The Great World War 1914–1945: 1. Lightning Strikes Twice. John Bourne

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СКАЧАТЬ was later Associate Visiting Professor of Strategy at the United States Naval War College. She is the author of A Forgotten Offensive. Royal Air Force Coastal Command’s Anti-Shipping Campaign, 1940–1945 (London: Frank Cass, 1995).

      Recommended reading

      Bartlett, C. P. O., Bomber Pilot, 1916–1918 (London: Ian Allan, 1974)

      Goulter, C. J. M., A Forgotten Offensive: Royal Air Force Coastal Command’s Anti-Shipping Campaign, 1940–1945 (London: Frank Cass, 1995)

      Harris, A., Bomber Offensive (London: Greenhill Books, 1990) Despatch (reprinted by Frank Cass, London, 1995)

      Hastings, M., Bomber Command (New York: Dial Press, 1979)

      Messenger, C., Bomber Harris and the Strategic Bombing Offensive, 1939–1945 (London: Arms & Armour Press, 1984)

      Terraine, J., The Right of the Line: The Royal Air Force in the European War, 1939–1945 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1985)

      Webster, C. F. and Frankland, N., The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, 1939–1945 (London: HMSO, 1961)

      Wells, M., Courage and Air Warfare (London: Frank Cass, 1995)

      Williams, G. K., Biplanes and Bombsights: British Bombing in World War I (Maxwell Air Force Base, Air University Press, 1999)

      Wise, S. F., Canadian Airmen in the First World War, Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Vol I (University of Toronto Press, 1980)

      Raleigh, W. and Jones, H., The War in the Air (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922), Vols I-VI

Chapter 7

       The Desert War experience

      Niall Barr

      The numerous campaigns fought in the deserts of the Middle East during both World Wars form only one era in a long history of warfare in the region. The first recorded battle in history took place at Megiddo in Palestine between the Hittites and the Egyptians in 1468BC. During Allenby’s 1917–18 campaign in Palestine, soldiers could not help but be aware that they were fighting in regions that had a long history of warfare. The British troops who marched across the Sinai desert in 1917 came upon dusty villages and towns whose names had been learned by heart at Sunday school and Bible class:

      ‘And so we got to the end of the sand after a good many weeks and came to the first village in Palestine and that after seeing nothing but sand for weeks and possibly months it was – one saw this green and gold of – of what I suppose to the old Israelites was the promised land and one can well understand the aptness of the description.’¹

      The news that the British Army was fighting in Palestine, and that the news reports mentioned familiar, if exotic, names created a sensation in Britain. This gave the capture of Jerusalem in December 1917 a heightened significance, and some British troops even had the unusual distinction of fighting in the holy places. One British sapper was ordered:

      ‘… to make sure that in the Holy Sepulchre there was no Turks lying about. So, “Go in there with your platoon again, Mathews. And make sure there’s nobody about. If there is boys, you know what to do.” So Mathews went in with his platoon and we advanced. And there was nobody there. They’d all gone.’²

      Clearly, for this toughened veteran, there was no real difference where he fought. While Allenby’s men were familiar with many of the place names that they fought over, the commander of the British 60th Division was surprised to find himself connected to a previous English commander during the advance on Jerusalem. When his staff officers complained that they could not find any wells in the area around the town of Qaryet el ’Inab on the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem, General Sir John Shea went to the local monastery to see if the monks could help him. He related that the abbot:

      ‘…looked at me, and then he half smiled, and said, “General, you are the second General who found he couldn’t find any water when he came here.” I looked at him rather in surprise, and said, “Oh sir, please forgive me for saying so, but you must be wrong because I know I am leading the army, there is nothing in front of me. The 60th is the leading division.” And again he looked at me, and then he smiled and his whole body shook, and he said, “The General I was referring to was Richard Coeur de Lion.”’³

      The British troops of this century who served in the deserts of the Middle East shared their battlegrounds with many previous generations of soldiers. Richard the Lionheart’s Third Crusade was far from Britain’s only previous connection with the Middle East. Thousands of regular British troops had already marched and sweated their way across the Egyptian desert by the time the first soldiers of the Great War disembarked in Egypt for the Gallipoli campaign. Abercrombie’s victory over Napoleon’s army at Alexandria in 1801 had inaugurated Britain’s modern involvement with the Middle East. The construction of the Suez Canal in 1869 meant that Egypt was of great strategic importance to Britain, and the Royal Navy’s bombardment of Alexandria in 1881 and the invasion of Egypt that led to the battle of Tel el Kebir in 1882 began the British occupation and domination of Egypt, which lasted until 1952. The numerous campaigns fought subsequently, including the ill-fated attempt to rescue General Gordon at Khartoum in 1885 and the battle of Omdurman in 1898, were all part of Britain’s experience of Empire.

      Thus the troops who fought in the Middle East in 1914–18 and 1940–43 were following in the footsteps of previous generations of British soldiers, and in some respects the experience of soldiers this century was little different from their Victorian counterparts. The campaigns fought in the Middle East against the Turks during the First World War can be seen as an extension and continuation of Imperial interests, and even the desert campaigns fought in the Second World War can be seen as a form of traditional ‘defence of Empire’. Yet in a very real sense, these campaigns represented a break from the past. They were not isolated actions fought against native opponents, but major struggles for dominance in the Middle East fought on an unprecedented scale. As an integral part of much wider World Wars, they brought far-reaching change to the region and sparked a new sense of Arab nationalism among the inhabitants.

      The armies that Britain sent to the Middle East during the two World Wars were also very different from their forebears. Not only were the forces sent to the Middle East during the two conflicts far larger than any previous forces, but they were composed of volunteers and conscripts rather than the toughened regular soldiers of Victoria’s army. They were also polyglot forces, which contained men and women drawn from across the British Empire. The 51st Highland Division noted proudly in its war diary on the eve of the Second Battle of Alamein that:

      ‘It is interesting that in this, the biggest organised offensive yet put in by the British Army in this War, the Highland Division is the only Infantry Division representing Great Britain, alongside the Australians, New Zealanders, and the South Africans.’⁴

      Even this list omitted the heavy contribution made by the Indian Army, not to mention the numerous armies in exile, such as the Free French, the Polish Carpathian Brigade and the Greek Brigade, which all served in the desert during the Second World War. Nonetheless, the Highlanders’ pride in being the sole British representative among the Empire infantry was perhaps misplaced; there were many other British units serving alongside the more distinctive Dominion troops. This multi-national СКАЧАТЬ