Lawrence chose for his first target Mudauwara station, seventy miles south of Ma‘an, with the idea that if he could destroy its well, the only water in the dry sector below Ma‘an, “the train-service across the gap would become uneconomic in load.”
The detachment reached Guweira on September 9th, and found two sources of disturbance. One was the morning aeroplane from Ma‘an which bombed it with time-table regularity. The other, more serious, was the incessant money-wrangle which had now come to a head, between Auda and the other clans of the Howeitat. Some of those in the south towards Mudauwara were threatening to break away, and their threat imperilled Lawrence’s purpose. Auda was obstinate, not to be moved even by Lawrence’s beguiling chaff, although he retorted by calling Lawrence the “world’s imp”—truly a flash of inspiration.
To await events, Lawrence moved off with his party up the valley of Rumm, a journey which ever after remained in his mind. For the valley converged until it became a two-mile wide avenue, between tremendous walls of rock, carved by the weather so that they gave to this “processional way greater than imagination” the likeness of a roofless cathedral in the Byzantine style. Arrived at the springs of Rumm, Lawrence was met by the heads of the discontented clans. Unable to overcome their dissensions, or secure the necessary baggage-camels, he set off alone with one follower and rode back through the mountains to Aqaba by an unexplored short cut, thus traversing the third side of a triangle. Here he explained the situation to Feisal, and obtained the services of a mediator, Sherif Abdulla el Feir, as well as twenty baggage-camels to carry his stock of explosives. On their return to Rumm negotiations succeeded so far as to procure him a hundred men of the Howeitat, but this number was only a third of what he had desired.
The party set forth on September 16th, the various sections glowering at each other. None save his own men would obey Zaal, whom they regarded as Auda’s henchman. Thus Lawrence had to assume direct leadership—of a band who seemed to him ominously untrustworthy. Next day they reached a well in a valley a few miles from Mudauwara station, and found the water fouled with the carcasses of camels.
At dusk Lawrence and Zaal, with the sergeants, reconnoitred the station. It looked so solidly stone-built as to be proof against Stokes-mortar shells, and the garrison appeared to be about double their own strength. Lawrence decided to abandon his project of storming it and to devote his efforts to the destruction of a train. So the party moved south next morning to a point where Zaal had told them of a curve in the line and of hill-spurs that would enable them to set an ambush with a good field of fire.
Lawrence found a drainage culvert which suited his purpose; its collapse would be sure to derail the train even if the explosion failed to wreck the engine. Here, between the ends of two steel sleepers, he dug a bed to hold fifty pounds of gelatine, fixed the explosive plugs, and covered up the traces of his work. It took nearly two hours. Then he unrolled the detonator wires, burying them in the sand as he went, towards the ridge, two hundred yards away, whence he intended to fire the mine. Another three hours passed before all was ready. Meantime a site was chosen for the Stokes mortars and Lewis guns on a high ledge that overhung the line and offered a safe path of retreat. Leaving a man on watch they withdrew to a concealed camp in a nearby valley.
The problem now was to keep the Bedouin hidden until a train appeared; and its difficulties soon became manifest. The strain of waiting irked them and they moved about restlessly despite all instructions. About nine o’clock next morning a fighting patrol of about forty Turkish soldiers was seen approaching from Hallat Ammar station in the south. This menace was frustrated by sending a party to meet them and draw them aside by a simulated flank retreat into the hills. The bait was swallowed. But another alarm came about noon when one ol the small permanent patrols came up the line. To Lawrence’s relief they walked past the hidden mine and his hiding place without any sign of notice. However, about noon he saw, through his strong glasses, a party of Turks about a hundred strong emerge from Mudauwara station and trudge south. It seemed that the only course was to slip away before they reached the spot, and the Arabs began to pack up.
RAILWAY RAIDING PARTY. NEWCOMBE ON LEFT; HORNBY ON RIGHT
LAWRENCE AMID THE RESULTS OF A RAID
Suddenly the watchman called out that a cloud of smoke was rising from Hallat Ammar. Lawrence and Zaal dashed up the hill in time to see a train coming. In a wild scramble the Arabs took post, the riflemen extending in a long line so that they might rake the coaches at close range. As the train approached, drawn by two engines, a random fire was opened from it. Behind the engines were ten box-wagons packed with troops.
As the second engine was over the culvert, Lawrence raised his hand as a signal to the hidden mine-firer. With a terrific roar the mine exploded, throwing up a column of dust and smoke from which lumps of iron, and even a whole wheel, came flying out. A deathly silence followed. Lawrence ran south to join the sergeants, while a hail of bullets smote the train, from which the surviving Turks tumbled out to seek the sheltering embankment on the far side. Here, however, the Stokes shells caught them, and as they bolted from the shambles the Lewis guns mowed them down. The Arabs rushed in to loot the wrecked train.
The same overriding call brought the detached party hurrying back from the south, oblivious of their duty of holding off the Turks from Hallat Ammar. Lawrence realized that before long he might be caught between these Turks and those from Mudauwaca. But it was hopeless to call off the Arabs until they had had their fill of looting, so he used these few minutes of grace to blow up the leading engine as best he could. The Arabs had gone raving mad with the lust of plunder, and in their frenzy fought among themselves over the spoil. They burst open the trucks and dragged the-contents on to the side of the line, where carpets and blankets, clothes and clocks, foodstuffs and arms were littered in wild confusion. Meantime a cluster of shrieking women rushed at Lawrence, imploring his protection until pushed aside by their even more abjectly terrified husbands. “A Turk so broken down was a nasty spectacle.” A more dignified appeal came from a group of Austrian artillerymen, but when Lawrence turned away, after reassuring them, a dispute broke out in which the frenzied Arabs slew most of them.
Besides about seventy dead, ninety prisoners were taken and, by Lawrence’s orders, marched off quickly to the rallying place. The Arabs had only one killed, but they were soon all “missing,” having dispersed with their spoil. Thus the three British soldiers were left alone by the wrecked train. Happily, when they were about to abandon the guns and run for it, Zaal and another Arab came back with camels and helped them to load the mortars and Lewis guns. The ammunition had to be left, so they made a pile and set light to it, slipping away themselves on foot under cover of the explosions, which halted the advance Turks.
When they caught up the main body, however, they found that Salem, the negro who had fired the mine, was missing. Lawrence asked for volunteers to go back to find him. After a pause Zaal offered, and then twelve of the Nowasera. With them Lawrence rode back, but found a swarm of Turks around the wrecked train who, sighting them, gave chase. The pursuit was looking dangerous when “Lewis” appeared with his gun, coming back alone to their relief. Even so, the danger was not over when they rejoined the main body. The encumbrances of victory had turned it into “a stumbling baggage caravan,” instead of a fluid military force, and they had to water at the well near Mudauwara, uncomfortably close to the Turks, before they could push on to Rumm and safety. They reached it, however, without interference.
“Two days later we were at Aqaba; entering in glory, laden with precious things and boasting that the trains were at our mercy.” The sergeants found that Cairo had been clamouring for their return, and so from brief adventure returned to dull routine. “They had won a battle single-handed; had had dysentery; lived on camel-milk; and learned to ride a camel fifty miles a day without pain. Also Allenby gave them a medal each.”
The exhilaration that Lawrence found in this type
of warfare, at this time, is shown in a letter which he wrote to a friend:
“The last stunt was the hold-up of a train. It had two locomotives, and we gutted one with an electric mine. This rather jumbled up the trucks, which were full of Turks shooting at us. We had a Lewis, and flung bullets through the sides. So they hopped out and took cover behind the embankment and shot at us between the wheels, at 50 yds. Then we tried a Stokes gun, and two beautiful shots dropped right in the middle of them. They couldn’t stand that (12 died on the spot) and bolted away to the East across a 100 yd. belt of open sand into some scrub. Unfortunately for them the Lewis covered the open stretch. The whole job took 10 minutes, and they lost 70 killed, 30 wounded, 80 prisoners, and about 25 got away. Of my hundred Howeitat and two British N.C.O.’s there were one (Arab) killed, and four (Arabs) wounded.
“The Turks then nearly cut us off as we looted the train, and 1 lost some baggage, and nearly myself. My loot was a superfine red Baluch prayer-rug.
“I hope this sounds the fun it is. The only pity is the sweat to work them up, and the wild scramble while it lasts. It’s the most amateurish, Buffalo-Billy sort of performance, and the only people who do it well are the Bedouin. Only you will think it heaven, because there aren’t any returns, or orders, or superiors, or inferiors; no doctors, no accounts, no meals, and no drinks. P.S. “Give my salaams to Holdich, and tell him to sprint, or we’ll be in Damascus first”
Lawrence soon rode out on a fresh venture, this time to train disciples in the art of demolition, taking a French officer, Captain Pisani, together with 150 Arabs. He also took the precaution of starting out with a large caravan of empty pack-camels. “For variety,” Lawrence chose to operate in the north near Ma‘an and, finding a suitable spot on the railway, an embankment pierced by bridges, he buried a new type of automatic mine and set his fire-ambush. They waited all day and the next night, and when the train at last appeared it passed over the mine without an explosion. But the Arabs were pleased—when they saw that it was merely a water-train.
Lawrence then went down to the line to lay an electric mine over the lyddite. Patrols passed up and down, with no suspicion of its presence. On the second morning, September 6th, a patrol appeared in sight and a train in the distance behind it. Lawrence calculated that the train might arrive first by a few hundred yards. So it proved. As the engine was exactly over the bridge-arch, he gave the signal. Another column of dust and smoke soared skyward, while the Lewis guns poured their bullets into the wreck. A Turk appeared on the buffers of a truck near the tail and, uncoupling, allowed the last four trucks of twelve to slip back down the gradient. And a Turkish officer, from the window, took a shot at Lawrence, grazing his hip. Meantime the Arabs, led by Pisani, had stormed the rest of the train, in which they captured seventy tons of food destined for Medain Saleh. Some twenty Turks had been killed and a number more taken prisoner.
The attackers suffered no loss, although they nearly lost their leader a second time. For in their eagerness to carry away their plunder they left Lawrence to roll up the heavy electric cables single-handed, and when two of them came back to look for him Turkish relief parties were converging from both sides, the nearest only a quarter of a mile distant. But he slipped away just in time.
After the raiding party had returned to Aqaba safely, on September 8th, Lawrence wrote a report which contains an illuminating passage—“A feature of the Howeitat is that every fourth or fifth man is a sheikh. In consequence the head sheikh has no authority whatever, and as in the previous raid, I had to be O.C. of the whole expedition. This is not a job which should be undertaken by foreigners, since we have not so intimate a knowledge of Arab families as to be able to divide common plunder equitably. On this occasion, however, the Bedouin behaved exceedingly well, and everything was done exactly as I wished; but during the six days’ trip I had to adjudicate in twelve cases of assault with weapons, four camel-thefts, one marriage-settlement, fourteen feuds, two evil eyes, and a bewitchment. These affairs take up all one’s spare time.”
From now on the railway raids from Aqaba were multiplied, dislocating the traffic and demoralizing the travellers. During the next four months seventeen engines were destroyed and scores of trucks. “Traffic was disorganized up to Aleppo, for we posted notices in Damascus, warning ‘our friends’ not to travel by the northern railways, as our threat was about to be extended thither. The Turks had rail-guards up to Aleppo, soon!” As the rolling stock was drawn from a common pool for Palestine and the Hejaz, the success of this strategy of “killing engines” not only diminished the prospect of the Turks being able to evacuate Medina but constricted the artery on which depended the Turkish army that faced Allenby. And at a time when they needed all their strength to oppose the menace of Allenby’s advance. For on this the curtain was now about to rise.
CHAPTER XIV
LEVERAGE ON PALESTINE
October–December, 1917
Allenby renews the attack on the gates of Palestine—The bolts are drawn beforehand by resourceful ruses—Meinertzhagen’s comedy of craft—Lawrence considers the possibility of raising the Arabs in the Turks’ rear, but because of a doubt, decides against this course—He prefers, instead, to risk himself, and accordingly sets out on a raid against the Turkish Army’s rail communications
Allenby captures Beersheba, but a delay imperils his main stroke—Newcombe’s “mirage” distracts the Turks’ attention and opens the way for Allenby’s break-through—After further delays, Jerusalem is gained
Lawrence, meantime, attempts to blow up a vital bridge in the Yarmuk valley only to be foiled by a stroke of ill-luck—He falls into the Turks’ hands but escapes
GAZA, on the coast, and Beersheba, 35 miles Inland, form the two natural gateways into Palestine from the south. Between them lie a series of ridges which form a natural rampart easy of defence. The Turkish field defences stretched eastward for thirty miles from the sea at Gaza, leaving a gap between them and the separate defences of Beersheba—which covered the flank of the main position. The British Army, after dragging its weary length across the Sinai desert, had twice tried in vain to force the strongly fortified Gaza gate. Beersheba, less artificially strong, was protected by the difficulty of transport and water supply for an attacking force.
In an appreciation drawn up by Sir Philip Chetwode and his Chief of Staff, Brig.-General Guy Dawnay, before Allenby’s arrival, it was pointed out that to attack Gaza again was to attack the enemy’s strongest point. Success could be gained only by sheer weight of artillery, and would be only local success, as the Turks were prepared to swing back from Gaza to a second position in rear, pivoting on their left near Tell esh Sheria. Virtually inaccessible to direct attack, this “nerve centre and pivot” might be exposed by an approach from the south-east. In order to have room to operate, and water for the attacking force, it would be necessary to pinch off Beersheba before the attack on the flank of the enemy’s main position was developed.
This plan was not appreciated by some of the other generals who, preferring heavy security to hazardous mobility, clung to the dogma that to overcome the enemy at his strongest point was the way to cause the collapse of the whole. They were not shaken in this belief even though such an attempt had courted twice-repeated failure, and ascribed this to an indubitable mismanagement rather than to a misguided principle.
If Allenby himself was still under the influence of the mass methods of the west when he landed in Egypt, he was susceptible by cavalry instinct to the appeal of mobile manœuvre, and he was not long in adopting the plan foreshadowed in Chetwode’s appreciation. In its development he was guided by Dawnay who now joined his Staff and, like Bartholomew the next year, was the brain behind the titular chief of staff.
In a plan where concentration of numbers was more difficult than near the sea, success must depend on distraction, so that a concentrated effect, relatively greater, might be attained by a smaller mass against a point of weakness. For this the enemy must be deceived, and mai
ntained in his delusion. Secrecy was the first condition. Preparations were concealed as far as possible, and the bulk of the troops were kept on the Gaza flank until the last possible hour. The Royal Flying Corps, just reinforced and re-equipped with faster machines, played a greater part in concealing the preparations. But secrecy alone was negative—and in fact the veil was penetrated by the enemy’s intelligence.
A positive deception was needed, especially in view of the enemy’s preparations to reinforce the Palestine front. It was supplied from the ingenious brain of a British intelligence officer, Richard Meinertzhagen, who drafted the mock agenda for a Staff conference in which a main attack on Gaza was to be preceded by a feint against Beersheba, and instructions for these operations. To give the fake a more persuasive air of reality, he concocted several intimate letters from home to himself, also a private letter of biting criticism on the pseudo-plan from an imaginary friend on the staff, and included twenty pounds in notes. All these he placed in a haversack which he stained with fresh blood from his horse. Then, on October 10th, he rode out into no-man’s-land as if on reconnaissance, drew the fire of a Turkish cavalry patrol, drew it after him in pursuit, pretended to be hit, rolled in the saddle, and eventually dropped his haversack as well as his field-glasses and other articles. A few days later a notice was inserted in corps orders saying that a note-book had been lost, and a copy of this order, wrapped round some sandwiches, was also dropped in no-man’s-land.
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