Eden to Armageddon

March 15, 2010
Often forgotten except for the legend of Lawrence of Arabia, the critical Middle Eastern theater of WWI is thoroughly chronicled in this meticulous military history. Ford (The Grim Reaper
) surveys all the major campaigns in the Allied—mainly British—war against the Ottoman Empire, from the invasion of Mesopotamia (“Eden”) to the climactic battle of Megiddo (the biblical Armageddon) in Palestine. A microcosm of the larger war, the story includes a seesaw struggle between the Turks and Russians in the Caucasus, bloody trench warfare on the Gallipoli peninsula, a rare successful British cavalry charge near Gaza, and a pervasive air of futility as best-laid plans go tragically awry. Ford pens a lucid operational history from the orders of commanders to the movements of units as they contend with terrain, weather, and the enemy. He also pulls back to examine the political context and the personalities of leaders like the vain, over-reaching Turkish generalissimo Enver Pasha and the abrasive yet competent Winston Churchill. The result is a stylishly written, fine-grained narrative history that should become the standard for historians and buffs alike. 48 pages of b&w photos; maps.