In Jordan today, the line runs only from the capital city of Amman to a point 40 miles north of Mudowarra, where a modern spur veers off to the west. Turkish crews then faced the time-consuming task of dismantling the wreckage before repairs could begin.īy war’s end, damage to the railway was so extensive that much of it was abandoned. By his count, Lawrence personally blew up 79 bridges along the railway, becoming so adept that he perfected a technique of leaving a bridge “scientifically shattered”-ruined but still standing. One of the most prolific of the British attackers was a young army officer named T.E. “He was an expert in demolitions,” al-Atoun says, “and taught my grandfather how it was done.” Sheik al-Atoun recalls family tales of Lawrence’s exploits. For nearly two years, British demolition teams, working with their Arab rebel allies, methodically attacked its bridges and isolated depots, quite rightly perceiving the railroad as the Achilles’ heel of the Ottoman enemy, the supply line linking its isolated garrisons to the Turkish heartland. Instead, the Hejaz Railway fell victim to World War I. When that tunneling work was finished, it would have been theoretically possible to travel from the Ottoman capital of Constantinople all the way to the Arabian city of Medina, 1,800 miles distant, without ever touching the ground. One of the great civil-engineering projects of the early 20th century, the Hejaz Railway was an attempt by the Ottoman sultan to propel his empire into modernity and knit together his far-flung realm.īy 1914, the only remaining gap in the line was located in the mountains of southern Turkey. The southernmost town in Jordan, Mudowarra was once connected to the outside world by means of that railroad. In Lawrence’s own telling, that incident occurred in September 1917, when he and his Arab followers attacked a troop train just south of town, destroying a locomotive and killing some 70 Turkish soldiers. Lawrence’s “biggest time” there was open to debate. While the sheik was quite correct about the resiliency of the Turkish garrison in Mudowarra-the isolated outpost held out until the final days of World War I-the legendary T.E. He and other British soldiers came in armored cars and attacked the Turkish garrison here, but the Turks were too strong and they had to retreat.” He pulls on his cigarette, before adding with a tinge of civic pride: “Yes, the British had a very hard time here.” Build a powerful army and lead it to save the fantasy world of Aternum in the turn-based strategy game Warlords of Aternum.Sipping tea and chain-smoking L&M cigarettes in his reception tent in Mudowarra, Sheik Khaled Suleiman al-Atoun waves a hand to the outside, in a generally northern direction.In Elvenar, an online city builder game, you will enter a beautiful fantasy world populated by elves and humans.Tribal Wars is a real browser game classic and sees you become a tribal chief.Online game The West lets players face the challenges of the Wild West.Grepolis is a browser game which is set in Ancient Greece.Empire game Forge of Empires lets players travel through time and history.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |