Lawrence of Arabia's Legendary Assault on Aqaba

It was the eccentric British soldier T.E. Lawrence's leadership in overrunning the Turkish held gulf port of Aqaba [i] that established him as a legend in the eyes of the British military and eventually the British and American public. By mid-1917, it was obvious to the British that if the Arab Revolt were to be extended to Damascus and beyond, Arab raiding parties would have to be executed in the deserts east of Palestine and Lebanon. The five thousand year old city of Damascus was the key to controlling the Middle East and making a final thrust into Turkey. Damascus was such an important city to the area that it had been controlled by the Assyrians and Persians in ancient times, as well as Alexander the Great and the Romans.

Lawrence's unlikely partner was an Abu Tayi tribesmen, Auda, the courageous leader whose reputation had preceded him as a renegade chief and the greatest living Arab fighter. Lawrence biographer Graves described Auda and Feisal as an unlikely pair, "Feisal the prophet, and Auda the warrior, each true to his type . . . an immediate understanding and liking" at their first meeting. Auda was over fifty-years-old but lively and vigorous, legendary in his own way: married 28 times, wounded 13 times, killed 75 men in battle (Turks he did not count), generous to a fault, a desert pirate who attacked and raided other Arab tribes with the philosophy of survival of the fittest. Auda told Lawrence that all things were possible with dynamite and money.

Now the British desired to push out the old Ottoman Empire once and for all and make it the stepping-stone to a final control of all Turkey. Supplies would come through the Gulf of Aqaba but the Turks held the city of Aqaba as well as the strategic narrow pass that led to the city from inland. Though the city might be captured through the sea, capturing the narrow pass called Wadi Itm was thought to be more difficult, an act that only madmen would entertain. It was this impossibility that drove Lawrence and Auda to attack Aqaba by land after traveling hundreds of miles through the desert. However, Lawrence's interest in taking Aqaba was more than a military coup for the British; he realized that an Arab presence in the city would give the Arabs credibility as a real military and political force that would have to be recognized by the Allied powers.

Lawrence set out with Auda from Al Wajh,[ii] making a strange and deceptive, 500-mile circuitous route before reaching Aqaba. The march was made more difficult by the fact that most of the wells in the tiny villages along the route (Arfaja, Nebk, Bair, Jefer) were destroyed or spoiled. During the spring of 1917 Lawrence had engaged in various raids on the Hejaz Railway, the rail line that was a vital supply line between Damascus and Medina. While resting and wondering what good the endless raids were doing in the greater scheme of things, Lawrence began plans on attacking Aqaba but never made his intentions clear to his British superiors undoubtedly fearing that the audacity of the plan would be rejected by cooler heads. However, the British command was quite willing to sacrifice the Arabs and Lawrence. The British considered Lawrence's raids of bridges and railroad track a vital deception that kept the Turks away from the real British Army's aim of controlling Palestine and sweeping the Turks from that land.

It was during the torturous June-July, 1917 drive to Aqaba by Lawrence and Auda, which is the main focus of David Lean's spectacular 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia,[iii] that one of Auda's men, Gasim, became separated from his camel and lost in the desert. Though Lawrence was warned not to go back for the man, he did anyway and found him, an act that ennobled him in the eyes of Auda's men.

Lawrence had often goaded Auda into action by questioning his courage as well as his men's. When the 500 lightly-armed Arabs had reached the outskirts of Aqaba and were trading meaningless potshots with the Turks, the weary and dehydrated Lawrence traded bards with Auda once again. Auda, seeing Lawrence parched and prostrate in front of a mudhole trying to suck up what little water he could, chided him with "all talk and no work?" "By God, indeed," snapped the ill-tempered Lawrence, "they shoot a lot and hit a little." This slight was focused toward Auda's Abu Tayi tribesmen, which enraged Auda. "Get your camel if you want to see the old man's work," Auda spat at Lawrence.

Down a slight incline the Arabs raced toward a group of rifle-firing Turks with Lawrence's camel, Naama, an animal he called a Sherari racer, soon running wildly ahead of all the others. The Turks exchanged fire but "the bullets they did send at us were not very harmful." Firing a pistol at the Turks his camel suddenly collapsed and threw Lawrence a great distance, "which seemed to drive all the power and feeling out of me." Stunned and among numerous rifle-firing Turks whom he expected would readily slay him, Lawrence awaited death by reciting a poem, "For Lord I was free of all Thy flowers, but I chose the world's sad roses, and that is why my feet are torn and mine eyes are blind with sweat." However, no Turks came partially due to the fact that his camel's body had "lain behind me like a rock and divided the charge into two streams." During the mad, uncontrolled rush into the firing Turks, Lawrence had accidentally shot his camel in the back of the head, an act that may have saved his life. Auda survived as well, though his mare had been killed beneath him. Lawrence noticed that Auda's clothes had six bullet holes but somehow Auda was unscathed.

The news of the raid's success brought other Arab fighters in the area to join Auda and Lawrence's band. They hoped to capitalize on a final raid of Aqaba. With the additional forces Aqaba was secured for the Arabs and the British, news that Lawrence brought himself to the British headquarters in Cairo, resplendent in his Arabian garb, an eccentric to the last.

The victory was punctuated by the fact that Lawrence had led a group of only a few hundred men into Aqaba where he inflicted a loss of 1,200 Turks by death or capture, opposed to two men killed in Lawrence's party. Only weeks after the stunning success at Aqaba, Lawrence was made aware of intelligence reports concerning the wily Auda. It appeared that Auda, unhappy that his raiders were not given enough spoils of war, had been carrying on secret correspondence with the Turks. Lawrence went to Auda and confronted him with the accusation and Auda explained that he had indeed made a deal with the Turks with the appearance that he would side with them for a large sum of money, which was sent to him. Auda made it appear as if he was just involved in a confidence game with the Turks, but Lawrence was aware that Auda could easily side with the Turks for the right price. Nothing more was made of the incident when Lawrence informed Auda that Feisal's army was in route to Aqaba with supplies and arms.

For his part in the Aqaba raid, Lawrence was recommended for the Victorian Cross but instead was awarded the Distinguished Service Order from England and the Croix de Guerre with palms by the French. However, it was the British government's deception that angered Lawrence more than the Turks. The British refusal of recognizing any kind of Arab independence outraged Lawrence. In 1919 during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace he refused military decorations to be pinned on him by King George V; he cited Britain's poor treatment of the Arabs as his reason for refusing the decorations, an action that both amazed and shocked the British public.

[i] The gulf port of Aqaba is currently in the country of Jordan.

[ii] Currently in Saudi Arabia.

[iii] The film won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture for 1962. David Lean, the film's director, entered the direction of the film with an impressive list of successful films including Brief Encounter (1946), Great Expectations (1947), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). In 1965 he would direct Dr. Zhivago.