How did T.E. Lawrence destroy the Ottoman Empire?

Answer 1

The whole of the Levant splintered into four countries, that Officer T.E. Lawrence gave to the Arabs, the story is romanticized in that silly O'Toole/Sharif/Guiness movie. T.E. Lawrence, otherwise known as "Lawrence of Arabia," alongside Faisal's son (forget his name....), fought off the Turks and destroyed the Ottoman Empire, his story is allegedly "compelling" because he did it all "single handed." T.E. Lawrence is a British hero, because he is the only man in recent history whose military tactics brought down an empire, the significant thing about T.E. Lawrence though is that said empire was at the peak of its strength.

This was no moribund western Roman Empire like the Goths destroyed, or a decaying Constantinople like Sultan Mehmed II of the Turks took, nor was it the corrupt Chinese and Persian societies Genghis Khan took over, the Ottoman Empire was wealthy, it had well-trained soldiers and they could all fight. The British are generally proud of T.E. Lawrence, again, and seen as a "national hero" because the only other military commander in human history to destroy an empire that was still strong, was Alexander the Great. Many patriotic British historians point out however that where Alexander had "badass" Macedonian phalanx soldiers, who by the way were every bit as tough, well-trained and hardy as the Spartans, T.E. Lawrence was commanding a bunch of "rag tag, undisciplined Bedouin." The Bedouin were good fighters, provided of course, they were fighting alongside their fellow tribesmen.

The whole concept of "military discipline," "order," and "chain of command" simply didn't exist among them. T.E. Lawrence was able to succeed because he primarily focused on their strengths; namely, high speed raiding and disappearing into the desert. The reason the Ottomans were worn out, and eventually defeated, was because Lawrence struck them, it seemed, literally everywhere. One day he was in one outpost, just barely a couple of days later him and his Bedouin soldiers were at another.

If I had to draw an analogy of Lawrence's tactics; imagine two boxers in the ring, one boxer constantly chasing, the other constantly back pedaling but jabbing, and perpetually out of the chasing boxer's reach, this keeps up for 10 rounds. On the 11th round a fresh boxer jumps in and just unloads on the poor tired devil. That was basically, what the British did to the Turks; Lawrence wore them out and weakened them through constant raids, then the British army stepped in, once they were done with the Germans (letting "the Americans handle them"), and basically just massacred the Turks. Again those men were starving, worn out from constant marching, fighting, and running for their lives, and low on ammo, by the time Lawrence was done battering them they were no match for the British military.

Obviously, T.E. Lawrence did not destroy the Turks on his own, however he was basically given the credit for destroying the Ottoman Empire.