Colonel T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, from With Lawrence in Arabia by Lowell Thomas
"National ambitions were proving a serious impediment to the warmaking abilities of the Central Powers. Germany's troubles with the Poles were mirrored by Turkey's troubles with the Arabs. In the southernmost extremity of the Ottoman Empire, Arab hostility to their Ottoman masters was having its effect. On July 6th, T.E. Lawrence was present when 2,500 Arabs overwhelmed the three hundred Turkish soldiers defending the port of Akaba, at the head of the Red Sea. This brought the Arab forces to within 130 miles of the British front line in Sinai, where General Allenby was under instructions from London to reach Jerusalem by the end of the year, despite his predecessor's repeated failure to capture Gaza."
T. E. Lawrence — Lawrence of Arabia — set out on June 5, 1917 to raid Turkish infrastructure and outposts in Syria. Many of the Arabs with him were loyal to Auda abu Tayi of the Huwaytat tribe, an outlaw to the Turks. For months Auda had been pressing the British to seize the port of Aqaba, shelled from the sea by the British, but well-defended against attacks from that direction. The port was lightly defended on the inland side, the desert being its primary defence. The Central Power empires, the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman, all had restive national populations. The war would see the end of all three.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 344, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
1917-07-06, 1917, July, Aqaba, Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea, Lawrence, T. E. Lawrence, T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia
