Allenby’s eastward thrust across the Jordan fails as do Arab raids in support. Calls for reinforcements for the Western Front lead to Allenby being stripped of many of his best units.

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Map, quotes and photos: Seven Pillars of Wisdom, published in 1926; Lawrence’s personal account of his role in the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. Bust photo © John Hammond.

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T. E Lawrence in April 1918Unaware of how badly things were going elsewhere, Lawrence set out to fulfil his part of Allenby’s plan.

30 March – Guweira [Al Quwayrah / El Quweira]

1 April – Khabr el Abid [a now unknown waterhole]

2 April – Aba el Lissan [Abu al-Luson / al-Lasn] ‘I rode off from Aba el Lissan, with Mizruk. ... Near sunset the [railway] line became visible ... There was always a little thrill in touching the rails which were the target of so many of our efforts.’

3 April – Aneyza [Unayzah / Onaziza]

4 April – Wadi el Jinz [probably Wadi Maghar]

5 April – Wadi el Hafir [15km N of Disah / W Rum] ‘A fourth easy march took us to Atara ... We would, when ready, cross the line to Themed ... move to Madeba, and fit it as our headquarters, while Allenby put the Jericho-Salt road in condition. We ought to link up with the British comfortably without firing a shot.’

6 April – El Atara, etc [a cluster of 4 Wadi Attarat(s)] ‘At last news came that the English had taken Amman. In half an hour we were making for Themed, across the deserted line. Later messages told us that the English were falling back ... A further message reported how the English had just fled from Salt. This was plainly contrary to Allenby’s intention, and I ... sent Adhub ... to Salt ... asking for a note on the real situation.’ The reply came that the Turks had retaken Salt, and were now hanging those local Arabs who had been bold enough to welcome the British forces; a lesson to others. ‘We slipped off, bemused, to the Atatir again.’ ‘It seemed a pity to be at a loose end so near to Amman, and not bother to look at it. So Farraj and I hired three [local] women, wrapped ourselves up like them, and strolled through the village. The visit was successful, though my final determination was that the place should be left alone.’

1918: the road to DamascusApril: it all unravels

The road to DamascusMarking the extraordinary trials, triumphs and tribulations of T. E. Lawrence in the last year of the First World War, month by month, in the British army alongside the Arabs fighting in the deserts of the Middle East; when the legend of Lawrence of Arabia was born.

Entering Damascus

The British Empire, with support from many Arabs, was fighting against the Turkish Ottoman Empire, allies of the Germans and the Austro-Hungarians. This series of leaflets covers the months leading up to the capture of Damascus from the Turkish army at the beginning of October 1918, which effectively signalled the end of the war in the Middle East: the formal Armistice with the Ottoman Turks was signed at the end of October.Some dramatic reversals of fortune in the final year of the campaign took their toll on Lawrence’s already strained nerves. This, and his feelings of guilt around what he saw as the betrayal of his dreams of a pan-Arab empire during the complex post-war peace negotiations, eventually caused the breakdown that brought him in due course to seek solitude at Clouds Hill.

A Jiddah street scene

The dates and places in bold [with modern transliterations where it helps] are taken from Appendix 2 of Seven Pillars, in which Lawrence records from his diary where he was overnight.

14, 23 April

6 April

3 April11 April

Cairo 29-30 April

Map and quotations are taken from Seven Pillars of Wisdom, chapters 93 and 94.

Not all places mentioned remain visible today.

Markers show Lawrence’s locations overnight

Mediterranean Sea

4 April

11 April – Jurf el Derawish [Jurf al Darawish] ‘In the morning, near Wadi el Jinz, we met the Indians ... They seemed just as unhandy with camels as at first; so not till dusk did we cross the railway. ... I felt restless, and movement fast in the night might cure my mind. So we pressed forward all the chill darkness, riding for Odroh.’

12 April – Odroh [Udhruh] ‘We noticed gleams of fire to our left ... it might be from about Jerdun. ... Perhaps the station was burning. ... We trotted our fastest, as the sun grew higher in the heavens. .... Summer had come upon us unawares; my seventh consecutive summer in this East.’ ‘We heard firing in front, on Semna, the crescent mound which covered Maan. ... Evidently, we had taken the Semna, so we rode towards the new position.’ ‘I asked where Jafaar was. Nuri said that at midnight he was due to have attacked Jerdun. I told him of the night-flares, which must have marked his success. ... messengers arrived reporting prisoners and machine-guns; also the station and 3000 rails destroyed. ... Then Nuri told me that the preceding dawn he had rushed Ghadir el Haj station and wrecked it, with five bridges and 1000 rails. So the southern line was also settled.’ ‘Late in the afternoon ... Feisal was on the hill-top, on the very edge, black against the sun, whose light ... suffused his head with gold, through the floss-silk of his head-cloth.... He swept me into his tent that we might exchange news. Feisal had heard from Dawnay more than I knew of the British failure before Amman; of the bad weather and confusion and how Allenby had ... made one of his lightning decisions to cut the loss. ... Dawnay lay ready at Guweira to start for Mudowwara with all the cars.’

13 April – Guweira

14 April – Waheida [A’wheeda] ‘I spent the next days watching operations. ... We were wandering in a Ford car, trying to keep up with the successive advances.’ Unfortunately supporting French artillery ran out of ammunition. ‘There was nothing to do, but see our men volleyed out of the railway station again. ... we had failed.’

18 April – Retm [Wadi Rutum – halt on Hejaz Railway] ‘I took a car to join Dawnay. ... I drove into his camp above Tell Shahm after midnight ... He had prepared operation orders; orthodox-sounding things with zero times and a sequence of movements. ... ‘The station will be taken at zero 11.30’ said the scheme ... But there it failed, for the Turks, ignorantly and in haste, surrendered ten minutes too soon, and made the one blot on a bloodless day.’

19 April – Shahm [Tel ash Shahm – on Hejaz Railway] ‘Dawnay’s programme said Ramleh station; but ... the position had not been examined. So we sent down Wade in his armoured car.’ Wade ‘searched the building, and found it empty of men. ... We spent the day destroying miles more of the unoccupied line.’ ‘The third day was to be Mudowwara [Mudawara], but we had no great hope or force left. The Arabs were gone, Peake’s men too little warlike. ... so we slept the night by our latest capture.’

20 April – Ramleh [Ramlah – halt on Hejaz Railway] ‘In the morning we set off to look at Mudowwara, driving like kings splendidly in our roaring cars over the smooth plains ... till we were close in and saw that a long train stood in the station. Reinforcement or evacuation? A moment afterwards they let fly at us with four guns ... we made off in undignified haste to some distant hollows. Thence we made a wide circuit ... we blew up the long bridge. Afterwards we returned to Ramleh, and persevered in destroying line and bridges ... while Feisal sent Mohammed al Dheilan against the yet intact stations between our break and Maan. ... and so this eighty miles from Maan to Mudowwara, with its seven stations, fell wholly into our hands. The active defence of Medina ended ...’

21 April – Disi [Disah – village near Wadi Rum]

22 April – Aba el Lissan; then April 23 – Waheida, and back to April 25 – Aba el Lissan ‘I went down to Akaba, and took a ship for Suez, to discuss future [plans] with Allenby.’

27 April – in Arethusa [HMS Arethusa II – a fleet messenger vessel] en route from Aqaba to Cairo

29 April – Cairo [rear GHQ and then to forward GHQ]

12 April

13 April

2, 22, 25 April

5 April

21 April

18 April

19 April

1 April

20 April

low lying landmountains over 3,000 ftsteep side (scarp) of rift valley, over 2,000 ft in places

GHQ