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2,000 miles away from the trench stalemate in France, | 0:01:22 | 0:01:27 | |
another war was being fought in the desert wastes of the Middle East. | 0:01:27 | 0:01:33 | |
An old-fashioned war of small armies and large spaces, | 0:01:33 | 0:01:38 | |
where manoeuvre counted and success depended not on millions of men, | 0:01:38 | 0:01:44 | |
not on the products of industry, but on the leadership of generals. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:49 | |
Where cavalry wasn't an out-of-date spectator of vast killing matches, | 0:01:49 | 0:01:55 | |
but a vital instrument of fast offensives. | 0:01:55 | 0:01:58 | |
Where rivers were lifelines, | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
like in the campaigns of Alexander The Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:07 | |
This region bridged Europe and the East, | 0:02:07 | 0:02:11 | |
the East and Africa. | 0:02:11 | 0:02:13 | |
In the rich soil of its river valleys - the Nile, | 0:02:13 | 0:02:18 | |
the Tigris, the Euphrates - human civilisation had been born. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:23 | |
Down the centuries, | 0:02:32 | 0:02:34 | |
tide after tide of conquests had flowed over the Middle East - | 0:02:34 | 0:02:39 | |
the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, | 0:02:39 | 0:02:43 | |
the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs and the Turks. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:47 | |
Under Turkish rule, life stagnated. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:51 | |
Poverty and disease afflicted the people. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:54 | |
The 19th century brought the Arabs ancient memories of nationhood. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:15 | |
Men prophesied a free and united Arabia rid of alien Turkish rule. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:21 | |
In 1883, a French traveller noted - | 0:03:21 | 0:03:24 | |
"Everywhere, I came upon the same abiding and universal sentiment - | 0:03:24 | 0:03:29 | |
"hatred of the Turks. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
"The notion of concerted action to throw off the detested yoke | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
"is shaping itself. An Arab movement is looming in the distance, | 0:03:36 | 0:03:41 | |
"and a race hitherto downtrodden | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
"will claim its due place in the destinies of Islam." | 0:03:43 | 0:03:48 | |
Towards the end of the 19th century, | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
the Jews were also reviving memories of nationhood. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:55 | |
They had scattered after Emperor Titus captured Jerusalem in AD 70. | 0:03:55 | 0:04:01 | |
Now there was a movement to bring the Jewish race home again, | 0:04:01 | 0:04:06 | |
and build in Palestine a new, Jewish state. | 0:04:06 | 0:04:10 | |
The Jews began to return. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
The races of the Middle East were stirring against the bonds of the senile Turkish empire. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:19 | |
But the Turks still ruled over the crossroads of the world, | 0:04:19 | 0:04:24 | |
collision point of the imperial ambitions of the European powers. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:30 | |
The Middle East was the key to the British hold on her Indian Empire. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:35 | |
To keep the Middle East from France, | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
Nelson had sunk Napoleon's fleet at the Battle Of The Nile. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:42 | |
To keep it safe from Russia, Britain had fought the Crimean War. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:47 | |
Since its opening in 1869, the Suez Canal had become the direct route, | 0:04:47 | 0:04:52 | |
linking Britain to India, Australia and New Zealand. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:57 | |
And since 1882, | 0:04:57 | 0:04:59 | |
the British had been the paramount power in Egypt. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:04 | |
The early years of the 20th century gave the British added concern about the Middle East - oil. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:21 | |
In 1908, oil had been discovered in Persia, near the Persian Gulf. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:31 | |
With aircraft and motor transport, oil was becoming vital for Britain. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:37 | |
The Navy, too, was changing over from coal to oil. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:41 | |
Unlike coal, which lay safe under British fields, this new fuel | 0:05:41 | 0:05:47 | |
was in lands that might be menaced by hostile powers. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:51 | |
From London and from Delhi, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:53 | |
the British continued to keep watch on the Middle East. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:58 | |
MACHINERY CREAKS | 0:05:58 | 0:06:01 | |
The eyes of the German empire | 0:06:10 | 0:06:12 | |
were also fixed on the head of the Persian Gulf. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:14 | |
Through the Balkans and Turkey, and across the sands of Mesopotamia, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:24 | |
there lay Germany's road to the East. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
A road for her busy salesmen and industrialists. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
The Berlin to Baghdad railway. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
By 1914, all but 400 miles had been completed. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:38 | |
Germany's interest had been proclaimed by the Kaiser's visit to Turkey and the Holy Land in 1898. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:47 | |
"His Majesty, The Sultan and the Muslims who revere him as caliph | 0:06:47 | 0:06:53 | |
"may rest assured they will always have a friend in the German emperor." | 0:06:53 | 0:06:58 | |
When the Kaiser visited Turkey again 19 years later, | 0:06:58 | 0:07:02 | |
the war between the nations of Europe | 0:07:02 | 0:07:06 | |
had engulfed Turks, Arabs, Jews and Egyptians alike. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:10 | |
But he had redeemed his promise. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
In 1914, Germany gave Turkey the warships | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
Goeben and Breslau to replace two Turkish ships | 0:07:16 | 0:07:20 | |
being built in Britain and seized for the Royal Navy. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:24 | |
Britain's act of seizure | 0:07:24 | 0:07:26 | |
and Germany's friendship pulled Turkey from neutrality. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:31 | |
In Constantinople, the crowds were in holiday mood. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:35 | |
DRUMS BEAT AND MEN CHEER | 0:07:35 | 0:07:38 | |
But the Kaiser saw them, and their fellow Muslims everywhere, | 0:07:38 | 0:07:43 | |
as a means of destroying Britain's Indian Empire, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:48 | |
that Empire which tormented him with envy. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
"We must inflame all the Mohammedan world to frantic rebellion | 0:07:51 | 0:07:56 | |
"against this treacherous, conscienceless nation of shopkeepers. | 0:07:56 | 0:08:00 | |
"For if we are to bleed to death, | 0:08:00 | 0:08:04 | |
"England shall, at all events, lose India." | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
Turkey went to war with a German-trained, German-equipped, German-advised army | 0:08:10 | 0:08:16 | |
recruited from some of the toughest fighting stock in the world. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:20 | |
Which way would the Turks march? | 0:08:20 | 0:08:23 | |
Across the Sinai Desert to the Suez Canal? | 0:08:23 | 0:08:27 | |
Down the Tigris and Euphrates to the oil fields of Persia? | 0:08:27 | 0:08:31 | |
For the British, the loss of either would have been a catastrophe. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:36 | |
In London and Delhi, orders were given. | 0:08:36 | 0:08:40 | |
Troops sailed to parry the Turkish threat. Indians, Australians and New Zealanders to Egypt, | 0:08:40 | 0:08:46 | |
British and Indians to the Persian Gulf. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
The expedition from India landed at the head of the Gulf. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:56 | |
They captured Basra, the Turkish port where the Tigris and Euphrates flowed to the sea. | 0:08:56 | 0:09:03 | |
The army discovered Mesopotamia, | 0:09:03 | 0:09:05 | |
where even the towns were crumbling heaps of mud-houses. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:10 | |
An Arab proverb said, | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
"When Allah had made hell, he found it not bad enough. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:17 | |
"So he made Mesopotamia | 0:09:17 | 0:09:20 | |
"and added flies." | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
Gradually, a primitive base was built up | 0:09:22 | 0:09:26 | |
amid the palm groves of Basra. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
More troops arrived to share the flies and the dysentery. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:34 | |
The oil fields were safe. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:36 | |
There seemed nothing more for the army to do. But its new commander, | 0:09:41 | 0:09:45 | |
Lieutenant General Sir John Nixon, would not rest on the defensive. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:51 | |
"General Nixon had a well-earned reputation for dash. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:56 | |
"He himself thought he was selected for command on account of it." | 0:09:56 | 0:10:01 | |
Nixon dispatched a British and Indian force north-westwards | 0:10:01 | 0:10:06 | |
to find and defeat the Turks. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
Through the spring floods of 1915, | 0:10:15 | 0:10:18 | |
between and along the great rivers, | 0:10:18 | 0:10:20 | |
the army laboured slowly forwards towards Baghdad. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:25 | |
In country where an army must provide for itself, everything had to be improvised. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:31 | |
It was the rainy season and the rivers were in flood. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:36 | |
For transport, the British used small, native boats. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:41 | |
Gunboats protected the advance, as they had | 0:10:43 | 0:10:46 | |
for Kitchener's advance up the Nile in 1898. | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
But, unlike Kitchener, | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
the British were not building a railway line behind them. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:56 | |
By June, the army was at Amara, | 0:11:13 | 0:11:16 | |
200 miles from its base in Basra. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
So far, the Turks had been beaten easily. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
Should the British press on? Nixon asked the Government at home | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
for instructions. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
The Government were dazzled by the easy successes. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:48 | |
They told Nixon to march on, if he thought the risks acceptable. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:52 | |
Nixon ordered the force commander, General Townsend, to advance. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:57 | |
Townsend, too, was a man with Napoleonic aspirations. | 0:11:57 | 0:12:02 | |
While his troops marched, rested or battled with the flies, | 0:12:02 | 0:12:07 | |
he decided to try a stroke of daring. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
"I told Nixon, if I routed the Turks, | 0:12:10 | 0:12:14 | |
"I might follow them to Baghdad. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
"I was told if I went into Baghdad, | 0:12:16 | 0:12:18 | |
"it would have the same importance | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
"as entering Constantinople. The news would go through all Asia." | 0:12:21 | 0:12:26 | |
Constantinople. Baghdad. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:29 | |
Cities of legend. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:31 | |
The lure of Baghdad blinded soldiers and politicians alike | 0:12:31 | 0:12:35 | |
to the squalid reality of 20th century Mesopotamia in midsummer, | 0:12:35 | 0:12:40 | |
to the weakness of the link with far-off Basra. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:44 | |
It was a link strained to breaking point | 0:12:44 | 0:12:48 | |
by the hoards of filthy and hungry refugees | 0:12:48 | 0:12:52 | |
fleeing from the clamour of a foreigners' war. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:55 | |
It was 1915. The summer of the Battles of Artois and Neuve Chapelle in France. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:27 | |
The sun glared down on the troops round Amara. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:31 | |
Water that teemed with germs | 0:13:36 | 0:13:38 | |
had to be purified before it could be drunk. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:42 | |
And in the heat, men and beasts craved for water. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:47 | |
The day temperature reached 125 degrees Fahrenheit. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:53 | |
Disease swept the army. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
With contaminated water came dysentery and cholera. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:12 | |
With rats and lice came plague and typhus. With insects came sandfly fever and malaria. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:19 | |
Above all, there was the crushing, annihilating heat. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:24 | |
I had malaria, and I was looking in this window at the back of me, | 0:14:24 | 0:14:30 | |
a room full of strong young men, | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
all dying slowly of heatstroke. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:35 | |
Further and further up the turgid rivers, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
further and further into the heat and emptiness, | 0:14:49 | 0:14:53 | |
Townsend's men advanced. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
Now Townsend himself began to feel qualms. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:02 | |
"The army commander does not realise | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
"the weakness and danger of his line of communications. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:09 | |
"We are now 380 miles from the sea." | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
With the capture of Kut al Imara, | 0:15:12 | 0:15:15 | |
just another Arab mud town on the river, | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
Townsend halted to rest and build up supplies. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:22 | |
In Basra, Nixon was still confident. He telegraphed to India - | 0:15:35 | 0:15:40 | |
"I consider I am strong enough to open the road to Baghdad." | 0:15:40 | 0:15:45 | |
November 1915. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:47 | |
Once more, Townsend's weary men | 0:15:47 | 0:15:50 | |
plodded north along the river. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
Behind them ambled a transport column | 0:15:59 | 0:16:03 | |
that belonged not to the 20th century, | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
but to the campaigns of Alexander or Xerxes - | 0:16:06 | 0:16:10 | |
620 camels, 240 donkeys, | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
1,000 mules, 660 carts, a collection of bullocks and cows | 0:16:13 | 0:16:17 | |
and a strange regatta | 0:16:17 | 0:16:20 | |
of river-craft. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:22 | |
At last, Townsend came up with the main Turkish army. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:28 | |
Only 16 miles from Baghdad, | 0:16:28 | 0:16:31 | |
but nearly 500 from Basra. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
The Turks lay entrenched in the plain, | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
where only the great ruined arch | 0:16:38 | 0:16:41 | |
of the ancient Palace of Ctesiphon broke the flat horizons. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:46 | |
But when we come into the 300 yards mark, | 0:17:18 | 0:17:21 | |
they opened a pretty heavy lot of shooting. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:26 | |
Quite a lot of our fellas got it. About half the regiment wiped out. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:31 | |
Well, we carried on. We captured that first line - | 0:17:31 | 0:17:36 | |
the Turks had all gone away from it. We captured the place we was after. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:42 | |
We couldn't go on no further. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
It was a victory, | 0:17:45 | 0:17:48 | |
but it cost nearly half the British infantry. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:52 | |
The Turks had been reinforced. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
Townsend was 500 miles from his base. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:01 | |
Outnumbered, cumbered with sick and wounded, | 0:18:01 | 0:18:06 | |
he faced disaster. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:08 | |
The army fell back. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:11 | |
The sick and wounded now began a journey | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
whose horror recalled the Crimea. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:17 | |
Jolted over the rough desert in the cushionless transport carts, | 0:18:17 | 0:18:22 | |
wounded men crawled across the desert on hands and knees | 0:18:22 | 0:18:26 | |
rather than endure the shaking, | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
or used dead bodies as cushions between them | 0:18:29 | 0:18:33 | |
and the bottom of the carts. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
Worse was to come. Packed into riverboats, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
the wounded lay without medical aid until they reached Basra. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:45 | |
"The patients were so huddled they couldn't defecate clear of the ship. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:51 | |
"The whole of the ship's side was covered with stalactites of faeces. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:56 | |
"We found a mass of men huddled up, some with blankets and some without. | 0:18:56 | 0:19:01 | |
"They were lying in a pool of dysentery, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:05 | |
"covered in dejecta from head to toe. | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
"The first man I examined had a fractured thigh, | 0:19:08 | 0:19:12 | |
"perforated in five or six places. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:15 | |
"He had been writhing about on deck." | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
On 3rd December 1915, Townsend found shelter in the town of Kut. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
Soon he was cut off and besieged by the Turks. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:27 | |
"I have shut myself up in Kut. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:29 | |
"The state of extreme weariness and exhaustion | 0:19:29 | 0:19:33 | |
"of my men demands instant rest." | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
On Christmas Eve, there were quite a number of troops in front of us | 0:19:36 | 0:19:41 | |
and they started at dawn on an attack. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:45 | |
They blew different holes in our walls. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:49 | |
They got in. We counterattacked and drove them out again, | 0:19:49 | 0:19:53 | |
I suppose about half a dozen times. They broke in at different places. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:59 | |
In January 1916, fresh troops from Basra | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
fought desperate battles to try to break through and relieve Kut. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:14 | |
Instead of the summer's heat, | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
winter brought floods, torrential rains, bitter cold. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:23 | |
Once more, supplies and medical care | 0:20:23 | 0:20:27 | |
were improvised, inadequate. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
The months dragged on. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
The relief attacks failed, with heavy losses. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:37 | |
In Kut itself, hope grew dim. | 0:20:37 | 0:20:41 | |
The rations came down finally | 0:20:45 | 0:20:47 | |
to 3oz of bread and 12oz of horse meat. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:51 | |
The horse meat was difficult to eat | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
because some of these mules we ate | 0:20:54 | 0:20:57 | |
had been fed on mules themselves | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
and the meat was very lean and hard to digest. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:05 | |
After five months, on the 29th April 1916, | 0:21:05 | 0:21:09 | |
Kut surrendered | 0:21:09 | 0:21:12 | |
and General Townsend and 13,000 men, British and Indian, | 0:21:12 | 0:21:16 | |
went into Turkish captivity. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:19 | |
Capture did not end the sufferings. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
Painful marches, thirst and hunger, brutal treatment lay ahead. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:27 | |
Two thirds of them were to die in captivity. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:31 | |
The fall of Kut released Turkish reserves. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:39 | |
In 1915, feeble Turkish attacks on the Suez Canal had been easily repulsed. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:45 | |
Now, in August 1916, | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
the Turks launched a major offensive in Egypt. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
HORSES NEIGH AND MEN SHOUT | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
SHELLFIRE AND SHOUTING | 0:22:00 | 0:22:02 | |
MACHINE-GUNFIRE | 0:22:02 | 0:22:06 | |
Half their force was destroyed and the rest retreated into Palestine. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:42 | |
Egypt and the Suez Canal were secure. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
The British commander in Egypt, Sir Archibald Murray, | 0:22:48 | 0:22:52 | |
wanted to crown his success with a counterstroke. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:56 | |
Gradually, the British in Egypt were drawn into a major campaign for the conquest of the Holy Land. | 0:22:56 | 0:23:03 | |
Across the Sinai Desert they marched, a route taken by Bonaparte in 1799. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:12 | |
Like him, the British Government allowed themselves to be dazzled | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
by the names of fabulous cities, | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
holy places that had lured European soldiers since the Crusades - | 0:23:19 | 0:23:24 | |
Jerusalem and Damascus. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
This, too, was a war for old-fashioned objectives. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:30 | |
But it was fought with modern means. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
A wire-netting vehicle track was laid across the sand, | 0:23:33 | 0:23:36 | |
and a pipeline to bring up the water | 0:23:36 | 0:23:38 | |
without which the men and beasts could not live. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
A railway was laid behind the Army, linking it with its base in the Nile delta. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:50 | |
By March 1917, Murray was through the desert | 0:23:50 | 0:23:55 | |
and at the gates of Palestine. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:59 | |
Murray's mounted regiments, British, Australian, New Zealand and Indian, | 0:23:59 | 0:24:03 | |
were the key to his plan of attack on the Turks. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
Our job was to follow through with the Light Horse, | 0:24:06 | 0:24:11 | |
get the other side of Gaza and come round towards the sea | 0:24:11 | 0:24:16 | |
so the Turks were enclosed, | 0:24:16 | 0:24:18 | |
with the sea on one side and troops all round. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
EXPLOSION | 0:24:21 | 0:24:23 | |
In the confusion of battle, the British thought they had failed, whereas the Turks were near defeat. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:43 | |
There was a withdrawal and we went back a short way for the night, | 0:24:43 | 0:24:48 | |
much to our disappointment, because the objectives had been reached. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:53 | |
But the dismay and bewilderment was all the greater the next morning, | 0:24:53 | 0:24:58 | |
when we had to do it all over again. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:00 | |
The second battle of Gaza was a British repulse. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:13 | |
As Kut had ended Nixon's command, Gaza ended Murray's. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:17 | |
The Turks still barred the road to Jerusalem and Damascus. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:22 | |
CAMEL GRUMBLES | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
MEN SHOUT ORDERS | 0:25:24 | 0:25:27 | |
The British and Australian troops settled down for a long wait | 0:25:31 | 0:25:36 | |
in the empty, scorching wastes of the Sinai. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:39 | |
Our biggest problem was monotony. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:00 | |
You'd see the sun get up, a big, red ball in the morning | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
and go down a big, red ball at night, | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
and that was your only sense of time. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:08 | |
And nothing but sand dunes as far as the eye could see. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:14 | |
You had the heat in the day, lying in the sand, | 0:26:14 | 0:26:18 | |
the glare of the sun and the glare of the desert. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
Your rifle barrels would get so hot, you had to hold them by the wood. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:26 | |
In Mesopotamia, there was now a new commander - | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
Sir Stanley Maude. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:34 | |
He was an organiser - not a gambler. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
The base at Basra was reorganised, re-equipped. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
So were the Army's transport services and communications. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:47 | |
There was abundant modern equipment of every kind. By the end of 1916, | 0:26:47 | 0:26:52 | |
Maude commanded an army four times larger than the Turkish force in front of him. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:57 | |
Maude was ready. When the British advanced this time, | 0:27:00 | 0:27:04 | |
there was no gamble, no drama, no adventure. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:08 | |
Maude's personality stamped the expedition | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
with cool professionalism. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:13 | |
Yet the objective remained the same - Baghdad. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
Carefully, irresistibly, Maude swept the Turks | 0:27:24 | 0:27:28 | |
northward out of Kut, on up the River Tigris. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
On 11 March, the British at last | 0:27:56 | 0:27:59 | |
entered the city of the caliphs. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
"Nothing could have been more casual and easy | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
"than our entry into Baghdad. | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
"Four of us - the colonel and the adjutant of the King's Own, | 0:28:07 | 0:28:11 | |
"a gunner officer and myself would be in first. | 0:28:11 | 0:28:15 | |
"The weariness of the long pursuit was forgotten. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:19 | |
"Here they were in Baghdad - the goal of their desires." | 0:28:19 | 0:28:23 | |
At the gates of Palestine, | 0:28:28 | 0:28:30 | |
the forces south of Gaza also had a new commander - | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
General Allenby - sometimes known as the Bull. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:38 | |
Allenby's leadership transformed | 0:28:38 | 0:28:40 | |
the bored troops in the Sinai desert into an army eager to attack. | 0:28:40 | 0:28:45 | |
Preparations for a great offensive gathered speed. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:54 | |
Allenby wrote home - | 0:28:54 | 0:28:55 | |
"I shall not attempt anything big until I have what was promised me. | 0:28:55 | 0:29:00 | |
"I've made a lot of changes since I came here and have now a good staff | 0:29:00 | 0:29:05 | |
"and some capable commanders. My army is in good spirits and is confident of success." | 0:29:05 | 0:29:12 | |
The objective remained the Holy Land and Syria, | 0:29:12 | 0:29:15 | |
Damascus and Jerusalem. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:18 | |
In September 1917, | 0:29:18 | 0:29:20 | |
Allenby was ready. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:22 | |
It was the year of the Russian Revolution and of Passchendaele. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:27 | |
Britain needed a prestige victory. | 0:29:27 | 0:29:31 | |
Lloyd George told Allenby he was expected to give the British nation | 0:29:31 | 0:29:34 | |
Jerusalem as a Christmas present. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:37 | |
Cavalry was the instrument of victory. | 0:29:41 | 0:29:44 | |
Allenby tricked the Turks into thinking | 0:29:44 | 0:29:48 | |
he was going to attack Gaza again, | 0:29:48 | 0:29:50 | |
while his horsemen launched a surprise attack on their flank at Beersheba. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:57 | |
The cavalry charge by the Australian Light Horse | 0:29:57 | 0:30:01 | |
was made with fixed bayonets on rifles in three lines of horsemen. | 0:30:01 | 0:30:06 | |
Well, they charged through. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:08 | |
As the first line jumped over the first lot of trenches, the Turks didn't put up a fight. | 0:30:08 | 0:30:15 | |
That was the finish. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:17 | |
Out-fought, outmanoeuvred, the Turks fell back | 0:30:17 | 0:30:21 | |
with Allenby in relentless pursuit. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:24 | |
In ten days, the British advanced 50 miles. | 0:30:24 | 0:30:28 | |
Arab fishing boats carried essential supplies to beaches close behind the advancing Army. | 0:30:28 | 0:30:35 | |
While the Arabs hauled their craft ashore, Allenby's pursuit swept on. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:41 | |
The Turks were split in two, one group amid the orange groves | 0:30:41 | 0:30:47 | |
of the Plain of Sharon and the other in the hills of Judaea. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:51 | |
Allenby swung his main weight east, towards Jerusalem, | 0:30:51 | 0:30:56 | |
racing to beat the onset of the winter rains. | 0:30:56 | 0:31:01 | |
Then we began to approach the Judaean hills. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
Here we met deluges of rain. And as we went up those hills, it became colder and colder. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:11 | |
We had our jackets, but we were wet through from morning till night. | 0:31:11 | 0:31:16 | |
With it came troubles with the camels. | 0:31:16 | 0:31:19 | |
The camel is no mountaineer | 0:31:19 | 0:31:22 | |
and the Judaean hills are not high but consist of ridge after ridge after ridge. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:28 | |
You know you have a destination which will take some hours to reach. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:33 | |
You hope each ridge will be the last, but there's always one more ridge. | 0:31:33 | 0:31:38 | |
On 11 December 1917, the Allies took Jerusalem. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:43 | |
Allenby entered the conquered city humbly, on foot, | 0:31:43 | 0:31:47 | |
in contrast to the Kaiser who, in 1898, had ridden on horseback | 0:31:47 | 0:31:52 | |
through a gap specially made in the ancient walls. | 0:31:52 | 0:31:56 | |
Jerusalem was the first famous city | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
to fall to the Allies during four years of war. | 0:31:59 | 0:32:04 | |
For the first time, an Allied army received the keys of such a city | 0:32:06 | 0:32:11 | |
and posted proclamations of military government on the walls of a captured capital - | 0:32:11 | 0:32:18 | |
a spiritual capital, the holiest city of three religions - Christian, Jewish and Mohammedan. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:25 | |
The British nation had received its Christmas present. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:30 | |
After going through Jerusalem, we passed the Garden of Gethsemane | 0:32:30 | 0:32:35 | |
and went up the Mount of Olives, where we camped for quite a few days. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:40 | |
From the Mount of Olives, one gets a wonderful view of Jerusalem town. | 0:32:40 | 0:32:45 | |
We were all very impressed with that and couldn't help thinking of our Bible stories we'd read in the past. | 0:32:45 | 0:32:52 | |
The Turkish empire, so long senile and decadent, | 0:32:52 | 0:32:56 | |
was crumbling into collapse. | 0:32:56 | 0:32:59 | |
Her Arab lands had already been the subject | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
of secret bargaining between France and Britain. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:07 | |
But other parties were involved now. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:09 | |
Britain had encouraged Arab hatred of the Turk, sending Sherif Hussein of Mecca | 0:33:09 | 0:33:15 | |
and his son, Faisal, money, weapons and explosives. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:19 | |
She had sent the Arabs a leader - Colonel TE Lawrence. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:24 | |
"I was a stranger to these Arabs, unable to think their thoughts or subscribe to their beliefs, | 0:33:24 | 0:33:31 | |
"but charged to lead them forward and develop any movement of theirs | 0:33:31 | 0:33:36 | |
"profitable to England in her war." | 0:33:36 | 0:33:39 | |
British help, together with hatred of the Turk, fostered the Arab revolt. The Arab irregulars | 0:33:39 | 0:33:46 | |
moved swiftly and secretly through the desert east of Jordan on camels, | 0:33:46 | 0:33:50 | |
blowing up Turkish railway lines, attacking isolated posts | 0:33:50 | 0:33:55 | |
and even capturing the holy city of Mecca. | 0:33:55 | 0:33:59 | |
12,000 Turkish troops were tied down by the Arab irregulars, | 0:34:08 | 0:34:13 | |
a valuable diversion of strength | 0:34:13 | 0:34:15 | |
away from the decisive battles in Palestine. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
The Arabs believed that, as a reward for their help, | 0:34:18 | 0:34:22 | |
Great Britain would only conclude peace on terms that gave freedom to the Arab peoples. | 0:34:22 | 0:34:29 | |
The Jewish hope of founding a new state of Israel in Palestine | 0:34:29 | 0:34:35 | |
grew brighter in the shadow of Turkey's defeats. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:39 | |
The Allies needed the help and support of Jews all over the world. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:43 | |
They bought that help, as they had that of the Arabs, with promises. | 0:34:43 | 0:34:49 | |
"His Majesty's Government view with favour | 0:34:49 | 0:34:52 | |
"the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people | 0:34:52 | 0:34:57 | |
"and will facilitate the achievement of this object, | 0:34:57 | 0:35:01 | |
"it being understood that nothing shall be done | 0:35:01 | 0:35:04 | |
"to prejudice the civil or religious rights of non-Jews in Palestine." | 0:35:04 | 0:35:09 | |
The war between the Europeans was bringing mighty changes to the Middle East. | 0:35:09 | 0:35:16 | |
New hopes, | 0:35:16 | 0:35:18 | |
new and massive human forces had been set rolling among peoples long sunk in apathy. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:24 | |
Clashing ambitions and promises carried the threat of new conflicts | 0:35:24 | 0:35:29 | |
at a time when the conflicts of the old order were still being resolved. | 0:35:29 | 0:35:34 | |
While Allenby prepared for the 1918 offensive, a new German commander had arrived in Palestine - | 0:35:34 | 0:35:41 | |
Liman von Sanders. Before the war, he had trained the Turkish armies. | 0:35:41 | 0:35:46 | |
He had led the successful defence of Gallipoli. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
But now, his Turkish troops were slinking away to their homes. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:55 | |
Only his German contingent could be relied on. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:57 | |
The Turkish empire was near to death. But, in the collapse of imperial Russia, | 0:36:00 | 0:36:05 | |
Turkish leaders saw an opportunity | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
to carve out a new empire in the Caucasus and Persia. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:13 | |
While the Turkish troops marched and fought | 0:36:13 | 0:36:17 | |
in the Caucasus in pursuit of this fantasy, | 0:36:17 | 0:36:21 | |
von Sanders faced Allenby, outnumbered by two to one. | 0:36:21 | 0:36:26 | |
WAGON WHEELS RUMBLE | 0:36:26 | 0:36:29 | |
EXPLOSION | 0:36:34 | 0:36:36 | |
Early in the morning of 19 September 1918, Allenby struck under cover of a hurricane barrage. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:49 | |
His troops tore a gap in the Turkish positions on the coast, | 0:36:49 | 0:36:54 | |
wheeled right and pushed the Turks into the hills. | 0:36:54 | 0:36:58 | |
Allenby's cavalry swept forward across the Turkish communications. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:03 | |
Co-operation between cavalry and aircraft, the oldest and the newest striking forces, | 0:37:03 | 0:37:09 | |
brought Allenby a brilliant victory. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:13 | |
Ceaseless air attacks isolated von Sanders from his troops | 0:37:13 | 0:37:18 | |
and blocked the crossings of the River Jordan. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:22 | |
The Turkish army strove to escape. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:26 | |
Only the German soldiers remained steady in the welter of confusion and disaster. | 0:37:28 | 0:37:33 | |
The cavalry rode 70 miles in 24 hours | 0:37:46 | 0:37:50 | |
to cut off the Turkish retreat to the north. | 0:37:50 | 0:37:54 | |
In three days, Allenby destroyed two Turkish armies. | 0:37:54 | 0:37:59 | |
Beyond the Jordan, in the barren hills, a third Turkish army was cut to pieces | 0:37:59 | 0:38:05 | |
by Arabs avenging the cruelties | 0:38:05 | 0:38:08 | |
of centuries of Turkish rule. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:11 | |
On 2 October 1918, another of the legendary cities of the Middle East fell into British hands - | 0:38:15 | 0:38:23 | |
Damascus. | 0:38:23 | 0:38:24 | |
Allenby was the hero of the Arabs. | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
But the moment of Arab liberation was poisoned by conflict between the different Allied promises. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:34 | |
The problems of victory remained for others to solve. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:39 | |
Victory had not been cheap. The Middle East campaigns had drawn in | 0:38:56 | 0:39:01 | |
over two million soldiers of the British Empire. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:05 | |
They had cost over 160,000 casualties. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:08 | |
Painful marches and stern battles had barely affected the issue of the world struggle. | 0:39:08 | 0:39:15 | |
But the Turkish empire had been destroyed. | 0:39:15 | 0:39:19 | |
To Allies and Arabs alike, | 0:39:19 | 0:39:21 | |
for the moment, this was enough. | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 |