The Road to Damascus June

ttt T. E Lawrence in June 1918 The road to By June, the German ‘Spring Off ensive’ on the Western 1918: the road Front was faltering, but not before Allenby’s forces Damascus had been stripped of two complete battle-hardened Marking the extraordinary divisions: nine yeomanry regiments and 23 infantry trials, triumphs and to Damascus battalions, to reinforce that Front. But with the US tribulations of T. E. Lawrence Army now at last arriving in France in signifi cant in the last year of the First numbers, the Allies began to dream of a victorious World War, month by month, June: diplomatic clarifi cation spring/summer campaign in 1919, yes 1919! in the British army alongside the Arabs fi ghting in the Allenby and the main British forces on the coastal front deserts of the Middle East; or confusion? between Jaff a and Jericho remained stalled, training when the legend of Lawrence up troops newly-arrived from Mesopotamia and India of Arabia was born. to replace those sent to France. The Arab forces had The British Empire, with support As temperatures in Arabia soar, moved northwards at the end of May along the line of from many Arabs, was fi ghting Allenby trains up a new (mostly the Hejaz railway capturing Hesa and Faraifra. They against the Turkish Ottoman were managing to keep hold, but only just, under Empire, allies of the Germans Indian) Army, while Lawrence keeps constant pressure from the opposing Turkish Ottoman and the Austro-Hungarians. the Ottomans busy. But wider forces. Lawrence moved forward to Hesa, and then This series of leafl ets covers on to Sultani, to see for himself the Arab successes, the months leading up to the political issues start to intrude. travelling in a loop round to Themed and then back to capture of Damascus from the Feisal’s H.Q. at Abu al-Lissan. Turkish army at the beginning of October 1918, which 1 June – Sultani; 2 June – Um el Rusas [Umm ar- eff ectively signalled the end Rasas]; 5 June – Themed; 6 June – Wadi Mojeb of the war in the Middle East: [Wadi Mujib]; 7 June – Jurf [Jurf Al Darawish]; the formal Armistice with the A Jiddah street scene 8 June – Aba el Lissan [Abu al-Lissan] Ottoman Turks was signed at ‘I explained to Feisal that Nasir’s cutting of the the end of October. [Hejaz railway] line would endure another month; Some dramatic reversals of and, after the Turks had got rid of him, it would be fortune in the fi nal year of the yet a third month before they attacked us at Aba el campaign took their toll on Lissan. By then our new camels should be fi t for use Lawrence’s already strained in an off ensive of our own. I sugg ested that we ask nerves. This, and his feelings his father, King Hussein, to transfer to Akaba the of guilt around what he saw regular units at present with [Feisal’s brothers] Ali and as the betrayal of his dreams Abdulla. Their reinforcement would raise us to ten of a pan-Arab empire during thousand strong, in uniformed men.’ the complex post-war peace ‘We would divide them into three parts. The immobile negotiations, eventually caused the breakdown that brought would constitute a retaining force to hold Maan quiet. him in due course to seek A thousand, on our new camels, would attack the Entering Damascus solitude at Clouds Hill. Deraa-Damascus sector. The balance would form a second expedition, of two or three thousand infantry, to move into the Beni Sakhr country and connect with Copyright © 2018 National Trust Allenby at Jericho. The long-distance mounted raid, Map, quotes and photos: Seven Pillars of Wisdom, published in 1926; by taking Deraa or Damascus, would compel the Turks Lawrence’s personal account of his role in the Great Arab Revolt to withdraw from Palestine one division, or even two, against the Ottoman Empire. Bust photo © John Hammond. to restore their communications. By so weakening the The National Trust is a registered charity no. 205846. Design by Pure Glow Media enemy, we would give Allenby the power to advance of politeness, which would be lost on the hard and his line ... to Nablus.’ suspicious old man in Mecca. Yet the eff ort promised so ‘Feisal fell in with the proposal, and gave me letters much for us that we went up to Allenby, to beg his help to his father advising it. Unhappily, the old man [i.e. with the King.’ Hussein] was, nowadays, little inclined to take his 15 June – Alexandria; 17 June – Cairo; 18 June – Sinai; advice, out of green-eyed hatred for this son who 19 June – At G.H.Q. [Bir Salem, near Ramlah, Palestine] was doing too well and was being disproportionately 19 June ‘At G.H.Q., we felt a remarkable diff erence in the air. helped by the British. For dealing with the King I The place was, as always, throbbing with energy and relied on joint-action by Wingate and Allenby, his hope, but now logic and co-ordination were manifest paymasters. I decided to go up to Egy pt personally, 15-16 June in an uncommon degree.’ Lawrence had hoped to go to to press them to write him letters of the necessary 1-7 June see Allenby directly, but instead found himself having stiff ness.’ to work through Staff Brigadier-General Bartholomew. Although unmentioned in Seven Pillars, while Lawrence 13-14, 17, 20 ‘We unrolled before him our scheme to start the ball was away raiding with Nasir, a brief (45 minutes) but June rolling in the autumn, hoping by our pushes to make historic meeting took place on 4 June at Waheida 8-9 June it possible for him to come in later vigorously to our [Awheeda] between Emir Feisal and Chaim Weizmann, 12 June support. He listened smiling, and said that we were leading Zionist proponent of the ‘Balfour Declaration’ three days too late. Their new army was arriving to time of 2 November 1917 in which the British Government from Mesopotamia and India; prodigious advances had expressed support for the idea of a ‘national home in grouping and training were being made. On June for the Jewish people’ in Palestine, subject to it not 25-30 June the fi fteenth it had been the considered opinion of a harming the interests of ‘existing non-Jewish [90% private conference that the army would be capable of a Arab] communities’. Lawrence had been intended ... sustained off ensive in September.’ to be interpreter, but in his (accidental or intended) Finally, ‘we went in to Allenby, who said outright that absence, Col. Joyce substituted. Weizmann and late in September he would make a grand attack ... Feisal were wary in this fi rst meeting but professed even to Damascus and Aleppo. Our role [i.e. the Arabs’] an informal understanding (formalised in January would be as laid down in the spring; we must make the 1919): Feisal supporting limited Jewish settlement in Deraa raid on the two thousand new camels. Times Palestine; the Zionists assisting in the development and details would be fi xed as the weeks went on, and as of the vast Arab empire that Feisal’s father, Hussein, Bartholomew’s calculations took shape.’ hoped to establish. British military Ottoman military occupation occupation Main desert areas ‘I got Allenby’s blessing upon the transfer of Ali’s and Lawrence and Feisal must have spoken of this key Markers show Arabs allied to Pro-Ottoman British front-line Abdulla’s khakhi-clad contingents; and set off , fortifi ed, issue between 8-10 June, but Lawrence was soon off Lawrence’s Sharif Hussein Arab Sheiks locations overnight Arab Sheiks not allied to Jidda, where I had no more success than I expected.’ on what proved to be his longest absence from the to Hussein but in Hussein’s claim Arab front line of the War; he was away for over six treaties with Britain 20 June – Cairo; 21 June – In Mansurah [SS weeks until 28 July. Mansourah, an Egy ptian government mail steamer, for passage from Suez to Jiddah]; 25 June – Jidda [Jiddah] 10 June – In Arethusa [HMS Arethusa II, fl eet ‘The King had got wind of my purpose and took refuge, messenger vessel, for passage from Aqaba to Suez]; on the pretext of Ramadhan, in Mecca, his inaccessible 12 June – Suez; 13 June – Cairo Map and quotations are taken from Seven Pillars of capital. We talked over the telephone, King Hussein ‘In Cairo, Dawnay agreed both to the transfer of the Wisdom, chapters 96 and 97. sheltering himself behind the incompetence of the southern regulars, and to the independent off ensive. The dates and places in bold [with modern operators in the Mecca exchange, whenever the subject We went to Wingate, argued it, and convinced him transliterations where it helps] are taken from Appendix turned dangerous. My thronged mind was not in the that the ideas were good. He wrote letters to King 2 of Seven Pillars, in which Lawrence records from his mood for farce, so I rang off , put Feisal’s, Wingate’s Hussein, strongly advising the reinforcement of diary where he was overnight. and Allenby’s letters back unopened into my bag Feisal. I pressed him to make clear to the King that Not all places mentioned remain visible today. and returned to Cairo in the next ship.’ Lawrence left the continuance of a war-subsidy would depend Jiddah, again in the Mansourah, on 1 July, calling in at on his giving eff ect to our advice: but he refused Wejh on his way back to Suez and then Cairo.

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