A fascinating look at the military innovations of TE Lawrence. This book looks at the way Lawrence changed the way future wars would be fought. The book can get dry at times but there is a lot of information here. The text is accompanied by some wonderful historic photographs. Anyone with an interest in Military History and Lawrence will enjoy this book.

This proved to be an interesting work, not only on the use of armored cars in the Middle East in the First World War, but also on the broader Arab Revolt in the Hejaz and the Levant. Unlike the film bearing his name, this work makes it clear that T. E. Lawrence was far from the only British and Commonwealth officer working with the Hashemites in their revolt against the Ottomans, who received quite a large sum from the British to continue the revolt.

I had of course heard of the Long Range Desert Group in North Africa during the Second World War, but did not know quite the extent that their precursors were used, from fighting off the Senussi raids into Egypt to the final push for Damascus. Mr. Stejskal also makes clear the combined arms nature of the Arab Revolt, including the coordination between traditional infantry, irregular troops, mounted (on camel or horse) troops, armored and unarmored motor vehicles, mobile artillery, naval support, and the nascent air support (both for logistics and combat).

Mr. Stejskal is certainly very knowledgeable about the aforementioned subject matter, but occasionally the material gets a bit dry. The Arabs and Armored Cars drove over here and attacked a block house, then blew up a bridge is the general narrative for much of the book. It is spiced up a bit sometimes and is not a dull read all the way through...just pieces of it are.

There are also some nice pictures, both from the war itself and from the authors personal surveys of the various battlefields, often presented side by side.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It's main sin was that it could get dry at times, but the wealth of information more than makes up for that.

I received a free copy of this book from netgalley.