AQABA - FACT AND FICTION

T.E. Lawrence

On the 6^th July 1917, during the First World War and the Arab Revolt, Arabian troops led by T.E. Lawrence and Auda Ibu Tayi captured the city of Aqaba from the Ottoman Empire. This particular event was portrayed, with great flare, by David Lean in his film Lawrence of Arabia. It is viewed as the turning point in Lawrence’s military career. The film version of events is of course far more dramatic then the facts as noted at the time.

You may recall in the film, Lawrence (Peter O’Toole), after meeting with Faisal (Alec Guiness) in his tent, wanders round the desert through the night working out how to provide Faisal with the ‘miracle ‘ he needs to conduct his war against the Turks. He decides to take Aqaba and persuades Sherif Ali (Omar Shariff) and fifty of Faisal’s troops, to head across the desert. They then meet Auda Abu Tayi (Anthony Quinn) and persuade him to join up with his men, and they all charge up the valley and surround the city. It’s all a clever scheme devised by Lawrence out of the blue and done without any reference to his superior officers. He then rides across the Sinai Peninsula with two boys, his servants, one of whom dies in a sand storm, to inform his superiors of what he’s done. He eventually strides into the Officer’s Mess in Cairo in his Arab dress, and overwhelms everyone with the deeds of daring do, and General Allenby (Jack Hawkins) gives him a promotion and everything he needs to go back and carry on. This is a short potted version of the filmic events surrounding Lawrence’s attack on Aqaba. The reality, however, is not quite the same.

Aqaba

Auda Ibu Tayi

Lawrence 1917

It would appear that, Lawrence, sent by General Archibald Murray, commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, to act as a military advisor to Faisal, convinced the latter to attack Aqaba. Aqaba was a Turkish-garrisoned port in Jordan, which would threaten British forces operating in Palestine; the Turks had also used it as a base during their 1915 attack on the Suez Canal. It was also suggested by Faisal that the port be taken as a means for the British to supply his Arab forces as they moved further north. Though he did not take part in the attack itself (his cousin Sherif Nasir rode along as the leader of his forces), Faisal lent forty of his men to Lawrence. Lawrence also met with Auda Ibu Tayi, leader of the northern Howeitat tribe of Bedouin, who agreed to lend himself and a large number of his men to the expedition. Lawrence informed his British colleagues of the planned expedition, but they apparently did not take him seriously, expecting it to fail.

Aqaba was not in and of itself a major military obstacle; a small village at the time, it was not actually garrisoned by the Turks, though the Turks did keep a small, 400-man garrison at the mouth of the Wadi Itm to protect from landward attack via the Sinai Peninsula. The British Royal Navy occasionally shelled Aqaba, and in late 1916 had briefly landed a party of Marines ashore there, though a lack of harbor or landing beaches made an amphibious assault impractical. The main obstacle to a successful landward attack on the town was the large Nefud Desert, believed by many to be impassable.

The actual battle for Aqaba occurred for the most part at a Turkish blockhouse at Abu el Lissal, about halfway between Aqaba and the town of Ma’an. A group of separate Arab rebels, acting in conjunction with the expedition, had seized the blockhouse a few days before, but a Turkish infantry battalion arrived on the scene and recaptured it. The Turks then attacked a small, nearby encampment of Arabs and killed several of them.

After hearing of this, Auda personally led an attack on the Turkish troops there, attacking at mid-day on July 6. The charge was a wild success. Turkish resistance was slight; the Arabs brutally massacred hundreds of Turks as revenge before their leaders could restrain them. In all, three hundred Turks were killed and another 150 taken prisoner, in exchange for the loss of two Arabs killed and a handful of wounded. Lawrence was nearly killed in the action; he accidentally shot the camel he was riding in the head with his pistol, but was fortunately thrown out of harm's way when he fell. Auda was grazed numerous times, with his favorite pair of field glasses being destroyed, but was otherwise unharmed.

Meanwhile, a small group of British naval vessels appeared offshore of Aqaba itself and began shelling it. At this point, Lawrence, Auda, and Nasir had rallied their troops; their total force had been quadrupled to 2,000 men by a local Bedouin who, with the defeat of the Turks at Lissal, now openly joined Lawrence's expedition. This force maneuvered themselves past the outer works of Aqaba's defensive lines, approached the gates of Aqaba, and its garrison surrendered without further struggle.

Lawrence travelled across the Sinai Peninsula with a small bodyguard to personally inform the British army in Cairo, now under General Edmund Allenby, that Aqaba had fallen. Arriving at the Suez Canal, Lawrence phoned Cairo HQ to tell of the success, and also arranged for a naval transport of supplies to Aqaba. Lawrence arrived in Cairo a few days later and conferred with Allenby, who agreed to supply the Arab forces there with arms, supplies, payment and several warships.

Murray

Allenby

On the whole I have to agree that Robert Bolt’s screenplay version is a lot tidier and much better viewing, except I think the bit about Lawrence accidentally shooting his camel should have been in the film.

Emir Faisal's delegation at Versailles, during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Left to right: Rustrum Haidar, Nuri as-Said, Prince Faisal, Captain Pisani (behind Faisal), T.E. Lawrence, Faisal's black slave (name unknown), Captain  Tashin Kadry

Also see entry 28th June 2011 re. Paris Peace Conference of 1919.