Lawrence opened laying out aerial photographs in a grid These included bombing Turkish rail secret negotiations to enlist under an pattern to use them as the basis for a lines, taking aerial photos, and raid- assumed name. In July, a reluctant map and taught pilots how to take the ing Turkish positions. Lawrence even Churchill approved Lawrence’s plan. pictures he needed.” Lawrence served learned to fly; he had pilot friends and Trenchard, by that time a friend of as liaison between took the controls while airborne. He Lawrence’s, insisted that he enter as photographers and surveying teams. He claimed he had 2,000 flying hours. He an officer, but Lawrence refused. To took part in experiments in early 1915. told the war historian, B. H. Liddell Hart, Lawrence, a colonel in the Army, it When his ideas were successfully tested he made only one landing, in which he was the enlisted ranks or nothing. at Gallipoli, aerial surveying soon came tore off the aircraft’s undercarriage. Trenchard finally gave in. On Aug. 30, into widespread use. Lawrence was much impressed by 1922, Lawrence, using the alias John In 1916, Lawrence entered the field an RAF attack on Sept. 21, 1918. The Hume Ross, presented himself at the as British Army liaison to the army Turkish 7th Army was caught flee- RAF recruiting office, Covent Garden. of Sharif Hussein of . He soon ing east toward the Jordan. “For four He failed the medical exam, had began to make heavy use of aviation. hours,” said Lawrence, “our aeroplanes no birth certificate, and aroused great Lawrence focused on ways to incor- replaced one another in series above suspicion. porate British aircraft (and armored the doomed columns: Nine tons of There was never a doubt he would cars) into his tactics. He became an small bombs or grenades and 50,000 get in, though. A top of- innovator in what military men now rounds [of small-arms ammunition] ficial (who was in on the secret) told refer to as “combined operations.” were rained upon them.” the recruiting officer to get “Ross” into Lawrence swiftly integrated British He went on, “When the smoke had the RAF “or you’ll get your bowler pilots and their aircraft into his hit-and- cleared it was seen that the organization hat”—RAF-speak for “you will be run campaigns using horses, camels, of the enemy had melted away. They discharged.” Within hours, Lawrence/ and . were a dispersed horde of trembling Ross was officially sworn into the RAF. 68 AIR FORCE Magazine / April 2012 Why did Col. T. E. Lawrence, World The RAF decided the publicity was War I’s greatest hero, chuck it all and bad for discipline. Ross was summarily become Aircraftman 2nd Class Ross? discharged. Lawrence quickly enlisted in Lawrence gave various explanations. He the Royal Corps, hoping he could told Trenchard he wanted to write a book parlay this into a quick transfer back to about the RAF. When another officer the RAF. He took a new name, 7875698 asked why he joined, Lawrence said, “I T. E. Shaw, arriving at RTC think I had a mental breakdown, sir.” At Depot, Bovington, on March 23, 1923. other times, he said he liked the cama- Lawrence loathed each of his 29 raderie or that he simply didn’t know. months in khaki. “The Army,” he said, Others had psychological explanations. “is muck, stink, a desolate abomination.” The author , Lawrence’s In 1924 and 1925, he pressed high-level friend and biographer, said the hero had friends, including Trenchard, to get him come to regard his part in the Arab revolt back in the RAF. As of mid-1925, he as dishonorable, and he wished to avoid had had no luck. Wilson, the official further publicity and praise. biographer, reports “Lawrence’s mental “There was a tendency among Law- state was now deteriorating rapidly and rence’s contemporaries to see his deci- he had begun to think that ... re-entry sion to shed his rank and join the RAF as into the RAF would be the only future a form of penance, but he always denied worth living for.” that,” notes Korda. “His service in the In June 1925, a despondent Lawrence RAF, once he was past , sent a letter that its recipient interpreted would prove to be the happiest time of as a suicide threat. Fearing a huge scan- Aircraftman T. E. Shaw (Lawrence) at his [adult] life.” dal if Britain’s great war hero were to RAF Miranshah, India. Lawrence of Arabia, now known as kill himself, Prime Minister Stanley A/C2 Ross, was posted to an air training Baldwin intervened. quiet didn’t last long. By September, depot at RAF , near London. In August 1925, Army Private T. E. the British press was printing fictional “Ross”—33 years old, five feet and Shaw joined (or rejoined?) the RAF as reports about the mysterious Colonel five inches tall, with highborn speech 338171 AC/2 Shaw. Lawrence, claiming that he was spying and manners—was an odd recruit. He The next 10 years featured long in . had contempt for parade drill, endless stretches of quiet, punctuated by massive In late 1928, the top blew off. The inspections, and physical training. bursts of “Colonel Lawrence” publicity. spark was an uprising of Afghanistan’s For all that, Lawrence survived basic Lawrence was posted to RAF Cranwell, Shinwari tribe against King Amanullah and was posted in November 1922 to home of RAF College, where in Kabul. At this tense moment, the the service school of photography at officer candidates trained. He was in B sensationalist Empire News “revealed” RAF Farnborough. He tapped friends flight, an aircraft hand on six aircraft that Lawrence had the border, in high places to gain early entry to the used for training. Virtually everyone met the king, and disappeared into “the basic course but otherwise was a model knew Aircraftman Shaw’s identity, but wild hills of Afghanistan” disguised student. Later, a base officer recalled, no one made a big deal of it. In late as “a holy man,” attempting to raise “Nothing about him suggested that here 1926, the Cranwell posting drew to an a pro-Amanullah army. It was total was the most amazing aircraftman ever end, partly because of a fresh wave of fiction, but the tales of covert action to join the RAF.” publicity and partly because the RAF stirred fierce anti-British sentiment. required an to serve overseas, An alarmed foreign secretary, Austen A Desolate Abomination in India, , or Iraq. Chamberlain, found Lawrence’s pres- The “Ross” fiction, however, was Lawrence drew India. On Jan. 7, 1927, ence in India to be, as he described it, soon exposed. On Dec. 27, 1922, the he arrived at the RAF’s depot in Karachi “very inconvenient.” Daily Express splashed the story on (now part of Pakistan, created in the 1947 “Great Mystery of Colonel Lawrence: the front page. The headline read, partition of British India). For the next Simple Aircraftman, or What?” was the “Lawrence of Arabia,” after which 17 months, he served quietly as a clerk question posed by a London newspaper. came, “Famous War Hero Becomes in the Engine Repair . Then, in Lawrence had become radioactive. The a Private.” Soon, Farnborough was March 1927, Lawrence’s memoir, Revolt RAF pulled him out of India on Jan. 8, besieged by reporters and photogra- in the Desert, was published, creating 1929, and sent him home. Air Ministry phers, generating an unprecedented new press stories about the missing leaders considered sacking Lawrence media feeding frenzy. hero. His found again, as in 1923. They finally decided “By 1923,” Korda wrote, “Lawrence out the truth and suspected Lawrence to assign their troublesome airman, was Britain’s most famous war hero and was spying on him. Lawrence acquired in March 1929, to RAF Cattewater, a a media celebrity on a scale that until a transfer elsewhere. base near Plymouth on the then had been unimagined. It was as if That place was RAF Miranshah, a English Channel. At Cattewater (soon Princess Diana had vanished from her remote base on the border with Af- renamed RAF ), Lawrence home and had been discovered by the ghanistan. Miranshah was home to began working with , launches, press enlisted in the ranks of the RAF one , five officers, 25 airmen, and speedboats. He embarked on a new as Aircraftwoman Spencer, doing drill, and 700 Indian scouts. Lawrence ar- career in the design, construction, and washing her own undies, living in a hut rived in late May 1928 and was given operation of the RAF’s high-speed with a dozen or more other airwomen.” simple clerical duties. His peace and rescue sea craft. AIR FORCE Magazine / April 2012 69 work for the time alloted, but the demand for airmen to button the he did it. top two buttons of a coat. In India, he On Feb. 25, 1935, Lawrence went bareheaded, proving there was no presented himself to Pilot Of- need for pith helmets. These changes ficer F. J. Manning, his com- delighted airmen. mander, for an exit interview. He was instrumental in persuading They chatted, Manning signed Parliament to abolish use of the death the discharge form, and Law- penalty for cowardice in battle. rence left the RAF. He set up the “Seven Pillars Trust,” He did so with considerable assigning to it the copyright and substan- regret, as Lawrence wrote to tial income from Revolt in the Desert. Edward The trust paid thousands of pounds into Ellington, the RAF head. His funds to educate the children of fallen letter said, in part: “I’ve been RAF officers. After his death the trust at home in the ranks and well was renamed the Lawrence of Arabia and happy. ... If you still keep Educational Fund. It still exists. that old file about me, will you Lawrence, the world’s most experi- please close it with this note enced practitioner of , which says how sadly I am go- wrote extensively to Trenchard with ing? The RAF has been more advice on how to deal with tribal-warrior than my profession.” Barely incursions and attacks in Jordan and two months later, Lawrence Iraq. This was at least in part responsible suffered massive injuries in for Britain’s relative success against a motorcycle crash. He never insurgencies. came out of a coma and died He used powerful contacts to expose on May 19—not as a hero the cause of the crash of an RAF Iris Shaw (Lawrence) in the uniform of an enlisted RAF aircraftman. who perished tragically young but as a III seaplane, with multiple deaths. The middle-aged “ranker” whose final years senior officer on board was unqualified He was self-taught. Lawrence, re- were amazingly productive. to fly the airplane but regulations gave spected now for his marine knowl- him the right to take the controls, which edge, was invited to write the official A Separate Debt he did. Lawrence provided facts for the handbook for the RAF ST 200-class The list of his achievements in those newspapers and testified at an inquiry. speedboats. Korda writes, “The hand- years is an impressive one. As a result, the RAF ruled that a pilot book remains today perhaps the most Lawrence completed the book on would be in complete command of an concise and most instructive technical the RAF, first mentioned in 1922; The aircraft, and no higher-ranking officer manual ever published.” It was in use Mint memorialized his training days at could take over. until after World War II. Uxbridge (it was not published until He helped construct what became By March 1933, however, Lawrence 1955.) , his the RAF’s Air Sea Rescue Service. He had been returned to regular airman classic account of the Arab Revolt, worked on revolutionary designs for duties at Mount Batten. This bored came out in 1926. Revolt in the Desert, RAF rescue boats which, as Lawrence him, and on March 6, he requested an abridgement, hit the next year. He noted, “have three times the speed of a discharge. When the story leaked, completed an acclaimed translation of their predecessors, less weight, less a strange furor ensued. Everyone, Homer’s Odyssey. All this he did while cost, more room, more safety, more including senior government officials, serving in the ranks. seaworthiness.” They were put to great assumed Lawrence had been fired. Very Even while doing an airman’s work, use in 1940, rescuing RAF pilots downed high-level inquiries came down on an Lawrence socialized and corresponded over the English Channel during the uncomfortable RAF. Did Lawrence, with an astounding number of notable . they asked, have any complaint about political and artistic figures, including Lawrence never escaped his own his treatment? Lawrence reported he George Bernard Shaw, Robert Graves, glamorous past, but his life in the ranks had no complaint and would stay if Nancy Astor, , Noel Cow- drew this 1936 tribute from Churchill: given something worthwhile to do. ard, E. M. Forster, Siegfried Sassoon, “He saw as clearly as anyone the vision Within days, he was posted to the William Butler Yeats, John Buchan, and of airpower and all that it would mean RAF Marine Aircraft Experimental of course, Trenchard, Churchill, and in traffic and war. ... He felt that in Establishment at RAF . By Liddell Hart. living the life of a private in the Royal April 28, he was happily on the job. Acting behind the scenes, he wrote Air Force he would dignify that honor- For Lawrence, the years 1933 and detailed letters to Trenchard, pushing able calling and help to attract all that 1934 were the busiest of his service needed reforms. These caused the aban- is keenest in our youthful manhood to life. He spent little time at Felixs- donment of petty requirements such as the sphere where it is most urgently towe, traveling often to RAF-affiliated polished bayonets, spurs, swagger sticks, needed. For this service and example, boatyards, inspecting equipment. In and puttees. His actions reduced kit ... we owe him a separate debt. It was November 1934, he moved to RAF inspections to one a month and ended in itself a princely gift.” n , on the North Sea—his final posting. He supervised the winter Robert S. Dudney is a former editor in chief of Air Force Magazine (2002-2010). overhaul of 10 boats, a great deal of His most recent article was “Rescue in Space” in the January issue. 70 AIR FORCE Magazine / April 2012

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