Editing Arab Revolt (section)

==== Increased Allied assistance and the end of fighting (November 1917– October 1918) ====
[[File:Arab fighters akaba.png|thumb|Arab fighters in Aqaba on 28 February 1918. [[Autochrome]] colour photograph.]]
By the time of [[Aqaba]]'s capture, many other officers joined Faisal's campaign. A large number of British officers and advisors, led by Lt. Col.s [[S.F. Newcombe|Stewart F. Newcombe]] and Cyril E. Wilson, arrived to provide the Arabs rifles, explosives, mortars, and machine guns.<ref name="Murphy, David page 59">Murphy, p. 59.</ref> Artillery was only sporadically supplied due to a general shortage, though Faisal would have several batteries of mountain guns under French Captain Pisani and his Algerians for the Megiddo Campaign.<ref name="Murphy, David page 59"/> Egyptian and Indian troops also served with the Revolt, primarily as machine gunners and specialist troops, a number of [[Rolls-Royce Armoured Car|armoured cars]] were allocated for use.<ref name="Murphy, David page 59"/><ref>Rolls S.C. (1937). ''Steel Chariots in the Desert''. Leonaur Books.</ref> The [[Royal Flying Corps]] often supported the Arab operations, and the [[Imperial Camel Corps]] served with the Arabs for a time.<ref>Murphy, pp. 59–60.</ref>

The French military mission of 1,100 officers under Brémond established good relations with Hussein and especially with his sons, the Emirs [[Ali of Hejaz|Ali]] and [[Abdullah I of Jordan|Abdullah]], and for this reason, most of the French effort went into assisting the Arab Southern Army commanded by the Emir Ali that was laying [[Siege of Medina|siege to Medina]] and the Eastern Army commanded by Abdullah that had the responsibility of protecting Ali's eastern flank from Ibn Rashid.<ref name="Murphy, David page 17"/> Medina was never taken by the Hashemite forces, and the Ottoman commander, Fakhri Pasha, only surrendered [[Medina]] when ordered to by the [[Government of Turkey|Turkish government]] on 9 January 1919.<ref name="Murphy, David page 81">Murphy, p. 81.</ref> The total number of Ottoman troops bottled up in Medina by the time of the surrender were 456 officers and 9,364 soldiers.<ref name="Murphy, David page 81"/>

Under the direction of Lawrence, Wilson, and other officers, the Arabs launched a highly successful campaign against the Hejaz railway, capturing military supplies, destroying trains and tracks, and tying down thousands of Ottoman troops.<ref>Murphy, pp. 39–46.</ref> Though the attacks were mixed in success, they achieved their primary goal of tying down Ottoman troops and cutting off Medina. In January 1918, in one of the largest set-piece battles of the Revolt, Arab forces, including Lawrence, defeated a large Ottoman force at the Battle of Tafilah, inflicting over 1,000 Ottoman casualties for the loss of a mere forty men.<ref>Murphy, pp. 64–68.</ref>

In March 1918 the Arab Northern Army consisted of
:Arab Regular Army commanded by Ja'far Pasha el Askeri
::brigade of infantry
::one battalion Camel Corps
::one battalion mule-mounted infantry
::about eight guns
:British Section commanded by Lieutenant Colonel P. C. Joyce
::Hejaz Armoured Car Battery of Rolls-Royce light armoured cars with machine guns and two 10-pdr guns on Talbot lorries
::one Flight of aircraft
::one Company Egyptian Camel Corps
::[[Egyptian Camel Transport Corps]]
::Egyptian Labour Corps
::Wireless Station at 'Aqaba
:French Detachment commanded by Captain Pisani
::two mountain guns
::four machine guns and 10 automatic rifles<ref>Falls, p. 405</ref>

In April 1918, [[Ja'far al-Askari]] and [[Nuri al-Said|Nuri as-Said]] led the Arab Regular Army in a frontal attack on the well-defended Ottoman railway station at [[Ma'an]], which after some initial successes was fought off with heavy losses to both sides.<ref>Murphy, pp. 68–73.</ref> However, the Sharifian Army succeeded in cutting off and thus neutralizing the Ottoman position at Ma'an, who held out until late September 1918.<ref name="Murphy, David page 73">Murphy, p. 73.</ref> The British refused several requests from al-Askari to use mustard gas on the Ottoman garrison at Ma'an.<ref name="Murphy, David page 73"/>

In the spring of 1918, Operation Hedgehog, a concerted attempt to sever and destroy the Hejaz railway, was launched.<ref>Murphy, pp. 73–74.</ref> In May 1918, Hedgehog led to the destruction of 25 bridges of the Hejaz railway.<ref>Murphy, p. 74</ref> On 11 May Arab regulars captured Jerdun and 140 prisoners. Five weeks later, on 24 July Nos. 5 and 7 Companies of the [[Imperial Camel Corps Brigade]] commanded by Major [[Robert Vere Buxton|R. V. Buxton]], marched from the [[Suez Canal]] to arrive at Aqaba on 30 July, to attack the [[Mudawwara]] Station.<ref name="Falls408">Falls, p. 408</ref>

A particularly notable attack of Hedgehog was the storming on 8 August 1918, by the [[Imperial Camel Corps]], closely supported by the [[Royal Air Force]], of the well-defended Hejaz railway station at Mudawwara.<ref>Murphy, pp. 70–72, 75.</ref> They captured 120 prisoners and two guns, suffering 17 casualties in the operation. Buxton's two companies of Imperial Camel Corps Brigade continued on towards [[Amman]], where they hoped to destroy the main bridge. {{convert|20|mi|km}} from the city they were attacked by aircraft, forcing them to withdraw eventually back to [[Beersheba]] where they arrived on 6 September; a march of {{convert|700|mi|km}} in 44 days.<ref name="Falls408"/>

For the final Allied offensive intended to knock the [[Ottoman Empire]] out of the war, Allenby asked that Emir Faisal and his Arab Northern Army launch a series of attacks on the main Turkish forces from the east, which was intended to both tie down Ottoman troops and force Turkish commanders to worry about their security of their flanks in the [[Levant]].<ref>Murphy, pp. 75–76.</ref> Supporting the Emir Faisal's army of about 450 men from the Arab Regular Army were tribal contingents from the [[Ruwallah|Rwalla]], [[Bani Sakher|Bani Sakhr]], [[Agalloch|Agyal]], and Howeitat tribes.<ref>Murphy, p. 75.</ref> In addition, Faisal had a group of [[Gurkha]] troops, several British armored car squadrons, the Egyptian Camel Corps, a group of Algerian artillery men commanded by Captain Pisani and air support from the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] to assist him.<ref>Murphy, p. 76.</ref>

[[File:FeisalPartyAtVersaillesCopy.jpg|thumb|Feisal party at [[Versailles Conference]]. Left to right: [[Rustum Haidar]], [[Nuri as-Said]], Prince Faisal (front), [[Rosario Pisani|Captain Rosario Pisani (rear)]], T. E. Lawrence, Faisal's slave (name unknown), Captain Hassan Khadri.]]
In 1918, the Arab cavalry gained in strength, as it seemed victory was at hand, and they were able to provide Allenby's army with intelligence on Ottoman army positions. They harassed Ottoman supply columns, attacked small garrisons, and destroyed railway tracks. A major victory occurred on 27 September when an entire brigade of Ottoman, Austrian and German troops, retreating from [[Muzayrib|Mezerib]], was virtually wiped out in a battle with Arab forces near the village of [[Tafas]], which the Turks had plundered during their retreat.<ref name="Murphy, David pages 76-77">Murphy, pp. 76–77.</ref>

This led to the so-called [[Tafas massacre]], in which Lawrence claimed in a letter to his brother to have issued a "no-prisoners" order, maintaining after the war that massacre was in retaliation for the earlier Ottoman massacre of the village of Tafas, and that he had at least 250 German and Austrian POWs together with an uncounted number of Turks lined up to be summarily shot.<ref name="Murphy, David pages 76-77"/> Lawrence later wrote in ''[[Seven Pillars of Wisdom]]'' that "In a madness born of the horror of Tafas we killed and killed, even blowing in the heads of the fallen and of the animals; as though their death and running blood could slake our agony."<ref>Murphy, p. 77.</ref> In part due to these attacks, Allenby's last offensive, the [[Battle of Megiddo (1918)|Battle of Megiddo]], was a stunning success.<ref>Murphy, pp. 77–79.</ref>

By late September and October 1918, an increasingly demoralized Ottoman Army began to retreat and surrender whenever possible to British troops.<ref>Murphy, p. 79.</ref> "Sherifial irregulars" accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel T. E. Lawrence captured [[Daraa|Deraa]] on 27 September 1918.<ref>Falls, pp. 582–3</ref> The Ottoman army was routed in less than 10 days of battle. Allenby praised Faisal for his role in the victory: "I send your Highness my greetings and my most cordial congratulations upon the great achievement of your gallant troops&nbsp;... Thanks to our combined efforts, the Ottoman army is everywhere in full retreat."<ref>Jeremy Wilson (1989) ''[[Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorised Biography of T. E. Lawrence]]''. William Heinemann. {{ISBN|978-0-434-87235-0}}. p. 548</ref>

{{main|Battle of Aleppo (1918)}}
The first Arab Revolt forces to reach [[Damascus]] were Sharif Naser's Hashemite camel cavalry and the cavalry of the Ruwallah tribe, led by [[Nuri bin Hazaa Al Shalaan|Nuri Sha'lan]], on 30 September 1918. The bulk of these troops remained outside of the city with the intention of awaiting the arrival of Sharif Faisal. A small contingent from the group was sent within the walls of the city, where they found the Arab Revolt flag already raised by surviving Arab nationalists among the citizenry. Later that day [[Australian Light Horse#World War 1|Australian Light Horse]] troops marched into Damascus. Auda Abu Ta'yi, T. E. Lawrence and Arab troops rode into Damascus the next day, 1 October. At the end of the war, the [[Egyptian Expeditionary Force]] had seized [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], [[Transjordan (region)|Transjordan]], [[Lebanon]], large parts of the [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabian peninsula]] and [[southern Syria]]. Medina, cut off from the rest of the Ottoman Empire, surrendered in January 1919.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Antonius |first1=George |title=The Arab Awakening: The Story of the Arab National Movement |date=1939 |publisher=Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott |page=238 |url=https://archive.org/details/McGillLibrary-rbsc_isl_arab-awakening_DS636A461939-16015 |access-date=29 November 2023}}</ref>