Part 26 (2/2)
20 ”and if it prevailed”: Lawrence, ”The Politics of Mecca,” p. 1; PRO-FO 371/2771, f. 152.
21 the 36th Indian Infantry Brigade: Millar, Death of an Army, pp. 2045.
22 army of twelve thousand: There is a considerable disparity in historical sources over the size of the Kut garrison, with numbers ranging between nine and twelve thousand. This disparity is explained by the inclusion or omission of so-called camp followers the estimates-the number of actual soldiers was closer to the lower estimate-but since the camp followers would share in their grim fate, it seems appropriate to include them.
23 Perhaps in recognition of his uneven achievements: For details on the battle of Dujaila, and Aylmer's actions, see PRO-WO 158/668, f. 75127.
24 ”My dear c.o.x”: McMahon to c.o.x, March 20, 1916, as quoted by Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia, p. 259.
25 after the war: A. W. Lawrence, T. E. Lawrence by his Friends (1937 edition), p. 301.
26 ”undesirable and inconvenient”: Lake to Secretary of State (India), March 30, 1916; PRO-FO 371/2768, f. 36.
27 ”My general information”: Robertson to Lake, March 16, 1916; PRO-WO 158/669, no. 197.
28 It had all the trappings: William Yale's account of life in wartime Jerusalem is largely drawn from Yale, It Takes So Long, chapters 4 and 5.
29 despite ”his harmless appearance”: Ballobar, Jerusalem in World War I, p. 75.
30 ”[Djemal] says”: Edelman to Socony, Constantinople, March 29, 1916; NARA RG 84, Entry 350, Volume 30, Decimal 300-general.
31 ”I studied his face”: Yale, It Takes So Long, chapter 5, pp. 78.
32 ”At a dance”: Herbert, Mons, Kut and Anzac, p. 232.
33 ”Townshend's guns”: Herbert diary, as quoted by Wilson, Lawrence, p. 272. In the published version (Herbert: Mons, Kut and Anzac, p. 228), the sentence was changed to ”We have got very little to bargain with as far as the Turks are concerned, practically only the exchange of prisoners.”
34 ”Perhaps one of our [Turkish] men”: Herbert, Mons, Kut and Anzac, p. 234.
35 ”they gave us a most excellent dinner”: Lawrence, The Home Letters, p. 324.
36 With most put to work: While postwar British governments were meticulous in tabulating the number of British soldiers at Kut who had died in captivity-1755 out of 2592, according to Crowley (Kut 1916, p. 253)-they were far less with their Indian counterparts, or even in repatriating those who had survived. According to Millar (Death of an Army, p. 284), Indian survivors of Kut continued to show up in their native villages, having somehow managed their own pa.s.sage home, as late as 1924.
37 In a testament to the element: Nash, Chitral Charlie, pp. 27479.
38 ”Effendim”: Djemal Pasha, Memories of a Turkish Statesman, p. 216.
39 ”I should also draw”: Ibid., pp. 21617.
40 ”By brute force”: Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 59.
41 ”British generals”: Ibid., p. 386.
42 ”We pay for”: Ibid., p. 25.
43 So thoroughly did the censors: This is to be found in the Wingate Papers at Durham University, in File W/137/7.
44 It was the signal: Baker, King Husain and the Kingdom of Hejaz, pp. 9899. Baker gives the revolt start date as June 10.
Chapter 8: The Battle Joined.
1 ”The Hejaz war”: T. E. Lawrence, ”Military Notes,” November 3, 1916; PRO-FO 882/5, f. 63.
2 ”A detonation about equal”: Unless otherwise noted, all of Storrs's observations and quotes related to the October 1916 Jeddah trip are taken from his ”Extract from Diary” (PRO-FO 882/5, f. 2238) or from his partially reproduced personal diary in Storrs, Memoirs, pp. 18695.
3 On his two earlier pa.s.sages: Barr, Setting the Desert on Fire, pp. 910.
4 ”To the most honoured”: Unless otherwise noted, all of Storrs's observations and quotes related to his June 1916 visit to Arabia are drawn from his unt.i.tled report to High Commissioner McMahon, June 10, 1916 (PRO-FO 371/2773), or from his partially reproduced personal diary in Storrs, Memoirs, pp. 16976.
5 Lending all this momentous activity: Storrs, Memoirs, p. 176.
6 In that case: While Murray's resistance to a.s.sisting the Arab Revolt was of long standing, he expressed it most forcefully at a meeting of senior British military staff in Ismailia, Egypt, on September 12, 1916 (PRO-FO 882/4, f. 33847).
7 Indeed, well into the autumn: Wilson to Arab Bureau, October 10, 1916; PRO-FO 882/5, f. 89. Also Clayton to Wingate, October 12, 1916; PRO-FO 882/5, f. 1214.
8 ”it was quickly apparent”: Storrs, Memoirs, p. 203.
9 ”I took every opportunity”: Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 63.
10 In just this way: While it is technically true that Lawrence went to Jeddah in no official capacity, Gilbert Clayton worked behind the scenes to have him accompany Storrs so that, jointly, they could return with ”a good appreciation of the situation” in Arabia (Clayton to Wingate, October 9, 1916; SADD Wingate Papers, W/141/3/35). This, in turn, was tied to Clayton's efforts to have Lawrence transferred back to the Arab Bureau.
11 ”the heat of Arabia”: Much of Lawrence's account of his October 1916 journey to Arabia is drawn from Lawrence, Seven Pillars, book 1, chapters 816, pp. 65108.
12 ”totally unsuited”: Storrs Papers, Pembroke College, Cambridge, as cited by Barr, Setting the Desert on Fire, p. 65.
13 In fact, the chief reason: Ibid.
14 ”in a state of admiration”: Storrs, Memoirs, p. 189.
15 ”playing for effect”: Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 67.
16 ”The un-French absence”: Storrs, Memoirs, p. 190.
17 Promotion came steadily: Porte, Lt. Col. Remi, ”General edouard Bremond (18681948),” Cahiers du CESAT (bulletin of the College of Higher Learning of the Army of France), issue 15 (March 2009).
18 ”a practicing light”: Lawrence, Seven Pillars, p. 111.
19 Accompanying a group: Details on Bremond's mission to Egypt and the Hejaz are found in PRO-FO 882/5, f. 299306, and PRO-FO 371/2779, File 152849.
20 Should Medina fall: Lawrence memorandum for Clayton, November 17, 1916 (SADD Clayton Papers, 694/4/42). Also Bremond to Defrance, October 16, 1917, as cited by Wilson, Lawrence of Arabia, p. 309.
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