On to Damascus
Armageddon 1918. By Cyril Falls. (Wcidenfeld and Nicolson, 27s. 6d.)
Armageddon 1918, in the `Gicat Battles of History' series, is the story of the final campaign in Palestine and Syria by the author of the official history, Military Operations: Egypt and Palestine. Captain Falls does not claim that the campaign's effect on the course of the war was decisive. After all, the hardest knock to the Turks was the German defeat in the West; and the collapse of Bulgaria must have loomed larger in Istanbul than anything that happened in the Arab lands. But Allenby's victory was decisive in that area, and the campaign itself is notable on many counts.
It was the last, in British military history, in which cavalry played a dominant role; and it is perhaps ironic that it was the Yeomanry and Commonwealth units rather than regular cavalry regiments that were concerned. In view of the terrain, horsemanship was of supreme import- ance; and the whole question of supply an exacting problem. It was the last major cam- paign in which British troops suffered more from disease and epidemics than from enemy action. There were the complications inherent in co- operation with Arabs: on more than one occasion British troops and captured Turk ish units were in temporary alliance against the Bedouin. There was the impact of personalities— not least those of T. E. Lawrence and of the C-in-C himself. And finally, when the fighting was over, there was the confusion arising out of contradictory commitments to the French, to the Arabs and to the Jews.
Armageddon 1918 tells the story in 200 pages and tells it well. It is informed, lucid and scrupu- lously fair. There is an index and a useful short bibliography. The maps are clear and well set out, thoUgh one sometimes has to search to find which map will give which place name.
DAVID FOOTMAN
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