Page 81 - All About History - Issue 70-18

Battle of Megiddo

Turkey is born
Defeat in World War I ultimately
paved the way for the partition of
the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire
in 1922. Having led the Turkish
National Movement to victory in the
subsequent war of independence,
Mustafa Kemal secured the
platform on which the Republic
of Turkey could be declared on 29
October 1923.

Friends in the fray
While Britain was the main Allied
power fighting in the Middle East, it
could not have waged such an effective
war without the help of troops from
Australia, New Zealand, India and
South Africa. Above all, the willingness
of local Arabs to rise up against the
Ottomans was the cornerstone around
which the entire campaign was built.

by forcing it to concentrate soldiers on crushing communications and supply routes, preventing Despite the legend of TE Lawrence liberating
the revolt, thereby deflecting troops away from the thousands of Ottoman soldiers from training their Damascus with his Arab army behind him (a myth
Suez Canal. Having promised the Arabs that Britain sights on the British forces fighting in the region popularised by the Hollywood film on his life), it is
would ensure their independence once the war was under the command of General Edmund Allenby. often argued that the Australian Light Horse brigade
won, Hussein’s son initiated the revolt by attacking A particularly clever strategy saw the tribal warriors entered the city walls first, and the city’s governor
the Ottoman garrison in Medina. repeatedly attacking the Hejaz railway line running offered its surrender to the Australians. An Indian
With the rebellion under way, British authorities in south from Damascus, thereby forcing the Ottomans regiment had also apparently passed through,
Egypt decided to send a young officer by the name to continually defend the area and expend time and meaning that TE Lawrence would have ridden into
of Thomas Edward Lawrence to Hejaz (now a region energy repairing sections of the line. well-trodden ground.
in Saudi Arabia) in October 1916 to aid the rebels. Yet while such small-scale successes did damage Whoever entered the city first, the capture
It was a relocation that would prove stunningly the Ottoman war effort, Lawrence’s first major of Damascus on 1 October was relatively
successful as Lawrence embarked on a glittering victory wouldn’t come until the fall of Aqaba, a straightforward given that the Ottomans were
guerrilla campaign. strategically vital port on the Red Sea. already retreating.
Having become a close advisor to Hussein’s Having proven that a well-organised guerrilla However, the city was only there for the taking
son Faisal, the man who would become known force could hamper far larger, better-armed enemy, due to a combination of Lawrence’s campaign and
a
as Lawrence of Arabia helped the smaller Lawrence’s efforts were supported by the British the decisive Allied victory at the Battle of Megiddo,
guerrilla force wage an efficient war against authorities, who by September 1918 had set their an encounter fought in the Holy Land, which paved
important Ottoman positions. They sabotaged vital sights on Damascus. the way for the capture of Aleppo.

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