LAWRENCE BATTLE FOR ARABIA

Dr Rob Johnson is a Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Oxford and the Director of the Oxford Changing Character of War Centre

The story of Thomas Edward Lawrence has fascinated the world for over a century. An archaeologist, historian and expert on Arabian culture, Lawrence became an international celebrity for his role in assisting the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during WWI. He later detailed these experiences in his acclaimed book Seven Pillars of Wisdom, but he was traumatised by the war and the Allied political betrayal of the Arabs.

Lawrence’s life was troubled yet he was also a skilled irregular soldier. An inspiration for many military theorists, he fought heroically and often successfully during 1916-18 despite having no formal training. However, his complexity means that his military achievements are difficult to assess. Dr Rob Johnson believes that much of the Arab Revolt’s success should actually be credited to the Arabs themselves rather than Lawrence. In his research, Johnson has uncovered a complicated character who was brave, intelligent but also flawed – and perhaps even a criminal.

Bureaus and railways

Lawrence was commissioned as a British Army officer in October 1914 and joined the Arab Bureau in Cairo two months later. The Bureau collected propaganda and intelligence about Arabian matters in the Middle East, and Lawrence initially made maps but his real skill was his expertise on the Arabs. “His pre-war knowledge of Sinai, the Levant and Syria was valuable because there weren’t many people who had surveyed that area,” says Johnson. “Like his colleagues, Lawrence scoured Arabic newspapers and Ottoman statements to pick up information about their military movements and intentions. That’s why he had an advantage when he went into Arabia to assist Arab forces. He had a basic knowledge of how the Ottoman Army worked and a sense of the big picture.”

Key to Ottoman military power in the Middle East was the Hejaz Railway. “It was the lifeline to their southernmost provinces in Arabia, particularly Medina,” says Johnson. “If they wanted to deploy troops as far as Aden they were logistically dependent on the railway. The Hejaz represented a lateral line of communications for Ottoman forces to protect Arabia. If the British tried to strike north through Palestine the